London: Sealife Centre

We have already visited two of Merlin's Sealife centres at Blackpool and Manchester and thought that both of these were great, but then again we all love anything to do with sea life and never get bored of seeing the same things over and over.  Knowing how good the other Sea life have been, we decided to pre book our time slot for the Sea life Centre when doing the London eye with it being in the same area.

Our time slot was fro 5.15pm and we got there at around 5.00pm. There were no queues so we went straight in.  Like all other Merlin Sea life centres there are photograph opportunities all the way around.  You can skip these and all the staff are extremely pleasant when you say that you don't want your photo taken.

One thing that we did love at the start of the London sealife centre was the glass floor that was above the Shark tank.  We thought that this was a great way to start the tour. In the other sea life centres there have been booklets that the children get to collect stamps as they go around. If this was available there we didn't see it, but this time as a treat we did treat Titch to the Ranger Pack at a cost of £4.  This kept him busy on the way around and searching for facts. He particularly enjoyed using the magnifying glass to look closer at the animal.  For Titch this added to his experience as rather than just walking pass each exhibition he was keen to look closer.

Although it was busy, it was much calmer than our previous trip to Madame Tussauds. The only queue that we encountered was when going through the tunnel.

As with the other Sealife centres, there was plenty to see.  Now maybe because of the time we went, we did not see or hear of any talks that normally occur in sea life centres, in actual fact there was not many staff around.  This did not ruin the experience as we read all of the information that we wanted too.

Titch enjoys anything interactive so enjoyed playing the Jelly fish game which is something that is not at the other Sealife Centres.

We also enjoyed seeing the penguins, although most were asleep.  

In total we spent around 1.5 hours in there which is about the average time we have spent in any Sealife Centre.  As Merlin pass holders it is obviously worth going too, but if I was a paying customer I am not sure if it would be worth the money unless we had some sort of discount or deal - which they do for the London Merlin Attractions (5 attractions for £55) 

A rainy day - Sea Life Centre Manchester

With the weather predictions of rain for most of the country today, we decided that we would get out our Merlin Passes and head for something indoors. We had already been to the Sealife Centre in Blackpool and really enjoyed it so we thought we would try the Sealife in Manchester, and because we all love Lego in our house we would partner it up with a visit to the Lego Discovery Centre next door.

Before going the Husband and I had read and heard some not great reviews about both places, but we are pretty open minded and normally end up liking places others don't so thought we may as well give them a try.  Maybe if we had to pay out right to go to them we would have been put off by these reviews and not gone.  However, we are glad that we did.

We arrived at the Sealife Centre around 12 pm and queued up in the queue for annual pass holders and pre booked tickets.  The queue was not too long and we were in about 5 minutes later.  A queue then formed for photographs that most Merlin attractions do at the beginning and during the tour.  As we did not want a photograph taken, we politely said no and the staff had no problems with this.
After a wait of around 4 minutes we were ushered into a room called Turtle Bay where there was a short talk on Sea turtles.

After the talk we then entered into the main viewing areas. The initial part was crowed and queues to look into tanks formed, but as we began to walk further around these queues dispersed, and, although it was quite busy, it did not feel overcrowded or cramped.
There was an array of tanks offering information on different  under water creatures, and at times there were dive stations where children could answer questions and collect stamps - which at the end would result in a prize of a pop badge.

After viewing some of the large tanks and spending a considerable amount of time watching the Stingrays, we came across a small lego area where you could make a model sea creature or , like we did, create a small tile to complete a mosaic that Sealife Manchester are currently making.  There re also some large lego pieces in different tanks as currently there is a competition to find them all and at the end you receive a Lego Minifigure Diver - the Husband was very keen to do this and claimed the Minifigure for himself.

Unlike Blackpool Sealife centre, Manchester also provide a small indoor play area.  Titch enjoyed a 10 minute play in here to burn of a bit of energy.
There were also interactive games showing the skeleton of different sea life creatures that we had not experienced before.



Titch also enjoyed touching a star fish and fire shrimps. However, he was disappointed that there was no pop badge for this like there was in Blackpool.

In total we spent around 1.5 hours inside the Sea life Centre. Because we are Merlin Pass holders I can not say whether I felt like it was value for money. However, what I would say is that it is worth booking in advance online and if you are also interested in going to Lego Discovery too then I would purchase the Combi ticket.

If you and your children enjoy looking at Sea life and spend time reading the information, talking to staff, taking part in the challenges and listening to the talks you could easily spent a couple of hours here, and it is definitely worth the visit.