Clearwater Marine Aquarium Reviews

You can clearly observe the passion that each staff and volunteer member holds for their work!! This was such an enriching part of my trip! Abbey (I believe was her name) was our tour guide for the behind the scenes tour and she was so incredible! She was extremely kind and knowledgeable about each location of the animal hospital and was patient when we asked questions. She definitely holds a passion for saving and protecting animals! Definitely make it a point to say hello to her when you visit! Thank you for the educational experience!

The staff is very knowledgeable and kind to the animals.

This place was amazing. It was smaller than I expected but it comes with stories, great people and great animals! It's amazing to see Winter and the show Nicholas the dolphin put on is probably the best and most impressive I've ever seen. I don't believe in zoos and aquariums where they keep the animals captive therefore I dont support them. But this aquarium I had to visit because of their goal of rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing marine life. When I come back to Clearwater I will for sure visit again.

Winter was a cool animal and the overall review wad supper nice and cooled you down

Awesome experience. Make sure to get behind the scenes tour.

Really fun place, even if you don't know anything about the movies like me. A lot of the animals are rescues and I really respect that. The staff was extremely friendly, fun to interact with, and made the whole experience that much better.

Great experience to learn about rescue, rehab, and release of sealife.

Really cute place if you want to bring kids or family! I think it is a little bit overpriced, but everything is in Clearwater for tourists. They had a couple exhibits: birds, dolphins, sting rays, otters, and fish/turtles. They fed the dolphins while we were there and had them do tricks. It was so cute! I m giving 4 stars because it was very hard to hear what anyone was saying about the exhibits when they would speak over the speakers and it was kind of a small place that was a little over priced. However it s a good cause! I would recommend coming here especially if you re with family!

Great aquarium that focuses on saving animals. My kids love Dolphin Tale 1 and 2 and were excited to see Hope and Winter with her prosthetic tale. The prosthetic tale is really cool and inspired a lot of people to visit! It was great to meet the other dolphin who didn't make it into the movies, Nicholas!

Minimal exhibits with a large price tag..... Not worth it.

Beautiful place is interesting to see how in the clearwater aquarium help the sea animals

The most wonderful experience at an aquarium I've ever had

They do great things but need to improve their image and tours

Very beautiful facility, I love that they actually take care of the animals there as well as rescue animals that are hurt, lost, or injured, and do their level best to rehabilitate them to be able to return them to the wild.

Fun aquarium with a great staff. Kids will have a great time, especially if they have seen the movies. Management has also done a fine job adapting to the pandemic. Ticket and parking prices are reasonable, and the upcoming expansion looks very promising.

I thought there would be more to see and floors and stairways should be cleaner

Worth to visit and get to know how people do the best to save wild marine animals.

The enthusiastic staff really make a visit here fun and informative. And the kids get to see Winter!

Great work being done here. They actually rescue and release whatever animals can be sent back yo the wild

My daughter was soooo exited about seeing winter, hope, and Nicolas! She was fascinated with the turtles and all the cool things she learned from clearwater. Thank you soooo much!

Great place to experience marine life rescue & release. This is NOT a regular aquarium & you would spend around 2hrs with couple of shows. You can also enjoy boat tour.

Ok it's fun but few animals cuz they let them go 1 shark like 5 dolfins a sea turtle and otters and stingray petting

I hadn't seen the DolphinTale movies. I'm currently on Spring Break and was looking for something to do other going to the beach.

I've been to Sea Life Aquarium in Orlando which I felt was rip off for it's $25 ticket. In comparison to CMA, Sea Life is like a 3 day pass to Sea World.

The facility is extremely dated and doesn't host a large variety of animals. I went around multiple times and checked every nook and cranny of the building to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Nope, you can easily be in and out of there in an hour if you don't plan on seeing any of the presentations (which were actually kind of boring). I actually felt myself getting sad which, at a "fun" family attraction, should definitely not be happening.

On the plus side, the animals did look like they were well taken care of and the staff seemed knowledgeable. Customer service was excellent all around. I'd sprung for the Sea Safari boat ride prior to entry and that made the day much more enjoyable. If there is a way to do that by itself rather than going into the aquarium, I would have gone that route.

All in all, this is a tourist trap, plain and simple. If you're curious and just have to see what's inside, wait for the late afternoon price or wait til they've finished with construction. Maybe you'll walk away with a better experience.

Very neat place! So glad we went and saw Winter and Hope!

It's very cool there u get to look at the the different kinds of sea anmials there are, especial winter and hope the dolphins.

Overpriced! You pay one price that just gets you in. Everything else is extra. Also they charge $10 to park. Yikes! Then I checked the program and they have something every 15 minutes which I thought was great until we attended one and couldn't hear a thing as their speakers were all distorted. I understand all the money goes to rehabilitating the animals and I also understand they have some big corporate sponsors so why are they charging so much? The Aquarium in Tampa is worth the drive .

My opinion is , i wouldn't spend the money again. We didn't even get to see Winter in pool because they put him away. The fence was so far back we couldn't get close enough to see anything.

Excellent attention and very good to learn more ...

Great visit. We look forward to seeing it again once the construction is completed.

They are remodeling. It isn't very wheelchair friendly.

We took our son (10mos) and he absolutely loved it. I hated seeing it in a state of construction but I can only hope for continued support and growth for this organization. Meeting Winter, Hope and Nicholas has been a highlight of this year and I know my son will look back on the pictures and hopefully cherish the memories as he one day takes children of his own. Thank you guys for what you do, not just for the animals but for the ecosystem as well. Keep up the excellent work.

I wish I could give 0 stars, winter and the other dolphins are in tanks that are way too small for them to live. I don't know much about dolphins but I know that they need to exercise and those tanks are too shallow and dirty. You can see Winter is very depressed, hangs in one spot for long periods of time, and floats on her raft. She doesn't wear her prosthetic fin most of the day, only when doing physical therapy. This place is way overpriced. My family of 4 paid $100 just to get in. Very sad to see the dolphins in this facility. It's all based on the movie dolphin tale. All about the money, should be shut down.

Great learning experience,recommend for family outing

Super small if you have a weak stomach dont go..... Cause it smells like fish. The dolphin boat cruise isn't worth the extra cost. You hardly see anything little interactions from the crew unless you sit in the fun of the boat. No drinks or snacks served.....probably wont come again

An active rehabilitation center, not commercialized garbage like Marine Land

I went 5 years ago and It was Amazing!!
I love that they save our wildlife and release them back.
Going again with my 16 yr. Old tomorrow.

I basically bought the admission ticket a membership just for a donation there's not really much to do there is hardly any animals in there

Glad to give much needed support. Staff is so helpful and willing to share their expertise. Winter the dolphin still here. Love the story. Was a great way to spend the day!

Nice little aquarium, friendly staff, some food options, and who could be unhappy seeing Winter??

Expensive so take some money but definitely a good family experience. Winter and hope are adorable.

Awesome place! Very informative! Loved the little otters!!

There is barely any marine life and for $23 it is not worth it. They might have a famous dolphin that was in a movie but apart from that you can see more marine life in the supermarket.

Very expensive for the time it takes to look at everything. I walked through in 30 min.

O felt a lack of smooth flow of events from each location.

Paid full price and it DEFINITELY isn t worth it at all. It was around $100 for my family of 4. There s two floors with not much to do. My sister is a big fan of the movies and was super excited to see the dolphins but they were under the water the whole time and the trainers just said there s nothing we can do about it they don t want to come up. She was super disappointed to not even be able to see the animals and we were not going to wait around for the animals to feel like participating. We re Seaworld pass holders and in my opinion we could ve went there saw animals and got on rides for literally the same price. Waste of time and money. We were there for like 30 minutes that s how much there actually is to see for $100. Won t be returning.

Fun spot and lots of activites. Kids loved feeding the dolphins and doing the sea life boat tour.

Totally worth the price! 5 of us went and enjoyed ourselves(ages 31,30,11,10,9) and the dolphin show was awesome! Got a free poster at the end of the tour. Lots of knowledgeable and friendly staff. We spent two hours and the price was for a good cause.

Awesome place to go to see winter and other animals from the dolphin tale movie. A little on the small side but are currently expanding and has the potential to be even better.

IS NOT WORTH 40 DOLLAR A TICKET AT ALL. DONT WASTE YOUR TIME!!!! BARELY SEE ANYTHING AND THEY BARELY HAVE ANY ANIMALS!!!!

We were able to get discounts .The kids really enjoyed it and that was the whole reason for going. It was nice to see Winter and Hope also how the history behind the movie there. We did not get to see the outside show because of time. I think maybe that show time should be posted online to help people plan ahead since there is a 1.5 -2 hr wait. I posted a video maybe it will help clarify mixed reviews on the water. Something new they may have started is activities with the kids. I also posted a video on that. The pictures they take are really creative and will cost an extra $60 (for the whole pkg ) I think a family of 4 can expect to spend $70+ depending on if you are willing to look for discounts. Parking is not free

It was a decent experience for the price. Just make sure you have time to walk around.

Maybe you can take some money from the tickets to give it to the animals. The ticket price is too much and u have to pay for parking. Are u serious? I would not recommend it. I would take a boat ride to see dolphins in real life. Winter seems to be not happy. Winter has his own book and film, but where is the money, which he has earned?

Cost $48 to go see two dolphins and some turtles and few other sea critters ($38 Tickets at Work discount for 2 adults and $10 parking). Save your money and go elsewhere with more attractions for the dollar.

The staff was friendly and they do a lot of work for the sea critters of Clearwater, but the price is very steep for what's there.

Very helpful staff a lot to do and see and inspirational stories

Exceptional marine rescue and research center. Not just an aquarium. Highly recommend them.

Aquarium was fun for the kids. The aquarium itself is pretty small, I'm comparing this to Mystic in CT and New England Aquarium in Boston. But overall a decent spot to kill some time with the kids.

So expensive and for what? It took me exactly 30 minutes to look at everything. I m here sitting on bench because the drive was too long to just leave after 30 min. This was a rip-off the boat ride should had been included in the admission. I m telling you the aquarium in Cuba is better and that says allot.

Had a good time and learned a lot about sealife. Took a boat tour of the bay and the caught a few fish and put them in bowls. The tour guide explained what type of sealife they were and after we got a chance to look at the fish they were returned to the bay. Good way to spend an afternoon.

Really a great learning experience for my daughter, she loved it and I did and it was cool seeing winter in person.

An amazing aquarium in the heart of Clearwater. They have all varieties of fish and sea mammals. The staff treat the animals with the utmost care.

Loooove this place and their mission. It's obvious with everything they do that they want to help animals heal and get them back into their natural habitat. All the staff we met were positive and love doing what they do.

This place is scary and kinda sad. Needs major renovating and more to do see

Love! I enjoyed seeing all the animals, including the movie stars. I learned so much as well. Can't wait to go back.

Lots of fun for adults and children. We took a behind the scenes history of the aquarium and the animals made it complete.

Was a great place to visit
Very nice people
We had a lot of fun, the animals were great..

Was looking forward to this aquarium and seeing what it had to offer. We Visited on Sunday 5/14 around 4:30pm. Saw online about a first responder appreciation discount. After reaching the ticket counter I was told no discounts were being offered that day-not even the discount that is located in the Clearwater Guide map. No signage or advance notice of this policy

They do an excellent job caring for these amazing animals. It's nice to see they're expanding. A bit pricey, but it's hopefully all going to a good cause.