Adventure Aquarium

User Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Philadelphia's aquarium! The best room is the Jules Verne Gallery, with Sea Nettles and an octopus. Second to that is the West African River Experience (our aquarium's answer to Baltimore's rainforest), with a hippo exhibit much better than the zoo's. Other features include an ourdoor exhibit with seals and penguins, and a tank full of pirhanas. It's well worth the trip. Now, if they would only build a dolphin arena, this aquarium would be even better than Baltimore's.

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User Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The Adventure Aquarium: Great Great Time...Well Worth the Time!!

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User Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

A fantastic addition to the area...always fun: Adventure Aquarium is the new attraction that rose from the fiscal failure that was once the highly educational but small and unimportant New Jersey State Aquarium. The new facility is twice the size of the old aquarium in floor space; and at 2,000,000 gallons, is twice the volume of the National Aquarium in Baltimore (larger than most aquariums, actually). The building is really well laid out, and is one of the few aquariums that still lets you plot your own course instead of following everyone else in one long line. Stay all day if you like--the open design means that you can hopscotch from exhibit to exhibit without fighting traffic in the opposite direction.

The Open Ocean Tank and the Shark Realm Tank are both great models of the ocean landscape, and best of all, the Shark Realm is the one with the 40-foot tunnel. When you see TV shows where the cameras are so close to the sharks you can count teeth, you suddenly realize that you are experiencing the same thing in person, except you're safely dry behind thick acrylic. Still, it's pretty amazing.

I know some people have problems with the taste and cost of the food, but I saw construction going on all over, and I know that there are several new restaurants coming in on the waterfront for next summer, so don't let a lack of selection deter you next season.

The crowds can be tough, though. You really can stay all day, and some people do, which makes it hard to see everything on a busy day. Like all aquariums, the summers are pretty crowded, and the school groups own the place between 11:00 and 2:00, but if you can get in after 1:00, things settle down a lot and then the last four hours of the day are yours in peace.

This aquarium has its detractors, but I've been to many aquariums nationwide, and I know raw potential when I see it. This facility has made positive changes every time I visit, and nothing seems to stay the same. They're constantly working toward a better experience, and I expect things to really fall into place when the Aquarium is joined by other stores and restaurants on the promenade, thus taking out some of those crowds and making it seem more like a destination, and less like a side trip. Watch this one closely, and make sure to visit if you can. The cast are friendly and helpful, the animals lively and colorful, and the facility is bright and clean. I expect to hear more good things about this great (and too often overlooked) attraction in the near future.

Please note, though, that it is no longer the New Jersey State Aquarium in any form, and that all outstanding comp tickets, coupons, and memberships bearing that name will not be honored. It makes sense, since they are operated by a private developer now. But it can be incovenient if you based your trip's finances on the savings from those sorts of passes.

Also, the Aquarium closes at 5:00 - as in you are thrown out at 5:00. It has not yet found the level of success that allows it to stay open later, so make sure that you arrive at least three hours beforehand. If not, you can still buy tickets, but get there after 4pm. You are still charged full price, but you get three days to come back and use your passes. That can really be useful, and is actually a pretty good deal. The last tickets are sold at around 4:45 (or at least they were on the day I arrived).

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