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113 reviews for Aquarium Of The Bay
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One of Aquarium Of The Bay's Favorite Reviews What's This?
Tunnels are awesome! You get to see two of them!
For such a tiny space I think they did a great job maximizing what you can see!
And you should definately do the behind the scenes tour! If you love Marine life, you should check this out!
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Small place and a bit underwhelming considering the ticket price. I guess it's okay for its size... I might have been spoiled though, as my last trips were to the Beijing Aquarium and Shedd Aquarium.
The whole place takes about 30-40 minutes to go through. The best parts for me were the jellyfish and hedgehogs. It would be good to bring young relatives/children to for a "first time" marine experience, since they have a shorter attention span and are much more easily awed. Plus things tend to look a lot bigger a shinier when you're still under 4 feet.
I bought these groupons for 8 dollars each, originally 16 at the door. Hey, saved 50% off ticket price, why not?
The place isn't that big like our New England Aquarium, there are no penguins!!!
They stamp our wrist so we can go in and out til closing. One trip through was enough though. They have these 2 underground tubes, one for shallow water fish and the other deep water fish.
The water wasn't too clear and walking through the tubes, you can get a headache from the enclosed area. The part I did like was the screen they have before the tube showing three parts of an Octopus, how they think and how they can glide through everything.
Another part I liked were the jellyfish, they were so beautiful..
The final part is the touch lab, all the kids usually love to touch the starfish and all, simple and quick, couldn't wait to get out of there for a smoke!
Next time I will head to Monterey Aquarium to check out the swimmers there....
This aquarium makes our local aquarium (Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach) look like Sea World. The entry fee is about $15 dollars so it isn't too bad. It took us approximately 30 minutes to walk through the entire place. I give kudos for cleanliness, other than that..ridiculous.
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This place did change a lot ever since I came here when I was a kindergartner. My little cousin has never been here before so I brought her here when it was in April, we were in Fisherman's Wharf Area anyways. I remember there was this whole exhibits about the leopard shark and there was this bridge that you can walk on and there is this pond-ish area where the leopard sharks swam free in.
+:There is a walkway and there is a moving walk way soo if you ever want to walk ahead you just step right off of the walk way. All of the workers were very knowledgeable about where the animals came from. It turns out that they do not keep the animals for more then several months, after several months they would be released into the Pacific Ocean. The petting tanks were so cool! You can touch starfishes, sting rays, sharks, and I forgot about one more marine animal.
-: Not really much to see. May be if I were still a little kid I would like this more.
It's easy to compare Aquarium of The Bay to our other local aquariums in the Bay Area and write it off as weak or touristy. But this place has something that the others don't offer...A walk through a breathtaking clear tunnel in which you are surrounded by sharks, rays, fish, and other marine life. This may be the smallest facility I've ever been to, but the tunnel is by far the most fascinating of of all marine exhibits anywhere in the Bay Area.
Also be sure to check out the tide pool, where you can touch sharks and bat rays. This is something you can't do at the Academy of Sciences, who is overly paranoid over liability issues.
Check online for discount coupons and special offers. They also give AAA member discounts on admission.
Was "OK" {I was bored}, kids liked it.
very small, u can do the whole thing in less than an hour, depending on ages of kids.
Steep ticket price for what u get, i think it's worth half (or less than half) of what they charge. Purchase from dinning establishment for discount prices.
So my boyfriend and I did their Behind the Scenes Tour. It was actually quite fun. So we first got there, and we were a little late but luckily they didn't leave us behind. They showed us where the animals were fed, what they were fed, where they were taken care of when sick or injured, where they were kept for breeding, or etc.
I LOVED the tour and thought it was super exciting being able to see all the different things that happen in the background. Be prepared to constantly have to smell a fishy smell the whole way through ... since you are at an aquarium, going on top of the tanks. Also, do not where flip-flops. The floors have puddles and unless you want fish smelling feet all day, then wear some shoes.
The aquarium itself is quite nice, but smaller then I thought it would be. And I wish I had went through the aquarium first , before doing the tour ... since I thought the tour was so great and felt so into it.
If you are visiting the area or just haven't been to the aquarium yet/haven't visited in a while, I'd suggest coming back for the Behind the Scenes tour. Go early to check out the aquarium first (free admission into aquarium when you purchase Behind the Scenes tickets) and then go on your tour after.
I think I might go back to do the tour again. =)
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Lame. I wanted to go to Monterey yesterday but I was thwarted. I came here instead to get my aquarium fix.
At least they have an octopus. That's what the second star is for: the octopus is pretty awesome. And they have her in this weird pink-lit tank, which kind of makes her look like an Old West saloon girl among the rest of the kind of dumb exhibits.
Oh yeah, there WAS one other cool part: the ray and shark petting tank. I don't know if the rays do this every day, but when I was there, they would breach the water and poke their little faces out, like they were competing for attention or trying to get a better look at people. Super-cute! For rays, at least. As cute as stingrays can possibly get.
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If you are hands on, want to touch everything in sight kinda kid at heart, this is a really cool place to do that. I came here with my cousin and my niece and we spent a considerable amount of time petting the leopard sharks (scary for a scaredy cat like me) & the bat rays (velvety smooth, they are pretty friendly & put on a good show of splashing you once in a while.)
In the aquarium, we saw the "finding nemo" fish, jelly fish that are graceful & mesmerizing & fish that are straight up fugly, but still interesting to watch.
The star of the show is the tunnel. You can either walk at your own pace or step on the moving belt that takes you through. Admittedly, the tunnel is not very long, but you get to see tons of sea life in action. I love staring up, open mouthed, to see a SHARK pass a few feet over my head.
The price is $16 for adults, which is a bit steep, but given the area (touristy Fisherman's Wharf) I wouldn't expect a deal. There are bigger, better aquariums in SF (the zoo, Academy of Sciences, etc) but if you are at/near the Wharf, you might as well check it out.
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Just got back from SF for a little trip & went ahead & went here. I skipped the Wax Museum & Ripley's Believe It or Not because I read reviews that they weren't great. I should have skipped THIS too! It only takes about 30 - 40 min to walk through it & one aquarium that was supposed to have the big octopus wasn't there! It was disappointing for sure. I went on a Wed, so the only good thing was that it wasn't crowded at all.
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA is a LOT bigger & better.
It was good with the 2 for 1 coupon from the pier 39 website. The jellyfish exhibits were very cool. One was Nettle jellyfish. Large and orange in color. A must see. The 300 foot tube of fish and sharks was awesome. It was not crowded today due to the bridge closure which made it great. You could really enjoy the fish and take your time watching the exhibits.
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It's a bit pricey for such a small aquarium, in the end you're left saying "that's it?" I wouldn't go back and I don't recommend anyone going. You pretty much go through the whole thing in 20min.
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The aquarium is small compared with some, but I liked it better than many much larger aquariums. It was plenty big enough for us to spend an hour and a half happily, and the long, winding, underwater tunnels were like nothing I have seen elsewhere. (Other aquariums sometimes have tunnels, but nothing like this.)
One thing that may not be obvious: This is a *great* aquarium for a toddler in a stroller, because all the exhibits are visible from the stroller. In many aquariums you will get tired from holding the kid up to see into the tanks. Here everything is visible from toddler eye-level, and my toddler had a great view from the stroller. Check out the tank that features the bottom-dwelling fish, for example. I imagine that this might be a benefit for someone in a wheelchair also.
They had the best-displayed octopus I have ever seen. Usually aquarium octopuses are hiding in some crevice and you cannot get a good look at them. This aquarium's octopus was a Giant Pacific Octopus and it was huge and perfectly visible.
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$15.95 is a bit pricey for this smallish aquarium, but not unreasonable. At the end I let out a "that's it?!" The shark tank is too small and boring for all of its occupants :( I saw a big bite in one shark's tail area with red flesh streaming!! Cool but sad. I wish there were "no flash photography" signs up and employees regulating. Old people have no technological common sense. I want a hedgehog. Why are non ocean animals at an aquarium?
Oh look, honey! It's the Fish Tunnel From Hell.
Kind of like an MRI with a mold condition, only the with ten times the claustrophobic vibe on account of the all the bloated tourists sharing the stale, scarce air with you.
About as fun as being locked in a Nazi submarine for three hours, but without the art direction of "Das Boot". And instead of German, everyone's speaking English with a midwestern accent (no subtitles).
Admission might possibly be considered close to reasonable if it were to include an extra large hit of PCP, the effects of which would be the only thing that could make this experience suck more.
One star for those poor, cute little fish. One more star for my night terrors.
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I liked the aquarium. True, it's no Monterey Bay, but for the decent price and tunnel thing it was worth it for me. It's about the same price as a movie these days without the extras for popcorn and soda. Also, look for coupons around the Wharf, you can usually get $2.00 off on admission.
It doesn't take that long to go through, but what you do see is pretty cool. Yes, the fishes from the bay area are indeed ugly, but it is kinda neat looking at the bay's eco-system. The petting tanks with the sting rays and leopard sharks, is pretty cool too.
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This aquarium was small, but it was fun. I prefer the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
I won't be coming back to the Aquarium of the Bay. There were maybe 2 things that are cool about this place - the sharks and the chinchillas. Yah, they have chinchillas at an Aquarium. Go figure.
Anyways....too many kids, boogers, diapers, sticky fingers, crying, spilling bottles, crowding elevators and grubby hands ALL OVER THE GLASS. I totally commiserated with the stressed-out octopus that wouldn't come out of his hiding spot. If I lived in that hellhole, I would do the same thing.
Besides all of the above, the place is small and doesn't have enough cool animals to warrant a return.
This is a great place to bring the little ones while walking pier 39. Yea its small, but there are LOTS of fishes and the 300 foot underwater tunnel is way cool.
It's pricey for the size, but being Cali, bay are, and for some reason thinking WE all have money, I can let that go. Need a place to kill an hour or so? Come here, at least you can say you've been here.
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Sorely underwhelmed. I think I may have had unreasonable high expectations coming here. I'm probably just jaded when it comes to aquariums having been to some world class ones abroad. I think the secret to enjoying AOTB is managing your expectations.
The staff was nice and helpful, the marine life variety in the tunnel ok. I believe the consensus was that touching the Leopard Sharks and Bat Rays was the highlight of our visit, but I digress.
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Great place to come and see the fish if you have a little one. It's fairly small but the admission is much less than Monterey. Not to mention it's a shorter drive. They give hand stamps so you can come for the day and come back as often as you like.
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Even though this aquarium is small - I LOOOOVED the tunnels. I specifically took my family here on a Thursday so that we could catch the shark feeding. The first time we went through the tunnels, we were busy taking pictures of the sharks and bat rays. We had time to kill before the shark feeding, so we got our hands stamped and wandered around before coming back. The second time we went through the underground tunnels, we just simply enjoyed looking at large variety of fish and being slightly creeped out by the sharks that were swimming right up at us.
Normal ticket price is $15.95, but you can get a $2 coupon from any of those SF tourist map books. It's actually great to go back through the exhibits twice because you miss stuff the first time around. Right now (May '09) there is a new exhibit of huuuge jellyfish and a ginormous octopus too. Overall, a fun experience!
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Definitely one of the smallest aquariums I have ever been too but pretty fun anyway. The upstairs exhibit is pretty mediocre, just some salt water fish tanks with a bunch of fish I have seen before and can probably buy at your local pet store. The lower floor has 2 big tanks of jelly fish that are pretty cool (and very hypnotic to watch) and a tunnel aquarium you can walk through. The tunnel is not very big but there were some pretty cool fish in there, lots of leopard sharks and these enormous sea bass. The high light of the aquarium, for me, was the little petting tank when you go back upstairs. They have baby leopard sharks, bat rays and skate that you can touch.
Kind of pricey for such a small place but walk into any hotel in the area and grab a brochure for it and you can get $2 off admission for adults and $1 off for children.
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I'm an aquarium guy. I love them. I've been to most of the important ones in the US, and the Aquarium of the Bay isn't a bad aquarium, it's just a lovely little commercial aquarium that has melded itself into the Pier 39 world of touristy restaurants, shops and attractions.
The tunnel is the highlight and I love looking at the Leopard sharks and I think a 7-gill that swims really close to the top of the tunnel. I love these tunnel experiences and this one was better than most. The octopus was awesome, and I'm a freak for 'em anyhow. I thought that the jellyfish exhibit was really nice and made me feel like I was getting something from Jellyfish since I missed the Monterrey Bay Aquarium's exhibit.
It's awfully pricey, but it's located in the heart of Tourist town, so I don't think we can expect much better. I'd say it's a good place to bring out-of-town guests, but if you're a hard core Aqua fiend, you're better off at one of the three others in the bay area.
It's a neat little spot right by Pier 39 and since my sister and I were waiting for family members to get back from Alcatraz (I didn't get to go with them since tickets were sold out *tear*) we took her son to the aquarium. I haven't been to the aquarium in 10 years, so it was nice to see everything again. I got to touch a sting ray and pretty star fishes. =) It's a great place for little kids.
If I could give you no star, I would.
I got free tickets and thank god for that, i would have been pissed if i had to pay 15 dollars for a dirty, smelly lazy place like this, and yea the fish in this aquarium, it would be more interesting if you row out in the bay yourself.
The kids are playing with the poor fishes and it smells more like diaper than an aquarium, i will never ever go there again.
I have more free tickets if you want?
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It's a bit confusing to me why people complain about the size of this aquarium, and completely miss the fact the purveyors of this establishment have done an awesome job building an aquarium on pier already cramped with retail and restaurants. The multiple story design is a great way utilize space, and the elevator ride down to the underwater tunnels gives you a sense of descending to depths of the bay.
Another thing that endears to me to Aquarium of the Bay, is that they take an active role in conservation, and public awareness in regards to the state of our oceans and their inhabitants. The employees are without exception passionate and knowledgeable about the aquatic life in their care, and are quick to answer any questions you may have.
While Aquarium of the Bay may not be as big and built up as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it does what it sets out to do, and that is to provide a "fish eye" view of life in the San Francisco Bay.
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How can you not love it?! OK, maybe if you're expecting some ginormous aquarium the size of the Monterey Bay one with floor to ceiling windows fully equipped with bigger name recognition and accordingly higher admission prices. On the other hand, the Aquarium of the Bay is more intimate and, well, scary. While I kept thinking about, "what if an earthquake struck right now" the entire time in the underwater tube room downstairs, we all had ourselves a great time at the aquarium. Yes, my sister and nine-month old niece also loved it! Very easy to stare at all the fishies and sharks when they're directly above you, only separated from you by the thick and hopefully earthquake-proofed glass. -1 star because after all the hype about the giant octopus that lives in a tank between the two tunnels...s/he wasn't even there! Big disappointment! Oh well, we saw others in the tunnel anyways. But still.
Don't waste your time or hard earned $. Why? Many dead fish in the tank, questionable safety for little ones around the "petting" ponds.
The whole experience lasts about 20 minutes and leaves you asking "is that it?"
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Average aquarium. Didn't really have much to offer in comparison to other aquariums up and down the coast of California. Biggest attraction of the aquarium was the tunnels visitors walk through through a large aquarium. Other than that, you can fly through the aquarium really fast.
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I love not waiting, I love no crowds, I love being able to find parking! I love being able to stay at an exhibit for however long you want to. I love being on vacation!
So my family and a close family friend decided to take the kids to San Francisco to visit the California Academy of Sciences. Of course the day we planned ended up being a Wachovia Wednesday, so I anticipated a crowd. Realizing that there would be traffic in the morning we left San Jose before 830 in hopes that traffic would have subsided a bit. Well we were stuck on 19th for more than 30 minutes, and as we approached the park within 6 blocks or so, it was evident that we were going to be facing some traffic to enter the area. After one attempt at passing through, and the kids restless and antsy we decided to make an impromptu detour to the Pier.
It was the best decision we made all week. No crowds, no parking problems, and an aquarium we have never visited. Of course I didn't anticipate very much, and when expectations are low, simple surprises can definitely make your day. Right we entered our ocean loving son when into "Aquarium Guide" mode making sure each and every one of us were educated about the sea creatures. Below in the under water tunnels the treads were not working so we were free to walk as slow as we pleased. The boy was in heaven.
Thinking that the tour was done after the tunnels, it was a nice surprise to see the touch pools at the end of the exhibit. This place has the best touch pools. They've got rays and sharks, and we had no crowds to fight. Lots of fun. I just wish we had more time, we definitely wanted to make another way around before leaving the city.
A little steep on the price for such a small establishment, but I would like to visit here again.
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Worst part of my trip to San Francisco.
Dead fish, $14 ticket, renovations going on... awesome.
The underwater tunnel was very cool not literally took me 10 minutes to walk through and that was it. I would suggest walking further along the pier and visiting the sea lions for a better time.
My hubby and I took the kids for a mini-vacation in San Francisco last weekend (coincidentally the worst weather of the season). On our second day, after naps all around, we headed to the aquarium. I had heard so-so things from a friend and read the reviews here so I wasn't expecting much.
I LOVE that they stay open into the evening -- when it's been raining for two days straight and the kids (almost 5 and almost 2) are antsy after nap, it is wonderful to have a dry place to go.
There weren't a lot of other people there so we had the run of the place. We only stayed for about 40 minutes (a pretty good value with half off tickets with our Sacramento Zoo membership) because the bigger kid was freaked out by the tunnels and didn't want to touch anything. The very next morning, she was begging to go back so the trauma was short lived.
While I wouldn't make a special trip just for the aquarium, I would go again.
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Really nice aquarium worth visiting if you don't want to drive ALL THE WAY to Monterey. I took my daughter here on her first birthday and she loved the underwater tunnel with the big fish and sharks.
I totally lost $100 bucks a week ago though. I could have swore they had sea otters here but I was mistaken. Go big or go home.
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Pretty disappointed with my visit here. Especially the price you have to pay to enter. Luckily, my wife and I had a coupon for buy one and get the second ticket free. We only spend maybe a total of 30 minutes at the most, so it tells you the size of this aquarium. The Long Beach aquarium took us well over 2 hours.
Positive note: "The 300 feet of crystal clear acrylic tunnel" and Staff.
What is better than having a sense of wonder and excitement when you walk into this place? To only have it shot down by the 35 dollar entrance fee for 2 people and the 45 loud screaming children talking about how they are scared of great white sharks and running back and forth down the tunnels like it is some sort of playground. In their defense I blame the idiotic parents not the children.
I was very let down by this aquarium. I think it took a total of 20 minutes to walk through the whole place. The underwater tunnels that claim to show you the marine life in its natural habitat are retarded, I have to say i have been scuba diving before and I have never seen black walls holding fish in before. You might say that they need the walls to insure you will get a look at the fish and sharks swimming around and that's fine. Just don't claim that they are living in their natural environment.
I can't say it was a waste of money or time because it did give my girlfriend and I something to do for 20 minutes of our day. But that's about what it was... just something to do.
I do not recommend going to this aquarium at all. Unless of course you want to touch a 2 foot long leopard shark after the children are done harassing it.
Another koo place to check out with the fam.
If you like underwater creatures this place has em.
Traveling through the underwater tube is pretty sweet as well, seeing if you never been underwater surrounded by sea creatures.
Koo place, check it out sometime.
I really wish I didn't have to give this place only two stars, but it is impossible to like this place that much when you've been to other aquariums as wonderful as Monterey Bay.
This place is itty bitty, but does do a good job of covering the marine life that resides specifically in the SF bay. Going down and walking through the aquarium tube surrounded by rockfish and 7 gill sharks was probably one of the better moments I had there. The only redeeming thing about my aquarium trip is going in the morning when no one was there and not having to fight little kids to touch the rays and leopard sharks. The rays actually seemed happy to see me!
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:o/
I must say, for $15 per person, I expected a bit more water. Some of the tanks below were undergoing maintenance and the short tunnels were umm, a bit too short... you'll see the same fish circling around you...and as you mumble to yourself, "this is it?" I swear you can hear the fish on the other side of the glass gurgling, "thisspth isth it-th??" I will say however, the employees are kind...and although it only takes 30 minutes or less to spend the 15 dollar ticket- the facility is nice enough to allow cameras...so perhaps you can get your $15 worth of photos or video? The elevator is fun...(blink-blink) ;o)
