@snowleopard: what was your overall impression of this place? Is it a must-see aquarium like the Shedd or Monterey Bay? It looks like it has a quite interesting collection in some possibly substandard exhibits based on the photos and comments that people have made in the gallery (e.g., the jaguar, tree kangaroo, and penguin exhibits).
I fully admit that I like this aquarium and it is definitely worth visiting, but I also like it far less than many others.
An excerpt from my extensive 2010 review:
Dallas World Aquarium is most definitely worth a visit just to see the absolutely incredible assortment of rare and endangered creatures that are often not found just about anywhere else. The list of species that I have provided is so vast that it is impossible to see them all on 5 visits, let alone a single journey to downtown Dallas. I’d love to revisit the establishment in the future and spend more time gazing around in vain hope of spotting one of the birds of prey, or improving my chances of ever seeing a yapok or red howler monkey.
There really is no comparison to the behemoths of the aquarium world such as Shedd, Georgia, Monterey Bay, Baltimore and Tennessee, and I would place Vancouver and Oregon Coast also above Dallas World Aquarium as DWA is nowhere near being a top 10 aquarium. However, it has carved out a niche for itself by exhibiting rarely seen animals, and the rainforest environment is well designed and planted. While I had issues with some visitor amenities such as the convoluted map, poor signage and small pathways with massive crowds, overall I would recommend a visit and it is similar to being inside a zoo’s huge rainforest complex.
Another excerpt (a negative one) from my 2010 review:
Signage – Instead of having labels on each tank or terrarium the aquarium often has frustrating touch screens that apply to 4-5 tanks or terrariums in a row. So while looking frantically at a terrarium in a hopeless attempt to figure out whether I’m supposed to be searching for a lizard, snake, spider or scorpion I abandoned my quest on numerous occasions and went to the touch screen in the corner of the room. After battling through the crowd and waiting in line to use the screen (assuming that it worked as two of them did not) then I had to force my way through the throngs of visitors back to the original terrarium and then I still had to guess what the animal was that was inside the exhibit. I knew what 4 or 5 animals were supposed to be in the row of 4-5 enclosures, but which animal is in which terrarium? STUPID, STUPID, STUPID signage. Okay, rant over for now…haha. The least that DWA could do is post a tiny sign on each exhibit like all other zoos and aquariums.
Small exhibits - The giant river otters, jaguar, Orinoco crocodiles, giant anteaters, little penguins, Morelet’s crocodile and tree kangaroos are all amongst the largest of the inhabitants of the aquarium, and ALL of them have possibly the smallest exhibits for their species that I’ve ever seen. The jaguar rotates with an ocelot, and its fish bowl tank that is surrounded on all sides by huge panes of glass is atrocious. There was only a tiny pool for a water-loving cat, and a video screen monitor showed a pacing jaguar in the upper exhibit after the cats had rotated while I was there. There are plans to make an addition to the space for these cats, but even that will not suffice in my honest opinion. The two species of crocodiles have tiny exhibits, and a juvenile Orinoco crocodile was in a tank only about 2 feet longer than its entire body!
