Love this Aquarium! Second year of annual passes as the aquarium makes a great escape from the HEAT during the summer, and COLD during the winter while we are in Gatlinburg, which is a lot! Staff is always very friendly, aquarium is always very clean, and when I visit (during the tourism downtime because I'm local) it's never crowded!! My most recent trip (the day I wrote this review) we only passed about two other people in the entire aquarium!!
Had a great time with our family! The new Pearl Harbor exhibit was so nice!
For tourist, or even locals who have never been, you can spend hours in this Aquarium and have fun.. I'd say if you take it slow, enjoy the sites, watch the shows, and do all the hands-on stuff it probably takes an 1.5 hours at least to get through, and that's still rushing it.. I know folks who have and have personally visited this Aquarium for 3+ hours.. for those that don't take that long or those that say the Aquarium is to small that means you rushed and didn't give yourself time to enjoy it.. for me, I spend roughly 20 - 30 minutes when I visit. Having an annual pass, we stop here to warm up or cool off and relax for a few.. maybe grab a soda and burger.. They have great food!! So my trips are fairly quick and short but we love it!!
It was a fun adventure and great experience. Just a fair warning, it is quite expensive. ( so save so.e money if you plan on going) my 1 1/2 year old loved it too. She loved walking under the shark tank , and touching the jelly fish. The only complaint is that the adults kept getting in the way of the little ones being able to see and interact with the animals / fish. ( and not one staff member asked the to allow the little ones in)
This is Justin's wife speaking: I absolutely love aquariums, and I love this one!! The only aquarium I would rank as better is the Georgia aquarium simply because it's bigger. This one is great with many different fish and great opportunities to learn about the animals. They have great things to do for kids (or big kids like myself) such as petting horseshoe crabs, stingrays, and even moon jellies (which I have never seen before and was ecstatic about). You can also feed stingrays, interact with penguins, and there is a small play area for kids. Overall a great attraction!
(Also for breastfeeding mommas there are private areas to feed your baby while there! I was so very impressed and in need so thank you Ripley's aquarium for providing somewhere to take care of our little one when he got hungry!
I did not expect it to be as good as it was. I've been to other aquariums around the country and was blown away at how good this one is. It is also very linear and you get to see everything and don't feel you missed anything. You can speed up or take time as you wish. The aquarium tube was awesome.
Ripley's as a company spends a lot of money and really gives back to the area so while they aren't local, they really still help us out!
Ripley S Aquarium Of The Smokies is a US Aquarium based in Gatlinburg, North Carolina. Ripley S Aquarium Of The Smokies is located at 88 River Rd, Gatlinburg, TN 37738, USA.
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