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| - Finally had an opportunity to visit the Ripley's Aquarium on a Friday. Yes, this is reportedly to be one of the busier days for families but it was the day we (myself and two friends) decided to go.
The good, the bad, and the ugly are obvious to most let's break up the experience....for those who have not yet been to this new attraction next to the CN Tower.
1. BAD: Not enough signage to point people toward the exact location of the aquarium from the Front Street entrance; the CN tower signage dominates the quality signage real estate.
2. BAD: Upon arriving in the freezing cold at 11 AM to find the public entrance area was really too small for all the people going to the aquarium. Imagine going on a weekend where the vast majority of visitors would have to wait outside?
The main entrance foyer is much too small as you really cannot negotiate your way to the ticket counter, coat check, and exhibit entrance without tripping over other visitors and kids running amok. Claustrophobic is an understatement to the feeling I got. It was a real mess.
3. UGLY: Parents please leave your 1-12 month olds at home, for those with older children have some sense to leave your strollers at home as well. There is far to little space to have to negotiate around strollers left in tight spaces in the exhibit.
4. GOOD: Canadian Waters content as soon as the exhibit begins with views of aquatic life in the deep cold North Atlantic, warm Pacific, and the Great Lakes.
5. GOOD: Rainbow Reef and the Dangerous Lagoon were the highlights of the first half of the exhibit. Well put together with the Dangerous Lagoon's shark tunnels where you simply stand on the moving walkway and let the beauty of the fish swimming around you leave you gasping in amazement. I thoroughly enjoyed the sharks, sting rays, and other fish swim around me. What a great experience.
6. UGLY: The rest area and playground was much too small as it was crammed with only 10 tables, a food vendor that didn't serve any real nutrition. I could have done with some sushi by that time (kidding!). Again, the vast amount of kids and strollers were difficult to deal with and the line ups for the WC was stupid long.
7. GOOD: The second half of the exhibit included the Gallery, Ray Bay, and the Jellies. All were fantastic especially the hypnotic dance of the Jellies in their colour changing awesomeness.
8. UGLY: There weren't any staff walking the exhibit area to tell people to move along, get your strollers out of the way, and to prevent the kids from de-frocking the Christmas tree and rolling the ornaments into the walkway area.
9. BAD: The gift shop was much too small for the vast amounts of visitors and felt claustrophobic. Once out of the shop there was no space for visitors to prepare themselves to get back out into the cold weather outside. The small space available was taken up by parents trying to dress their kids. The space was so small it was not uncommon to be squated down to tie your laces, turn your head and have someone's rump in your face.
IN THE END: Great exhibition for the limited space, it is certainly a top notch aquarium. The downside, is its size. There is not enough space to push so many visitors through and the staff should be controlling the amount of visitors per hour and putting an end to strollers entering the exhibit area.
TIP: Bring your DSLR camera and extra batteries. This is a great place to take video and photos! For best results avoid high traffic days to avoid having the audio of screaming kids in your video....or edit and replace the audio with some Enya music.
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