Blue Reef Aquarium, Tynemouth

Snogging Sea Lions and Hunting for Jaws....duh duh, duh duh....

I told the Gremlins I'd booked them a swimming lesson with sharks at the aquarium....

Ava said: "If a shark try to eat me I punch it in the nose!"

Owen started to cry.

Oops.

 

We last visited the aquarium about 18 months ago when Ava was just a baby, and after sneakily watching scenes from Jaws on YouTube, Owen had been nagging us for weeks to visit again.

Owen: Do they have Megalodons?
Thank you Discovery Channel.
Me: Errrr.....no
Owen: Do they have giant squid?
Me: No
Ava: Will the shark get out the cage and bite my head off then the policeman put a bomb in him and blow him up?!!
Thank you YouTube.

I hoped the kids wouldn't be disappointed and that the aquarium would live up to their morbid and inflated expectations.

I think it did. Even though Owen sniffed that the sharks were "only" reef sharks and not great whites, and no one got their head ripped off, there was enough cool stuff to look at to keep them occupied for an hour....sea lions, otters, monkeys, lizards, lobsters, sting rays that pop up to say hello, Nemo and Dory, piranhas, turtles, eels, frogs and starfish and much more.

Unfortunately, as my kids only have the attention spans of goldfish, and their excitement has an expiration time of about twenty seconds, we whizzed around the centre in about 30 minutes.

So we emptied our savings account in the extortionately priced café, and walked around again...slowly this time.

We stopped to watch the monkeys being fed - but there was no talk involved - just some food put into their feeding bowls. The otter feeding was great fun and Owen enjoyed learning how otters can sleep for 20 hours a day (like Daddy). The highlight, however, had to be the seal and sea lion demonstration, where Ava got to meet Lucy the sea lion and had 3 wet sloppy kisses.

Dad said she'd better make the most of it as they'll be the only ones she ever has! She returned the comment by trying to dive into the otter tank.

BEST BITS ACCORDING TO THE GREMLINS:
* Ava: The sea-yions
* Owen: The stinky otters 'cos I could pump near the cage and no one could tell it was me. And the sharks.

BEST BITS ACCORDING TO MAM AND DAD:
* The seal and sea lion talks are great, as the keepers open the fence and the animals come right out to give you a wave and sing you a song - plus for a fee - you can get up close and personal.
* The sting rays open tank. They come up to the surface, splash around a bit and look like they're looking back at you through the glass.
* The cookies and cakes in the café are amazeballs.
* You learn a lot about the animals if you listen to the talks and read all of the information.

IFFY BITS:
* Its not cheap and you have to pay for parking.
* Kids on a sugar rush will be round the centre in minutes. It's quite small.
* The otters honk and you can smell them wherever you are - but if you have a husband/wife/child/live-in granny with a gas problem then you'll be used to it and won't mind so much.

TIPS:
* Buy your tickets online to get a discount. Or buy a yearly membership and go as many times as you like.
* Make the most of the experience and plan your day around all of the feeding sessions and talks, to learn about the animals and have the chance to hold/touch/snog one.
* If you're there in the summer - take a picnic - make a whole day of it and spend some time on the lovely beach right across the road, or roll down the big grassy hill by the little play park within the grounds.

* If you're there in the winter - wrap up warm - as some of the enclosures are outside and its rather nippy.

MINT-NESS (out of 5 happy faces):
 

**        Value for money (bit pricey)

****   Fun factor (kids loved it)

 COST:

£31.95  Entry for family of four online
£1.50    Parking
£8.60    Snacks in the café (aka a couple of chocolate bars!)
£8         Snog off a Sea Lion with a photograph
£5         Two small toys from the gift shop
£55.05  TOTAL

http://www.bluereefaquarium.co.uk/tynemouth/