Clearwater Marine Aquarium Reviews

Go see winter!!! The staff is so friendly and knowledgeable.

This place is really great. Enough to see and learn for the kids and cool enough for adults too. The facilities are very clean and well kept. You can tell the people that work there take pride in what they do. We've been there twice and enjoyed it both times. Also hello! to the woman that doubles as the "Little Toot II" dolphin tour guide!

Tickets may seem a little pricy for a small aquarium, until you consider the fact that the cost actually represents a donation to a not-for-profit that is trying to save the marine world.

Enjoyable experience. Only took about an hour to see every exhibit. If you have children and attend all scheduled demonstrations, you could spend an entire day.

The only demonstration my wife and I watched was Nicolas the dolphin and we had a blast.

Went here for the first time I've always wanted too ever since I saw the movies. It's very fascinating and a beautiful place where they rescue, rehab and release. A great and friendly staff. It's also a non profit organization the money of buying their tickets helps them grow. Which is fantastic for their great work on these animals.

This is a place with many memories for my family, now all the kids visit here with me when they come into town.

Great staff, wonderful exhibits, and great all-around vibe. I can't wait until they finish their addition.

Not a lot to see here. Entire show was based on one child interacting with dolphins. Went to take my granddaughter because she loves Winter & Hope but she was disappointed. Will never go again.

This is a wonderful place. They rescue sea animals. They really enjoy doing what they do. They support the environment. Winter and Hope are the stars of Dolphin Tales 1 & 2. They are a wealth of information and knowledgeable. We took the "Behind The Scenes" tour. It is a must visit. We plan to go back and continue to support.

Horrible! as much as i LOVE dolphins its all based on Winter and Hope its like just advertising for the movie, the pools arent much bigger than a house pool, its not clean, you can barely see the dolphin with the artificial tail, she just lays there like shes miserable! Dolphins dont interact with one another it was very depressing, and the staff is RUDE

Ba-ding
Bang-bam

Our family had a terrific time at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. The staff was very helpful and eager to answer questions. We were able to see rays, turtles, sharks all manners of fish and of course lots of dolphins. Nicolas did a flip for us! We took an hour long boat tour that was amazing. We enjoyed everything about our visit and would recommend it highly to any family.

Educational, but not a great please for a 3 year old.

A really small aquarium they don't have a lot of exhibits so they really play up the whole Dolphin tale story.

Wow ! You have to see this remarkable place. Home of Winter & Hope, the famous dolphins.....

Absolutely fantastic! My daughter watched the movies years ago and was over the moon to actually see the dolphins. The staff were fantastic, all very qualified and very helpful. We took the dolphin tour boat ride also, and it was worth every penny. Definitely worth a visit.

Worst aquarium we have ever been to. The girl who greeted us was very upbeat and friendly, however, the rest of the staff (including volunteers) were not welcoming at all. The pools for the animals are very small with filthy water. Smelled like dead fish. It took us 15 minutes to see all the exhibits. Reduced tickets plus parking was $42. Save your money!!

Had to pay 12.00 for the aquariums parking garage, which should be for free. It takes less than two hours to see everything. I'm all for helping non profit, but the parking is a bit expensive. Every thing else was great. They are a great rehabilitation center.

Kind of expensive and not that much to look at. They are in the process of renovation June 29th 2020.

Quite disappointed really. They are building a new facility next door and not before time.
The existing facility is very old and tired.
I was expecting more to be honest, there is not a lot there in my opinion. There seems to be a swarm of volunteer workers everywhere you turn, which I fully understand however they do seem to like to stand in front of you a lot and get in the way.
They do great work there and the new building can not come soon enough.
I don't think it was worth the 53 dollars my wife and I paid.

This is NOT an Aquarium. It is a rescue. Dont go in expecting to see tons of species through big panes of glass. You can barely make out a fin in the dolphin tank. You wont see Winter unless you happen to be EXTREMELY lucky and even then, you may just see her coming up for air. The tanks are way too small for 3 dolphins. It was more depressing than anything. If you're really into marine biology, then you may enjoy the science behind it. The gift shops are bigger than the actual exhibit area. Parking is 12$, which you dont find out until you've already pulled into the parking structure. Overall, skip this place and go to the big Aquarium in Tampa.

Super friendly and helpful staff. Great place to visit and learn.

I highly recommend feeding the stingrays it was fun, and really crazy having them glide over you hand and suck the fish out from between your fingers. That was by far our favorite part. It was sad seeing the dolphins there are two, have such small tanks and limited space to move around.

Fun to see Winter and that they truly have a lot of volunteers and care for the animals, but with 2h you have seen it...

Loved the dolphin show, staff very knowledgeable. They care about all aspects of the animal. Loved to pet the stingrays

Very small, very disappointing experience. Not worth $32 a person. Maybe 5 exhibits total .... I ve been to bigger aquariums in the north

Smaller than expected, but we had a really cool experience with the dolphins! Alarm, they LOVE babes! One of the workers suggested holding our baby in the window to see what the dolphins did. We had all 3 trying to play with him at one point. It was so cool!

I loved seeing Hope so happy & Winter was doing good. We were vacationing and wanted to see them.

A little small, but it is more of an aquarium hospital it is good to go to help with the cause they carry with the animals they have, a must see in tampa

Had a very good experience here. The remodeling took away some of the fun, but they are doing it for the animals. Had a lot of fun.

Great place to take the family. Learning about marine life and how everyone can help to save the animals. Can't say enough what a great experience. Forget Disney, head on down to Clearwater.... definitely recommend adding the boat tour

Clean, the staff was friendly and helpful. Winter and Hope we're great. The rest of the attractions were great too.

I am in love with this place and the lives they are saving

Beyond amazing! Just wish they would have let winter out after she was nudging the gate to be with hope because she was loney.

I just had my son'so 10th birthday here and I couldn't be any more happy with the experience! The room we were in had a view of Nicholas which all the party guests loved! The staff was truly amazing! They taught the kids about the animals they had on site, told them how some of the animals were rescued or what was wrong with them. The staff was so kind, helpful, patient, and knowledgeable.
I paid extra to have Rufus from the Dolphin Tale movies come in. That experience was UNFORGETTABLE!
I wanted to thank the staff for their help in making my son's birthday PERFECT and memory we will NEVER forget!!!!!!!!!
I definitely recommend having a birthday party here!

This place was absolutely amazing!!!! Me and my husband went and really enjoyed ourselves. Seeing Winter in person was sweet!!! We also took a 90 minute boat ride. The view was astounding!!! We also got to visit a small island, which was new for me.

Decided to spend our last evening in fl visiting the CMA
Wish we hadnt wasted our time.
Its old, dirty, expensive and no animals.
The tanks are dirty, glass foggy
And you cant see clearly into the few tanks they had.
Its concerning that the 3 dolphins on site live in such small conditions.
No otters to be seen a few fish an a few turtles. This aquarium is a RESCUE center. Not your traditional aquarium
Be aware of that if you visit. Its more about what they can get you to spend your money on in the gift shop/merchandise area.
Very disappointing.
Wr should have went on a dolphin watch boat tour at johns pass!
Wont return.
Photos ops done eary so plan ahead if thats what you want.

As an animal lover I can appreciate and fully endorse a place that s dedicated to rescue animals. Coming here was a dream come true and I can scratch that off my bucket list (although I ll be back ) I loved being able to see Winter, Hope, Nicholas and all of the other animals that are housed here. I had a wonderful time and would recommend this place to anyone. To the staff, Thank you for everything that you do for these animals!

Great place to visit. And learn about the animals rescued and ones that have been released there. Staff were helpful and friendly. Will be going back!! Grandson loved it too. And we met the some of the stars from the movie Dolphin Tale 1 & 2. They were amazing too.

The whole family enjoyed the Tropical Sundown Admission along with the Tropical Family Cruise! 4:00pm to 8:00pm was plenty of time to view everything and spend time at each display.

It is fantastic you can meet winter and hope and many more animals

Very quiet there right now. Still a nice experience. It looks like they are adding alot of stuff, I'm excited to go again

Was an amazing place found out that dolphins are very fascinating animals and my new favorite sea animal!!

Worth the trip, so much to see! I highly recommend it as one of the top things to see in the area. It is warm and humid by nature, and that affects how long I can stay. It was a little confusing navigating through it, but staff and volunteers are so helpful!

Nice. Its not an aquarium perse, its more a sea animal hospital. Its really nice.

They are currently in extension work. It was a bit limited to enjoy the attractions.

I loved the experience! God bless all these people.

So cool to see the actual dolphins from the movie as well as all the other sea life. My girlfriend absolutely enjoyed all the different turtles up close.

Went with my grandparents and best friend before corona and I'd honestly say I loved my experience! We spent so much time looking at the dolphins and petting the sting rays! We loved seeing Winter- I've adored her since childhood- and the otters were so cute! While the gift shop is fairly expensive, the things you can buy are very good quality. I got multiple stuffed animals and a few other things and they're in very good shape still. Love how you help the animals (I don't understand why people are so angry that there aren't very many animals when the idea is to rescue, rehabilitate, and release, despite that very message being well emphasized). 10/10 would go again. Money well spent. My grandparents were very happy to bring me to this aquarium, as I've been wanting to meet Winter for so long.

Just an extra note: Walle, the otter, is adorable and I love him- I got one of the stuffed animals of him. He's so precious!!!

Another note: My friend says she loved it. She loves the otters to. We still talk about them even though it's been a bit.

It's nice to see the work being done for conservation but sadly very expensive trip for what you see I felt best part of 100 dollars for 2 adults 2 kids with parking felt steep to be honest
Once renovations done and new aquarium is ready I am sure things will improve

Suggestion ... The place is attended by foreign tourists for which certain information or notices should be in these different languages.

It's a nice place to visit and learn about sea life rehabilitation. The ticket is a bit high but since they do rescues I'm fine with it. My wife and I had a good time even though the aquarium is rather small. I personally enjoyed getting to see the inside of the animal hospital.

I love that this was reciprocal with my great explorations annual membership however it was NOT what I was expecting. Parking is expensive. The lines to get in on a Monday were crazy, so I expected something more. Its playing some movie clips ive never heard of featuring a dolphine that was given a prosthetic tail. ( cool they can do this) but the actual aquarium is just a rehab. Its small. Uncomfortable not very exciting and I could plainly see the gift shop ( which you HAVE to walk through immediately) was bigger than the whole damn place. So am I glad they rescue sea creatures? Absolutely. Would i go again? No.

Meet Winter the star of Dolphin Tale! See how recused marine animals are cared for and hopefully returned to their natural home. Spend the day visiting her and the otters, turtles and other rehabilitating creature.
Winter, Hope, Nicholas, and now PJ are happy and thriving in this wonderful place. Looking forward to seeing the new, bigger facility finished!

Fun day! We did it all, boat ride, Shell Island, fed the dolphins & took all the pics. A day well spent, a story well told & pics well taken, wasn't cheap but, much less than SeaWorld and much more fun!

Overall was very nice. But the construction made it in convenient.

It smelled bad way over priced. There's nothing there .

This was a dream come true for me. The staff were very helpful.

It was small but nice. We had a great view of everytbing and they were very organized with the COVID-19 restrictions. A definite must see.

Not so many things to see, very small facility, I think what we paid is not worth it but what I like the most is the people s mind saving the marine life.

What I got was not worth what I paid. It felt like a money grab. Not many interactions. I want to support their mission, but I would have liked more attractions and exibits. Poor sound system, could not hear the presentations.

This is such a great experience! The staff is awesome..tons of things to experience

This is one of my favorite places to visit in the Tampa area. Definitely the best value for the money spent. Great for young kids as well as old!

It is an interesting experience there. The science is on the money and they are doing sound work in marine science.

Particularly good for the children visiting as they have numerous experiences they can enjoy while the grownups can learn how they can be of service in the preservation of a broad range of sea life.

Clearwater has a separate facility for manatee work which is not at this location.

Memorable experiences are still to be had by all. This is marine rescue work - a serious need- and something we all need to take seriously and make an investment in both for the smiles on the faces of the children and the maintenance and well being of our marine wildlife!

Expensive. But enjoyed the boat ride immensely... Saw otters, big turtles, dolphin show and could touch the stingrays. They sure care about the wildlife. Great cause.

Great place. Not massive but really interesting and good for children. Very nice animals feeding show with just natural dolphins play. You can even see animals in actual recovery area. Really recommended

Winter and Hope are here along with 2 other dolphins. You can see other animals as well. It's not very big but there is a bunch of learning activities for all ages. We got to go to the Winter's Gel activity and my son was picked to be an assistant. He had a blast with that and everyone seemed to enjoy it very much. All of the staff was great and very helpful as well as knowledgeable.

The guys at CMA do an amazing job. They rescue marine animals and keep those who cannot be sent back into the wild again. Not just the dolphins are lots of fun to watch, with one even being a film star. The crew of staff and volunteers always explain what they do which is a great way to learn not just about the animals, but also about the valuable work this Aquarium is doing. It's actually more of an animal hospital with open doors than an Aquarium. So worth the trip!

Who doesn't want to see Winter, Hope and Nicholas. This place is doing a great job at looking after creatures that can't be rehabilitated. Well worth a visit.

Enjoyable day. Plan ahead and book behind the scenes tour or one of the others.