Clearwater Marine Aquarium Reviews

Very disappointed. We visited yesterday and saw more employees than animals. Glad we only paid their discounted evening rate.

We really enjoyed the boat safari tour. I am excited that they are adding an additional for bigger pools for the dolphins. They are doing a get job.

Awesome experience learn about marine world rescue.

I love how they are helping the hurt sealife! It's like visiting a real work in progress aquarium hospital. I'm glad I donated to a good cause. I have a biology degree and I'm a certified veterinary technician so I loved it there!

Very welcoming environment and all the staff were super friendly. Loved being able to see Winter, Hope, and PJ eat and do some exercises!

Too bad, quite a rip-off, the ticket price is not worth it. All pretty rundown.

Dirty small no air cond lile an spca for aquatic life

Fun place, just wish there was more to do with the cost of admission! Love supporting local attractions!

Went here for the first time today with my 6 year old daughter, and really liked it! We bought tickets for the Sea Life Safari Combo, and went on the boat tour before entering the aquarium. The Sea Life Safari was a wonderful experience, and very educational. Our tour guide was a marine biologist who really knew her stuff! We saw several sightings of wild dolphins during our cruise out into Clearwater Bay, and we also got to enjoy a little beach time on tiny Shell Island, which was a treat. On the way back to to CMA, the boat captain invited my daughter to help drive the boat! The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and overall we had a positive and memorable experience all around.

We also really enjoyed the time we spent inside the CMA. As other reviewers have mentioned, it is not a typical aquarium in the sense that there is a large variety of animals on display. Rather, it is a marine wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center whose primary focus is rescuing wild animals for later release back into the wild. The animals that are on display all appeared well- fed and kept, and the tanks and water appeared clear and clean. The CMA staff and volunteers were all helpful, knowledgeable, and courteous.

The CMA is not stroller or wheelchair friendly, however - not sure why. So, if you don't mind climbing up and down stairs, and enjoyed the 'Dolphin Tale' films, be sure to check out the CMA! It is reassuring to know that, as a non-profit organization, every penny that they make goes towards helping save otherwise helpless animals.

I have been going with my job for many years now even before the movies and I love it every time. I can't wait to go again.

It is a lovely place to have some fun there. There is a little movie theater where they show you movies about tha sharks and other animals lives in big waters all over the world. There are many aquariums inside, also they hadlve Madagascar area.

Very good work is done here! A fantastic peek into the rescue, rehab, and release of wild sea animals. Winter and Hope for the kids, but a great facility for the educational value. I have never met an employee or volunteer who was not friendly and knowledgeable. Make sure the ask questions, you can learn a ton of fascinating stuff this way!

It's cool to go through the aquarium and see all the different animals they take in to help them recover from various injuries or conditions. Nice to also see the money you donate or give from purchasing a ticket go to actually helping animals. Staff is great, everyone was helpful and happy to be there.

Giving four stars just because it's missing the "wow" factor to make it great for many return trips but is still a great place for a day trip with kids.

Waste your time & money, There is no fun, no interesting presentation, the place is small like a house. There are a few marine animals such as turtles, shark and dolphin, as well as some unclean glass walls, clear picture cannot be taken or seeing clear. In addition to the barriers at the dolphin aquarium ( the fence) there is another barrier in the hallways from the ropes, So it is not possible to see the dolphin close-up ''as the fence is high and second barrier (ropes) is far from the fence.
I visited two aquariums in another place, It was better, there's no comparison.

Fun place to visit the dolphins and experience a good variety of our sea friends. Will come back again.

Dolphin Tale!

Wonderful stuff and amazing animals. Loads to do and it lasts..

Crowded. Hard to hear speaker. Not like other aquariums. This is more of a rescue operation. Priced ok.

A complete waste of my money and time that I will never get back. I see more aquatic animals at any outdoor restaurant in the area. There was minimal education about the animals and I walked away with less then when I walked in. It was more about the movies that the dolphins were in than about the dolphins. The dolphin show was perform far away from the seating area and you could not see anything. If you are looking for something to do in the Clearwater area, do yourself a favor and go somewhere else besides here. Overpriced and not worth the price of admission. Very disappointed.

We enjoyed the chance to see the dolphins and learn how the facility helps all ocean animals

The whole purpose of coming to Florida was to see Winter! Fiinally crossed this off our bucket list. The facility is expanding and looks like it will be a beautiful new home for the animal residents. We were happy to contribute to its expansion through donations. Very educational. Enjoyed the tour information which provided info about what really happened when Winter received her prosthetic tail. Have children watch the movie to get them excited about meeting a few animal celebrities- Hope, Mavis and Rufus!

An amazing place for what they accomplish here, but not the greatest for younger kids like toddlers who have very short attention spans. This is definitely more targeted for middle school age kids to explore their world and see the benefits of taking care of the aquatic wild life in our area.

Very enjoyable place to visit. Wide variety of sea animals including dolphins, sea turtles and manta rays. There was also a boat tour that took you to a small island in the bay where there were many seashells to pick up and look at. Large amount of construction was the only drawback.

it was awesome. they take such good care of the animal. Very fun to do with kids

Not a super exciting place but they certainly do good work which is cool to see.

Worth the money to do the boat tour in the bay looking for dolphins... The rest was gravy! Make sure you see Nicholas (the dolphin). Over all a fantastic experience.

Went out on a kayak trip but shortly after leaving saw lightning and storm clouds so had to come back in. They let me reschedule which was very nice thank you

It s really good for people like me got problems and know lots about bottlenose dolphins

To be completely honest, I think the price is a bit too high for the little there is to do and see. If all the"add-ons" were part of the initial price, then that would make it better. But to top it off, I had to pay $10 for parking. For me and five children (one being an infant/free), along with parking was $94 (it's like $2 cheaper when you buy online). It felt disorganized and over populated. The only reason I didn't feel to bad about spending that kind of money was because I thought at least it's going towards the animals (at least I hope). There really isn't a lot of exhibits for the kids to see. We drove over an hour to get there and I hate feeling like my kids were disappointed.

Active duty military get in for free with the family. The place was clean. Winter lookes very sad but the other animls looked fairly happy

Ive never been but my dream is to work there. I constantly watch winter and hope through the live web cams and watch both movies over and over again.

Worst aquarium ever!!! It was so small and we spent 15 minutes and looked at everything don t waste ur money

Horrible. Not worth the price. Having to pay to park and admission to find out there is 3 exhibits was not worth my while. Bottle water and bottled soda prices are above the roof as well. The staff was really friendly and knowledgeable. I will never be returning.

This was a great outing for a rainy afternoon, although rain gear is recommended as some of the activities are outside. The aquarium is a rehab facility, so educational as well!

Small but awesome place to see dolphins, sea turtles, and other aquatic life.

Children stayed intrigued. So much bigger than expected compared to Baltimore and other sea world operations,

This place is not worth it. The boat tour was awful I m glad we paid all that money so staff could continuously and rudely stand in front of us for their own research. Then we waited so they could call the police on people circling the dolphins when we were doing the same thing. It s a joke don t waste your money. Two thumbs down!!

Excellent and many choices to choose from to go out and look at dolphins go to Islands go sea shelling Etc

Good day seeing nature up close. Rescued animals are the stars. A bit pricey but well worth it and you get to help rescue other animals for future generations.

Great cause! This is a real functioning marine hospital, that turns itself into an aquarium for the public to visit. They are extremely friendly and are available to ask questions. If all you want to do is quickly walk through the exhibits it will take you maybe an hour. There is a lot more to it than that though. They have about 20 different trainer "talks" we watched the dolphin trainer talk with Nicholas the dolphin. It was very informative and fun to watch. My 2 yr old was absolutely enthralled. We also got to watch Winter the dolphin go through some physical therapy. All in all it was a great way to spend a few hours on a nice day. I would definitely visit again and try to get to more of the "talks".

Nice staff and clean, but a bit expensive. They only have a couple of dolphins, a turtle and a few pelicans. Not a lot to see.

We always have a great time as a family when we visit the Clearwater Aquarium. If you haven't been you should definitely check it out soon!

The aquarium was great, to small for what was advertised, great information all around, not much going on. The price was too high, great gift shop.

Excellent tour guides. Lots of information and got to see wild dolphins on the Sea Safari

They are doing fantastic work here! The otters are a hoot.

Staff and volunteers were very friendly and knowledgeable

Great facility- doing lots of good for marine life!

We enjoyed ourselves. Thought it would be bigger, but actually enough for my 6 year old to see and learn. Enjoyed the dolphin show and education.

The aquarium was a great experience both for kids and adults.

Entertaining and educational. Not recommended for very young children. Still under construction but it doesn't effect your visit.

Very boring not much to do and you just see animals I will not go there

I loved my visit, only bad thing was my timing with all the construction but it's a nice place to see animals being treated and taken care of. I guess its important to say cause my family didnt understand but this isnt a show aquarium it's like a rehab center for marine life. Please dont go in thinking your gonna watch dolphins doing tricks or something.

The main reason why we wanted to visit the Clearwater Marine Aquarium is to see the little dolphin, Winter, from the movie Dolphin Tale. She still lives at the aquarium and seems to be doing well. We enjoyed visiting the aquarium, but was slightly disappointed because for the price of admission, I thought there would be more marine life to see. Our favorite part was the male dolphin Nicolas on the top deck. He was stranded on a beach and was sunburned badly and wasn't able to be rehabilitated enough to return to the ocean. So now he lives there and has learned some awesome tricks, very entertaining. Like I mentioned, it is a little pricey, but glad we had the opportunity to visit the aquarium.

I can confirm that Hope and Winter do both live here. It was amazing to see Winter swim with no tale. She definitely has a personality and like her own space. She has a secluded space in the aquarium that she like to go to for privacy from the public taking pictures.
Amazing place to visit. Its a must do if you come to florida

It was ok. Unless I missed a lot. They're wasnt many fish to look at. At all. The safari boat ride got canceled cause 1 bolt of lightning. The atorm passed in 2 mins. It was the last ride of the day. I just think the guy didnt want to go back out lol. But anyways. If you love the mob is dolphin tales. This is the place to go.

It s great for the little ones. Not the best for adults. It s overpriced for such a small aquarium. I have been to real aquariums and this was an underwhelming experience.

If you go to this place knowing that it is an animal rescue facility and not a full fledged aquarium then it is neat to see and support.

This is great experience, absolutely worth it to take boat tour.

I rate this a 5 star is because I got to see hope and winter

Very cool , you get to take a picture for memories and u see dophins

One of the 2 buildings is under construction (as of June 2020 ) so you can visit everything within 15 minutes. Not worth the ticket cost( $27)
The Winter boat ride was great, though, 5 stars for the boat ride!

So much fun with the family will definitely be going again!

We took our granddaughters here and were greatly disappointed! A lot of money for a 45 minute activity. We could have spent more time but everything was an additional fee or even at 10:30 am there were too many people to see the included activities.

Very cool place have kids it is a must and if you go take the boat tour helps pay to take cate of the animals plus it is relaxing.

My family loved the place. They are building a huge space for the dolphins.

Truly a wonderful place. We both volunteer back home at a no kill animal shelter. So this place has a similar vibe. We took the behind the scenes tour, worth the extra upcharge.

Very small. Was expecting far more for the price. My family and I could have walked past all of the "attractions" in less than 20 minutes. If you haven't watched Dolphin Tale or if you don't qualify for a deep discount on admission, you will probably be disappointed.