HOLY CRAP is this place way overpriced! We had some time to kill in Concord today while the rest of our group did another activity and thought the kids would enjoy going to the new aquarium. We paid over $90 for two adults and 3 kids. To be fair, there is a discounted rate online if your plan ahead, but this was a spur of the moment decision.
Let me put this into perspective - our annual family pass at the NC Zoo cost $64 and covers the entire family for as many times as we'd like to visit. It also gives us free and reduced entry into other zoos and aquariums nationwide. A similar annual pass at SEA LIFE would cost $285 for just this location. Or $850 if we wanted to include other locations.
After the wait and expense, we were expecting something fabulous and were horribly disappointed. Even the kids were bored after the first 15 minutes. It really is a collection of large fish tanks with very little educational value. Out of curiosity i checked the website for upcoming special events to see if we were missing something, but there was nothing listed. It took us less than 30 minutes to walk through and I can't say we learned anything new or interesting while we were there.
Two thumbs down from everyone in our group. Save your money and visit one of the other 5-star kid venues in the area. I'm really annoyed that we visited today and will definitely not recommend this to friends or family. In fact, I might make it a point to warn people about this tourist trap. If I could give this 0 stars, I would.