Our Visit to Clearwater Marine Aquarium @CMAquarium @Winterthedolphin

 

 

 

We recently had a family vacation, and one of our destinations was Clearwater Beach. We have never seen the gulf side of Florida so we were very excited to visit for a weekend. I researched some fun things to do with my children and came across Clearwater Marine Aquarium. My family LOVES aquariums so I knew this would be a great place to visit while in Clearwater. I was given complimentary tickets to come with my family and to check it out. Little did I know, we would be seeing the famous dolphin, Winter, from the movie Dolphin Tale!

 

 

Clearwater Marine Aquarium is a Florida non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, dedicated to restoring and preserving our marine life and environment through leadership in education, research and the rescue, rehabilitation and release of marine life. This is a very unique Aquarium. If your children have seen Dolphin Tale 1 & 2, they will enjoy the Aquarium very much, since most of the scenes are shot there. My kids got a big kick out of that, and were excited to meet the star animals.

 

 

 

I recommend coming early to the Aquarium since the parking lot gets full quickly. You will have to park out on a side street and walk over if the lot becomes full. When we are walking up to the main entrance we saw the houseboat set from the movie. My kids were amazed by it and couldn’t wait for me to snap a picture.

When you enter the Aquarium you see a large gift shop area and then the area to the Animal Hospital. That area is very interesting, as you can discover what is behind the scenes necessary for the health of the animals. We were able to see the workers preparing food for the animals, and see some tanks that held turtles in various stages of recovery from being rescued. They also had fun facts about the animals on the walls.

We then walked up stairs to the dolphin area. We first saw Nicholas, who was rescued with his Mom in 2002. Nicholas suffered from 2nd a 3rd degree burns across 36% of his body. He is doing great and thriving at the Aquarium. We even got to see him play with a toy! Nicholas played Mandy in Dolphin Tale 2.

 

 

After we visited Nicholas, we went to another area to visit Rufus, the famous Pelican of the movies. He was so cool to see in person, my kids loved talking to him! For an additional fee, you can even feed Rufus!

 

 

After we saw Rufus, we were able to go see Hope and Winter! The most famous permanent resident is Winter the Dolphin. Winter lost her tail and has been rehabilitated and given a prosthetic tail. We were able to view both dolphins swimming around.

 

 

We were also able to see Sea Turtles and an Otter, the Otter was all snuggled in her box. So cute!!

 

 

 

There were 2 Sting Ray tanks, one outside where you can touch some large ones, and one inside that had smaller ones. My kids really enjoyed touching and feeling them.

 

You can also pay extra for many animal encounters such as feeding a stingray, dolphin encounters and feeding puffer fish! They also have many tours and combo packages available. You can even grab a bite to eat at the Aquarium.

 The next part was to visit the 2nd facility which is called Winter’s Dolphin Adventure. This 2nd facility is included in admission, and you take either a boat or trolley to the downtown area. This facility takes you inside the movie. You’ll find re-built scenes, movie images and a variety of the props used in the filming of Dolphin Tale. These props have all been graciously donated by Alcon Entertainment. This was very cool because we got to see some of the actual sets and props used. Our favorite area was the Hurricane Experience. You can actually experience a category 1 hurricane. It was really neat!

 

I highly recommend taking your family to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium if you are in the area. My family really loved it and we learned a lot about the animals and how rescue and rehabilitation works.

 Experience Clearwater Marine Aquarium

• Learn about the life-saving work we do on a behind-the-scenes tour
• Get up-close with our dolphins and sea turtles
• Feed our sting rays and sharks
• Explore the waterways on a boat tour
• Take a boat or trolley shuttle to nearby Winter’s Dolphin Tale Adventure, featuring a museum of rebuilt movie sets and props, Hurricane Experience exhibit, touch tanks and more.

It’s Real-life Movie Star Madness all summer long at Clearwater Marine Aquarium! Receive a free collectible Hope movie poster between June 6-June 26 with general admission for visitors 15 years and under.

 

General Admission Pricing:
Adult – $21.95
Child – $16.95
Senior – $19.95
2 & Under – Free

Connect with Clearwater Marine Aquarium: Website Facebook Twitter Instagram

*I was given complimentary tickets to the Aquarium to facilitate my review. All opinions are my own.