Trip Report W/Photos- The Georgia Aquarium

Trip Report- January 22nd- The Georgia Aquarium (Photos at the bottom)

Natalee and I have been trying to get down to Atlanta since the “World’s Largest Aquarium” opened in November. Her sister is moving to a suburb of Nashville, so we decided to make the drive down when we were there looking for an apartment for her. We drove down to ATL via Chattanooga on Saturday night (1-21). After checking out the opening times at our hotel the night before, we got up around 10am Sunday and heading downtown. As we were driving, I thought about the crowds that day. Thinking it was a Sunday morning, most of the locals would be in church. Atlanta IS in the Bible-belt you know!

As we approached the Aquarium, you can’t help but notice how big the world’s largest aquarium really is. We circled the aquarium and made the block to park. We noticed signs saying that all walk-up tickets were sold out. We became concerned about this and even pondered heading home. But, we decided to risk it and pay the $10 parking fee and try to score some tickets. Since there were only 3 in our party, we wouldn’t make a huge dent in the sold out crowds. After speaking to a member of management about our long drive to see the aquarium, they decided to sell us tickets! NOTE: If you are planning on visiting the aquarium on a weekend, I urge you to pre-purchase your tickets on the aquarium website (http://www.geogiaaquarium.org). If you don’t you might not be so lucky in getting walk-up tickets.

We purchased our tickets and made our way into the port-of-entry. Wow, this place is really enormous! The aquarium has 5 separate exhibits, a nice food court, a 4D movie theater, an event ballroom, and of course the gift shop at the exit.

We decided to start our day with Cold Water Quest-The home of the Beluga Whales, California Sea Lions, African Penguins, and other cold ocean fish and mammals. This exhibit, like the others was jammed packed full of people, especially in the Beluga Whale tank. But, the aquarium built a dual level viewing area to help ease bottlenecks. The Beluga Whales were purchased from an amusement park in Mexico. One whale in particular had an awful skin bacteria growth which caused some fin damage. But thanks to the wonderful marine biology team at the aquarium, he is on the road to a full recovery. After seeing the Beluga Whales, we made our way to the Sea Otter and Sea Lions area. From our trips to LA and San Francisco, we had definitely seen our share of these animals. We then headed to the African penguin area. These penguins in particular are warm climate penguins so the warm Georgia climate will suit them. After visiting the Beluga Whales again in the upper viewing area, we made our way back to the main hall and over to the largest exhibit, Ocean Voyager.

This exhibit boasts the World’s largest tank at a whopping 6 million gallons! The tank is bowtie shaped and has moving walkway in the middle so guests can concentrate on seeing the nearly 100,000 different fishes in this mother of a tank. This tank holds sharks and fishes from the Meso American Barrier Reef of Central America (MAR) and the Great Barrier Reef. The size of fishes ranges from the small seahorses to the world’s largest fish, the Whale Shark. The Georgia Aquarium has two of these monster fishes that can range from 30-60 feet in length. Their names are “Ralph” and “Norton”. They dominate everything that is in that tank even though their diet consists of Krill. In the large viewing gallery of the exhibit, they show videos of the Whale sharks being transported to Atlanta via UPS as well as the monster fish during a feeding. With its 4 foot wide mouth, the Whale shark “vacuums” its meal in one swift movement. This area is definitely the highlight of the aquarium and is its main draw. After spending almost an hour in this area, we headed towards the next exhibit, Tropical Diver.

This exhibit is one of the most relaxing areas in the aquarium. Laid out like a gallery of living art, this area has an impressive collection of jellies (“Jellyfish”), Seahorses, jaw fish, and other coral reef inhabitants. This area also has one of the largest coral reef exhibits in existence filled with living corals and a host of colorful reef fishes. We even found Nemo!

For our next stop, we decided to break for lunch. But, before we munch down, we stopped by the 4D Theater to get some advance tickets to a later showing. We’ll get to the show after lunch. Once we got our tickets, we went to the food court area. We grabbed our trays and got into the large line to enter the court. They were actually sending a number of people in at a time to help traffic flow which was a good idea on their part. After about 5 minutes, we were let in to grab some grub. They have a wide variety of kid and adult “friendly” food that ranges from burgers to pizza and pasta. They also have a large variety of bottled Coca-Cola products including most of their different juice and water offerings as well. After all, they are a main sponsor (FYI, they are building a World of Coke right next to the Aquarium that will open in 2007.)

After our tasty meal, we headed up to the “Deepo Theater” for the 4D presentation. The main character of the show is a clownfish aptly named “Deepo”. The show blends in some live action similar to the Terminator show at Universal just not to that degree. The show has a conservation and awareness message that really hits home with the kids and adults alike. The show also has some typical 4d effects (bubbles, water squirts, and some other surprises I don’t want to spoil.) I would recommend the show to everyone as it was a neat 4D presentation that’s unique to the aquarium.

After the 4D show, we continued on to the next exhibit called Georgia Explorer. This exhibit shows of some of the Georgia coastline inhabitants. It is filled with “touch tanks” which allow you to touch Horseshoe Crabs, Sea Stars, Stingrays, and Shrimp. This area also features Whales that live right off the Georgia coast! This gallery will connect you with Right Whales, which are one of the most endangered mammals on the planet. They spend the winter and give birth to their calves in Georgia waters. Right whales are featured in a video presentation, and a large-scale model of a whale allows kids to crawl inside. There is also a kid’s play structure that includes a whale slide. After Natalee and Heather had some fun on the slide, we headed to the last exhibit called River Scout.

River Scout hosts a wide diversity of animals found in the rivers of Africa, South America, Asia and right here in Georgia. This area includes the infamous piranha as well as electric fishes of South America and the Asian small clawed otter. This area is one of the most themed areas with logjams, waterfalls, and a simulated river that runs overhead.

After finishing up in River Scout, we had completed all of the exhibits. In all, it took us about 4 hours to see everything there was to see, including the gift shop. We purchased our token magnet for the wall of fame and decided to get a head start on our 8 hour drive back to Memphis. All in all, I must say that the Georgia Aquarium lived up to its hype and then some! I have been to almost 10 different Aquarium around the US and this one by far is the best one I have ever been to. If you are in the Atlanta area and I know a lot of you will be to ride Goliath, this is something you DEFINTELY don’t want to miss!

The building looks like a big boat from the outside!

A shot of the main hall... at least part of it! Its really frickin' huge!

One of the great reef tanks.

Natalee holding up the line AS USUAL! She is such a kid!

The Whale Sharks overshadow everything else in that tank for sure!

DUM DUM... DUM DUM... Look out its Jaws... uhhh, it sure looks like him!

This is my favorite photo of the day.

These are redneck penquins. They DO live in the south!

One of the Beluga Whales "hanging out"!

I went to the Georgia Aquarium on 1-21-o6, the day before you did with the science club from my college. It was huge and I loved the place, but we didn't get to do the 4D theater. I cannot wait to go back again with my family.

Great TR! I watched all the stuff on the Today show as they were getting ready to open this thing! Can't wait to get there at some point!

Is it a sin to live in Atlanta and say that I haven't been there yet?

Actually, I'm probably going to go in March it looks 8)

We'll likely check that out on our yearly trip to Atlanta for Prog Power. My favorite aquarium is still the one here in Baltimore, though this one does look more impressive...

dt

Awesome TR! I past by a lot of billboards for this thing on my way to and from Florida last week. I love marine life so I definately hope to check this place out! I'm just stunned they have a whale shark... two for that matter. I'll have to drop by next time I'm in town.

Great Photo TR!!!

I also live in Georgia and I haven't been there yet! I want to go to the Georgia Aquarium but I haven't gotten around to it yet! I might visit the Aquarium over spring break since I'm not traveling anywhere.

Same as Coaster Crazy I live in Georgia and haven't been there yet! They stopped selling annual passes to the aquarium because people in 48 states and people from Asia, Austrailia, Europe, SA, and other parts of NA have bought annual passes. I need to get there soon!!!!!!

Why would someone buy a annual passe to the Gerogia Aquarium if the llive in another country! If you really think about it, how many times in one year would you spend almost 10 hours on plane to visit the Gerogia Aquarium?