Melbourne Aquarium

Here comes a bit of background before I start the blog on this visit.

1. I have been watching the TV (no shock there)and every time the adverts come on there is one for Melbourne Aquarium and their NEW baby hammerhead sharks (v.exciting) which are only here until the end of Jan.
2. The Aquarium is not cheap... roughly $33 per person (adult) we had a 20% off voucher to use though.
3. I enjoy a good museum/aquarium as you know by now.
4. It is in the CBD and close to the river so I have walked past it many times without going in
5. Andy was keen to go to the aquarium.

So I was kinda very excited about going to the museum, and had fairly really high expectations (due to price and popularity and hammerhead sharks).
On Sunday afternoon we headed out by tram to the aquarium (you can get Sunday saver tickets for the tram if you buy them from the shop, but the shop had run out, not the best start of the trip).

We strolled over the bridge towards the aquarium following the signs (another mistake, we ended up going the long way via the bins, definitely some fishy smells). Then we entered and joined the queue to get tickets, this we managed without any hassle, they were more than happy to take over $50 off of us. At this point I still had a smile on my face and entered the aquarium with high hopes.

We were sheep (this was our next mistake, you will find out why in a bit) and followed the crowd and the bright lights towards the first exhibit ‘Weird and Wonderful’, then up the escalator (of which there is only one and it only goes up, remember this for later) to the ‘River to Reef’ exhibit.

As you know it is school hols and I have accepted this in my stride, there were many kids and pushchairs, but that was fine (really fine). However what was disappointing for me and the other small children was that many of the bits of exhibits were not working e.g. videos not on, buttons doing nothing no matter how many times I the small kids pressed them. Andy was not able to find out how much like a fish he was, as the display was not functioning (I am going to say 24% fish like, mainly due to the gills).

It was at this point that Andy consulted the leaflet we had been given, it contained a map (how very useful). The map showed a one way route through the aquarium, and it also showed that right at the beginning we had missed the penguins (the fish we had seen so far had been okay, but penguins are cool). It was decided we would carry on to the end and pop back in at the beginning to see the penguins. Onwards passed the jellyfish and a couple of octopuses (Andy’s fav part of aquarium) we went, another minor issue was the lack of information (I don’t really love to read everything, unlike Andy, but I do like to have some interesting facts to go away with). I was a little disappointed by this point, the aquarium felt a bit dated and tired but the ‘Sharks Alive’ exhibit was next with the Baby Hammerhead sharks.

Here it became manic with people, the one way system was not working and it was narrow in places, I think I caught a glimpse of a baby hammerhead (but I couldn’t say for sure). It was time to get out of there and try and see the penguins but if you went onwards you went out. We retraced our steps, battling against the flow of the tide of people until we reached the up-only escalator, luckily there was a lift (for disabilities and babies in prams only) and after explaining our predicament, the very nice lift operating lady allowed us to go back down in it. Finally we reached the ‘Antarctica’ exhibit, were several very large and very bored penguins stood behind the glass whilst people took photos of them, which we did as well.

We then left, both feeling a little let down, we had some good moments but not enough to make it worthwhile. Stacey Stars rating = 2 probably my own fault for having such high expectations (also not cheap).