Come spend the weekend at the Mystic Aquarium! A quick ferry ride away, Mystic is easily accessible from the Cross Sound Ferry sailing from Orient Point to New London.
My family and I were eager to enter the Aquarium! This place is huge! There are so many exhibits, both outdoors and indoors. It was a great summer afternoon when we visited. We met up with my brother-in-law and his family who live in Connecticut and it was the perfect family meet-up! Our kids’ ages ranged from 1 to 13 and each of them had a fun day (and the adults did too)!
My kids were in awe when we arrived and didn’t know where to go first! We knew for sure we didn’t want to miss the sea lion show, so we made sure to plan around that.
Can you believe they have 2 beluga whales?! I’ve never seen one before! They were so beautiful and graceful swimming through the water. The Aquarium offers a variety of encounters with the different marine animals, including painting with a beluga whale! How cool is that?! Add it to the bucket list because that is such a unique and one of a kind experience.
It was amazing sharing so many different exhibits with my kids and my nieces. One of our favorites was definitely Birds of the Outback (seasonal). This can be purchased as an add-on or is included in the value ticket. Each participant gets a popsicle stick with bird seed on it, and you get to enter the bird exhibit where tons and tons of birds are, waiting for you to give them their snack!
My absolute favorites are seals and sea lions. I really liked how this aquarium was set up to view them and they also had trainers there with the animals giving some interesting information on them. They were checking their weight and making sure they were healthy and explaining everything they were doing while they were doing it. The animals are being well taken care of and are respected. I felt that this gave an extra special interactive touch to hear from the trainers as well as view these amazing creatures.
My nieces really loved the Penguin Pavilion. With a great view all around, including a view under the water, everyone could see the penguins up close. There are more than 35 African penguins and feeding times vary throughout the day, so be sure to check the daily schedule so you can stop by during one of those times.
The Main Gallery has a ton of interesting exhibits and of course, fish! My kids and nieces loved to touch the hermit crabs at the Discovery Lab. The jellyfish that they had were amazing as they were under black lights and looked really fun and funky. I enjoyed watching the kids the most when they discovered something and were excited to share it with us. They got really energized and enthusiastic with each new exhibit that they discovered.
We found Nemo at the Mystic Aquarium!
We ended our day at the sea lion show, which brings a lot of comedy into the show. They have a really creative way to show off the animals and their different skills by flipping through different channels with spoofs of popular TV shows.
The Mystic Aquarium gave my kids a fun day to explore as well as bond with their cousins and aunt and uncle. It was a great way to bring us all together and make fun summer memories which is an invaluable gift to give our children.
Buy your tickets online and save 10%! For an even greater value, purchase the Mystic Pass which includes the Mystic Aquarium and the Mystic Seaport.
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