Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Florida, United States

3Mom2Twins2 5:00 PM Jul 31, 2022

Unfortunately not worth the cost.
We had been here years before the remodel just to see Winter and learn more about her rescue. It was a much smaller place then, but very friendly and easy to get around. It was worth the money back then. Now that it has expanded, it is $10 for parking and a family of 3 just to get in was over $100. It isn’t worth it. Very confusing layout and not much to do if you have littles. I had teens, which they were able to read all the info boards and interact when there was something to interact with. Their craft station has coloring pages. At the dolphin tanks, and hen they are doing a presentation you cannot hear clearly what the presenter is saying. There are demonstrations, but not enough to do in between to warrant staying for later demonstrations. I would have even loved places to sit around the dolphin tanks just to watch them swim around. Supposedly there is a VR experience according to online, but we never found it or saw a sign for it. Overall, I think this could be so much more and cost much less. I know they have lost Winter, which I’m sure has decreased their profits. But, if they decreased the cost and made it more affordable, then maybe more people would come and spend more time there. Plus, they pay someone to work the parking garage entry/exit. I’m pretty sure we all can grab a ticket upon entry and pay when we leave. We don’t need a person to push the buttons for us.

3Abed M 5:00 PM Aug 6, 2021

Okay visit, disappointing dolphin experience.
This is a marine-life rescue center, which which might mislead the public what they can offer. We went to this aquarium to enjoy watching sea animals, especially dolphins. After going through the ticketing and then through restaurant that was there to go through to get to dolphins show, we stood up (outside) to watch dolphin show for 15-20 minutes but very disappointing. The young lady talked about the 4 dolphins they rescued for 15-20 minutes, no dolphins showed up to watch. It was a boring speech (which you can learn about dolphins online and no need to stand under heat of sun and listen to speeches. One dolphins jumped few times in air to get food, that's it. Very frustrating. Then we went down to watch dolphins underwater. We had to go through paths to learn about other animals they had such as sea turtles, otters, pelicans, few sharks, stingrays. My son and other guests were able to touch stingrays as instructed which was nice. Parking in garage was nice and organized by staff. We spend about 2 hours. Fair experience.