SEA LIFE Minnesota Aquarium

120 E Broadway, Bloomington, MN 55425, USA

Address:	120 E Broadway, Bloomington, MN 55425, USA
Phone:	+1 952-883-0202
Site:	visitsealife.com
Rating:	3.9
Working:	10AM–7PM 10AM–7PM 10AM–7PM 10AM–7PM 10AM–8PM 9:30AM–8PM 10AM–7PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 5

Hilary Rossow

I want to preface this by saying that I have always loved the aquarium in the Mall of America, through a progression of names and displays, it has been great every time. My absolute favorite part was the rays and being able to "pet" them (they swim under my finger in the tank, and its such a cool feeling!). I decided to splurge and order my husband and me the "VIP Experience" which comes with an opportunity to feed the rays. We waited only a short time to grab our tickets from will-call and headed down the escalator. I was devastated when I saw the ropes up around the rays and the do-not-touch signs. I thought the day would surely improve with our VIP Experience, but was disappointed again. We passed around different animals jaws and listed to a girl talk about them with many "likes" and "ums". She then showed us a prepared tray of all the dead sea creatures that are fed to the creatures. Unimpressive. I can see shrimp at a grocery store. Lastly, we looked into the top of the tanks. Most of the fish are near the bottom of the tank, so they were hard to see. A worker was feeding the fish from the top, but we werent able to go near that section to watch. The "ray feed" was also a joke. We were each given a tiny metal cup with a shrimp and a small fish and told to throw it out wherever we wanted then waited for the rays to eat the bait. Several other visitors approached the "shrimp shack" while we were watching our bait float to the bottom of the tank untouched amidst uninterested rays, and they were told they could not feed the rays as the bait was "sold out". Overall, I was very unhappy with my experience. We spent nearly $70 for a hot, crowded, half-experience. I will not be back.

Michael Koch-Schulte

In the last three years weve visited the Ripleys Aquarium in Toronto and the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California (Monterey BTW is one of the best anywhere). Sealife MN would rank third in that list. On the plus side the tour will only take up about an hour of your time, so on the downside it seems relatively expensive in hindsight. No family rate, we have four kids. Jellyfish exhibit was just "ok" they overdo the lighting changes. Has potential. Some information monitors in areas were broken so you had to guess what was in the tank sometimes. The Octopus looked bored, how about giving it something to play with? Glass in various areas was filthy (looked like it hadnt been cleaned in days) which distracted from the experience. One of the tanks looked like the acrylic (not glass) was clouding from age. The freshwater fishes of North America (ie. sturgeon, alligator gar) was actually the highlight of the exhibit for me, possibly worth the whole price of admission to see these freshwater monsters. Booking tickets was another issue. Actually made more sense to book online while standing at the front door rather than at the onsite ticket booth because it was cheaper (so why have a ticket booth?, the person there was of no help really to indicate our best option). Staff were fine, especially liked the woman who was working the sea anemone tank. Very knowledgeable. Overall experience - average. Probably would give it a miss next time.

Emily Sands

We bought our tickets online thinking it would be easy to walk right in. Instead we waited for more than 15 minutes just to get our tickets! Staff didnt seem to know what they were doing and with only two registers there wasnt room for someone else to come help them out. Once we were in the "touch" exhibit was neat, but thats just 3 little tide pool sections. The jellyfish exhibit looked impressive but all the tanks had the same (common) kind of jellyfish and no others. Similar story with the seahorses. The tunnels where you could see the fish swim above and around you were neat, but the education piece was very lacking. There was almost no signage to show you what fish you were seeing. Rainforest area seemed very tacked-on and there werent many animals there at all. We went on a weekday at noon and the aquarium wasnt too busy (which made the wait at the ticket desk more perplexing) but there were still a ton of small children running, stomping, and screaming. Parents werent keeping their kids under control, and there were ZERO employees in the exhibits who could have exerted a little pressure to keep things quieter. Even with the Minnesota-resident discount tickets were still pricey - as much as the MN Zoo but for 1/10th the exhibits. I would not go again and Im surprised at how many people seem to have been buying memberships - theres just not enough there to drive anyone to return.

Nicole Johnston

We have a 2 and a 4 year old and they absolutely LOVE the aquarium. We have been there numerous times in the past because educators received a large discount which has always allowed my family to go. Unfortunately, they do not offer that discount any longer which has prevented us from going for a long time. The opportunity to go finally presented itself and after paying nearly $100 for a 20-30 minute walk through we were SO disappointed that their newest stingray exhibit was completely closed! There was NO mention of this at the time we purchased the tickets. We would have saved our money and gone a different time when everything was open. I have since left 5 different voicemails for individuals on the Sea Life team to express the idea of being upfront with people when purchasing their tickets that part of the exhibit is closed- however not a single person has returned my calls. (I keep getting bumped to someone new.) I wish they would take into consideration the experience when charging so much. Bottom Line: Great experience if you have the money. Make sure to check that the whole exhibit is open when purchasing tickets. Be patient with the large amount of people all in the exhibit at one time and understand that the whole walk through is rather short for what you pay.

Lara Surles

We stood in line for about 30 minutes before entering. It was very crowded from the start, but I kept thinking everyone would spread out soon. It got worse. We saw the petting area and the jellyfish. As we entered the seahorse area, there was a bottleneck. I kept thinking that it would clear shortly. It got progressively worse. People were packed in shoulder to shoulder, and it was dark and hot. Once we got around the corner, I looked down the hall to see the crowding only worsened. My daughter and I turned around and left. I went to the manager to let her know of the hazard. I advised her that if there were a fire or any other emergency, the people downstairs would not be able to get out. Her answer was that there were plenty of fire exits. I told her that the way people were packed in down there, no one would ever make it to an exit. She replied that she would send a staff member down there. She was very nonchalant about the whole thing. My impression was that there is more focus on income than on customer safety. She did not offer a refund of any sort, though we barely got past the entrance before our safety became an issue. I did not ask for a refund because I didnt want her to think that was why I contacted her. I would not recommend this aquarium to anyone.