Downtown Aquarium

Reviews 3

SC

Scott W

I want to address something that happened last night at the Aquarium restaurant. I feel it is mostly the Aquarium restaurant managements fault but to some degree it was ALSO the fault of what I shall call "Trailer Trash" parents who let their kids run wild in public places without even trying to control them. I was eating dinner with my friend for her Birthday, and occasionally, they have Mermaid and other shows during dinner, which we understand. I further think its neat they do these shows. We had requested a seat near the tank so she could enjoy the view. Well, during the Mermaid show, suddenly about 30 kids from the restaurant rushed forth to the window area right beside my friend to watch the glass. Most of the kids were fine, but as we all know, some of them are not taught by their "parents" to behave, and were screaming at the top of their lungs, banging into my friends chair, and standing right in her eating and our table space. Because we knew that was the show and the music had turned up, she didnt say much at the time, but then the show was over and most of the kids left, but a few of the trailer trash kids stayed, and continued running back and forth and screaming and bumping into her chair, well after the show was over and they should have gone back to their tables. Rightfully annoyed, my friend started politely asking the children to be quiet and orderly or move away from her and our table. My friend made an excellent point that as a single mother, she raised two of her own kids never to do this in public. I cannot even say how WRONG it is to let your kids overrun other people and their tables in a restaurant. So wrong I personally think your kids should be taken away from you and you should be arrested for causing a public disturbance. Thats my opinion. The parents in question in this case were sitting 7 tables away, could clearly see what their demon spawn were doing, and couldnt care less, never made one call to them, or any attempt to control them. My friend called management over twice, one man was wearing a purple shirt, and he just kept apologizing saying there was nothing he could do. WRONG answer. No "parent" letting their kids ruin other peoples meals should EVER be allowed to stay. As if that wasnt enough, some hothead jackhole decided he was going to tell off my friend on his way out of the restaurant for correcting the children running over her (when there parents were nowhere to be found). Id like to now suggest a few things to this restaurant and to parents visiting in the future: Landrys Management: If you are going to have public entertainment displays, pull the dining tables BACK from the glass, and put a roped off area for spectators to enter to watch the tank. You are inviting this whole conflict by not being smart enough to do this. Until then you could AT LEAST move the tables further apart so kids rushing to the glass arent bumping other peoples chairs,, and further have two of your staff members stand near the glass and keep kids ruly or eject them if they start pouncing on or interfering with private parties at their tables. Parents: Control your damn kids or leave them at home. Single people have a right to pay for a meal and not have your lack of parenting skills ruin our meals and evenings. Jackhole who yelled at us: You think youre a real MAN YELLING youre opinion at a woman at another table in a public restaurant, dont you? So I suppose she should just let other kids punch her, yell in her ear, knock her chair over, and just say nothing, right? Screw you, you are obviously an unfit parent yourself.

A

A Private User

Maybe it was the fact that we went on a Friday afternoon but neither myself or my husband was very impressed with the aquarium. First of all, the parking fee was NOT expected. The Denver Zoo and several other attractions in the Denver metro area DO NOT charge additional fees for parking. On to the ticket prices...costs too much for what you get AND no military discount. Once again, most attractions in the Denver metro area DO have military discounts. Prices for souveniers/snacks/pictures were absurd. $13 for 2 pretzels and 2 drinks! The picture that a staff member took at the entrance was nice enough but we should have the option to take a picture with our own camera instead of being required to pay for a picture in front of a oceanic backdrop. Lastly and the most important in my eyes...CUSTOMER SERVICE WAS NOT PRESENT AT ALL!!! The person at the ticket counter was rude and very short tempered. Got really nasty when I asked about a military discount and mentioned something about "Why do military think they deserve a discount for everything". Oh I dont know, maybe because we serve our country and a little appreciation would be nice. Right then and there we should have left but we had a child with us that really wanted to see the aquarium. Then we encountered the wonderful staff member that took our picture--a little sarcasm there. Once again, very rude and short tempered when I asked about taking a picture with my own camera. On to the wonderful snack bar....Once again, encountered rudeness from employees and seemed upset when I had the child order his own food instead of ordering it for him. Employee was very slow also. Didnt realize it takes 10 minutes to get 2 drinks and 2 pretzels. Went and got the picture that was taken at entrance. Employee was annoyed that I wanted to see the picture before I paid for it. Made sense to me to view something before buying it but I guess not to her. The pen I was using ran out of ink and wouldnt work. Had to wait for her to finish personal conversation with another employee before she offered another pen. Last stop for the visit...the additional Spongebob attraction/ride outside the aquarium which we had to pay extra for. Got ticket for child that was with us when we got tickets for the aquarium. Specifically asked if child would need an adult present during attraction. Ticket person said no. Get ready to "board" the attraction and the person running it said that we needed to be with the child so we had to go and buy 2 additional tickets for the attraction. Really disappointed. Not so much with the aquarium itself, it was decent I guess...Liked the so called swimming tiger but would have been nice if tiger was more visible. Employees we encountered were VERY rude and theres no excuse for that. Great customer service is a MUST in that type of place. Might consider going again but I highly doubt it.

NE

Nergis N

Good food, variety of things to see. Great out-of-school day with a toddler and a teenager. Hard to please both at the same place, and everyone came home happy. It never ceases to surprise me how great a show places lacking in water make a show with water. Denver Aquarium did a great job, too. I went expecting to be underwhelmed - what does a high desert city have to show in an aquarium anyway? Turns out, a lot. First, though we made our best to get there early, we arrived around 11am and were already getting hungry. So we bought our value tix(exhibits, 4D movie and some activities combined at a value price) and made our way to the restaurant. The decor was great, one whole side a huge glass wall running along a pool of an aquarium and my fussy kids mood immediately changed ( for the better) I was dreading the food, but it turned out there was a good variety, something to make all my picky eaters happy and cooked right. Fish and chips- check: not too much batter, just the right amount and crisp, I could still taste the juicy fish inside. Captains platter-check: yummy appetizers, all kept their own taste, hit with the kids. Seafood ceviche-ok: I missed some olive oil on this one, but the seafood was just tender enough. Then we moved to the exhibits on full bellies, ready to roam. I wont describe each one, but there was a LOT to see, each exhibit arranged in ways to make them interesting and peer in and discover. We loved the underwater tunnel and shark tank, flash flood canyon, otters among other things. The play and activity area at the end was great for the kids to hang out at, and we got to watch (optionally tried to feed and pet) stingrays. Finally, we saw a 4D movie which is showing every 15 mins, and left for home. Definitely recommend it for a day out. Price is what you would expect from this kind of an establishment ($$) not cheap nor too pricey, but worth it to go once in a while with family for a day out.

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