National Marine Aquarium — Attraction in Plymouth

A Sinking Experience: A Review of Plymouth’s National Marine Aquarium for Child-Free Adults

If you’re an adult couple looking for a tranquil, educational day at the aquarium, allow me to steer you away from Plymouth’s National Marine Aquarium. As someone who’s visited aquariums up and down the UK, I can confidently say: save your pennies, and your sanity.

Price vs. Experience: A Titanic Mismatch

Let’s start with the price. £50 for two people? We were expecting an immersive journey into the deep blue, but what we got was more of a kiddie pool-sized experience. We completed our first walk-through in 45 minutes, and that included listening to a short, painfully simplistic talk about sharks aimed squarely at a five-year-old’s attention span.

A Sea of Commercialization

Once you’re inside, brace yourself for constant attempts to reel you in for more spending. Want to book a wedding in the aquarium? Host a corporate meeting? Attend a VIP dinner? No thanks, I’m just here to see some fish. But clearly, monetization is the aquarium’s top priority, as these offers bombard you at every turn.

All Tanks, No Substance

The tanks themselves? Sure, they’re large and the sea life is beautiful, but they all started to look like a rinse-and-repeat cycle of the same. The theming was virtually nonexistent, with no sense of cohesion or educational depth. It was all very surface level (pun intended), and the signage on the tanks was so simplified that I could’ve learned more from Googling the animals later. It felt as though the aquarium catered to young children at the expense of offering any real value to adults.

Crowded Waters Full of Little Minnows

Speaking of children, prepare for a tidal wave of toddlers. The place was packed to the gills, and we spent more time dodging sticky-fingered children than enjoying the exhibits. Parents—if you can call them that—let their offspring run wild, so you’ll constantly be bumped, nudged, and pushed out of the way. The overwhelming smell of stale nappies didn’t help matters either. I was hoping for the scent of saltwater and sea breeze, not the nauseating odor of baby wipes and bodily functions.

The Cafe: A Grim Port of Call

When we sought refuge in the cafe, we were greeted by a joyless throng of parents and their weary children. The atmosphere? More ‘Lord of the Flies’ than ‘Finding Nemo.’ Adding insult to injury, by 11:45 am on a Sunday, they were already sold out of ham and cheese paninis. And let me tell you, there was nothing else on the menu to make up for that loss.

The Parking Situation and Final Blow

The aquarium’s entrance, located behind the main car park, felt more like sneaking into a dodgy back-alley pub than entering a renowned educational facility. It cost us £8 to park, and after exiting through the overpriced gift shop, we left feeling like we had been swindled out of our time and money. The website had warned us that midweek visits were overrun by school groups due to STEM-focused events, so we chose Sunday, hoping for a quieter experience. Little did we know, we’d still be swamped by families, loud kids, and a lackluster atmosphere.

Final Verdict

If you’re an adult couple without children, I couldn’t dissuade you more from visiting this aquarium. For £50, it simply wasn’t worth it. We walked out feeling angry, frustrated, and a bit lighter in the wallet. The experience did not live up to the marketing hype, and frankly, we contemplated calling the bank to dispute the charge.

Unless you’re into overpriced gift shops and constant distractions, do yourself a favor: stay dry and spend your money elsewhere.

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A breathtaking experience and a wealth of knowledge!

Myself and my other-half visited the NMA after watching the “Secrets of the Aquarium” BBC series. She is a huge fan of marine wildlife so it was a no-brainer for a belated birthday present!

Upon arrival the lovely staff at the gift shop provided us with our annual pass, received after admission, and we were off for what would become 4 laps of the incredible site.

With so many informative signs and descriptions of the animals we quickly came to learn a lot of interesting facts about the hundreds of species showcased throughout.

Our day was capped off with the main event - the snorkelling experience.

Led for another lap of the aquarium by Chris - a seemingly endless fountain of knowledge about each species and environment - we benefitted from some lesser known details and bits of trivia which made us love marine species even more!

Once the guided tour was over, Chris brought us to the top of the biggest tank for our snorkelling experience. The pre-booked experience - usually 20 minutes in duration - was very generously extended by 5 minutes by Chris as we got to spend more treasured time face-to-face with the animals.

Highlights of which came with meeting one of the stars of the BBC series - Friday the Turtle - as well as a personal bucket list item of mine coming face to face with a shark! I was both awestruck and terrified although the latter was unjustified due to the incredibly safe set up of the experience.

Once our time was up and we re-surfaced, Chris informed us he’d taken lots of photos for us to have physical memories of the amazing time spent in the tank.

All in all, our visit to the NMA was a true pleasure and we shall endeavour to visit many times more in the future - regardless of our 4-hour commute from our home!

Thank you, staff at the NMA - most notably Chris - for the amazing experience and for keeping the site running for everyone to come and get closer to our seas...

Visited today with my girlfriend (came all the way from Cardiff) to see the “UK’s biggest aquarium”

If this is the best we can do in the UK, then it is incredibly disappointing!

We arrived at 12:15 - the line was short, lots of children as to be expected on the weekend which is fine.

We proceeded to the exhibits, of which there are very few. The aquarium is basically two main tanks. The fish in them are large and the sharks/rays were impressive, however, there was additional tanks with tropical fish, and anything with real colour or vibrancy.

From my experience in other aquarium, they make the most of the limited space with multiple viewing areas, across different levels, all around the tank which drags out your time there and gives you different persepctives. The one main tank has a single viewing area, which could easily be covered by 15/20 people’.

We also noted that the glass slightly hazed, and the way the lights shon into the tank made it difficult to see further in.

Another really disappointing factor was the lack of any information on the fish. Nothing on the walls, no speakers or voiceovers & the staff that we saw were either sat down or stood in the corner and not really interacting with people.

I guess the one positive was you could see they had a focus on conservation and encoring things like sea grass etc but overall, it was incredibly disappointing.

To put it into perspective, we visited the aquarium in Bristol & spent far longer in there and really enjoyed the exhibits.

Also, what we noticed, on the way home, when looking at the reviews most of the 4/5 start reviews were from their events like the candle lit dinners etc so be weary of the validity of the reviews.

For £52 each for two adults, I would not recommend in the slightest but I would instead donate to their...