Myrtle Beach, Day 4: Ripley's Aquarium

The weather turned fairly "cold" on Wednesday, so we decided to do a non-beach activity. The high was 64 degrees, which meant it was about 42 degrees in the morning when we woke up. We packed up the car and headed to Broadway at the Beach, since the Ripley's Aquarium is in that entertainment center. Unfortunately, every other person vacationing in Myrtle Beach had the same idea:

One of many long lines at the aquarium.

This was not the line to buy tickets, but the line to enter the aquarium after you bought your tickets. This should have been a warning sign to us. Instead of leaving immediately, as we should have done, we stood in line for an hour and bought our passes. Fortunately, the line to enter the building had decreased significantly by the time we had our tickets in hand.

Matt waits by a cool fountain.

We entered the aquarium and were shoulder-to-shoulder with a bazillion other people. The aquarium is much smaller than advertising would lead you to believe. The boys wanted to pet the sting rays in the touch tank, but the only one who could edge up to the front of the aquarium was Matt. The pool was too deep for him to actually touch a ray, unfortunately, and the crowds quickly pushed him out of the way.

The shark tunnel, however, was very cool. If only the rest of the aquarium had this level of pizzazz! We rode the moving sidewalk through the long tunnel, and the boys loved the sharks swimming right over their heads.

The sharks were very cool. 

In the shark tunnel.

The "Discovery Room" for kids has a few exhibits, but the crowds made the area difficult to see. There was one slide (with no stairs, so kids had to climb up while others were sliding down) inside a fish mouth, and our kids managed to squeeze through the crowd to give that a try. Apparently, people consider Horseshoe Crabs as creepy, because the touch tank had plenty of space despite the large crowds. Nolan got to inspect one up close:

Checking out a Horseshoe Crab.

This was the extent of the aquarium, with the addition of a small "rainbow reef" section. We probably spent 45 minutes seeing all of the exhibits, which was a bit of a shame (considering the admission price). We also decided that our boys certainly liked doing things as opposed to seeing things. We did wait in another hour-long line to see the dinosaur exhibit, since we thought Nolan and Matt would like that. They enjoyed it, but Nolan had fatigued by the time we reached the room.

Digging for dinos. 

An animatronic T-Rex.

Nolan was starting to melt down, so we headed out of the aquarium and had lunch at a nearby Mexican cantina. In retrospect, the aquarium was overpriced and overcrowded. If there was one attraction we wouldn't do again in Myrtle Beach, this was it.

We headed back to the condo and Dennis took Nolan to the indoor swimming pool while Matt and I walked down the beach in the afternoon. Then we headed back inside for a little rest before heading to our next adventure: Medieval Times!

Side note: You can read my official review of Ripley's Aquarium at Myrtle Beach HERE.