Seaquarium Recently?

[Martin and Lindsey]

Can anyone share their recent experience of the Seaquarium?

What did you do there?

Did you have an animal encounter?

Did you go to the beach?

How long do we need to spend there?

 

Would really appreciate any information you can give. :)

[bostonuchic]

We went to the aquarium and did the animal encounter scuba dive. We also did a dive on their "house reef" in the ocean in front of the aquarium. The reef was okay, there was a bit of a current to swim against coming back in, but a nice dive. The animal encounters dive was AMAZING. They give you a bucket of sardines that is attached to your waist and you can feed at will the whole dive. We went to the shark tank and then the turtle tank where they anxiously take the food from you through little circular holes in the plexi-glass. Sharks chomp the fish, nurse sharks suck the fish from you which you can actually hear, and the turtles snap at the fish. I loved the stingray part, the rays were in the "tank" with us and we all kneeled on the ground and the rays were all over us brushing against our bodies for sardines. If you have snorkeled with rays in Cayman and liked it, this is 10x more interactive because you can see them well and they are all over your body. Definitely one of the top 2 ports for us on our 14 day trip over Christmas. I definitely recommend! Also, the dives aren't very deep at all so even if you aren't scuba certified I would recommend trying it, it's a great experience. Oh and I don't remember exactly how long it all took, a few hours probably.

[bostonuchic]

forgot to attach pic

[Martin and Lindsey]

Are the stingrays in a separate tank from the sharks and turtles? We went to Stingray City at Grand Cayman, but I found it a bit scarey the way they kept brushing against me as I wasn't in control of how much contact I had with them. I wonder if I didn't like the very close contact with the stingrays here, I could just get out and miss that bit. Would that mean that I had to miss everything?

 

I swam with turtles in Barbados, and loved that because they didn't come up too close.

[lovetocruise99]

We also did the Aquarium Snorkel in February. I thought it was a great excursion to do. Next time we'll probably try to arrange something with the sea lions. If you want to try scuba diving for the first time, the aquarium is a good place to do it. Talk to the dive shop onboard your ship. RCCL's dive shop recommends this excursion very highly.

[Lowbrow]

Just got back Sunday. I've copied the Curacao portion of my review below. We pretty much spent the day there since we had purposely booked our tours at different times so we could watch each other's...

 

Curacao - We took the bus to the Sea Aquarium where I had booked the dolphin encounter and hubby the animal encounter (on our own, not through NCL). Bus stop was much harder to find here. Even with the info I had on how to get there, we had to ask people for directions 3 times. They were very helpful. Once we found the stop, the bus (minivan) was right there, and we were off to the aquarium for less than $3 total. I enjoyed the dolphin encounter. It only lasted about 15 minutes, but I didn't feel like it was too short or anything. Got to pet the dolphin plenty. Hubby loved the animal encounter which involved scuba diving and feeding fish, stingrays, sharks, and jumbo turtles (the latter two through plexiglass). I was able to watch him through a glass bottom boat. The aquarium itself is small but nice. We enjoyed our day. Got to see a sea lion and dolphin show too while we were there. Now to get back. No bus and no taxis waiting at the entrance. The panic starts to set in. Two other groups of people from our ship show up. We wait and wait some more. Finally, somebody asks the security guard there and he calls for a taxi. It arrives (sigh of relief) and we're on our way. The nine of us were so relieved just to be on our way that no one thought to confirm the price when we got in. I think it's supposed to be around $10 or $12 total, but as we're getting out she says $4 per person!! Some argued with her for awhile, but we just decided it wasn't worth it and paid her. Wish we got to see more of the town itself. It really is quite pretty with all the brightly painted buildings and stuff.

[lovetocruise99]

I may be wrong but $4 per person sounds about right going back to the aquarium. Taxi fares would be quite a bit more expensive than the bus.

[CruiseKarma]

Thanks lowbrow for that review. We're going over Thanksgiving and want to book the swim with the dolphins on our own seeing the ship only offers the encounter.

 

How difficult is it to find this bus stop? Would it be easier just to take a taxi both ways?

[Lowbrow]

Thanks lowbrow for that review. We're going over Thanksgiving and want to book the swim with the dolphins on our own seeing the ship only offers the encounter.

 

How difficult is it to find this bus stop? Would it be easier just to take a taxi both ways?

 

If you're not really pinched for money, then yes, I would recommend just taking the taxi both ways.

[KVR]

For the animal encounter are we allowed to take our own waterproof camera? I'm sure they will take pictures, how much are they?