Miami Seaquarium Reviews

If I could give a -5 rating I would. This is a total tourist trap, way over priced, horrible food, and tiny tanks for the animals. And where the penguins are to be found is anyone's guess. Don't get off the tour bus or you'll be stuck and less some serious cash!

Paid $150 for 3 people and didn t get much. Was very overpriced and not much to see . No staff members around the park just sitting in the front talking and not maintained very well.

Not the biggest aquarium but it's a good way to spend the afternoon.

If I could give this place zero stars I would. It's a very sad run down park that doesn't look like it's very well kept. The food and entrance fee is way overpriced.

Shows are really nice, some sections look old fashioned. Few food options.

Terrible! The animals don't look like they are taken care of very well. Aquariums looked dirty. We did not stay long at all

All for the love of money not the animals ,poor creatures in such a small prison.

Great For The Young Ones
If you get there early enough you can enjoy almost every show... The Sea Lions show was good, the trainers interacted with the crowd nicely... The Killer Whale (with the dolphins) was very good, wished there was more splashing though.... The water park held the kids interest for over an hour.. All in all its a very good experience... IMO

Just over 100 dollars for two adults which is far too expensive..30 dollars per adult is plenty.... it's an ideal place for a family with kids. Animals are exceptional, very healthy, cared for and well trained. Shows are short but excellent. Not many sheltered areas from sun/rain.

Came here with my 2 sons and it was fantastic. The staff all over the park is incredibly friendly from my phone interaction that morning to the parking attendant, to the entrance, to the vendors and cashiers and shop! It was also a big deal to me that the animals all looked exceptionally healthy and well cared for, the trainers were energetic, upbeat, and knowledgeable, and appeared to genuinely love what they do. The shows were on time and exciting and well organized. I definitely recommend coming here for a fun afternoon with the family.

Love this place. Shows are short but awesome. Sting Ray exhibit is wonderful. This is a great place to take the kid(s) especially if you want an interactive experience.

I went with my sister-in-law and son, and we had a blast

Lots of cool animals, wild iguanas running around and wild birds trying to steal fish.

I'm angry with myself! I've lived in South Florida for 30 years and never considered going to Miami Seaquarium. We've always spent the big bucks at the "tourist" parks, that's where the anger comes in, when the whole time I had a fantastic park only 1 1/2 hours from us. Quite refreshing, park was the perfect size, clean, attendants everywhere and shows were excellent! I felt appreciated to be there and even learned something new about killer whales. We had a great family day...Thank you Miami Seaquarium! Keep up the good work!

If dolphins are so intelligent, then why are they working here?

Great for all ages! $10 parking plus admission. Good food available & don't forget to get a souvenir photo with the stars of the show. Dolphin & Seals

Animals and keepers fantastic. Staff at the food stands and entrance look like they really don't want to be there. Food quality average.

Run down amusement sea life waterpark. Desperately needs to be revamped. Not worth the price. Paid for parking upfront and got charged again upon arrival. The only good parts of this park are the animals.

Not worth the overpriced ticket. The shows are quick, and everything is excessively overpriced. Swimming with the dolphins is not worth it either, not a lot of swimming going on. Just a quick touch, picture and ride. Rest is all the trainers talking

Awesome place to visit if you like seeing dolphins, killer whales, manatees,fish,etc.

First time back since childhood and nothing has changed, except prices of course. I arrived around 2pm. Every concession was closed. There was one cafe open and I got 3 COLD chicken strips with fries for $11, drink not included. Stopped at the dolphins souvenir shop and I got close to the glass to see the dolphins swim. As I got closer, I felt water drip on my arm. The container was leaking water. Surprisingly, no one had noticed. You can see the stain mark on the wall from the water leak. I was very surprised that no one had noticed.
Overall, I was not impressed at all.

If you buy a Summer Pass, it's worth it, but full price is pretty ridiculous for a place that needs a facelift.

For a Seaquarium so close to the Atlantic ocean, you would think this place would have so many animals from the ocean... WRONG. It was so small with a lack of sea animals. I was very disappointed. Also this is mostly an outside Seaquarium and coming from the Atlanta Seaquarium (which was mostly inside) it was definitely different. You can tour the whole place in under an hour if you skip the shows, that's how small it is. I did go to one dolphin show and it was alright. Probably the highlight of the trip. On a side note, someone tell me why they got a parrot exhibit at a Seaquarium. I don't get that. Parrots are in the jungle not the ocean. Someone grab these birds and put them in the Miami zoo.

This place was clearly run down. You would think it would be closed by now. The animals were not in good conditions. The whale was in a small pool and she had to share it with two dolphins. There clearly wasn't enough room for all of them to live in there. There were two sharks that were in a small tank and their tails were hitting the edges and were folded up, they couldn't fit. Mostly everything is outside which I didn't realize and on a hot sunny day it is almost unbearable. The food was surprisingly good though. In the back with the turtles and crocodiles there were two turtles that were badly disconfigured. Their shells were busted in and they had trouble swimming and it didn't seem like any of the staff cared to help them in any way. Overall I would not attend this place again it was hot and I didn't have a good time.

Good drink specials also it would be the best place to visit and to unwind.

Being honest I have been to better aquariums in my travels but considering the age of this establishment and all the hard work it takes to maintain the cleanliness and the time required to train all the animals for the shows, I recognize the value. This is an outdoor aquarium therefore bad weather may affect your experience so please be prepared for that.

Place is very run down and dirty. Animal habitats were very dirty and the animals didn t look well cared for. I was very disappointed and saddened by the conditions so much that I left shortly after arriving to the seaquarium. Place should be investigated and the animals relocated.

I love Miami Seaquarium! Took my daughter here for her very first birthday and she loved Lolita so much!

You have one of the best locations in the world but the park is outdated but it is pretty clean all the shows are good because of the mammals but is nit well orginized and the music and volume is awful, the show arenas are made of wood or if not bad concrete, the only show that is orlando quality is flipper which is very good, please MIAMI SEAQUARIUM your in the best location but is very bad quality, please update the park put some new attractions, and the shark area was good but now it is sea turtles but they are less active and the water is dirty over there, please make miamiseaquarium more like sea world

Ingrid Visser has dedicated her life to Orca research and is a PhD, an expert, on Orca. Please take a look at some of Ingrid Visser's youtube videos about orcas in captivity and especially take a look at the one about Lolita in the Miami Seaquarium. If that doesn't wreck your day enough look at the one about Morgan at Loro Parque. You will cry.

Several people mention it would be cruel to release captive orcas into the wild to support keeping them in captivity. This is a lame excuse. There are well thought out ways to "stage" their reintroduction back to their family pods, including netting a large area in the wild where they can enjoy the natural flows of life. This is preferred to the monochrome of a tank.

Orcas have their own "dialects", unique to their family. Lolita and Morgan both recognize the distinct voices of their pod/mothers. Lolita's mother is still alive and recognizes Lolita's voice.

As sentient creatures ourselves, we should not keep other sentient creatures in captivity. Miami Seaquarium has milked enough from imprisoning this poor creature. Please do not give this organization any money - spend your day at the beach instead.

This place is awesome, a no miss place. Dolphins, turtles, penguins, flamingos...So many attractions

It's good but it needs more attractions and places for little kids.

Nice place with some good attractions,... recomend dolphins for kids...a little expensive but kids love it... go on the weekday.

This is a horrible place and needs to be shut down! It's old, rundown, antiquated and has no business keeping cetaceans in their appalling facility. The dolphin area is bad enough, but the killer whale tank is way, way too small, and there is no educational value to the "show"-it's beyond boring and full of inaccuracies. I disagree about Lolita being "an ambassador for her species"-last I checked, that was a voluntary position, and she certainly didn't volunteer! Seeing her-or any orca-in those conditions are nothing like seeing them in the wild, and there is certainly no conservation! In fact, it's the opposite, since she was robbed of having calves and contributing to the population of her pod and the endangered southern resident orcas of the Salish Sea! That place is NOT her home, and the idiots there are NOT her family! The people of greater Miami should be ashamed that this place still exists!

Too high entrance fee for what are you getting. $30 is enough.

Great place you need to visit it if you head to Miami don't missed your chance

Amazing place for adults and kids..my husband had Sea Trek reef which was really awesome. I enjoyed killer whale, Lolita's show. She is true beauty. Must visit place.

it' a very nice place, but it's way too expensive, I understand it costs money to take care of all the fish, and maintain it clean but if they had more reasonable prices, more locals would be going more often.

Very small and overpriced... even with the FL resident discount. Not a lot to see. The staff is nice and it might be worthwhile if you like the animal shows.

Best place ever it's so amazing and seeing all those animal is just magical

Dont waste your money. Parking is expensive and the experience was mediocre at best. Tanks could use the viewing area cleaned. Its really small, we saw everything twice in an hour. It looks like all the dolphins had their teeth removed.

Refused to honor my annual pass because I arrived with my school field trip. This place makes up rules as they go and looks for any excuse to cheat you. I can't believe they would not honor my 100% valid annual pass because I arrived with a school group. No where on the annual pass does it say that it will not be honored in that situation.

The cost does not match quality of the aquarium and most of the aquarium is old and crumbly, and it didn't look like they maintained the environment of the aquarium and the Seaquarium dolphin tank limits the view of the dolphins and there was a higher window that showed the middle of the tank and yet there is no foundation to allow any people to observe.
The park itself smelled dreadfully disgusting, the natural wildlife ejected their feces everywhere and the whole park itself smelled like a stampede spilled their manure on the roof, water, and floor.

The meals inside the manatee cafe was microwaved and the fishes batter was undercooked. There was also a bug which I don't know of that terrorized our meals and terrified a minor. The fries were overly soggy with oil and salt was just poured into with no care. The meals were also overpriced and the cups were so small with the refills priced, which costed dollars for someone like me, who gets dehydrated quickly.

The Miami Seaquarium is a place that just wants to take your money and hopes that you do not notice that you are being robbed from the beginning. You're technically paying to torture animals to slightly entertain you and your family.

And if you know that this place is horrible and you still bring your family, you're a sick mofo.

It is only good to go with friends and family. Do not recommend family or friends alone but rather the both of them combined when visiting this place

Love this place! It's really a rehab center with an aquarium to pay the bills. Dedicated staff, love it!

Opportunities to touch certain animals and a beautiful place overall. Many educational shows and employees walking around to answer various questions.

You can park for free here. They say cash only at the gate but just tell them you only have credit cards. They ll say pay for parking at guest services and bring the receipt. You ll be given a pink ticket that means nothing. You don t have to show this to anyone on the way out nor do you have to have it showing on your car s dashboard. Realized this after but figured I d share as it s pretty ridiculous they only take cash at the gate. Like it s not 2018. Overall I wouldn t spend more than an hour here if I went back and I wouldn t waste any money on the encounters . They are short-lived, pretty boring and in the end not worth it at all. $60 to pet a penguin for 2 min? By the end we went to check out the pictures they took and we were told that the camera lens was out of focus the entire time so they were going to have a professional take a look to see if he could get the photos back in focus. Any numnut who knows anything about photography knows this is impossible...

Well... I was told that this was a good option to visit with family, specially with kids, but this place only got 3- (could be only 2 )... The best part was the opportunity to touch the little stingrays and sharks... But that's it! When try to eat something went to the different options and they had almost nothing! And service was terrible as well I was thinking to do the reef scuba experience, but when I arrived to the place, it was so dirty! So we passed!! Better spend your money in other awesome experiences in MIA

Way over priced, the shows, which were about a half hour each, were interesting for the first minute, after that it seemed like they were killing time. Not worth the $106 plus $10 for parking

I suspect this place is going out of business. Such survival mode everywhere you go, everyone you speak with. They're not really concerned about keeping good business ethic; just making the numbers necessary to not shut down. Animals are maintained in a tank in such poor conditions. Very disappointed, unfortunately.

Went in there a few years ago and was so disappointed at how old, dirty and outdated this park is. Food was overpriced and bad quality, I could see cracks on a couple fish tanks and honestly those animals in there looked so unhappy that I jist felt so bad. I had already bought the tickets so I had to try and enjoy my time in there but it was impossible. I had heard about Lolita's tank being small but once I saw it I couldn't believe it. They made their merchandise store bigger, and they invest so much money on ads and billboards but they can't afford to at least give the whale a bigger tank? I'm never coming back to this place. Shame on Miami seaquarium for only caring about making money with their abused animals.

Great place to take your kids for an adventure. The kids enjoyed every minute of it.

Nice place to spend the day with your children. We brought a 3yo and she enjoyed the shows and the ice cream.

We did a Big Excursion trip here (pick up and drop off at hotel plus admission). Skip this. It took 2hr from Sunny Isles (about 30 min away) and wasn't worth the cost savings versus uber.

I grew up in florida. I went to the miami seaquarium for the first time recently. I was so sick to my stomach I had to leave. These animals are SAD. their enclosures are so small. They all looked dead and empty inside. The whole place is outdated. There's no air conditioning in the building, or fans and hardly any shade at all. I'll never go back. I hope for the sake of the animals this place gets shut down. I like aquariums. But this, this was just animal abuse all the way around. I dont even know how this is legal.

The shows were a lot of fun and all of the animal training personnel we're very friendly, well versed and informative. Guest services very accommodating. The service staff, specifically the stadium attendants and cafe cashiers are very unfriendly and treat people quite rudely. Prepare for very high price consessions (2.99 for a small candy bar or soda). Disappointed in service personnel due to lack of customer engagement, unkind and dismissive attitude, as of the guests are an annoyance to tolerate. 5 stars for all animal related individuals and the marine life .

The place needs renovation.
Everything looks very old and everything inside is very expensive and bad quality

Terrible. I remember going here as kid and not liking it one bit. It was completely run down and the shows were not interesting at all. It was dirty and overpriced. I dont support places like this and sea world because of how the animals are treated and the lies that are told.

Why is Lolita's tank so small for a animal of her size?

Good shows explaining how humans are screwing up the oceans and how to help save them. We all need to do our part!!!

We had lots of fun, it's a perfect place for the family and the prices are pretty fair.

Miami Seaquarium is well designed and particularly made for fishes ,rare fishes,giant fishes and off course little colorful fishes. It has made in large area and has got particular show stages and timings. The dolphin and blue whale show was outstanding. You need to pay for admission and if you are eager to pay for under water diving and encounters you need to pay extra fees like $99 per head but the staff will train you nicely even if you re non swimmer. Be aware of iguanas there ,as they roam freely here and there they might under your feet it open till 5:30 pm

Had the chance to be there in a beautiful sunny day and there wasn't a lot of people so we had the chance to enjoy every show from first row beautiful animals nice staff the place is clean and well equipped to have a great experience

Tickets are absolutely overpriced. The park looks like from the 80s with only little renovations since then.

Visited here during the last day of my stay in Miami. It was alright I guess. They have an orca but I missed the show, but I m probably glad I did, because the habitat seemed too small to have one. I loved the seals, they were so adorable! The flamingo enclosure was nice as well. I loved the manatees and sting ray pond, the iguanas hanging out in the open were a little scary, they were huge!! Lol. I m surprised the birds never flew away and they were out in the open too!

Had an awesome day at the Miami Seaquarium with a Dolphin Encounter. Made my day by far! And thanks to Carmen and Grecia who helped us throughout our day and guided us through our great time. 5 out of 5 !!

Says it closes at 6 but won t let anyone in after 4:30 no matter what. Only in Miami for the day and very disappointed.

It's fun to see the performant but I feel sorry for the marine creature to be stuck in there. The tank is to small to hold the whale and the whale shouldn't be kidnap for entertainment, the whale should live life freely.