Our Newport schedule was thrown off when we could not take a Fort Adams tour on our arrival day. We pushed the fort tour to the next day and pushed the trolley tour back another day. But when our third day arrived and it was dreary and rainy, we decided to skip the trolley tour altogether and hit the road. Since we weren’t doing an activity in Newport and the trip up from NJ to RI had been a long one, I wanted to be sure we stopped somewhere on the way home.
On the drive up I noticed that we passed two aquariums right off the highway – the Maritime Aquarium and Mystic Aquarium. My boys LOVE aquariums so I figured this would be a great rainy day stop to break up the trip. I quickly read up on both of them. Mystic Aquarium was on many “best aquariums” lists and clearly seemed like the bigger and nicer aquarium, but it was also only an hour away from Newport and I preferred something further along our route. So we settled on the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, CT.
The Maritime Aquarium is super accessible off I-95 – and the adorable otter billboards along the highway will make you want to stop. There is a 7 level parking garage across the street from the aquarium that charges $2 an hour with a max of $8 for the day. You can pay in the garage (either in the lobby or upon exit) or you can bring your parking ticket into the aquarium and pay at the kiosk located outside the gift shop.
Tickets to the aquarium seemed outrageously expensive to me. Their fee of $26.95 adults / $19.95 children was on level with the largest aquariums in the country (like the Georgia Aquarium and the New England Aquarium). In terms of size and exhibits, I would put this aquarium more on par with the NC aquariums, which only charge $12.95 adults / $10.95 children. Yes, an IMAX admission is included at the Maritime Aquarium ticket, but I still don’t think it warrants the large additional up charge. We don’t live in the area but if we did, the price would keep us from visiting frequently.
While we didn’t find the aquarium to be a good value, we did still find it enjoyable. The aquarium focuses on the marine life and animals of the Long Island Sound. Its 75 exhibits feature more than 300 species.
In the main atrium of the aquarium, the first exhibit you will come to is the Harbor Seals. An indoor/outdoor exhibit, we stood inside and watched them swim in circles between the indoor and outdoor sections. We ventured outside for a bit when it wasn’t raining to watch them there too. You can also get a cool view of them from above, looking down from the second floor balcony.
My boys love a good touch tank, and the Maritime Aquarium had a few. First up was the sting ray touch pool. They loved gently touching their smooth backs as they swam boy.
Next up was the jelly fish touch tank, playfully called “Jiggle a Jelly.” Yes, you read that right. You can touch the jellyfish. Since the stinging cells of moon jellyfish hang from tentacles below their bodies, you can touch them on top of their bodies. Despite reassurances from the staff member manning the tank, the boys were tentative, but they did muster up the courage to touch them.
For an aquarium – and one with a focus on Long Island Sound – there were a surprising number of land mammals from all over the world. There is a meerkat exhibit downstairs and the new “Just Add Water” exhibit upstairs that has animals from deserts to rainforests. The animals were neat to see but felt out of place at an aquarium. I would have rather seen that money invested in a new large tank exhibit that focused on marine life.
Up next was a family favorite – the river otter! This wasn’t a huge exhibit but we spent the most time here, just watching Levi the North American river otter swim around and play. We even got to see him eat! (Spoiler alert, it was kind of gross.)
After the river otter was one last touch tank and a couple of cool exhibits. The touch tank had sea stars, crabs, and other shoreline critters. The tanks had a variety of ocean animals, from sea turtles to sea horses to tons of different kinds of fish.
The final exhibit was the sharks. This 110,000 gallon tank houses sand tiger sharks, a lemon shark, red drum, black drum, sea bass, and other large schooling fish.
We’ve never been to an aquarium that we haven’t enjoyed, and the Maritime Aquarium was certainly a fun stop. But the aquarium was small and lacked the wow factor that a lot of aquariums have. We spent less than 2 hours there and felt like we had explored it thoroughly. At almost $100 for a family of four, we just didn’t think this was a good value. I’m glad we stopped, but at that high price point we would not stop again.
