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Oceanarium

Oceanarium, Pier Approach, Bournemouth BH2 5AA, United Kingdom
4.2(3K)
Open until 6:00 PM
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Info

Cultural
Entertainment
Family friendly
Accessibility
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Phone
+44 1202 311993
Website
oceanarium.co.uk
Open hoursSee all hours
Fri10 AM - 6 PMOpen

Posts

Charlie BreakwellCharlie Breakwell
Half price entry for locals during March ! However £12.50 entry for adults and £2 discount for students isn't the cheapest for this small aquarium. It's right next to the pier and the beach so it's very popular, which makes it very busy, I'd dread to think how busy it would be during peak times. Some of the tanks were bland, the best one with the most enrichment was the otters enclosure, they also have a view of the sea. The penguins was a bit sad, and also having birds fly around their encloure was a bit risky and there wasn't a very good "double door" system to prevent them from escaping. The shark tank is very small but it's nice that it's not over crowded with sharks and turtles. All around the oceanarium there are lots of posters about preventing global warming and reducing plastic waste but they don't stick to it themselves, selling loads of plastic items in the gift shop, (Sea Life have biodegradable pens made from recycled material), also selling lots of plastic bottles and plastic buckets wrapped in plastic wrap. I mean if you're going to preach about plastic use, stick by your morals.
PD RaiPD Rai
It's one of the smallest aquarium called Oceanarium as compared to other aquariums specially Sealife. It is of course a feather in a cap to Bournemouth apparently your journey ends within half an hour which makes you feel like really? That's it? But if it's your first time in any aquarium, you have a lot to explore. Well the ground floor has aquarium tunnel with a shark, a turtle and sting ray. Which is a great attraction to most. It also has a kids corner with jellyfish on the wall and a souvenir shop next to which is cafe. First floor has penguins, a huge pond looking structure which actually is exposed part of the tunnel. Some fishes, and some invertebrates like polyps and medusa, starfish, porifers and skeleton of a turtle. Next to it is a rooftop restaurant which was closed on the day we visited. The overall common man verdict is it's a great time saver if you are in hurry but bit conjested so that everything is placed in that tiny little place and also felt like something is missing. I felt like I visited a big restaurant with aquarium. Anyways my boy enjoyed it.
Amanda WrightAmanda Wright
Terrible place, filthy, came here year's ago and it wasn't like this! Front of house guy very helpful when we arrived but after that everywhere looked tired and dirty. The cafe was appalling , filthy tables, not being wiped, just four staff having a Chinwag , in the back kitchen , a few members of staff walked past the dirty tables and filthy floors with spilled food on the floors. They couldn't care less by the looks of it, also they have no customer skills when ordering food and drink....it felt we were an inconvenience to their conversations. Won't be coming back unfortunately, felt ripped off...
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Reviews of Oceanarium

4.2(2,979)
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4.0
48w

This is definitely worth a visit if you're in Bournemouth. It's in a beautiful area located right next to the pier at the seaside. There are plenty of other enjoyable amenities around to enjoy like the Ferris wheel, gift shops, the beautiful gardens, cafes, the upside down house and of course the amazing beach. I think the prices are very fair as it must be ridiculously expensive to keep this place going in this day and age. Staff were friendly. After buying my ticket (I was alone) I...

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3.0
1y

I hadn’t been to the oceanarium in a while so I thought I’d go there, it took us a while to even be served to get tickets because the girls were more interested in chatting. A man finished serving in the gift shop and came to serve us instead. Staff stood around either chatting or just stood there rather than educating or even just being helpful. I understand that staff obviously want to chat to each other catch up ect ect but when you’ve got customers waiting the customers are the...

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5.0
1y

We’ve visited the Oceanarium today on our way back to the Isle of Wight from staying at a caravan park near pool. So we thought since we are passing through Bournemouth anyway, why not explore the area a little bit and see the exotic fishes 🐡 and turtles 🐢.

They currently have a special discounted price from today until the 3rd next month. My daughter is a part time wheelchair ♿️ user due to her disability and we found this place very accessible. We’ve used the near by car park, but...

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