The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk Reviews

I m not a fan of city aquariums. Very small enclosures and honestly just made me and the students I brought there a little sad. The gift shop had cool items though!

It is a recreational place because of the diversity of animals

Lots of fish and fishy stuff. Quite a few of the exhibits show off the wildlife in the NY sound, which is cool and all, but not super exotic. They have touch-a-shark and touch-a-jellyfish exhibits which are fun for the older kids. IMAX is neat, but most of the shows are thinly veiled tree-hugger propaganda. Can get very crowded on the weekends, so if you have to go on a Saturday/Sunday I would recommending going early or late in the day.

FYI - You can get free parking if you drive down the street to a public playground a few hundred yards away.

Great place to spend a day with the kids. The highlight for them was the shark and ray touch tanks. There was a good variety of fish on display from all over the world. They also have a small indoor play area for really little ones but it looked to be too small for the number of families utilizing it.

The exhibits are interesting. This place is definitely worth the visit.

It seemed like there weren't many exhibits. What was there was interesting but the place was very crowded with day campers on trips. It's worth going maybe once but there's better aquariums like Mystic.

Really cool Sting Ray tank and Long island sound gallery

AWESOME place. Nice variety of sea and land animals. Cuteness overload, a learning experience, nice layout, decent prices. Good place to take the family, we all enjoyed it and we'll be going back sometime soon

We had a blast, lots of fun stuff to see, my 6 year old son loved it

Too pricey and not so many exhibits, very boring...

The Maritime Aquarium is a great spot to spend an afternoon. Especially if you have children. There are several pools where you are allowed to pet manta-rays, sharks and other sea life. Also great are the meerkats (where you can pop your head up right in the midst of the exhibit) and the sea lion pool.

My only gripe is that it has gotten very expensive over recent years. It is a great deal if you buy a yearly pass (and you can apply what you spend on a day pass towards a yearly pass if you decide to do that) but for 4 people to go for the day be prepared to spend north of $75-100.

Absolutely family oriented, with contact highs just by being around all those kids! Great exhibits, meandering route, a little hard for wheelchair pushers. Showing it's age,w and could use a lick of paint. And another lick of paint. Be cautious of detours in getting to parking garages.

Love the aquarium even though is going under construction... everyone was very pleasant and attentive

Great place for families or anyone curious about the ocean/Sound.

Great time visiting at Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk. Lots of different varieties of fish and sea creatures. Seal feeding is fun to watch always. Jelly fish corner is very relaxing. Gift shop and cafe are right near the entrance. The best part is watching IMAX theater show after a long walk. Definitely recommend this place. Good price and great experience!!!

If you live in the area and have kids, you have to get the annual membership. This place is awesome. The indoor space is large and open so the kids can run free (within reason). Interactive screens and games. Shark and stingray touch tanks.

Tip: if you buy the annual membership, movie tickets are free - normally $15 a piece.

Best aquarium around. Our son loves coming here and we will definitely be back. Have to stay for the seal feeding, its only a 10-15 minute "show" but is worth it.

I am on their dive team. Fantastic staff at a fantastic Aquarium!

It was fun hut there is a lot of walking and if you're lazy like me then you wouldn't like it.

This place is great for the little ones. Small aquarium with many activities for kids. Has a theater attached that shows animal themed films.

Great place. Went here on many field trips in the past. Had Great fun!!! Sad the iMax theater is closing though!

Very good place and good staffs. Good place to take kids and family. Better to go for annual pass rather than the one time ticket. Very good deal to go with the passes rather than buying ticket every time. And the iMAX is free unlimited when you take the yearly pass.

Nice place for kids to learn and enjoy themselves but too expensive for what they offer. Should definitely have a lot more for that price

A great place to learn about awesome animals, especially Jellyfish.

Loved touching the carpet sharks and feel the jelly fish, they have the movie during the day that wasent interesting so skip that but the entire experience was great, and tons of fun!

Its not the biggest, but theres really neat stuff here if you have an open mind. Great for kids too

I took my pre school students, we had a wonderful time. The movie about rescue dogs was great!!! Not sure why they would show a film about dogs at an aquarium is curious but it was still great. Although if you are indeed on a school trip and your time is limited you may want to skip the movie it's a bit long and we found our selves rushing through the other exhibits. But overall we had a great time and learned many things. I strongly suggest it as a school and/or family outing.

My 4 year old loves it here. Last visit she was a little upset she couldn't go in the inflatable whale. It was closed...I wish it stayed open with hours like the aquarium. She loves the sharks and jelly fish. She also gets excited to be able to touch things in the tanks.

Soooo fun! Definitely more age appropriate for children 10 and under but still very enjoyable for anyone. The exhibits are well kept and beautiful! My favorite was the jelly fish. They have moon jelly fish that you are allowed to touch!

It's alright. I spent a few hours there. Not sure if it's worth the price of admission.

I went with my family in December, 2013. The tickets were kind of expensive but that didn't affect my experience. The aquarium has nice exhibits for little kids and adults

Great aquarium, nice jelly fish exhibits and seals.

A wonderful place for family activities especially for kids. Lots to see

New exhibits every year. Gets better each time we go. It is pricey for a family, pack a lunch, you'll also pay for parking.

It's fun, you can pet sting Ray's and jelly fish. The seal feeding is better at the bronx zoo

Great aquarium both for adults and kids. Several nice touch tanks - our fave was touching the sting ray.
Good social distancing rules and compliance.
Buy your tickets in advance!
Very nice gift shop.

A very nice place ; many sea life creatures and more ....

Nothing. Beautiful animal but water nasty dead fish an tanks to small an to many fish in one tank an seal an sea lions did circle not enough room horrible life never support again and you shouldnt either

My niece and I had a perfect day at the aquarium. We loved every exhibit and the imax movie.

Such a great aquarium. Since I was a kid loved this place. Came back 30 years later and it's only improved since.

They update the exhibits and make everything so much fun (even when you're 23 and just love aquariums). The ticket price includes an educational movie now! So I highly recommend going

Always finding new ways to bring excitement! The animals are very well taken care of. My family loves this aquarium.

The aquarium itself was excellent, good layout and a wide selection of different animals and species. The part I did not like was that the power went out before we were able to watch the IMAX movie that came with the admission cost and they were only able to stamp it to allow us to come back another time within a year. We live 2.5 hours away from here so doubtful we will be back. Should allow for a partial refund.

Membership is the best deal as imax is included and you can see a movie everyday.

Good exhibits. They have a couple of things I haven't seen before. This place was neat and clean even though there were tons of kids running around.

Perfect aquarium to let kids explore their interest. There are steps and kid sized / height windows all over and a 0-5 year old play area, so there are tons of kid friendly features. Highlights include touching rays and jellyfish(!) and the seals. There's also a great otter exhibit with a very playful otter.

Great trip for kids. Not too big. Sharks. A couple touching tanks. Great Sunday trip.

Great to visit with kids. Imax movie included with tickets. Great show with sea lions. Kids can touch stingrays, jellyfish, starfish

An expensive day out with the kids, but totally worth it. Kids under 2 are free. Admission includes an Imax movie! Interactive exhibits are a plus. You can bring your own lunch and eat it in their cafeteria or outdoor area.

This is a great aquarium for kids or adults. The seal are so much fun to watch, they are always entertaining. Nice visual displays of jellyfish and other interesting species with great lighting an effects. The best part for me was the petting area with the rays and other small fish. Mostly kids in this area, but come on, you dont go to these places if you cant be a big kid and interact with the fish. Getting to touch and chase the rays around the petting area was just too much fun. Sorry to any kids that got tired of me hogging the fish area, I probably camped out there longer than I should have...

We went there to the super power dogs movie and it was amazing. After that we saw the aquarium and I loved it because I love seeing those in the tank .

Great area to walk around and grab food in walking distance.

Very interactive for children and mostly geared for children. Great gift shop. Some exhibits and activities closed while visiting.

Note: this IMAX theater is located in the Maritime Aquarium. Pretty decent as far as IMAX theaters go. Large screen, good offering, and much better crowds than at your average theater.

The aquarium is great for children. We recently bought a membership and it is a great deal if you plan to go a few times over the course of a year. We went Monday (9/25) and it was fantastic. No camps, no field trips, and a smaller number of people in general since it was a weekday. Last time we went I believe it was in July, also on a weekday, and it was extremely over crowded with camp kids. Definitely more enjoyable when not over packed.

Nice aquarium with interactivity with some animals such as touching Stingrays & sharks. There's also land mammals, reptile & bird sections. Can spend a good 2 hours or more enjoying the exhibits. Great for all ages.

Was lots of fun, the theater was super crowded and they didn t let us bring my one year olds strolled into the theater area so we didn t get to see it, but over all was a lot of fun.

A great place for young kids, recent renovations have really made a difference and there are more planned, if you live any where near here a membership is more than worth it.

One of our favorite family outings. What's better than petting a shark?