Electric City Aquarium & Reptile Den — Attraction in Scranton

For a small town area this is a neat attraction. However, it is very small and especially expensive.

They call it an aquarium however they have half the area set up with reptiles and half with aquatics. In the aquarium side you can touch star fish and baby stingrays. On the reptile side they have a presentation for you to learn about reptiles and touch a baby alligator and a snake. I'm not sure if the presentation is available at scheduled times for the general public or only for scheduled groups.

If you were here on your own, rather than a coordinated group, you could easily get through the entire space in about an hour. This is definitely not an activity to occupy your whole day with.

I attended with a preschool group for a field trip. The staff didn't seem coordinated or prepared for multiple school groups in one day. For example; they had our group split up and then back together when they realized another school group arrived right behind us.

I would be very disappointed if I tried to take my kids and found a bunch of school groups were there. It becomes far too crowded and hard for families to navigate around the school groups. I could tell that the parents that were there with their kids individually were frustrated with the over crowding.

They did not provide a space for us to have lunch and if we wanted to store our crates (containing the kid's lunches) in their party room we had to pay extra for it.

There were tables set up in the common area out front of the aquarium entrance. The front desk staff knew her fellow staff members set them up however she didn't know why or if our group could use them. For lunch time we took the kids upstairs to the food court and found seating to use (our group was 1/3 of the group from our school plus there was another school group at the aquarium as well.) When we returned from lunch the other school group was using the tables directly outside the aquarium for their lunch time.

Overall, I think this is the only trip my daughter and I will be taking here. For us to come back with a family of 5 would be far too expensive vs...

NOTE: This should really be a 4.5 star review. PROS: clean, interesting, very hands-on. CONS: most exhibits set up too high for small children to see independently, located in a depressing shopping mall.

People are freaking out about the price. I really feel that the price was reasonable given the Scranton location and the quality & variety of the animals. If I lived closer, I would purchase a season pass and visit more, because that price seemed very worth it.

This is a smallish but very well maintained aquarium and reptile/amphibian zoo. Everything was clean, had excellent signs and educational blurbs and was by and large easy for the children to access and see. However, my major negative point is that 70% of the exhibits were set up too high in the wall for my shorter 3 year old to see. I had to keep putting down the baby to lift him up so he could look inside the tanks. A few sturdy step stools would go a long way to remedy this problem.

The variety of fish and other animals in this aquarium were excellent, and on par with larger metro-area aquariums. There was a wonderful live show where the handler tailored it to fit the younger age of the crowd assembled. We visited on a Wednesday afternoon in April, so it wasn't busy at all and the handler took time to answer the children's questions and let them get a close look at the animals. Most of my children said this was their favorite part of the visit. It really was special.

There's no food, but there are easily accessed and clean restrooms and a gift shop. The entire aquarium was very clean and well maintained.

I would visit the...

Was very pleasantly surprised with the Electric City Aquarium and Reptile Den. I have a good amount of experience with exotic animal care so I tend to be a little critical of little zoos and aquariums but the animals in this facility are very well cared for and look fantastic all around. All of the habitats and enclosures are clean, well kept, and appropriate for the house species. The signage on most enclosures are very helpful and concise. They have a small live presentation with a knowledgeable keeper who was fun to listen to and engaging. They also have a couple touch tanks in the aquarium section which we did not get to encounter, but the facilities looked well cared for, and there was a place to wash your hands before and after the touch tank which is a great sign. The visit seemed a little on the expensive side, around $20 to get in, but once I saw the facility I was happy with the value that it provided as the animals and the facility look very well cared for. You can expect to spend between 45 minutes to an hour if you take a quick look at everything, and perhaps up to 2 hours if you are moving slowly and do both the live presentation and the touch tank. Some of the labeling on the aquarium side is either missing or needs updating with the species being housed. But that is my only observation of things that could be improved. Everything else looks good. All in all I am very impressed with the facility, especially because it wouldn't seem like a aquarium in a mall would be a cool thing but it definitely is worth a visit if you are...