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Adventure Aquarium
Rating Details »
- Hours:
Mon-Sun. 9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
23 reviews for Adventure Aquarium
With the Earth being covered by 70% water, there are a lot of creatures down under the Sea. This is one of the nicer Aquariums I've been to and it keeps getting better with each visit.
Button & Jenny may argue with that statement and I try not to argue with them! They are 3000 pound, each Hippos from the Nile and considered one of Africa's most ferocious beasts. Remember to look for the African porcupine. Hippos can open their mouths to 4 feet and they are smart enough not to take a bite of our prickly friend.
When you walk into the Adventure Aquarium you are greeted by a two story Rainforest, with sounds of waterfalls, tribal music and animal sounds. I think this greeting alone makes this Aquarium unique.
Have you ever dreamed of swimming with the sharks? Come on now, you know you have! You can do it here, under guidance and for a special fee. They have a 40 foot tunnel with over 20 sharks and other friendly sea creatures. This experience is for certain dates only. Cost is $150.00 for a 2 hour thrill of swimming with the sharks, for season ticket holders. It is $165.00 for the same experience for non season ticket holders. Chickens don't swim with sharks, so I decided to pass!
In another area you can view a Giant Pacific Octopus, jelly fish and Giant Spider Crabs. There is also a 4D theater, which I have not been into yet.
In the Caribbean Exhibition you will see colorful macaws, seahorses, barracudas and beautiful tropical fish and corals.
Very rare and seldom seen in an aquarium are Shark Rays, only 10 locations in the world have them on exhibit. They are native to Indo-Pacific waters. While here look for the 350-pound Loggerhead Sea Turtle and the Stingrays.
There are seals and awesome shows, penguins that walk funny and swim. They have a touch, feel and get wet area for the kids
The Feeding Frenzy Cafe serves kid friendly meals as well as salads and sandwiches for the bigger kids. There is indoor and outdoor seating.
Getting to the Aquarium is easy from many directions, but I always park at Penn's Landing and take the Riverlink Ferry across.
Open 365 days per year, the hours are from 9:30 to 5:00. To avoid lines, tickets can be purchased on the net. They also offer season and yearly passes.
Come and swim with the sharks and stare down the hippos, I double dog dare you!
People thought this was:
- Useful (49)
- Funny (38)
- Cool (47)
If you are an adult with no children, stay away from this overpriced , small, poorly designed aquarium. Parking plus general admission was a steep $52 for the two of us!
I thought it was poorly laid out..after you walk in, you must go thru the eating area, which smells like one big oily french fry. The signs to guide you around are kind of pathetic and it was rare to see any guides anywhere. Even the displays would not list all the different types of fish or whatever in them.
The place was crawling with noisy little snot filled kids, many in strollers which made it hard to walk around. We were finished looking at everything in under 2 hours.
The biggest areas were the eating area and the gift shop where they can gouge you for more of your hard earned dollars.
It was not worth the money we paid, and even if you have kids, I think you can find a better value for the money.
People thought this was:
- Useful (3)
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I wanted to give this place more but Yelp says 2 stars is "I've had better".. and I definitely have.
This is a small aquarium with limited amounts of everything except noisy obnoxious kids. Although I should preface and say in case Emerlyn reads this, that I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I appreciated the VIP tickets and the discount!!
Anyway, this place has a smattering of aquatic creatures, some jellyfish, sharks, fish, frogs, etc. 2 hippos, a number of birds, penguins and seals. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Three (maybe unassociated to the quality of the aquarium) complaints:
- Is it necessary to have ice cream and fried foods everywhere IN AN AQUARIUM? Goodness knows Americans don't need more of this!
- Is it necessary to bring SO MANY badly behaved kids? Or babies who are so young they can't comprehend or learn anything from the experience, but instead can only contribute to annoying others?
- They should tell parents to bring a baby backpack. It was impossible to walk anywhere with all the strollers in the way.
The "special" exhibits like the seal feeding, etc. I should've guessed catered towards the younger children in the audience.. nothing really entertaining or enlightening could be garnered from them for the average adult.
In all of the aquariums I've been to, this is a distance 3rd and I've only been to 3. The other 2 - the Kaiyuukan in Osaka and the Baltimore Aquarium - towered in scope and layout in comparison to this place.
Overall, an underwhelming experience. Although I got to poke a seaslug and I was surprised how squishy it was since when I ate one raw last week, it was really crunchy.
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"Meh, I've experienced better" is right. This is the 3rd aquarium I've been to and its definitely my least favorite (nothing beats Baltimore's...they have an entire floor that is a live rainforest!):
Pros:
Close to Philly
Had hippos!
Loved the ginormous shark/turtle/fish tank
Cons:
Not easy to get to if not driving
ANNOYING KIDS THAT YOU TRIP OVER EVERY 5 SECONDS (its like parents load their kids with sugary cereal and then give them to the daycare)
Small altogether
Catered only to small children
My flip-flop broke in the middle of the aquarium...gift shop is huge but didnt sell flip-flops. Had to tie a string around shoe to keep it on. No flip-flops?! WTF?
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An overwhelming amount of kids smashing the water above an interactive "Touch a Stingray" exhibit...
No one tells them to stop screaming, no one tells them to stop slapping the water...
Children vomiting on each other and tearing each other to ribbons... Bruising their hands and grinding their foreheads against the glass tanks, running into themselves and splitting and exploding into bloody messes, all of them losing themselves in a frothing-wide-mouthed frenzy. All of them, all of them horrible.
The aquarium itself is brilliant, a lovely establishment....
The schools and families that frequent it........ wretched.
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I haven't been to many aquariums but this one is kind of mediocre just from the get-go. The location is kind of awkward and although there is really cute/neat decor inside, the exhibits weren't overwhelmingly cool like I would expect from an aquarium. It is also pretty small.
There are your average seals, fish, sharks, and penguins--nothing to write home about. But I did enjoy the hippo exhibit--they had two hippos and I was visiting during lunchtime so I got to see the hippos being fed several heads of lettuce which was pretty cool. Much of the aquarium also catered to young kids, which was kind annoying. I say this because I would appreciate it so much more if it wasn't so much like Seaworld with the random animal shows and such.
I guess this place would be pretty fun if you are a child under the age of 10. But if you're an adult this place feels kind of tedious.
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I took my boyfriend here for his birthday, since neither of us have ever been. I am impressed! This place is huge, clean, and has great fish, a nice wide variety.
I thought this aquarium was really great - we had a fun time looking at all of the fish, and doing some of the less kiddy-oriented interactive stuff, and walking around the place.
It was nice and clean, and I liked the way it is designed. Although, we did miss the penguin exhibit at first, because we didn't follow the signs, oops! One thing i REALLY REALLY liked was that there were so many bathrooms in here! They are all over the place, so you never feel like you have to walk back through the whole place just to use the restroom. Same for snack stations - lots of coffee throughout, which was perfect for us.
We overheard one woman saying she had never seen the place so crowded, but we didn't really have a problem with the crowds, once we got away from this big group that was near us.
Some highlights for me were the shark tube, the hippo tank, and the rainforset-y area. Oh, I also liked the rooms that were darker, with the glowing jelly fish and such. Also, loads of photo opps in the aquarium. And one really great bonus - one of the best views of the Philly sky-line is from over here!
I will definitely go back soon, and we promised to do the swim with the sharks event for a really special occasion sometime.
People thought this was:
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This is a copy of the review I posted for this aquarium on Trip Advisor:
This aquarium was re-designed in 2005-2006 (not sure of the exact time) and it is clear when you enter that the re-design is completely geared towards the lowest common denominator -- in other words, it is the trailer park of aquariums.
Exhibits are not labeled, meaning you don't know what kind of fish you're looking at, where it comes from, or whether it even belongs in the tank with its fellows (in many cases, it doesn't). Fish look sickly, and the hippos were swimming around and around in a small tank with dirty water that was overcrowded with a particular species of fish they probably wouldn't encounter in their natural habitat.
The organizational scheme doesn't make a lot of sense -- it is arranged as "A, B, C and D" zones rather than by ecosystem, part of the world or any other kind of scientific criteria. Clearly, the arrangement is intended for children to gawk at sea creatures, and not to learn anything or benefit in any way from their encounters with these animals. The whole purpose of viewing an aquarium should be to learn -- especially in these times, when our oceans are threatened, and educating our children about these animals helps us to potentially save them -- and so it is very unfortunate that this aquarium makes little or no effort to be informative or educational. There are much better options -- the Baltimore Aquarium for example -- in the area that would be a better experience for your family.
This place is great for kids. I've taken my little cousins for their first time and they loved it at ages 3 and 4. They were brave enough to touch sharks and jelly fish and star fish.
Its a great time for adults and children alike. I love watching the childrend's faces glow when they see the hippos jumping around or even the colorful fish.
It does get very crowded here so I would suggest going on a day during the week or very early on the weekend. It is worth taking a day off from work or even taking a half day of work so that you and your child dont feel rushed. They have a new section for kids which is great for them to play with other kids and learn about sharks.
I dont have kids of my own but I normally take kids with me when I come here. They make it more fun.
It would be a nice place for a date as well.
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Went here a few months back with my boyfriend as an anniversary surprise (which included a blindfold, and me navigating him through the public transportation systems of PA and NJ with a sign on his back) as he hadn't been there since he was a tot.
I myself hadn't been there since it was redone and changed to "the adventure aquarium!" but oh my god! It was amazing! The exhibits are much more interactive and since it was Winter the crowds were not bad--well unless you cound the scuba santa swimming with sharks--that got a bit busy--haha.
Who knew you could even touch jellyfish..and weird shrimp-ish things.
Since we went a bit later, one of the girls at a station was putting the aquatic life "away" and let us pick up the sea cucumbers!! haha! quite fun!
Definitely a place to go either on a nice date or a fun family day!
One of the only things that I would ever go to camden for other than for the s.b.arena.
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I came back here today 15 years since I first went here, and the improvements are amazing. The only thing that felt a little weird to me was the fact that the "D" zone (the area with the hippos and sharks) was separated from the other areas (A-C). But they had plenty of interactive exhibits (Never touched a live jellyfish before!) and I just can't explain it but sitting there watching some of the large-view exhibits (Like the ocean exhibit that had the large stingrays and turtle) is soothing.
My only complaint was the food. Yes it's overpriced (but I expected that) but even then it wasn't that good. Better bring your own food. But other than that, this place is a fun way to spend a day.
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I've been to Adventure Aquarium many times with the family, and we always have a blast. Who knew that staring at fish could fill up an afternoon? An annual passport will work in your favor, as there are plenty of events that happen year round.
Also, the Riverlink from Penn's Landing is a must.
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I used to be hooked on the Baltimore aquarium.. WHY? no idea. That placed SUCKS! compared to Adventure Aquarium. I bought my daughter a passport here last fall, and we've definitely made good of it! Everyone raves about the hippo tank and the penguins and they're are both great, but my favorite part. Are the huge panoramic tank that can be viewed from various locations in the aquarium. Especially the undersea wreck. You walk in and it's dark folks, and they have all these huge tropical fishes. It's so relaxing watching these fishes and the music they have playing. My favorite? The HUGE puffer fish. SO CUTE! All the videos they have playing that accompanies the tanks are cool too, but definitely check out the one on octopuses near the jelly fish tank. MY GOD I did not know they did that!! Wanna know what I'm talking about? Come check out the aquarium!
PLUS I do agree w/ one of the reviewers. To come here. *ahem* intoxicated. And stare that the Jelly fish tank in the lower gallery after the hippos . definitely interesting.
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I was taken here on a date once and I had such a great time. The aquarium has plenty to do and see and it was well worth the price. The gift shop leaves something to be desired (no starfish??) but everything else delivered.
Be ready to try and navigate through the crowds though! Plenty of people with plenty of whiny kids.
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I love aquariums.
The last time I stopped in...so as not to look too foolish...we drug my niece and nephew along, we had sooo much fun here!
I was so excited when I got the chance to pet a Shark...smooth little guys they are! Also the Parans are super cool...especially if you catch them at feeding time!
The kids got pretty excited about the hippo and the penguins as well.
I really like how clean it is here. With the large observation tank...there is always a clear view...they really take the time to clean the glass.
The food however....now theres where we could improve a bit. Maybe less fast food and some more healthy choices....a nice kept salad bar to replace the silly one they have would have been a nice start. All in all a great local place to check out!
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The BEST aquarium on the East Coast! The shark tunnel alone is worth the price of admission. Plenty of LARGE viewing areas so all the kiddos get a good look.
The only downside? It's technically in Jersey.... just pretend you're still in Philly and enjoy the view of the city across the river.
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Second best aquarium I've ever been to with the first being the Baltimore Aquarium. This place is huge and very entertaining even when a bunch of 20 something year old loud bums try to take over the place. They even offer swimming with sharks for a fee which I'm totally gonna do over the summer. Its pricey, but worth it if you take your time.
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There are very few reasons to visit our neighbor to the east, Camden (unless of course you are hooked on smack). But, the Aquarium is one of the few attributes which are worth the trip. Did you know Camden is one of the largest cities without a major grocery store? Why? Because it does not have the economy to support one.
While it is nowhere close to as good as the Baltimore Aquarium, Camden holds its own as a respectable venue for marine life. At $17.95/person, the Aquarium is an affordable place to spend a boring rainy day. Make sure to check out one of the coolest exhibits; the Hippo tank, where two 3000 pound Hippos spend their days.
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Well Russ, some of our friends hooked up on more relaxing drugs might want to visit the aquarium. It can be a very rewarding and relaxing experience on a hot summer day. You know, sitting in the air conditioning, watching the colorful fish drift past, eating french fries, watching the colorful fish drift past. It's a very chill experience. Not that I've had this exact experience per se. :-)
All joking aside, the penguins are the cutest freaking things in the world. They, alone, are worth the trip. Plus, the big giant hippo makes amazing poops. Have your camera ready!
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It's a great place to take kids, and also a great place to have a holiday party. There are lots of interactive exhibits, great viewing areas, and educational projects geared towards kids. I would recommend eating and rinking somewhere else, because as my partner and I found out - feeding two adults and one child lunch was $35 without drinks! Also, if you can avoid the Sponge Bob 4D movie, do so... It's a lot of shrieking kids! I'd love to see the Planet Earth 4D movie, though. I could do without the water being splashed on you as you watch things in 4D! But all in all it was a good time!
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Yea, plus there's that area where you can touch the animals-- that shallow little tank where you can touch the little sharks. Awesome! In the usual style of aquariums, this is really a kid's venue. On any given day, you're bound to get stuck behind a group of 11 year olds on a field trip. But as a young adult, that's sort of the appeal. I've gone to the aquarium with a girlfriend as a like a "cute" date idea.
Also, check out the Aquarium Adventures program. It's expensive, but people tell me it's worth it. If you're over 18, you can actually swim with the sharks, feed the seals and/or the hippos. I'm definitely asking for a dip for my next birthday.
We're down visiting people in the philly area. We have a toddler and a newborn and thought it woudl be a nice way to spend a day. I'm writing this from the perspective of taking little kids.
Anyway, on the pro side:
The HUGE fishtank that you can see from many angles. Especially the big IMAX size window with the stadium seating and the giant stingrays. The walk-through shark tunnel was pretty damn cool too. And the lighting in teh exhibits was pretty cool.
On the con side:
Way overpriced. $17.95 per adult and $14.95 for kids 2 and up (our older one is 2) plus parking and food means close to a $100 day. That's just for general admission. The 3D movie and the Spongebob ride (which we didn't do) will jack it up more.
Beware of coming during the winter. You will have to wait outside in line at the ticket window to get in (they don't do ticket sales in the lobby). It took about 20 min to get thru the line today with my wife and kids cooling their heels in the lobby. Also a bit of a walk from the ticket booth to the entrance -- something I wouldn't think anything of if I didn't have kids with me.
Messed-up layout that resembles an airline terminal. Bathrooms are pretty far apart inside.
Also -- very little explanatory/educational signs on exhibits. Seems more like a show than a real aquarium where you learn something about its inhabitants. Doesn't mean anythign for younger kids, but it's something that should be there. Otherwise it gives the place a ridiculously lightweight feel.
Bitchy blonde woman at the info booth. When we started on the exhibits after an interminable wait for an elevator (we had a stroller with us) I realized I hadn't gotten a map. Went down the info booth. Asked for one. She said they were out, and besides I got one when I paid. I said I hadn't. She said I had. I know what I got. And they didn't give me one (they weren't out for the taking -- they were with the cashier behind the plateglass). So I went out and got one. Then I came back and realized my wife had my ticket stub. So I had to practically plead with teh blonde woman to let me go back up without paying again.
Finally -- the placement of the cafe and the gift shop makes them unavoidable, so be ready to deal with a bit of screaming and pouting from the kids. But they're unavoidable anyway -- there's really nowhere else nearby to grab a bite. But I understand that part -- they need to make money to survive -- aquariums aren't doing very well in general, but they're a valuable resource.
Overall -- basically a neat place but kind of a ripoff.
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I went to this small, but nice aquarium when it was the NJ State Aquarium. I hear it is much improves since it has re-opened under new ownership as Adventure Aquarium. The highlight? Hippos!
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