Georgia Aquarium

This attraction is rather pricey ($26 adult, $19.50 child)and has only 4 exhibit areas included in that price. You pay extra for the 4D theater exhibit ($5.50 for adults, $4.00 for kids), if you wish to see it. Several exhibits were closed/under renovation when I visited (11/09). The large tank was the best exhibit, but was very overcrowded and noisy with 3 student tours so you couldn't get very close. However, lots of beautiful fish swimming, especially loved the manta rays and whale sharks. The poor penguins kept swimming at the glass, I felt like they were trying to escape. The touch pool for the rays was fun, until the student tours caught up to us and made it pointless by being too rough in water. Staff was generally surly and more involved with chatting. Food court is RIDICULOUSLY overpriced ($3.40 for a Simply Lemonade drink!, etc) and slow service. Oneneat thing, there are audio tours available for download to your iPod, not sure of cost - saw signs while at Aquarium and thought it was a neat idea. Overall, took us 2.5 hours to see it all - and that was taking our time. I suggest buying tickets as a bundle if there are other attractions you want to see, get more value for your money. I much prefer the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California and don't expect to return here unless vast improvements are made.

The georgia aquarium was a very big disappointment on my trip to the ATL. Its advertised as the biggest and best but it wasnt anything close to that. Fist off it is expensive, an adult ticket is about $24. When I went I was expecting this huge aquarium with endless species of aquatic animals but it wasnt very big at all, you can go through the whole aquarium in a few hours. The best thing about the aquarium is it feature, the whale shark but besides that its not worth it.

Don't go here. You are wasting your money and time. You would get
just as much as going to your local fish store, etc. This place is very
expensive. It is $24.00 per person. They advertise as being the biggest
aquarium in the world. Thats a total rip-off. SeaWorld is much bigger,
and better equipped. The price is better too. I really hate to say
such negative responses, but I also don't like the public always being
taken advantage of, and in this case, I think they do. We like seeing
marine life too, that is why we paid. We are so sorry that we did.

I am a sucker for marine life. I visit the Georgia Aquarium at least once every year, and I don’t even have a season pass. The entrance fee can be pretty steep ($24 for adults and there’s no student fee), especially when you have other places to visit in Atlanta. However, here’s the trick. If you go to the aquarium close to their closing time (around 4 PM – they close at 6), they sell the ticket half-price. Naturally, you need to make sure you get there in time and have sufficient time to browse around the exhibit. Plus, going there toward the end of summer when school has started helps a lot as there are not that many visitors.

So I paid $12 and with the aquarium map in hand, I was ready to greet my marine friends. To use the short period of time allotted to see all the great exhibits, try to go reverse. Most people like to start from ‘River Scout’ because it is just across from the entrance hall and go clockwise to other exhibits. I recommend starting from ‘Ocean Voyager’ or ‘Tropical Diver’ and go counter-clockwise. Better yet, never leave the site without experiencing the underwater tunnel and the gigantic viewing window in ‘Ocean Voyager.’

My fave was and has always been the re-creation of tropical coral reef environment in ‘Tropical Diver’ – it’s just so fantastic. For me it’s just a total relaxing gallery. It’s blue and green and tropical water creatures in exceptional colors. What makes this exhibit even perfect is the creation of crashing waves above the viewing gallery that come in every few minutes, complete with the sounds.

The layout of the Georgia Aquarium was a little confusing a first, but once you understand it, it is great. Each section you visit is a different theme. They have a great kids area with slides and pools to pet different aquatic life. We could hardly get our daughter to leave the children's area. One thing I do recommend is that you eat before you go. There is a cafeteria style food area that is very expensive. We spent more than double what it would have cost outside of the aquarium.
I thought that the admission was a little high, especially for the children. Overall, the trip was enjoyable.
A parking garage is attached to the Georgia Aquarium. The cost is $10.

Newly openned, the Georgia Aquarium is a high volume state of the art aquatic complex in Atlanta, Georgia. The main attraction at the Georgia aquarium is the approximately 6 million gallon Ocean Voyager exhibit which houses the world's largest fish, the whale shark, as well thousands of smaller fish ranging from hammerhead sharks to grouper to stingrays and everything inbetween. All told, around 85,000 animals share this tank (most of them small fish swimming in large schools). The Cold Water Quest was also fantastic, this exhibit houses beluga whales, sea otters, sea lions and giant octopus as well as others. Other exhibits include the Tropical diver, a small coral reef exhibit; the River Scout, featuring freshwater fish and Asian small-clawed otters and the Georgia Explorer, featuring animals native to Georgia. This attraction costs around $20 per person, which is about average for an aquarium, and you should consider booking your reservation ahead of time online. Only a certain number of people are let in per hour, and online reservations ensure that you'll be able to get in when you want.