My family loves to have memberships. We have a membership to a local nature preserve where we love to hike and since having kids we have had a zoo membership, the aquarium membership and now we're back to the zoo membership for this year. Our drive time has been reasonable for them all and knowing that the more we go the more value we get for the pass(es) is a great incentive to get out of the house!
So the way the KY Newport Aquarium passes work is a little funky to me. You can only get individual passes, so I got one for myself and one for my son. My daughter was in the free age (yay!). We got the passes somewhat at the spur of the moment last year when we went for the day with my husband and visiting mother-in-law. We upgraded just the 2 passes while we were there.
My favorite perk of the passes was that twice within the year (for a week span each time) you could get one free guest into the aquarium with you. So my husband was able to go back with us during one of those free weeks and I was also able to bring some friends (a Mom and kid each time) with us which just made it that much more fun for my kids.
I also have to say I love the KY Newport Aquarium employees. When we went to the aquarium during the second/last free week, the employee scanning the passes realized the passes were actually expired (oops!). I had just been a couple days before and had not realized I was already past the expiration date on that day as well. I talked with the clerk/manager at the counter and he allowed us to come in to enjoy the aquarium one last time that day and I was relieved because I did have a friend and her daughter with us. I was so glad we weren't turned away!
During the year they opened two new exhibits. That actually was great timing since it meant we didn't always see the same exhibits each visit all year. Of the non-changing exhibits, I always loved the huge shark viewing window, the walking tunnels (the fish swim above and around you), the sea horses and the penguins...ok I pretty much could name most major exhibits since there are so many fun ones!
They added a new sting ray exhibit which the kids loved because it included a tunnel below the pool of sting rays and I liked it because it included one of those pop up bubbles where you can take pictures of your family/friends in the midst of the sting ray pool.
The second exhibit which they added later on was a giant octopus exhibit. It also included jelly fish which were fun to see. And I do have to say it was neat to see the octopus move around, but it was not very big since it was a young octopus and they said the life span of a giant octopus is not very long either (less than 10 years if memory serves me).
One last note of mention is the kid play area. It's between the alligator area and the sting ray exhibit. It was a age 3 and up play area (think like at McDonald's only more enclosed). My son was thrilled when he hit 3 years old and could start going inside. Outside of it were giant statues of frogs that kids loved to climb and also a Frogger game for two players to play using their feet. I will admit I played a few times throughout the year and was happy when I finally beat it once.
It was a fun year and if you've never been to the KY Newport Aquarium, it's definitely worth a visit!
Singing off...under the sea
Gina
Have you ever been to an Aquarium? Which one(s)?
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