Monterey Bay Aquarium Monterey Bay Aquarium News

A small (pizza-sized) mola mola has gone on display in the open sea tank.

Striped pyjama squid are on display in tentacles.

Opisthoteuthis sp. is on display once more in tentacles as well.

I believe that this is the only aquarium with the 2nd and 3rd in the world, while being the only in America to currently hold an ocean sunfish. Of course, all this is on exhibit after I visited in December (I need to go back). Someone go and post pictures in the gallery for us!
 
jayjds2 said:
A small (pizza-sized) mola mola has gone on display in the open sea tank.

Striped pyjama squid are on display in tentacles.

Opisthoteuthis sp. is on display once more in tentacles as well.

I believe that this is the only aquarium with the 2nd and 3rd in the world, while being the only in America to currently hold an ocean sunfish. Of course, all this is on exhibit after I visited in December (I need to go back). Someone go and post pictures in the gallery for us!
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Mola Mola are actually quite common in Aquariums. Although rare in North America, many aquariums in Asia, and possibly a few in europe also house the species.
 
I was perusing the Monterey Bay Aquarium website and was astonished to see that a single adult ticket is now a whopping $50! For many years the aquarium was $40 admission, which is the exact same price that Shedd, Georgia and Baltimore have been for years and are right now. However, Monterey Bay has certainly had a huge increase in ticket prices and yet annual attendance has not been affected as in 2015 there was a total of 2.1 million visitors.

I've toured Monterey Bay Aquarium on three occasions and it is a phenomenal facility, but it is a bit scary to see that it is now $50 per adult and $30 per child (even a 3 year-old is $30!) plus local parking can range from $10 to $30 depending on the parking garage. Anyone with very young children realizes that it is not feasible to spend all day at a zoological establishment as kids reach their threshold after a few hours and perhaps a half-day visit is appropriate. Hypothetically speaking, for my wife and I to take our 4 kids to Monterey Bay Aquarium for 4 hours it would be $250 in entrance fees and parking and that is just to get in the front door and that amount does not include any food or souvenirs. I would like to see more zoos and aquariums have flat rates for families as that is the case for membership levels. However, a travelling family ends up paying a small fortune when all of the other major American aquariums have essentially retained the same admission fees as they did a decade ago.

On a side note, it would cost us $132 to visit Sea Life Carlsbad (also in California) and I very much doubt that we could spend much longer than an hour in that joint. :)
 
I absolutely share your opinion. There should be more special offers ref. tickets for families (not to mention that families spent more money in a zoo per person then a single person or a couple - "Dad, I really love that plush giraffe!", "Mom, can we ride the mary-go-round for another time?").

Luckily, not all Aquariums have that high entrance fees. As I went to California this spring, the adult ticket for Aquarium of the Pacific (which is better and more diverse then Monterrey Bay imo) was about 30 USD. Also, you've had the chance to buy a combo ticket with L.A.-Zoo, which made it a good value.

And about Sea Life in general: I already wrote and said: It's overpriced and it's boring. Visiting SL Centres around the world is like visiting McDonalds-Restaurants in every town. You always know what you get, but it is always the same.
 
Though I am not into aquariums that much, this is one I really want to see one day (hopefully combined with a driving vacation down Pacific Coast Highway). Going back to @snowleopard suggestion of a flat family ticket, I see two potential problems (though I still think it's a good idea). The first problem is that people might abuse it by having their neighbor kids join them and saying oh we're all one family. The other problem is families with only one or two children might get upset at paying the same price as a family with five or six children. Personally I think Monterey Bay should just lower the children's ticket to eight or ten bucks and keep the adult price at fifty.
 
Are family tickets not something done in the USA? They are common in NZ zoos and aquariums (and I'd imagine Australian ones too?). There are various forms but basically it is usually a one/two adult plus two/three children deal where one of the children works out to be free - so (as an imaginary example using the prices given earlier), $50 plus $50 for the two adults and then $30 for a child would make the cost of a two adult-two child ticket $130 instead of $160, or the two adult-three child ticket would be $160 instead of $190.

It is irrelevant if the adults and children are actually related, because it is really a group discount. And extra children would simply be added onto the deal (so two adults-four children would be $190 on the second deal).

I checked some real NZ prices.

Kelly Tarltons "family tickets" are exactly the same as buying the tickets individually (it is an aquarium owned by Merlin, so not really a surprise there).

Auckland Zoo's family ticket works out as one of the children being half-price (rather than fully free).

Wellington Zoo has a family ticket where there is "up to three children" - so with three children one of them is free.

Orana Park has a two-adult up-to-three-children family ticket where two of the children would be free (i.e. the ticket price is equal to two adults and one child).

Hamilton Zoo has a two-adult up-to-four-children family ticket where "two kids saves $2, three kids saves $13, four kids saves $24" (with individual prices being $23 for adults and $11 for children).
 
DavidBrown said:
I think the family ticket concept in the USA is probably replaced by family memberships to zoos and aquariums.
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Maybe, but most zoos in New Zealand and Australia also offer family memberships. It seems odd that family tickets are not a thing in America, they are common at most attractions (theme parks, museums, etc) down here. A quick look at the London and Chester Zoo websites shows that they also offer family discounts, at least for tickets bought online.
 
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