The Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center — Attraction in Surf City

The previous location, on the island, was smaller, so the setup worked there. But in this new, bigger location, the setup does not work at all. Everyone files through in a single line: first outside and wrapping inside to buy a ticket. (The price of admission, posted outside, does not mention the tax that is added on at the register.) Then through poster exhibits, where volunteers explain various things. When we were there, each of the volunteers was an elderly woman, and they only used their "indoor voice," so if you weren't close enough, you couldn't hear them. There were about 6 stations to endure before getting to a large glass window, where you could see into a huge room containing 6 or 7 large, opaque tanks for housing the sea turtles. Personnel were in the room tending to various things. You moved along this window, where you could maybe catch a glimpse of a turtle inside one or two of the tanks. By the time we reached the room itself, we had seen enough. We walked along the single line inside the room, which was a remaining 100 feet or so, toward the exit. This was the best part of the visit, because walking along the inside edge of the room only merits being there a few minutes, plus we had seen the setup in the previous location and already knew something about the turtles. This operation would have been so much better if people could wander through at their own pace, such as in any museum or art gallery. We would only have spent half the time and been satisfied. The people who run this place really need to reassess how the interface with the public is...

Yikes. 2/10 would not do again. It's open from 12-4pm because that's how long you need to get through the line. You have to wait outside in the heat only to wait more inside. The line slowly inches through stations where you read posters and listen to volunteers talk about the displays.

The possible highlight of the line is at the end where turtle bay is located. Here you find turtles named after Star Wars or Disney characters and a bunch of high school aged interns helping turtles out of their pools to have their blood taken. Each turtle has their story how they came to the hospital: Lennie for example, their permanent resident of 10 years is blind thus never able to be released into the wild and stuck in a 10ft diameter pool for the remainder of its life. But you can "adopt" her or Pooh for $25.

The trash and nest education stations were helpful but it's still a lot of hurry up and wait; everything could have been placed on an audio track and played at each station to help the line run more smoothly. Instead, you have a line full of families with hot, tired, fussy, and screaming kids. Charge more for admission or set up a time and ticket system to reduce to amount of time wasted.

With rescued turtles being there for going on 8 months, and hatchling having special ramps to protect them from crabs and to find their way to the sea, you're left wondering if human intervention is really helping the ^cute^ sea turtles or just hindering nature's food pyramid and natural...

It was my first time coming to the sea turtle hospital in years and my first time at the new location. I have to say I was a bit disappointed. First, if I remember correctly the admission was by donation only in the past. Now, there is a cost of about $5 a person which may not seem like much but adds up when you are a college student. I believe there was a senior/military discount but I was disappointed that students weren't covered under that discount as well. Also, it was packed and there was no organization to the tour. They pretty much just have everyone shoved in the building and then walk in a line while they give you some educational facts about the turtles, nesting, and litter. Then, you get to walk through the building and see the turtles for a few minutes. At the end there is a gift shop where everything is crazy overpriced and not well made..... Don't get me wrong, I really, REALLY support the cause and respect what they do for these sea turtles, but my experience this time just didn't live up to my experience in the past and I don't think I'll be returning.... It's also gotten really touristy in the past few years so if you go be prepared to wait in the heat for a while, or go later in the day like...