National Marine Aquarium Reviews Summary

Value for Money

Pros:

• "With the largest tank in the UK to have a look at and a yearly pass free with every ticket now, coming here is a no brainer."
• "Tickets include entry for a year."
• "They have the annual ticket for families which can make thigh visit every now and then very easy."
• "While the price may be a bit high, the fact that it's valid for an entire year makes it well worth it."
• "It's fairly expensive for a one off trip but with free returns for a year it can instead work out incredibly cheap."
• "You get a free annual pass (lasts 12 months!) with a purchase of your ticket."
• "The free return for a year makes it a bargain too."

Cons:

• "It may be the largest aquarium in the UK, but it's still not very big, and would only take an hour or so to get around. It's also quite expensive."
• "Very overpriced for a relatively short visit."
• "I do not recommend this place at all for cost of £22 pounds its a total rip off."
• "Not good value for money, it was very small and did not take long to see everything."
• "It is rather pricey at £75 for a family ticket."
• "£20 each for adults is expensive to see about 40 little fish and not even one shark."
• "In my opinion it was too expensive."

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "Their evidently ingrained knowledge and passion for marine life ignited the spark that changes an interesting visit into an illuminating experience."
• "There are staff always near to answer any questions."
• "The staff are polite, friendly and available to answer questions."
• "The staff conversed with us all with such infectious enthusiasm and delight."
• "The staff were friendly and helpful."
• "The staff were wonderful and incredibly informative, they had amazing knowledge and walked around chatting to us about the different fish they have there."
• "Staff were always helpful and knowledgeable and lots of talks about the sea life going on too."

Cons:

• "The young guy turned up with a fisher price speaker and mic and you couldn’t hear what he was saying, I would expect a better quality presentation for your price tag."
• "The Cafe let me down today. as I had expected it to be able to serve food, only to find out it had closed up."
• "Cafe shuts at 3pm slightly annoying."
• "The cafe was chaos, we didn't know where to queue, nearly all meal options were out of stock, staff were disorganised."
• "Food in the cafe is really bland. Margarine on sandwiches is bad enough, but thick Margarine = 🤢"
• "The cafe had no hot food and the hot chocolate was bland and tasteless and the cafe staff were messing about on their phones."
• "The only disappointment was the soft play area had no one checking the height of the children, so there were some bigger than the size allowed, which meant little ones were getting hurt /squashed/scared."

Facilities and Accessibility

Pros:

• "There are lifts to each floor so you'll have no problem getting around."
• "A lovely soft play area too."
• "Near the shark tank you can find a soft play area and there is a picnic area with sea views."
• "There is lift facility available for families with children in buggies."
• "Toilets are dotted throughout the different sections as well as the ones in the cafe (the cafe has baby changing facilities available)."
• "There's an onsite café just before you start your journey around the aquarium."
• "Ramps and lifts for disabled access / prams."

Cons:

• "Not pram friendly lifts were so slow had carry the pram up the stairs."
• "One of the lifts was broken so part of one tank wasn’t accessible to me in my wheelchair but I was offered a return ticket for another day."
• "NOT SAFE FOR DISABLED PEOPLE !"
• "If you are disabled you need to consider your needs. The car park lift was out of order and no obvious path to avoid the car ramp."
• "Poor layout, very difficult with prams."
• "We found there were only 4 disabled parking spaces, which were full."
• "Fully disabled friendly with lots of toilets but no changing rooms."

Experience and Education

Pros:

• "Fantastic family day out - huge tanks to occupy & fascinate young minds."
• "We had a really great time! It was such an educational and fun experience."
• "The main tank is a great spectacle."
• "Great morning out seeing all the different fish and also managed to catch the shark feed/talk which was really interesting."
• "Absolutely amazing experience! The tanks are very well designed and their marine environments perfectly compliment the beautiful fish inside them."
• "An Amazing experience, you learn so much, the staff were really kind and pleasant 😊, the tanks were beautiful and clean with plenty stimulation for all the animals."
• "Fun and educational for all ages."

Cons:

• "Went when it was peak time. There was way to many people there. Couldn't see anything and myself and family got pushed about a lot."
• "We were so disappointed with our visit. It really was quite underwhelming."
• "This was a mixed bag for me - it was pretty but for the price there really isn’t much to see."
• "Not good value for money, it was very small and did not take long to see everything."
• "Many exhibits were empty or did not have any signage to tell you what you were looking at."
• "Most of the tanks were empty which they could of said on their website."
• "Sadly couldn't find the seahorses."