VIA Aquarium — Attraction in Town of Rotterdam

Extremely decent. If you are expecting something comparable to the New England or Baltimore aquarium you will be disappointed. But for an aquarium stuffed into a failing small-city mall? Extremely decent. I was pleasantly surprised.

Pros:

1. A fairly high number of tanks with a good variety of fish. My expectations were low, but I was pleasantly surprised at the number of tanks and the variety of fish presented, including other aquatic creatures like invertebrates, arthropods, rays, and mollusks. I especially liked the tanks of local Hudson valley fish. That being said it is by most standards a small aquarium. Expect to spend no more than an hour and a half if you're really taking your time (i.e. no impatient children in tow).

2. Very well done decor, lighting, and general ambiance. I would have liked some background audio component here and there (brook sounds, sea birds, waves crashing, that sort of thing), but it was otherwise well done.

3. The two huge "walk-through" tanks were pretty awesome. Nothing like having sharks swim lazily over head :)

Cons:

1. About half of the fish are your typical aquarium hobby fish, available in most local aquarium stores, like Davy Jones or Eddie's (cichlids, tetras, koi, clown fish, gobies, tangs, etc.). Not necessarily a bad thing, but many were clearly newly acquired juvenile fish, the exact same you'd find in a fish store. I'm hopeful that with time more mature micro-ecosystems will be represented. The remaining half were much more exotic and welcome, including a few that I had never seen, much to my delight.

2. Some fish, especially early in the tour didn't seem in the best of health. A fair bit of fin-rot visible in some of the early fresh water tanks. The sort of thing I expect may be sorted out with time.

3. Informational material was very limited. Tanks were generally sorted by geographical location, but often with only about half the fish being identified, and no other information about the defining characteristics of those environments given. What information was given was typically displayed on a digital screen (shared by two tanks) which slowly scrolled through bullets of information.

4. The hands-on petting tanks. A nice feature but a lot of space seemed dedicated with few animals (other than koi). The ray tank was quite deep. Rays would swim by hopeful for food, but easily dodge deep to avoid your hand. Small children would have little to no chance of actually touching them.

5. Pricing: The single-day price seemed a bit steep for a relatively short experience. However an annual pass for two adults was roughly the equivalent of two daily passes for two, a much better value. Furthermore you could apply the price of your daily passes towards that annual pass, allowing you to check the place out before committing for a year. An annual pass also removes the guilt of just popping in for a short 30-40 minutes, since you're not trying to squeeze as much value as possible out of your stay.

To summarize, I recommend at least checking it out. I spent more time on the cons than pros in this review, but most of those cons were nit-picky things that could very well be corrected with some time (I hope for the supplemental educational material and signage to be expanded). Definitely worth a look, particularly for families with young children. (Note: My wife and I attended on a weekday afternoon, when attendance was sparse. I can see how even a moderate crowd would become a big annoyance, as other reviews have noted. There were several areas where the passage was somewhat narrow...

Update, September 23, 2023: There was an event listed on their Facebook page (at least that's where we found it) about a "lobster touch tank" today. I think this event is a perfect representation of how anticlimactic their events can be.

Their definition of a "touch tank" is a shallow, what looks to be Rubbermaid, plastic bin with a tiny little lobster in it. They often do this, though. They hype up the event to draw people in only for the excitement to last a whooping two minutes.

It very well could just be us as a family, though, so take it all with a grain of salt. Regardless of their events, we continue to go and are even talking about continuing our membership.

Also worth noting is the sand tables rarely work as they should and they turned off the "kick the trash" projector.

Update, January 2, 2023: We have now been here at least half a dozen times. While there is still plenty of room for improvements it's growing on me.

Update, March 24, 2023: Google bugged me to update this review so here it is in all its glory. Are you ready for it? Please see above subs below. That is all.

The Positive This “aquarium” is not what I imagined an aquarium to be. While there are fish and other sea creatures here, the variation is limited – presumably because of the lack of space. That said, my family and I enjoyed the stroll through the twists and turns. At the midpoint of the stroll there is an open area where some hands-on things are located. There is a water table, a few interactive sand tables, a microscope, as well as a handful of interactive sea life areas. For anyone between the ages of two to seven this would probably be a great time. There is just enough to keep them interested but not so much as to prevent movement.

Room for Improvement Again, the variety is severely lacking. I do not recall seeing anything bigger than the stingrays. I believe 80% of this was just fish (as compared to something else like jellyfish, blowfish, etc.). In the hands-on area, the water table was barely flowing and the toys were screwed down making using them difficult as one had to fill a cup over on the one end and carry it to the toy. The sand tables were nice – and I built one when I worked in education – but the simulated water was lacking movement and the difference between heights in the topographical map was minimal. There was one area for learning about various kinds of animals, however that was not running when we visited. The stingray enclosure was rather high making it difficult for my two-year-old to participate, as he could not reach. And finally there were plenty of hand sanitization stations dotted throughout; too bad they were all empty. (To go inline with that, there was a handwashing sink available however there were no paper towels to dry them.)

Overall Impressions We purchased the season membership before our first visited because so long as we visit twice the membership will pay for itself. As short of a path as the aquarium was, we do suspect we will be back – especially with winter knocking on our door. Do not go expecting anything terribly exciting. It is merely a good way to entertain young kids by giving them...

Anyone going to this thinking it's going to be the Boston Aquarium (or even close) is going to be disappointed. I ended up getting the Annual Passport for a Family of 4. It's $100 - and while I don't plan on visiting a ton, we go to the mall frequently for the bounce house and the Via Entertainment arcade. The Aquarium just adds something to do when we are there.

It was actually bigger than I thought it would be. A lot of tanks - some with a lot of fish, some with only a few. Was a nice touch having what locale was being recreated - and the electronic displays of what fish were somewhat helpful. A few tanks had no descriptions whatsoever. I think they should add standard cardboard descriptions along with the electronic displays. It took a while for some of them to scroll through, and some of the displays were very busy.

One thing I did notice - and it's a lack of attention to detail - they had an antique desk with a tackle box and fishing pole on it - think near the Mohawk Valley display - but a keyboard and mouse was left on it. It kind of broke the illusion.

There was only a small line when I went. The printer for the season pass ID's was malfunctioning, so I was at the register a while longer than I should've been. They should put some backup units in - I know on the weekends the lines can get really long. With a season pass you don't have to wait in that line - you can just go in and have the card scanned. Too bad they didn't tie it into the cards you can get for VIA Entertainment - would be much more convenient. I'm sure when they have online ordering working it will alleviate some of the early hiccups.

All in all it was a good experience at the mall. A walk through the Aquarium, a few arcade games, then off to the Fun Bounce. Mall is still barren in places - I think they are on to something though. Really glad I got the season passes - we will be back, and I don't feel like I have to look at every display if some of them are busy - we can just go back next time and catch what we missed. My guess is for people just going once, it may seem a little pricey. For those who want to make this a regular part of the mall trip the annual pass holds a lot more value - and...