Sea Life Aquarium – Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA.
Sea turtles and sting rays in Michigan? This isn’t folk lore of the Great Lakes, this is the Sea Life Aquarium located in Auburn Hills, inside of the Great Lakes Crossing Mall.
It isn’t often that we can get up close and personal with salt water marine life here in Michigan! Sting rays, star fish, turtles, giant crabs….you name it, and there is a good chance you can find it here! They even being their exhibits with an educational section featuring freshwater fish native to Michigan, and the ways that we can protect them.
Tickets were provided by Sea Life Aquarium for us to explore. As always I do my best to represent the opinions of each person in our crew that attended.
If you don’t plan on a visit to the Sea Life Aquarium, I would recommend avoiding the Rainforest Cafe entrance at the Great Lakes Crossing Mall. There is no chance that you can make it past the giant Sea Turtle on side of the building as you enter the building without your kids begging to visit. (The giant LEGO giraffe wearing snorkel gear is a sight to see as well!)
They do not have a coat room at the aquarium, nor will they let you park a stroller outside of the attraction if you are not planning on pushing it through. Unless you enjoy being a coat rack, I would suggest making a run for it from the car, or do what we did, and have the kids wear their coats into the building and then Daddy ran them back to the car so we didn’t have to juggle them through the exhibit.
During check-in, we were offered an upsell Ranger Mission Pack for just $5 per child. Always looking for ways to make our visits more educational, I found this pack to be worthwhile, but I don’t know that you really need one per child, but at $5, it might be worth avoiding a fight. (Unless Mama is going to be the keeper of the lanyard and Mission Pack.) Each Ranger Mission Pack included three mission cards, trading cards about marine animals, as well as a pencil and magnifying glass in addition to the lanyard that held it all together. (We lost the tiny golf pencil with in a few minutes, so having some courtesy replacements around would have saved us many minutes of searching for pencils that were never found.)
One thing that we learned just before we exited, is that every staff member in the aquarium has a stash of marine animal trading cards that if you ask for one, they will give you. If you know my kids, and their love of “free” things, you can bet that they were bummed to learn this as we were exiting.
Everyone enjoyed the touch pool. You can touch anything in the pool, and they had a staff member on hand to not only give educational information about the species, but also to make sure everyone was following the rules of the touch pool, which were simple. Touch, but don’t take out.
One of Buddy’s favorite attractions was the Doodle Reef. Many tablet stations that are surrounding a digital fish aquarium welcome kids to create. They first chose their own fish species, and then digitally colored the fish. When they were done, they “released” the fish, and it would appear swimming around in the digital fish tank. They also had the option to scan a QR code to get a copy of their creation on a smartphone. (I believe this is at a point where we were divide and conquer with Bubba, so we needed to move along, and didn’t attempt the code scan.)
A good number of employees can be found scattered around the aquarium at locations such as the touch pool, sting rays, and the aquarium tube where Trish was very knowledgeable in pointing out differences between different animals within species. I could have sat and watched creatures swim over me all day. It didn’t seem as cramped as other aquarium tubes I have been in before, nor was it as long, so if you have issues with close spaces, you should be able to pass through quickly and comfortably.
They offer many educational feeding and story programs throughout the day, be sure to check out the times guide when you arrive to see if there are any shows that fit in your time frame. It is easy to skip ahead in the exhibits if you need to get to the stingrays, or other exhibit, and then circle back around to any parts that you missed.
Bubba is at the perfect age to be fascinated with “fishies.” He would be enthralled with the fish aquarium at the doctor’s office, so to be surrounded by thousands of fish blew his little mind. The aquarium winds around a lot, creating lots of separate rooms, and quick corners to get around. When you have an independent toddler who wants to adventure on his own, it did take one parent to be on him full time to prevent any heart attacks from Mama.
We spent about an hour in the aquarium. I felt that was pretty short, but when I asked an employee how long the average stay was, she said it was indeed about an hour. I would have liked to have taken it at a slower pace, and actually done more of the learning aspects, but when Buggie was asked what she thought about it, she said “There were too many fish to look at, and really I just wanted to get to Legoland.”
If you are buying the combo ticket, you might want to set parameters before going in on how long you intend to stay. Breaking up the day between the two attractions with lunch in the middle would be a great idea. The Rainforest Cafe is right outside. I would recommend getting a reservation for the time you would like to exit the aquarium, and let all kiddos know the plan. I think if Buggie had known the time we intended to enter Legoland, and she knew that flying through the aquarium was not going to get her over there any faster, then she might have enjoyed her time at the aquarium more.
You can check out our fun visit to Legoland Auburn Hills HERE. I highly recommend purchasing your combo tickets in advance. Legoland tends to sell out their entry times during busy times, and I would hate for you to get there only to find out that they are sold out, and left with disappointed kiddos. Buying tickets online guarantees your entry to both locations, and will save you money too!
