Over the weekend we ventured out downtown to revisit the Georgia Aqueium after our first visit a few years ago.
The Aquarium is conveniently located in downtown right next to the World of Coca-Cola and Imagine It! Children’s Museum of Atlanta. It’s perfect for visitors who come to visit or family who wants to have a fun day out.
Parking Garage – Little thing that counts
We parked in the covered parking garage and walked along to new (for me anyway) covered walkway along to the entrance. This is a new improvemt from our first visit. We no longer have to worry about kids running out into the incoming traffic. It’s little thing that makes parent happy.
The Planet Shark
Once we got in, we headed to the Planet Shark: Predator or Prey exhibition. I was giving the complimentary tickets to check them out. First of we stopped by the information table to rent audio tour for each kid.
I think it’s a great and very inexpensive way to keep kids engaged and interested in exhibitions.
So how did we like it? I like it. It’s very informative and interesting. Kids loved listening to their audio tour and check out different shark jaws, teeth and fossil.
It’s good to have great info to teach them that sharks are not as scary as they might thought. The fact that majority of sharks kill less humans than other accident gives me some comfort.
However, I don’t think toddlers will really enjoy this exhibit as much. Even though there are a few interactive part in the exhibit, the majority of information is on display so they might not have the patience to wait for it. Kids in school-age will love it. They will enjoy learning about Shark history and seeing some of the full-size sharks displayed in the exhibit.
Beware for little kids
A word of caution though, you might want to consider your kids fear tolerance. For us, Mr. Z is a fearless child. He was so eager to see the video of the shark stories and movies that played throughout. Miss J on the other hand was afraid and I knew that I wouldn’t want her to develop fear of water so we kept our visit to just the history and fossil part.
We pretty much zipped through the latter part of the exhibit where they shows authentic artifacts from the movie “Jaws”, stories from survivors or the feature films.
Our Verdict
It was a very positive experience especially coming from a person who was traumatized by Jaws movie. I just wish that I can spend more times there without my kids. Ok.. It sounds a bit bad coming from a family travel blogger. But I just don’t want to pay the bill for the therapist later in life so we try to steer them away from the gruesome and hard-to-watch exhibit.
Also for the additional cost for less than $6 more than the general admission fee, it’s really worth seeing this exhibit.
Disclaimer: I received complimentatry tickets from Georgia Aquarium and The Planet Shark. However, this post is based solely on my experience and my opinion without any outside influence.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Sounds like a great exhibit, thank you.
Would be a great day out for my two underwater-creature-mad kids. Know what you mean about differing fear thresholds though. My eldest loved the extremely life-like anamatronic dinosaurs at the National History Museum – my youngest is still recovering!
It’s good to have exhibitions like these to shape kids minds instead of the negative images sharks have through films etc. Even though they make me nervous I still like looking at them.
I, too, was traumatized by Jaws. Hopefully, it’s something my little girl wouldn’t be exposed to – the movie, I mean. Although the Aquarium is something I just know my girl will enjoy!
My son is suddenly really into sharks. I bet that exhibit would be the highlight of his day.
This is a timely post! I just saw an article last week with the results of a study following routes of the great white sharks. Apparently they are hanging out on the shores of the Bay Area right now, where I live! I think the museum is more my speed. :)
Looks fun! I have one cautious kid, so it’s good to see someone reviewing about the ’scary’ factor.
Wow! I defenetely have to take my boy there! It looks so great and interesting.
Love the Jaws in that second picture–very spooky! Looks like a great place to visit.
I could see how it could be a bit frightening for some kids, but sharks are always cool.
It sounds like a fun day out while learning about sharks. We love everything that involves animals in and out of water.
I agree, it’s good to see the scary factor taken into account. thanks.
Sharks are one of my irrational fears. Flying is the second. Two things that are really quite unlikely to happen. Sharks do get a bad wrap though, we kill thousands each year while only a few humans are attacked annually.