Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, FL

First, they hit you for $55 for this lantern light show what a joke it wasn't worth and remember you already paid 55 per person the money to park in the garage I wouldn't have paid the garage fee to go through the under impressive lantern display. Really bad! You can see the majority. For free from the street. I honestly felt robbed. Really disappointing and sad! Sad

My deepest love is for the ocean. I grew up beside it. I’ve been diving since the early 90s. I now spend a considerable amount of time volunteering with ocean conservation programs. I happened to be between dive trips when I saw an ad in Facebook for Aqua Lanterns at the aquarium. Typically, I have a love-hate relationship with them. I love that people can learn about the ocean and the creatures that live within it. I hate that we keep those animals in aquariums and created tanks. Once I realized the mission of this particular aquarium, “to preserve our environment while inspiring the human spirit through leadership in the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of marine life; environmental education; research; and conservation.” I could not not go. Booked a mother/son date. It was fantastic and we both - grown adults - loved it so much. It wasn’t crowded. The lights are beautiful. The evening was unrushed and relaxing. Thank you so much for everything you do. Reading Winter’s story, seeing pictures of others who had been saved and rehabbed here made me so happy. Seeing the result of your work was way better than the lanterns and they are awesome!

Had an amazing experience when at the clear water marina aquarium. Was so interesting and interactive learning about the different sea creatures and what the marina is doing to protect them. We mainly want to give a massive shout out to Fernando. Who was so enthusiastic about what the marina is doing for the animals and as well as giving us some amazing unique facts and best timings to go see the animals at their most interactive state. A true asset to the team and hope Fernando makes others laugh just as hard he made us laugh

We had a great time at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. We enjoyed all of the exhibits; especially the dolphins, sea turtles, nurse sharks, otters, sting rays and manatees! Those particular exhibits were especially nice, providing spectators with up-close and educational viewing. There were many other animals that we saw, such as fish, octopus, turtles, eels, and birds. The aquarium was very clean and well taken care of. There were so many things to do that you could easily spend the day there. You can attend shows, educational experiences, boat tours, get snacks, eat at the yummy food court, purchase things at the gift shop, and even buy professional photographs from when you enter the facility.

Overall 2/5 stars. The dolphin photo experience would be a 1/5 if not a 0/5. I was a disappointed but the end of the experience for several reasons. For starters, it took almost 30 AFTER our start time to get situated for the experience. They said they didn’t realize they had an experience booked which is why it took them a little while. Mistakes happen so I brushed it off. The encounter itself was super short. It simply felt like their entire goal was to get us in, take a photos, and get out. I think we were in there for maybe 5 minutes. I guess I was hoping for more information about the dolphins and more of the educational aspects of everything. Also- only one person in our party was able to stick our hand out for the photo, which of also feels like a rip off. When we were finished, we were all very surprised by how quick it was. When we went to go look at the photos, we were shown several of the photos that were taken ( lots of which were not the best quality) and then were told about the different payment options. I truly expected to be given, at least, digital copies of our photos, but instead were only given ONE “complimentary” photo. The experience itself cost $150 IN ADDITION to admission. The three of us were very upset by how much it felt like a rip off. In addition, we purchased the dolphin feeding (because we thought it would be such a great adventure to take photos and feed them). This too proved to not be worth it. It was $12 per person to feed the dolphin ONE small fish. I wish they made that more clear because I definitely wasn’t expecting to only feed the dolphin a single small fish. In total for the 3 of us, I ended up paying $186 for the dolphin photo experience + feeding IN ADDITION to their highly priced admission. All of which lasted maybe 5 minutes (after 30 minutes of waiting and having them try to figure out what to do with us). The aquarium itself was decent. The staff was friendly. Just save yourself the money for the extra experiences. I’m very disappointed because I was highly excited for this trip.