Aquarium of Quebec — Attraction in Quebec

The place is badly designed, the tanks in the aquarium exhibition have poor lighting inside, on top of the ceiling that blind you if you wear glasses and also throw reflections everywhere inclusive on the tank glass, making looking inside the tank more of an exercise of visual acuity rather than patience. Also they are raised from the floor for little kids to watch inside the tanks, with a narrow sidewalk that has some rocks on top of it making it impossible for someone in a wheelchair to approach the tank and look from close. Also the hallways are quite narrow for the human flow that circulates there. There is nothing really interesting to see at the 1st and 2nd floor of the fresh water and salt water exhibition tanks and there is no explanation of what you get at 3rd floor. What you get at the 3rd floor is the most exciting : a snake petting zoo and in a floor to ceiling cylindrical tank, well illuminated from inside : an octopus! This animal had me mesmerized : I spent a good 15 minutes in front of that tank and I was so absorbed by it's behavior that my family told me I completely ignored them even when they tapped me on the shoulder to let me know they were moving away. The animal in itself was not huge, I approximate mantle length at like 30 cm but the arms on the cylindrical surface of the tank and the shape distortion of the round glass surface made it look larger. I was so absorbed because it behaved intelligently, I put my hand in it's visual range and moved it slowly towards it and it came to investigate : was I a good food menu option or was it trying to communicate something? Anyway a lot more intriguing behavior than the distant fish. Also downstairs they have a petting zoo for rays and sharks, a really shallow 10m diameter pond where you have some 30cm rays and some 50 cm sharks to pet. The rays have no stingers. The mammalian exhibition has a pool where some grey seals swim 8n a relatively shallow pool, next to them are the walruses, and next to them 2 polar bears. The male is the more impressive animal to look at, and at 400kg and 18 years old is quite the specimen. In the wild, the polar bear, the largest land carnivore living on planet Earth, can reach 800kg in body mass and lives around 18-20 years. In captivity it can live at up to 25 to 30 years. The female was more mellow and was swimming nonchalantly in the pool like inviting the visitor to swim together. Their swimming pool has a deep portion with a glass wall where the visitors can see them swimming and meet them face to face. The same deep portion of the swimming pool with a wall glass was present in the walruses enclosure as well. Too bad that these 2 phenomenal displays are not accessible for disabled people, a flight of stairs is done to come down to look these magnificent polar...

Place was mobbed with children that I was constantly almost stepping on literally, and like water they would flood and fill in all spaces. They were cute though and hilarious as well.

The tunnel under the tank was difficult to see as you had to constantly wipe the glass from the temperature variations. The cleaning of the tank show was fun, seeing the divers drop in and talk through full face masks in Québécois and in English.

Wash you hands before and after the hands on marine exhibits! Come to think of it there are children everywhere touching things.

Little stingrays that you were allowed to touch with 2 fingers as the swam by. There's a sweet spot to stand where they pop out and jump up and down and even headbutt your hand is by the counter where staff hang out... I assume its where they feed them ;-)

Tide pools that were cold! Huge sea anemones, starfish. I was impressed with the stoutness and textures of these creatures.

The outdoor exhibits felt sparse for the animals and strongly smelled of animal pee, I felt bad for the animals, but they didn't seem to care. They are beautiful to behold swimming around and pacing or hiding from the heat.

Wow can I say we almost missed the Jellyfish exhibit? They were playing Icelandic alternative music and had colors cycling while the jellyfish swam in a dark environment. It was beautiful and greatly impressed me. Don't miss out on it!

Owls that were facinating, sand castle exhibits that I found interesting, a small water park, more like setting and spraying park for kids, (but my adult self and accompanying lady made it a point to run through a few times as it was 94° Fahrenheit when we visited).

They have a snack bar, popcorn candy soda's, the usual fare. I think sandwiches, but nothing that grabbed you and sparse to none on the vegetarian options.

If you are patient and can relax in the surge and swells of chaos with large groups of children in the summer during camp field trips the exhibits are filled with exotic and interesting creatures. I'd go again even knowing there might be a gaggle of children running loose, and I mean 8+ school bus worth of them. Oh there are stands next to tanks built in so littles can peek into...

Honestly really only worth it for the Jellyfish.

I would have rated higher if the price per ticket matched the value. I feel like I would have felt less ripped off had we paid say 15$ a person. Also the website says you need 2 hours minimum to visit the aquarium, and that hyped it up for me expecting that there really was a lot to see

I realize my review might be more harsh than it needs to be. I've seen much better aquariums, but still cool to have one in Quebec. It doesn't even come close to comparing to Toronto's Aquarium, but they didn't advertise to be just as good either.

The facilities are huge, well maintained, but somehow it felt like something was missing, the ambiance was off, but that just might be the day we visited.

I wasn't really expecting anything, but when we got there we found out there were polar bears....apparently.... I mean, we saw the enclosure, and all the signs for them, but we didn't see any polar bears. We figured they were sleeping and hiding somewhere, so we went off to see the rest of the aquarium and went back an hour later, and still nothing. Signs advertising their presence at almost every corner, yet not one sign or someone from staff to tell people that they won't see anything. Actually there were signs specifically pulling people in to go see the polar bears. Now it's totally understandable that the bears may have been asleep, or the vets were checking up, or some other reason... But at least say it, at least put away the freestanding signs that are placed daily here and there, maybe even tape a piece of paper that says now isn't a good time.

It's not that the walk was far, but for someone who would have accessibility issues, it's a waste of time and effort to get to their enclosure and...