Houston's Downtown Aquarium a Bit Disappointing!

The "Downtown Aquarium" is located in the Theater District, in Downtown, Houston. The Aquarium has its own parking lot, but found it to be a little bit expensive at $6.00 per car.

Admission Fees:

We arrived around 10:30 am and we noticed the lines were beginning to get long. There are two ticket windows, one is on the South side of the Aquarium (closest to the parking lot), and the other one is located by the main Aquarium entrance.

We stood in line for about ten minutes. While waiting one can review the billboard outlining the various packages offered at the Aquarium, but there are so many choices to make, it can get a little confusing! An All-Day pass includes all the attractions costs $15.99 per person. You can also purchase individual tickets for each attraction as follows: General Admission $9.25 adults, $8.25 seniors, and $6.25children.

There are other attractions that are extra if you do not buy the All-Day pass: $4.99 train ride to the Shark Voyage exhibit, $3.99 for the Ferris wheel, $2.99 for the merry-go-round and $2.99 for the Lighthouse Dive (it's one of those free fall rides). We only purchased the admission to the Aquarium and the Shark Voyage.

The Aquarium building:

You enter the through an ample lobby, but immediately one has to get in line to start viewing the exhibits. You follow the arrows down a narrow hallway. On the day we visited, the hallways were crowded with parents with strollers, and at times it was difficult to view the exhibits up close due the many strollers that were blocking the hallway.

The Swamp displays were nicely done to replicate the Louisiana bayou, but some of the smaller aquariums seemed small for the number of fish in them. We did't see anything truly exotic in the smaller aquariums; in fact, some of the species found in the displays were no different than those found in an aquarium store! You will also see various small reptile exhibits, a couple of birds' displays and a tiger den. The birds, reptiles, and tigers seem out of place in an "aquarium" setting.

Eventually, as you continue down the hallway, you'll enter the Bengal tigers den, and the tigers are behind a glass enclosure. The tigers are indeed, very beautiful, but sadly, they are confined to a concrete den, with a shallow swimming pool and a few palm trees "painted" on the walls. The den, by the way, is supposed to evoke visions of a Maharajah's temple, but I failed to see the beauty of the fake scenery! There are bleacher-style seats where you can sit and watch the tigers do their thing (mostly sleep). We sat for a few minutes to observe one of the tigers swim, but we had not realized that this was the end of the tour. Yes, sir, the entire Aquarium tour lasted about 20 minutes; that was a huge let-down!

Exit the Aquarium and into the Souvenir Shop!

Visitors are forced to exit into a crowded souvenir shop as there is no other way to go out, except through the shop. I think this is a very distasteful way for the Aquarium to push expensive souvenirs on the visitors.

The Restaurant:

The Downtown Aquarium in owned by Landry's Restaurants, and as such, the Aquarium and restaurant co-exist in the same building, but each is a separate entity. The entrance to the restaurant is immediately outside the souvenir shop, and when the guests come out of the Aquarium shop, they run into to people who are waiting for tables at the restaurant. The restaurant appears to be very popular and the wait-area tends to get very crowded. The Aquarium's exit and the restaurant lobby can be very chaotic when there are a lot of guests running into each other.

We examined the menu displayed in the lobby as we considered having lunch there, but we decided that the restaurant was too expensive, and there was a long-wait to be seated. I inquired about their reservations system, and I was informed that reservations are not accepted and that during the peak hours, the wait can be up to two hours!

Summary:

The Aquarium advertisements make it seem like it's a huge aquarium, and so we went there with high expectations and expected to be highly rewarded with beautiful exhibits. Unfortunately, for us, the aquarium was a disappointment as it is very small, and the aisles are really too narrow to accommodate large crowds. In my opinion, this Aquarium was built as an afterthought to the restaurant! We thought the prices both at the Aquarium and the restaurant are on high side.

There is one nice ride, however, even though it's short in duration: the Shark Voyage. Here, a miniature train takes you into a glass tunnel aquarium where you'll see several shark species. We enjoyed this attraction as we saw sharks swimming overhead, but the sharks aren't as big as advertised on the billboard by the ticket window, where they display a great white shark! The train stops in the middle of the Shark exhibit for a few minutes so that we could watch the sharks swim around. At the end of the ride, the guests disembark next to the parking lot, when you may decide it's time to call it a day. or continue using the outdoor Amusements facilities.

It would be an okay aquarium if the admission price was lower, but at the current prices, it was not worth the expense!