SEA LIFE New Jersey Aquarium — Attraction in East Rutherford

Didn't expect an aquarium in a mall - but there it was.

Apparently you can preorder a ticket online and select a time, but being that I wasn't even aware of this place existing, they have a few kiosks available to do the very same thing. The times were plentiful and it's understood why they do it. I picked a time 10 minutes later and by the time I was done, there was no wait time. You can also get a joint ticket with Lego Discovery along with this, but I just wanted the aquarium.

You have to take the elevator down and in you go.

The place is maze-like and the layout was pretty nice. There were more than enough exhibits of various underwater life. While it was a little larger than I initially anticipated, for the price I expected more.

Depending on how slow or fast you are, it could take you 20 minutes to an hour to walk through the entire aquarium and look at everything. Even taking our time, we were done in less than 30 minutes. It was fairly crowded, but not ridiculous.

Kids will like this and there is more than enough for them look at, including some interactive parts.

Any staff I encountered were pleasant and friendly.

There were photo op access tickets, but I didn't do anything with it to comment on it here.

While I do understand why they charge what they charge, it is a little much. I've been to larger stand alone aquariums that were either equal in price or actually less. The mall does try to present itself as 'high end', so the price probably should be expected. If I'm going to spend that much, I'd rather go to another aquarium honestly. I'm not cheap, but I did expect more for what they charge.

At the end, you're taken back up in the elevator into the gift shop and then into Lego Discovery before you're completely done and able to leave. Again, understandable on why they do it this way and they wouldn't be the only ones do have that tactic.

In a mall with plenty and plenty to do, this is just one more thing. Not a bad attraction to have around.

This aquarium is 4 stars as an overall - but 3 stars due to the price.

Personally I did it and don't plan on doing it again. If I want to go to an aquarium, I'll go to others that frankly have more value...

Perfect place for children. We bought tickets through limited time promotional discount that we acquired, which helped with the pricing during the summer. It was through that discount promotion that we stumbled across this location, we've never heard of it otherwise. We had a 5, 6, and 2 year old. The mission pack is five dollars and comes with a magnifying glass, a watch, a booklet, and a pencil for them. At the beginning they are able to touch the anemone. Super cold water. We let them just run with their imagination, awe, and amazement with creation as we followed along and pointed to things we didn't want them to miss. Every now and then we read the labels to tell them fun facts about the sea creatures. Remember to use the magnifying glasses from the mission packs for some sea animals. Keep them on hand. The magnifying glasses for the public are either missing, or scratched. They also had super friendly turtles in the water that kept following the children back and forth through the glass. Recommend getting together with another family so that the children can have fun with their friends/relatives while they enjoy this. There is a shop with fridge magnets as well as fluffy sea animals at the end, though the mission pack kind of helped them to feel as if they got special presents, we did get them a little something. It was not crowded when we went in the morning. We liked that it was by appt. basis, for this reason we were able to enjoy the aquarium at whichever tank we got to, while those behind and in front of us kept a good distance; everyone moved along at a good pace. We felt...

Place is just okay in my opinion. I would recommend only bringing toddlers here as it’s small and quite underwhelming.

I was advertised a deal for the Sea Life aquarium and Lego discovery at the big and booming American dream mall! Me and my family (2 kids age 6 & 10) love day trips so we were excited, & when we paid for parking my expectations rose. This place will be so cool, I thought.

It wasn’t. We had the same experience at the sad little boardwalk aquarium at seaside - and only paid 8 bucks a person for that. Only difference was the sharks had plenty of room to swim at Sea Life and the tanks had some cool details to spot. My youngest enjoyed that.

Lego discovery was a cute attempt at being entertaining. The builds were impressive to look at. But we were done in about 10 minutes.

We just wanted more. Staff was friendly. The place was clean and colorful, but just overall boring. It made sense on why they combined the two experiences bc neither would be good enough alone for the drive & the price in my opinion. We were able to walk around and “window shop” other experiences the mall had to offer but obviously had their own entry fee. (Minigolf, amusement park, water park, skiing)

Our favorite part of the mall was the 3 level candy store, so many unique and nostalgic treats. If it wasn’t for that the day would have been kind of a wash.

Seems like a family would enjoy the overpriced water park or amusement park with older siblings, while grandma and grandpa kill time in the aquarium with the baby. Other than that,...