Atlanta Aquarium - not worth the hype

[Jace]

Wow, what a HUGE disappointment that was

We went Saturday with my parents and 10 year old niece....what a HUGE let down that place is. It is almost like they built this huge concrete structure and put some windows in here and there to let you look through to see some fish

I have been to 3 other aquariums and this was by far the most poorly laid out one I have been to.

Whoever said you can't see the whole place in one day is obviously walking a step every 10 minutes, it was PACKED in there and we could barely move and we saw the whole place in under 2 hours

There were 3 places that were huge walls of glass/window that showed you enormous views, but even those were not all that impressive.

while Atlanta may have the largest aquarium in the world, they sure did a poor job of showing it to you.....even the penguins, sea lions and otters exhibits were just piss poor

The documentary we saw on PBS about the aquarium was actually better than the aquarium itself.....the ads and tv specials we have seen on the aquarium made it seem 10x bigger than it actually was

I took about 230 pics though, as soon as I go through and delete out the crap ones I will post and show you everything in there.

the beluga whales were beautiful though, and they seemed SOOOOO happy, they were nice to watch

[Hell Puppy]

Originally Posted by Jace

Wow, what a HUGE disappointment that was

We went Saturday with my parents and 10 year old niece....what a HUGE let down that place is. It is almost like they built this huge concrete structure and put some windows in here and there to let you look through to see some fish

I have been to 3 other aquariums and this was by far the most poorly laid out one I have been to.

Whoever said you can't see the whole place in one day is obviously walking a step every 10 minutes, it was PACKED in there and we could barely move and we saw the whole place in under 2 hours

There were 3 places that were huge walls of glass/window that showed you enormous views, but even those were not all that impressive.

while Atlanta may have the largest aquarium in the world, they sure did a poor job of showing it to you.....even the penguins, sea lions and otters exhibits were just piss poor

The documentary we saw on PBS about the aquarium was actually better than the aquarium itself.....the ads and tv specials we have seen on the aquarium made it seem 10x bigger than it actually was

I took about 230 pics though, as soon as I go through and delete out the crap ones I will post and show you everything in there.

the beluga whales were beautiful though, and they seemed SOOOOO happy, they were nice to watch

Dunno what you were expecting, but I rather enjoyed it....

Only thing I dont like about it is the crowding....and worse yet crowded with old people and kids which makes traffic flow a bit of a nightmare.

I wanna go back sometime soon with a real camera. Last time I was there I didn't wanna pack a D-SLR, so I just had my handy little Elph with me. It's excellent for snapshots, but it was completely overmatched by the lighting, motion and reflections.

[Jace]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

Dunno what you were expecting, but I rather enjoyed it....

Only thing I dont like about it is the crowding....and worse yet crowded with old people and kids which makes traffic flow a bit of a nightmare.

I wanna go back sometime soon with a real camera. Last time I was there I didn't wanna pack a D-SLR, so I just had my handy little Elph with me. It's excellent for snapshots, but it was completely overmatched by the lighting, motion and reflections.

I guess i was expecting more man...the baltimore aquarium is a work of art, the entire building was built around viewing the aquariums, the atlanta one almost seemed as though they had the purpose of building walls with an occasional aquarium window. There was a few kickass viewing areas, but all in all it was very much a let down if you compare it to a few other aquariums in the US

and yes, the crowds were almost so bad we thought about leaving...my dad is in a wheelchair and no one had any courtesy, and the aquarium staff watched people kick him numerous times without doing anything

The 3d theatre was fun though, i wish they had told me that water would be sprayed on me though, haha, my camera was sitting on my lap

[Peaches]

I only have the Tennessee aquarium to compare it to, but I thought it was a LOT better and I didn't even have time to see everything. I have a season pass - just need to get down there

[Jace]

Originally Posted by Peaches

I only have the Tennessee aquarium to compare it to, but I thought it was a LOT better and I didn't even have time to see everything. I have a season pass - just need to get down there

Just out of curiosity, how did you not see everything? We had a 10 year old that kept straying off and my dad in a wheelchair, and we still were able to see everything in under 2 hours

next time we are doing the $50 behind the scenes tour for sure though, I can imagine that is pretty cool

[Peaches]

Originally Posted by Jace

Just out of curiosity, how did you not see everything? We had a 10 year old that kept straying off and my dad in a wheelchair, and we still were able to see everything in under 2 hours

next time we are doing the $50 behind the scenes tour for sure though, I can imagine that is pretty cool

It was PACKED. One of their busiest days ever. My brother went to one of the first opening days and said the day we went was even busier. Seriously, it took over an hour just to get through the line at the food court. If we hadn't seen someone we knew leaving their table, we wouldn't have gotten one.

[Jace]

Originally Posted by Peaches

It was PACKED. One of their busiest days ever. My brother went to one of the first opening days and said the day we went was even busier. Seriously, it took over an hour just to get through the line at the food court. If we hadn't seen someone we knew leaving their table, we wouldn't have gotten one.

i would say we must have had about 1/2 that crowd then, cause there were no tables in the food court, but we were able to wait a few minutes and get one

that is another thing that was horrible, for a place that takes "reservations" so that they don't overbook, they sure are doing a piss poor job of regulating the amount of people in that place...we could barely walk anywhere half the time