It started at the first exhibit we went to.
We arrived at the Georgia Aquarium just after 1pm and discovered that the sea lion presentation was due to start at 1:15, so we quickly made our way there.
They requested that guests didn’t take photos during the presentation, so here’s Pier 225 – the sea lion area – before they came on stage.
Just before the sea lions came on stage, the presenters mentioned that they wanted to show us a quick video. We figured that it’d be something like a behind-the-scenes video or maybe something encouraging conservation.
Nope.
It was a SunTrust ad. As in, just a regular ad for SunTrust Bank.
Not something you expect to see on a trip to the aquarium.
That’d prove to be a theme of the day. There was SunTrust Pier 225…
…AT&T Dolphin Coast…
…Southern Company River Scout…
…Ocean Voyager built by Home Depot…
…and even the Southwest Lounge at Georgia Aquarium.
That last one was the weirdest piece of corporate sponsorship at the aquarium as it wasn’t even a lounge. It was just a food court area with tables and chairs where you could eat your lunch.
I don’t have a problem with corporate sponsorship, but it felt like the Georgia Aquarium had simply done it very tacky way, especially given that general admission tickets are $39.95 for adults and $33.95 for children. Without discounts, a family of four would therefore be paying almost $150 in order to watch a SunTrust ad before getting to see any sea lions.
Anyway, I’ll turn off my cynicism for now!
The exhibits at the Georgia Aquarium were impressive. Ocean Voyager was an enormous tank filled with fish and other mammals, including several whale sharks.
In addition to some large viewing areas, there was a moving walkway that took you beneath all the fish.
Another exhibit has beluga whales which you can view both underwater…
…and from above.
Some of the exhibits allow you to get closer to the animals. For example, when you get to the penguin enclosure, there are a couple of viewing areas in the middle of their habitat.
You’ll need to be comfortable with getting on your hands and knees though, as you’ll have to crawl on all fours to get there.
If you make that effort though, you’ll be much closer to the penguins.
One of the most noticeable features of the Georgia Aquarium is how clear the water was in all the tanks. No matter whether you were looking at weedy seadragons…
…Japanese spider crabs (which look like they’re the stuff of nightmares)…
…seahorses…
or jellyfish, the water was incredibly clean and clear.
If you like getting – quite literally – in touch with nature, the Georgia Aquarium provides several opportunities thanks to their touch pools.
I think my favorite part of our visit was learning that there’s a creature with the best name ever:
On the more disappointing side of things, the piranhas at the Georgia Aquarium apparently aren’t kept hungry enough. We stopped by their exhibit to watch what we thought would be a feeding frenzy.
Several fish were lowered into their tank and we waited. And waited. And waited. One piranha took a teeny-tiny bite of fish, but that was it. Just a bunch of dead fish floating in a tank while the piranhas seemed to actively try to avoid them.
This was not what childhood cartoons had prepared me for.
Final Thoughts
We had mixed feelings about our visit to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. I think part of the issue is that we’d had quite a few people build up the aquarium beforehand, saying that it was the best aquarium in the world.
Although they have some seriously impressive exhibits, we found the overall experience a little disappointing. One of our friends commented on what we hadn’t been able to put our finger on, which was that there are very few exhibits given how large the aquarium is.
As I mentioned earlier, we also felt like the corporate sponsorship at the aquarium had been taken to the extreme. When you have to watch bank ads before a sea lion display, you’ve gone too far.
Our visit therefore felt less like a trip to the aquarium and more like Times Square with fish.
Leave a Reply