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| - My friend and I, who have both lived in Toronto for many years, decided to check out the Ripley's Aquarium this past weekend. We'd heard of it for a long time but had never visited. We were disappointed. It cost $35.99 plus tax for an adult admission, even though we visited on a day when it was quite slow. For the size of the aquarium and the number of exhibits, the cost of almost $40 for admission was very steep.
One upside was that they had a whole section dedicated to Canadian marine life. The irony, of course, is that you got to see all the fish you might also find on your plate!
They also had several exhibits that had very interesting tropical fish, including "Nemo" and "Dory"!
There were a lot of kids there the day we visited, but also a lot of adults without kids. I definitely think it's more designed for kids, which is fine, but I would have really liked to see more exhibits aimed at adults.
Some downsides:
- It's fairly small, so you'll get through it in less than 2 hours. Even quicker if you don't stop to read the signs.
- I'm not sure if they have any educational presentations, but there were no talks or presentations when we were there.
- There are very few benches or seats, so there's no way to sit and enjoy the exhibits for a longer period of time.
- The gift shop has mainly toys and ecologically incorrect stuffed animals and statues. There were also no "serious" books available. If you were truly interested in the ecology of the animals, you wouldn't be able to get anything to help you at this shop.
- They had nothing but fish. This may seem like a weird comment, but I've been to multiple aquariums with marine and freshwater mammals like ducks, otters, penguins, seals, sea lions, etc. This aquarium had nothing that couldn't fit in a tank of water.
Overall, I would not recommend a visit unless you were able to get a significant discount. It's not worth the price of admission. You'd be better off going to the zoo or the museum.
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