So crowded. Great fish. Incredibly dark and incredibly crowded. Incredible sea life. Really nice overhead tanks and a super useful moving sidewalk to keep-slowpokes-moving-in-front-of-the-tanks. SO CROWDED.
Completely worth going but skip without issue if you hate crowds or have anxiety or need to use a washroom or ask a staff member something or hate exiting through the gift shop. The staff are all blissed out youngsters completely ignoring the visitors. My teenager totally wants to work there. And you can read about the odd locations of the washrooms in other reviews.
Helpful Tips:
Dress your kids in something you can see in the dark or under blacklight - otherwise you may lose them forever.
Bring your own information about sea life. The jelly fish and rays were amazing. Couldn't hear a word of any of the prerecorded information and the text versions weren't that useful. I brought someone who knows about fish and sharks, that helped.
Did I mention it was incredibly crowded? There will never be a good time to go with children for a more empty experience except maybe during a blizzard. Ripley's may want to try timed entrances to offer some incentive for those not interested in crowds.
The food onsite is dour. The entire place takes maybe 90 minutes to complete. The human body can live for that long without a snack. We ate in the Metro Centre food court after, but there is a closer small food court in the CBC building lobby that is completely stroller- and pushy insane people-free.
Make use of the benches to have a meditative anti-rampage moment while watching rays, jellyfish or sharks swim in soulful loops. The tanks are all very tall and you can see over people from across the room quite easily while you rest your mind.
Sea life is very interesting. Humankind less so.