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Maui Ocean Center
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
52 reviews for Maui Ocean Center
One of the few things we wanted to do in Maui during our vacation was to take our kids to a place where they would enjoy sealife. Where else would they enjoy sealife other than Maui Ocean Center. I checked out what this place had to offer prior to leaving for Maui and I was impressed. They even provided links to coloring pages that I printed out for my kids on the flight to Maui. This definitely kept them occupied for a couple of hours until they fell asleep.
This place has great attractions, exhibits, animals, etc. It's a great place to take kids especially those who love sealife. It's close to the harbor too if you are in the mood to rent a boat and go boating or just walk around.
There's even a cafe on the property when you get famished after a long hard day of looking at and learning about animals.
Once you walk in you are offered a self guided tour or an audio tour in which you take a radio with you and a "tour guide" guides you through the park and tells you the interesting facts about each animal, etc. We decided to do the self guided tour since our kids wouldn't listen to the information let alone understand the information. They just love to explore everything themselves.
Since it was fairly hot in Maui during the time we were vacationing, we thought it was great that this place had outdoor seating with tons of umbrellas and refreshments and little food items that are quick and easy to prepare so that you aren't waiting in line for a long time under the heat. We stopped a few times to grab a drink or a bite to eat before eating lunch. We even stopped into the gift shop where my kids had a field day. They practically wanted everything and anything that had to do with sealife. They pretty much settled on key chains and stuffed animals.
I don't usually give out five stars so let me sum it up for you:
This place is:
clean
friendly
informative
took care of my kids nicely with free "gifts"
Animals were well taken care of
We will definitely come back to see what new things, if any, they have to offer. If there's nothing new, my kids won't mind because they love animals nonetheless.
Yippee!! I get to go to an aquarium! Oh, I love aquariums, I always feel like I'm being taken away to a different world! Plus since I was little I always had a strong affinity to water, I always feel more comfortable in the water than on land.
The Maui Ocean Center was $24 to get in and I would say you can spend a good two hours at least to go through the whole thing. The cool thing about this aquarium are the fish that are indigenous to Hawaii. Plus they have a the coolest Hawaiian word, which is Hawaii's state fish called "Humuhumunukunukupuapua'a" aka the trigger fish!! Such a cool word.
My favorite part was the underwater shark, they have a seating area and literally I think I can spend all day jut watching all the fish and sharks swimming around in this gigantor tank. Also the seating area at the jelly fish tank is cool too!!
I really liked the Maui Ocean Center...it's no Monterey Bay Aquarium or the Shedd Aquarium ... but it's pretty damn cool for a small local aquarium.
Since Hurricane Felicia was supposed to hit that day, we decided to check out the Maui Ocean Center. I really liked this place. It was planned well and had some exhibits that I enjoyed very much. We took our time going through the place and watched the exhibits closely. We probably spent more time than the regular people who come through here.
For $25, you get to see a lot of cool looking fish, corals, sharks, stingrays, eagle rays, turtles, and you get to learn all about the reefs and fish behavior.
There are guides who will give a short presentation and then answer questions. While we were there, a guy went into one of the large tanks and fed an eagle ray. She came up to him several times like a puppy dog looking for food. It was very cool.
There were a lot of fish we saw here first, then we got to see them while snorkeling. Believe it or not, a lot of these creatures have engaging personalities.
I enjoyed my visit to the Maui Ocean Center and I hope you do too.
Mahalo!
If you have kids, come here!! I am a Monterey Bay Aquarium member so am mostly disappointed when going to aquariums. This place was superb. I found out later they have a relationship with MBA.
I was a bit disappointed until I discovered we skipped the reef exhibit. Educational , environmentally conscious, and well laid out. This really should be 4.5 so I can give MBA a 5. Book extra tours ahead (look at their website) as we missed a cool turtle tour since they were full.
Excellent exhibits and nice personal staff-sponsored mini shows. The turtle pool is small but nice to learn about the turtles you swim with while in Maui. It's a combination of outdoor and indoor exhibits in an air-conditioned environment (indoors).
The glass cave was very cool. Something the Monterey Bay Aq doesn't have.
If you want to see large hammerheads up close (in large numbers) there will be no disappointments as they like to travel right up to the glass.
Its all about the Sea Turtles. And the Jelly fish. Tons of people show up throughout the day, so if your venturing during the off season, you may have more look at getting up close to the tanks.
Snorkeling out in the open is one thing - (lucky enough to see a baby White Fin shark 6 feet below), but to go to this Aquarium and see the Sea Turtles eyes and fins at arms length is something you get to capture in your mind's eye for the rest of the time spent venturing throughout the Aquarium.
The most mesmerizing event or room, was the separate tanks full of Jelly Fish, electric jellyfish! The real life view, no matter how much you spent on Digital photography, is best experienced here. The vast amount of species show cased.
All the different waterlife displays were extreme and amazing, I will venture back if I can!
Okay, not sure what I was expecting but I just didn't see anything that wowed me.
Cost : $25 per person
Attractions: Many viewing tanks (sharks, fish, reef, etc...), open viewing tanks (turtles), and educational information. Didn't seem like it had anything I haven't seen at any other aquarium I have been to.
Save your money and go snorkling instead. I just feel like I wasted my $50.
Great place to take the kids! I was impressed with this aquarium, and it was one of the favorite things we did while traveling with our 8 year old and 15 month old to Maui. Obviously, with a very little one we were limited in the adventures we could do in Maui, but this was such a wonderful alternative to snorkleling in the water with the fish. The highlight was the shark feeding exhibit. The show is every few hours, so make sure you get there with good seating. We also enjoyed the restaurant there. The food is ok, and it has a beautiful view and ambience- great place for the parents to grab a drink and recharge. :) I was impressed with the gift shop as well- they had a lot of really cool stuff. If you have kids- make sure you put this on your list.
It's pretty nice here.
I came here when I first came to Maui, and coming here helped me learn a lot more about the fish and oceanic life local to Maui waters.
I'd like to come visit again sometime.
If you don't like water, don't like swimming, don't care for snorkeling, but want to see fishes, Maui Ocean Center is the place to be. Well, even if you like all the things I just mentioned, the Maui Ocean Center is still a cool place.
My boyfriend and I came here on my birthday last year, and it was so cool. There were so many fishes to see, turtles, jelly fish, and a bunch of other under water creatures. You can't help but to take pictures of all the pretty fishes.
I have to admit, admission is just a tad bit pricey, $25 per person but if you live in Hawaii, you get Kama'aina discount like 5 bucks off, still a little out there, but hey, it helps.
Definitely worth a visit if you have kids or it's one of those rare rainy days on Maui.
I liked how the sea life displays were arranged from shallow water fishies progressing into deep water and bottom feeders. There were some fascinating things to read and see, and a few interactive displays, and even a pool where you can touch starfish and the like. Of course the sea turtles and sharks displays are a big draw. The underwater tunnel is the appropriate end to your aquarium tour. Watching the sting rays and other giant sea life swimming serenely overhead is pretty cool. The aquarium staff guy who was there answering questions provided a lot of good information. Did you know that more people were killed in Hawaii last year by falling coconuts (7) then sharks (0)? And I no longer think I will be eating lobster after he explained why lobsters are the cockroaches of the sea.
You exit the aquarium through the gift shop, which is actually first rate with lots of great treasures.
Maui Ocean Center is a bit smaller than some other aquariums I have been to. It really doesn't take much more than an hour to do the whole place up, which makes the $25 adult admission price a bit steep. Also, the reservation system seems archaic. I won't go into all the details, but don't book your reservations in advance online. Just show up when you want to go - otherwise you might end up waiting 40 minutes for them to track down your reservation.
The kids in our group learned to recognize several types of fish before they snorkeled -- as well as enjoying the beauty of the ocean without any risk to them.
Excellent shark exhibit!!!! And the under water glass cave is amazing. A definite must if you're in the area. I wish they would expand it though and include more exhibits.
A beautiful aquarium and absolutely gorgeous! I especially loved the tunnel where you see sharks and other Hawaiian marine life to the left, right, above, and even below you. Definitely worth a visit when you're in Maui, especially if you're with kids.
Fyi, remember to disable the flash on your cameras because boy oh boy does it scare the marine life. Mine went off accidentally, and well, I'm sorry little fishy. :)
You should totally visit the Maui Ocean Center before you do any snorkeling, or scuba diving. We visited the center about an hour before it closed but had plenty of time to go through all the exhibits and learn about all the local fish located around the island's water.
We even had time to sit around the shark tank and just hang out while my mom tried to pet the fish through the glass. Sadly it was the only time i got to see sea turtles on my trip though.
The best part it'll make snorkeling that much more enjoyable so when you're in the water you can say to your buddy "hey look a humuhumunukunukuapua!" rather than "hey look at that fish!"
This place was so cool. Parking was easy, it wasn't over priced and the restaurant inside had an awesome view of the bay. The wild life was abundant and the way the center was configured was awesome. The center had everything!
Great family excursion destination. We visited in-between beaches and lunch. My young son loved the outdoor exhibits and tanks. The walk-through aquarium was great fun.
Only takes about an hour to do the whole experience but a nice change-of-pace for families on vacation.
Great little place here. It has just the right amount of attractions! The tunnel part was fun - love seeing those rays swim over me. I also like the shark cave. It was the first time I had ever seen anything like that in an aquarium. Not for the squeamish.
Just having been to the Monterey Aquarium though, it was hard not to compare the two. Also the entry fee was a bit steep for me! But I realize that considering economies of scale (they probably don't get the numbers of visitors that Monterey would get), why the price is what it is.
It would have been nice to have more descriptions of the fish that are in the tanks. They are so beautiful and unique, it would have been nice to know the names of what we are looking at. Granted, there are some fish labeled in the map that is given to you, but some of the fish that were printed in there were not the same ones that you were looking at in the tanks.
The humpback whale exhibit was educational. Seeing that we could spot them from the condo, it made the experience more meaningful knowing about their behavior.
Touching the sea pillows in the tidepool touching area, or whatever the puffy starfish are called, was cool too. Wish I had a photo to post, but I've never seen anything like them before! Kind of like a blend of a puffed up oyster cracker mixed with a starfish.
went here last week. Have been here at least a dozen times since it opened. My kids loved it! We just sat in the tunnel for 20 minutes watching all the rays, sharks and fish.
One cool thing to do there is go at night on a full moon. They open sometimes. Everything in the big tank glows in the moonlight. Amazing......
I enjoyed this place a lot. being underwater with the sharks and the other fishes was so cool. not a very big exibit but it's beautiful. there are many different water life here which makes it so different from other aquariums. def stop Jere if you're in Maui!
Loved loved it! Wasn't sure what to expect, a bit pricey for what I'm use to and the disenchanted woman working the ticket counter almost made me walk back to the car, but I love marine life so I got over it. I'm glad I went in.
We meandered for a decent hour and a half, checking out the coral rehabilitation program, jellyfish, a cool ass red fish with joints in its fins so it can prop itself up on coral out-croppings, the giant badass rays swimming with the sharks, the awesome green sea turtles (and one baby!), the history of native fish and human life was a nice surprise, plus an actual submersible looking like something from Captian Nemo's vessel.
Other then the ticket lady, the employees were soft-spoken and nice. The gift shop was huge, seriously covering everyting from magnets to $1000 fossils.
A good place to wind down and just enjoy watching the sea turtles. I loved their walk through tube with the stingrays and sharks.
If you have kids and want to stay on the beaten path while the off the beaten path hidden trails might not be a great choice with kids, this is a cool place to take the young ones.
I went into this place thinking "Seen one fish, seen 'em all"
Not so. This was one of the best aquariums Ive ever been to. I thought Monterey Bay cornered the market on fish. Once you've seen the tropical fish here, sea turtles, hammerhead sharks, etc etc etc, you'll be happy you spent some extra time here.
We chose to go on our last day while on the way back to the airport. This was a really good way to spend the last hours and kill time since we had a red-eye back to the Bay.
Beautiful, bright colored fishes, turtles and sharks. Great tunnel walk-through. Entrance fee a bit expensive still. Worth checking out if you have extra time.
Top 5 Fav Things about Maui Ocean Center:
** Sea-horses
** Sharks
** Tide Pool
** Jellyfish display
** Sea Turtles
It was very cool-- worth the drive and worth the money. It was kinda crowded, I guess we got there right when a tour bus dropped off a load of people. But that is to be expected when you are a tourist doing touristy things.
Good sized Aquarium and my kid loved it. He took out his pamphlet of all the fish and tried to find them all.
I liked the turtles and tunnel where you are basically surrounded by the tank. Definitely worth the trip, especially if you've got little ones or just fish lovers.
Most people that come to Hawaii assume a lot of things, one being that we should have the best aquarium in the world because of our location. I'm sorry to say that this is not the case. Good things cost money to build and operate, and that's something that the state and other private entities haven't had money for.
Having said that, the Maui Ocean Center is a nice aquarium and is hands down the best in the state. Although, having been to the Monterey one this past summer I felt that Monterey definitely was the better than the Maui Ocean Center.
Some of the standard things that were at the MOC were the myriad number of big viewing tanks. A variety of different fish and marine life were shown in a number of different tanks ranging in size from small ones that had windows of 6 square feet to big tanks with a window of 96 square feet. The biggest tank held sharks, rays, and a few of those other big wish had these two huge windows and sort of ballpark stands benches for everyone to sit on. Then as you continued on you had to walk through this class tunnel through the tank. I have to say I kinda tripped out when the ray swam over us right up against the glass. I definitely jumped because I thought it was coming down on me.
The highlight though had to be the tanks that were outside. You had the hammerhead shark tank--just ok, the small tank with tide-pool marine life that you could touch--pretty cool cause a marine biologist was there talking about them, and the best was the sea turtle tank. They had a small and separate tank there that just had baby sea turtles in it. the babies were the coolest because you could get pretty close to them.
I think as a visitor you will have a pretty good experience at the MOC if you haven't been to bigger aquariums like in Monterey or Atlanta. Not only do you get to see great tropical marine life, but you also are able to learn more about the Hawaii environment and culture from displays that they have throughout the center. Being from Hawaii and growing up here you know a lot about all this stuff already and so hearing all again didn't do anything for me. However, the kama'aina rate was much appreciated as it was only $34 for the two of us. So in the end it was a well spent trip.
We love this place. My daughter had a great time with the sea turtles. Nice under tunnel tube experience. Better than the one in Monterey Bay or Seattle. It's so easy to get to and they have plenty of parking on their lot. There is a mini shopping center right next to the ocean center that houses restaurants and shopping. We're looking forward to brining my daughters back for many more visits.
We loved Maui Ocean Center. Worth it. Our girls enjoyed all the sea life, the up-close exhibits. They were mesmerized. We were interested too.
Fantastic part of any Maui vacation.
We really enjoyed the Maui Ocean Center. All of the marine life in
the exhibits is from Hawaii.
The center is very user and kid friendly. Although it is "small"
there is plenty to see.
What we really appreciated was the clear walk-through fish tank.
They have benches inside the tunnel where you can sit and watch
to your heart's content!
Small but sweet gift shop with PLENTY of things you'll want to buy-
toys, books, tee shirts, and desirable little knickknacks.
Who needs snorkeling/diving? Now THIS is a really well done aquarium. The fish all look to be in great health (yes, suddenly I am a fish expert).
Shooooot you would be too if you took as many photos of these dang swimmers as I did. For me it was the dive trip that didn't happen our last vacation. I was able to snap photos of so many different types of creatures and then create a "my scuba photos" slide show to impress all my friends. (riiiight)
Either way it's worth a visit in if you are with people who desire air conditioning, have a bunch of small kids that don't know how to swim or want to get up close and personal with a few local fish. :) I gaurantee you this is at least a half day activity!
But call ahead to see when the tourist buses are scheduled to arrive. Getting caught behind a tour group... well I don't have to tell you what that's like. Oh and for you visitors, they have a very nice gift shop too!
NOTE: The massive aquarium with the see through tunnel. It's awesome!
Go, see and you'll ohh and ahhh!
Spending a lazy, overcast afternoon at the Maui Ocean Center is actually one of my fondest memories while visiting Maui. I've had multiple visits to some great aquariums like the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Steinhart Aquarium before they demolished the original in Golden Gate Park (RIP Butterball, I miss you!). Actually, I think these may be the only two aquariums I've ever been to but I have owned multiple fish over the years and a hermit crab whose shell I once painted with fingernail polish. Also, I'm a bay area native so I think I know more about sea life than the average American.
Back to Maui. The day we visited the Ocean Center it was pretty empty which was very nice except for a few loud toddlers. I would recommend making the trip to the Ocean Center at the beginning of your trip to Hawaii before you go snorkeling. I visited the last day of my trip only to now learn about everything I had observed in the actual ocean over the past week. Made me want to jump into the tanks with the fishies. And you actually can do this! I heard that once a month people snorkel in some of the larger tanks which could be scary because there are some frightening looking beasts there. The eel was quite intimidating.
Anyways, not to be missed, the shark exhibit was absolutely amazing, especially when you sit in the underwater tube just to watch the different sharks (including a tiger shark) and rays swim around. Of course I loved the cute, veggie green sea turtles that you can observe underwater and above water outside. There are also two jellyfish tanks and loads of crazy, bright, curious neon fish and gorgeous coral to stare at.
What was also a surprise was the history about Hawaiian agriculture and fishing practices. I was especially intrigued by the fish ponds that the natives would build and how they would fatten the little suckers up so that they were physically unable to leave the man made ponds.
I left educated and enlightened as all the animals seemed somewhat happy to be there, well cared for, and the folks at the Maui Ocean Center are studying these wonderful creatures in order to help us to better understand and respect them.
Check out their educational programs...especially the kids' sleepover! The staff are amazingly knowledgeable and helpful, and the kids learn all sorts of cool stuff while getting to "sleep with the sharks"!
The whole aquarium is amazing! Second only to Monterey, but the snorkeling is better here! And the turtle exhibit is spectacular!
When you walk through the glass tube here, you actually feel as though you could reach out and touch the fishes, that you are actually amongst them. A pair of toddlers excitedly waved each time the stingrays came close to the glass, on the sides or overhead. "Hi!" they shrieked to their fishy friends. "Hi!"
I enjoyed the sea turtle exhibit, too, especially when the turtle caretaker explained that turtles' shells take a long time to grow, so if you overfeed the turtles they will be too large for their shells and very uncomfortable in them. They make a point of not overfeeding their turtles.
I thought about poor overfed turtles too large for their inadequate shells as I walked through the remainder of the exhibit, my belly still swollen from my mom's infamous New Year's feast, the button ready to pop off my too-tight jeans.
This place is ok. I have to qualify this "ok" by saying that it cost over $48 dollars for two adults with two audio tapes (the tapes were only $2 each). It amused me for about an hour, and I would have paid about $20 dollars and walked away happy. But $48?!
The only real cool part is the tunnel that you walk through with sharks swimming all around you. Otherwise, the rest of the aquarium is take-it-or-leave-it. No seals or sea lions or otters. I was relatively unimpressed.
Average aquarium, we did the whole thing in an hour & a half. Kinda disappointing.
The tunnel is cool, seats are available inside the tube and around the large aquarium, and makes for a nice place to rest and watch the fish.
Wow, they have an amazing collection. It's a great place to visit if you're looking for a place to cool down. The underwater tube is fascinating and it's just like being under the water without having to worry about how much oxygen you have left in your tank or equalizing your ears. If you're there for a week and have little kids that need a place to hang out for a couple hours, get a weekly pass. It's a better deal and you can visit the aquarium as often as you want. What kid doesn't like to just sit and stare at fishies and sharks swimming around in an aquarium?! This place is worth checking out.
We planned a hassle-free relaxing vacation to Maui. Included in our plans were multiple visits to Maui Ocean Center, located just minutes from our lodging. A week pass is just a few dollars more than a single visit, making it a better value than other attractions.
We arrived on the first day at 3pm, with two guava-juice-laden children suffering from jet lag. If we had just one visit to the Maui Ocean Center, it would have received two or three stars maximum.
The entrance to the tunnel exhibit was dark and foreboding. My five-year old wouldn't go in. The two-year old, seeing his fear, immediately reacted the same way. We ended up mostly looking at the hammerhead display and the turtle display, set up outside the main exhibit.
We went back again the next day, with well-rested kids. Instead of entering the tunnel exhibit through the entrance, we entered through the exit (re-entry). The kids were treated to an underwater paradise immediately. The tunnel with large fish, sharks and manta rays was right there. At 11:00 am the diver came to feed the animals, and a staffer explained how the creatures live in the wild.
The aquarium is small, just two medium-sized buildings. However, both house excellent displays of underwater life. The dense arrangement of exhibits are actually a plus for those with young children. Buy the week pass to the Maui Ocean Center ($26 adult, $17 kids) and use it as a rest stop between sightseeing destinations. The aquarium is centrally located between West and East Maui, and most sightseeing requires passing through the area anyway.
I was unsure about this aquarium located in the middle of a sleepy stretch of highway, but once we began walking around I was sold. Starting with the shallow reef exhibit and ending in a tunnel that transports you through a gigantic tank full of sharks and rays, I was given respite from the heat and transported into a colorful and rich world of underwater life. Since I am not about to SCUBA and I had a bad experience snorkeling, this is definitely the most exciting sea adventure for me yet.
Yes, I know it's lame that I traveled all the way to Maui to spend hours in an aquarium, but I really needed a break from the heat. And what better way to do that than sitting down in a dark room watching jellyfish float around?
Its always great to see fishes knowing that youll be safe.
