Georgia Aquarium: Wait for a Weekday

On a recent weekend excursion to Atlanta, we decided to go to the Georgia Aquarium. It's the largest aquarium in the world and boasts beluga whales and whale sharks. In the aquarium you will find 5 exhibits, some larger than others, covering more than 505,000 square feet, along with a cafe, gift shop and 3d Theater.

We went on a Saturday afternoon. We had prepurchased our tickets online and I was not able to get the 20 percent military discount, because I didn't purchase our tickets at the travel agencies at Robins AFB or Fort McPhearson. The ticket lines were long and I was glad that we had prepurchased our tickets, however, if you prepurchase you must purchase your tickets from hour long increments. We had purchased our tickets for 2-3 pm and if we had not been there between 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock then we would not have been allowed in. I wasn't thrilled with this policy, but we made it there within our alloted entry time.

Parking was a little crazy. If we go again, I would not park in the aquarium garage. There's no way to get to the aquarium from the garage without walking all the way around the aquarium, and some of it isn't covered in case of inclement weather. I would park in one of the other event lots closer to the entrance. Most of them are also cheaper.

The line for security and ticket scanning moved quickly. I have to say it is a beautiful building and they have wonderful fish. My beef is with the traffic flow. There is one large central area with exhibits branching off of this hub. The hallways in the exhibits were too small and the viewing windows for some of the exhibits were packed 7 or 8 people deep. Needless to say, my 3 year old son couldn't understand why he couldn't see sometimes. It was frustrating.

The beluga whale exhibit was great except that you come out on the second level and the entrance where you left your stroller in the stroller parking is on the first level. I was not impressed with that design concept. The whale shark exhibit was also impressive. However, I felt like a cow being herded through the small hallways in the exhibit. Once again, too many people, not enough window. We also had some problems with the touch pools being too crowded. Over-zealous teenagers will cut in front of you to get to the touch pools first. They probably aren't as crowded on weekdays.

Overall, the Georgia Aquarium has some wonderful exhibits. I believe the admission price, along with the crowds, will keep me from going back anytime soon. If I did go back it would DEFINITELY be on a weekday.