Miami Seaquarium Reviews

So expensive and nothing to see.. the place looks neglected

Amazing place very knowledgeable staff. penguin encounter was so much fun. The penguins were so loving

We bought the Seal Swim off Groupon and we went today and had the pleasure of swimming with a seal named Coco who was a sweet as can be. The swim was a nice interaction as well as being educational. Other than the water being a little cold, we have a wonderful time. The place is smaller than Sea World, but it was perfect. Not too crowded, the shows were great and so were the exhibits. We will go back again !!

Great entertainment. Lines for food were terrible. Very slow.

We went and were greeted by friendly staff, however when we went inside of the actual it was nothing but old and out dated. There tanks aren't big enough to humanely fit the animals. Such a shame that a park like this hides behind conservation and doesn't care at all about the animals. They had an Orca swimming in a swimming pool sized tank. Overall it is old and inhumane, I will never go again.

Shows are a bit boring and not many places to cool off on a hot day

#dontbuyaticket FREE LOLITA she deserves freedom she is not your entertainment!!

Shows were spaced out and random times, but we re all interesting. We went on a Thursday in the Summer. Probably a lot more going on during the weekend. Walked into the Orca presentation right as she did a big belly flop splash on us ^_^
Make sure you apply/bring bug spray. I got absolutely covered in bites.

Lolita the Orca needs a better tank. This place disgusts me for keeping her alone and suffering.

I don't understand how this place is still open. It is so terrible! All of the water is dirty and murky. It is old and run down and has a terrible vibe overall. Stay away!!

The seaquarium was amazing. Its fun for everyone in the family. My son really enjoyed all the shows, especially the flipper and Lolita the whale show. His favorite part though, as well as mine, was feeding the sting rays. It's only 5$ for a little bag of shrimp and the sting rays come right up to your hand and suck it out. We had a blast.

Fun time with the kiddies for Easter! So much to do and many shows to enjoy. Lolita did her thing. You can tell she's well kept and not abused. I loved the news black and white dolphins. So cute, fast, and agile

Had a great time, staff were nice for the most part, got great views of the animals!

I had an awesome time there. The shows were very entertaining. I would ignore all of the other reviews because PETA supporters are just trying to trash the place. My family and I had a wonderful time. Now we are heading out for a nice big juicy dolphin sandwich.

It was a big disappointment. The reef exhibit was almost empty. It looked sad and abandoned. The killer whale show was a snooze fest. The trainers talked most of the time while feeding the whale and dophins. I think the whale jumped twice the whole time. They even played a video. Very educational and all but not what we were there to see. I can do that from home. There were less animals than the last time I visited, except for sting rays, those they had everywhere. The only new thing was the penguins, which was cute, but not impressive. Certainly not enough to justify the price increase. $50 a person plus $10 for parking, makes it for a very expensive family outing. I'd expect to get more for my hard earned money. More than exhibits, the place is full of food stands. Again, not what people go there to do. I was there for about 2 hours, the sea lions show was 1 hour and a half away but I left. I didn't know what to do to kill time until it started. I had seen everything and done everything. I first visited the Seaquarium 18 years ago. In that time, I've watched the prices go up and the quality go down. In my last visits I left with the feeling of having been robbed. I don't think I'll be going back.

Really cool aquarium. Seal swim was a blast but the photos are way overpriced.

I love this place! Come in here several times a year with kids! Every time is fun!

I do fantastic work rescuing animals but they'd open and closes do seem rather small

Some good attractions (definitely recommend the reef tour!), but be prepared to shell out lots of additional cash for lots of the attractions. Also make sure you plan ahead, because many of the shows/feedings only happen once or twice a day. Still, worth checking out!

This place it's tons of fun. The only downside is that the concession stands tends to run out of stuff quite frequently. Also a lot of the ice creams stands were closed.

I would never go back. It wasn t worth $47 per person! It was very small, the water was super dirty in all the tanks and the shows we so lame. It took us maybe 2 hrs and the staff was rude. Nothing compared to sea world in Orlando. I don t usually leave reviews but I had to prevent anyone else from wasting there money. I literally told myself to think of my entrance fee as a donation because I was upset with what we were seeing.

Its a nice place for small kids to explore. My daughter is 6 yrs old and she really enjoyed herself. The price is little pricey, but they need the money to maintain the park. Look at it as a donation with your entry fee.

It was pretty small but the shows were pretty good.

WoW! needs some TLC.....expect to be outside- no interior relief zones....one of the 4 shows was closed, the three they had left were spaced far apart where we had to leave prior to the last show featuring killer whales....many closed kiosks, which seemed ok because slow, however the few places open had bunch of staff playing on phones and absolutely not looking to help anyone---the one place had open but windows closed and as I waited 5 minutes to figure out where to order, finally, someone opened up glass- the other three workers sitting down on buckets playing on phone....every place and stand like this...the aquarium tanks are so dirty and unkept, you cannot even see thru the water, similar to matinee tank.....im surprised any of these species survive. this place is a dump

I would give it 0 stars if I could as this place is the worst. I took my kids for their halloween event, they give tickets for the kids to get candy, that was very cheap of them, the event was not great. They charge very high prices, they charge for parking and the place is super outdated and deteriorated. The few shows they have are not entertaining. The playground for kids is not great. The food place is horrible and tiny, the food is super expensive and the service is bad. I don't think I'll ever take my kids there again.

This aquarium saved my families vacation after our cruise plans got cancelled due to my daughter being suddenly hospitalized. We brought our own lunches per prior reviews.
I booked the seal swim with my 7 year old and we both loved it! Almost an hour swimming and playing with scallop the seal was so memorable and fun. I highly recommend this.
I booked our seal swim online and we took advantage of the sale price. It included our admission.
I bought my husbands regular admission online with sale price also and they offered him a free observer wrist band. My toddler was free as she s 1 years old.
I believe the observer wrist band is what gains access to the lockers/presentation/dolphin training area behind the gates. If a parent is not participating (swimming) you want to escort your kid behind the scenes (in these areas) and I believe this is the purpose of the observer band. Other than that an observer watches the animal & child interactions the same as the general public.
The photos taken during the interaction were super expensive , at $45 a photo-$100 for rights to print all. You can add a cute photo book but that made it even more expensive - ugh. I m bummed I wasn t able to buy it.
The water shows were awesome. We only saw 2/4 and loved them.
Here are some other pros/cons:
Pros:
-This place rescues, rehabilitates and releases animals back into the wild (that have a chance of survival), such as the turtles, manatee, birds. To see manatees up close with fins almost completely severed and broken backs ,was heartbreaking and eye opening as to our speeding in boats. Slow down ! A manatees life expectancy in the wild is less than 10 years and Seaquarium oldest manatee is 66-great job!

-The workers have respect for the animals here. They corrected my daughter blowing bubbles and it going near the open tanks.
-It was easy to navigate and not crowded. Not too much walking and exhaustion with a family of small kids.
- the animals seemed more in their natural environment with the open air , sandy dunes, being just beside the ocean. I d think turtles may enjoy this rather than a huge tank inside a building.
- nice items at the gift shops

Cons:
-only 1 accessible bathroom. Thank God it wasn t crowded this day. Hand washing knowledge has come far since 1950, get stations set up.
- outdated.
-no wash stations at/ near the interactive pool stations. This is a health hazard.
-the aquarium tanks were dirty looking. I m not a specialist but I ve not seen tanks this unkempt at an aquarium. The ocean is full of algae so perhaps that s the point.
- I wish there was more for toddlers to play and interact with. The touch pools were deep to reach into and the water too shallow to touch anything. Her clothes got more action.

Overall we had a great visit! Just don t come expecting sea world.

Seaquarium is by far the WORST aquarium I have ever been to in my life, coming from a lover of seaside and a college student studying marine biology. The customer service was awful, the employees were rude and didn't show any interest in helping any guests. Seaquarium doesn't care about their animals at all, the size of pools they are being kept in is absolutely awful, and most of the animals not very active & healthy looking. Please Do not give money to this place, if you are looking for an enjoyable experience at an aquarium DO NOT come to Seaquarium.

Love this place.the people that work there are super nice. Beyond nice! The scenery is gorgeous. Love walking around.wish it was cheaper.i would go all the time.

The professional photos they make you pay ridiculously for arent taken by a professional photographer at all.. and they are charching hundreds of dollars for pictures where the photographer can't even get the right shot and is getting instructed by the dolphin trainers on where to stand to get the best shot.. a professional puotographer... knows how to get the best shots.. I dont appreciate dishonest businesses.

I went first time about 3.5 years ago & second just few days ago. Overall HUGE degradation of the park itself. It is falling apart & need proper/emergency maintenance. Kudos to all shows, but my favorite is Killer Whale & Dolphin (also there is addition one Sky Riders with brave performance).

Run down, they don't even have change dipper stations in there rest rooms

Old and disgusting aquarium that looks like it used to be cool but now sucks.

So many creatures made it worthwhile. The show was informative, and the speakers were quite articulate - not a single "uhm"!

The Miami Seaquarium is it South Florida Institution, always a pleasure to visit, this time brought my grandson he loved it.

If you are sensitive about animals living in clean and humane conditions, this is not the place to go! I regret that we brought our kids here today. It is so expensive for such a run down place. Most of the exhibits and restaurants are closed down and the aquariums have such dirty windows you can t even see what s inside. It s depressing and leaves you feeling like these types of places shouldn t be open in 2020!

This was the first aquarium for me to visit in the US, and although I heard great things about the place, it was a big disappointment. There not many exhibits to see, and in the middle there is a huge fish tank but there are only small windows placed on it and you can hardly see any fish, not only because of the size of the window but because the water was green and dirty. I came from Japan, where even the smallest aquariums present their exhibits impressively, and I had high expectation for this place because it's America - "everything's big and great"! But NO, I just ended up wasting my money.

The guy at the front provided amazing customer service. Even after we received the burger, asked how was it. The burgers were amazing and halal. I just wished they had a kid's burger and an option for 1/4 lb burger.

They are keeping Lolita the whale in a tank so small that it is illegal. She can't even dive because it is only 20ft deep and she is 20 feet long. She was taken from her family almost 50 years ago and forced into the entertainment business. Miami Seaquarium needs to stop being selfish and let her retire to a seaside sanctuary. Lolita is a living breathing animal and is not yours to exploit.

We are from Alaska and were in Miami for a short amount of time, we decided to go to Miami Seaquarium and we weren't disappointed. We had a great day here!!! The exhibits had a decent amount of sea life, lots of displays with information about the creatures and the rescue stories. We did the "Shark and Stingray Interaction" and had a great time, the guide was very knowledgeable. There were well stock souvenir shops and a food concession stand. Lots of interactive exhibits. We loved our day at the aquarium.

Disappointing experience. overall facilities are not inviting, fish tanks in the central round venue (where the dolphins are) are all almost empty and not taken care at all (I'm an aquarist and was taken aback by how dirty and full of brown algai they were!!) same for the place where that manati are. I think this used to be a great place, but that surely was a long time ago and today there's very few, if any, of that old glory.

I think they need to be more considerate of families with small children during the shows. They take forever to start and have no entertainment in the mean time.

Before this weekend, I hadn't been to the Seaquarium in years. It was so nostalgic to be back!! We had so much fun and were even able to save $5 on our tickets using Miami-Dade's EASYPerk promotional code!!

This is really sad. The sea life is not taken care of well and the habitats are severely small. Would not recomend at all. The prices for a single adult with tax, was $51.35.

Nice shows with tight scheduling, so you don t have to wait a long time.

Mini sea world w about 1-2 hours of attractions to see. Shows were fun, would only recommend going when discounted tickets are available as opposed to full price. We paid 45$ for two people, not 100$.

The place is nice and I appreciate what they are doing to rescue animals who've had accidents and need rehabilitation. The problem is there's not a lot of things to do. In the summer it is really hot to enjoy everything.

It's a pity a city like Miami, a city right next to the sea with a Seaquarium so small and out of date, it needs a big "facelift". This city of Miami should have a Seaquarium to remember. Don't go on week days, most shows are off, and those open offers more long speeches than action. Some exhibits where closed the day I went. They charge like if you are going to see the whole package but you only get to see half of it. Disappointed.

Excellent place.no nonsense fun.
All the shows on time..no overcrowding

Fully enjoyed our day at the seaquarium. We easily rented a wheel chair for our injured daughter for only $15 per day and the park was very accommodating for the handicapped.

We went to the Seaquarium today (drove 2.5 hrs) and it was horrible. There is nothing to see and the cost is crazy! We go to Aquariums all the time, and I will say this is the absolute worst we have ever been to. We will continue going to the Tampa Aquarium. Our 9 yr old son, was so bored and disappointed that he wanted to leave. For the lack of things to see and do, they really need to consider lowering the price to get in~~to like maybe $10.00.. Please reconsider if you are planning a trip there for the kids. SAVE your money and take them somewhere else.

The place was to small and overpriced. The aquarium had only a few interesting tanks that were very dirty. We spent more time in traffic on our way to the aquarium. I would not recommend this place unless you are willing to spend large amounts of money to interact with the animals.

It's a small place with not a lot of shows but plenty of fish tanks.

It's amazing please , if rain you don't have refounds

I been here a couple a times with my family . They all loved it. There are a lot of different shows and activities for the whole family. Good planning is a must if you want to see all the shows in one day. Food prices are a bit on the high side so be aware. Parking is another fee so bring some money for that too. Overall Miami Seaquarium is a must if you live Miami or just visiting.

Seemed like a very worn out park. Didn't feel the wonders of seeing ocean animals.

$102 for two people?! Was a ridiculous price for a run down, ghetto place. It s old and doesn t show much. The tanks of fish were empty, sad, and filled with fish you could find at a pet store, or caught at the beach. The tanks themselves were labeled for impressive species of fish, but assumed those had died, and were replaced with generic. Dolphins were poorly kept, and a random malnourished deer? The birds and rescued boat accident turtles were nice. An ok place if it was actually $25 or so. But $50? Absurd, go to Sarasota or Tampa. Waste.

Depressing as heck. Watching these gorgeous animals perform inane tricks for a clueless audience was dispiriting.

Time for the animals - especially lonely Lolita - to be free.

Good for families while the wild life fans would enjoy as it worth. > $30 a day

@ Michelle Legune After reading your comment , i just have to say before u make any assumption or disrespect people , how about you go to school and learn about them. You stated your daughter will go. Therefore , one day she'll tell you facts and school you on what's real. You sound very confident speaking about these whales like you have a degree. I agree with u @ Rachel Borkbowski .. I would like to thank u guys for the heads up. I've been dying to go for years to see all the shows but I'll take everyone's word for it who are locals in Miami. I feel the same about the Zoo but there's nothing we can do unfortunately.

The Miami Seaquarium was a disappointment. I expected it to be great being in Miami and close to the sea. It had a few attractions and were not that impressive. The staff did not look to happy to be there. The Flipper Show was probably the best thing to see at the Seaquarium. I would recommend going to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, GA if you're intrested in seeing a memorable aquarium.

It was ok, but the show lengths were disappointing, it wasn't worth the $47 ticket. The killer whale and dolphin show lasted exactly 8 minutes even though the schedule said 20 minutes. Also, the show schedule wasn't available anywhere online to plan our visit, they gave it to us when we got there, so after arrival, with 2 small kids, we had to sit down and figure out what to do. They should also give instructions if you want to do an activity. My daughter wanted to swim with the dolphins, but she had to wear a swim cap because her earing was broke and she couldn't take it out and the dolphins might think it's a fish and bite her. We could have cut it before coming if we would have known.

Awful experience. It was depressing seeing all the animals in such poor environments.

Have I been to your seaquarium? No and I never will. You need to set Lolita free before she is forever gone. You need to free all of the animals!

Very awesome experience! Great shows and family-friendly environment!

Good shows ... Needs more benches in the park and signs for the animals so you know what you're looking at