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Great for a small trip Newport Aquarium

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We just got home from a vacation with Grandma & Grandpa to Newport Aquarium! We were looking for something close to home that would keep the interest of a one year old and a set of grandparents as well as be a short enough visit to keep everyone from getting cranky. Newport Aquarium fit the bill!!

Newport Aquarium is the cornerstone of Newport on the Levee - an area filled with shops, restaurants, ice cream/candy shops, and an arcade. It is an easy drive located just off the major highways around Cincinnati, Ohio and Newport, Kentucky. Parking can be a bit confusing, but just head for anything that says “Newport on the Levee”. We chose the parking garage and it let out right behind Coldstone Creamery making it easy to find our way back and quite close to the aquarium.

The Aquarium is open 10 am - 6 pm 365 days a year with extended hours on holidays and during the summer. The admission price is currently $18.95 for adults and $11.95 for children 2-12. Children 2 and under are free. They do have a stroller policy that prohibits strollers during certain hours. For instance, strollers are not permitted during the summer until 4:30pm. However, they do have a stroller check area and there are backpack carriers and harnesses available. We chose to bring our own as I’m sure my Ergo was more comfortable that the frame carriers they were providing. Also, there are hotels in the area that have package deals with the aquarium to include various amounts of tickets with a stay at the hotel. We utilized one of those as well as a buy one get one free coupon from the Entertainment Book to make admission quite cheap.

The aquarium itself is on the small side, but for it’s size, it does have quite an array of sharks and various fish. As you pass through the large halls, there are tanks or exhibits on both sides nearly all the time. There are several places where you pass through tunnels that allow you to see the sharks and fish swimming all around you. In the gator area, you can see the gators swimming underneath the walkway as well. There is a live Dive Show at certain times of the day where you can sit on benches to watch and listen to a presentation given by divers in the shark tank. While it didn’t hold my one year old’s attention, it was educational and interesting. Currently, they have the Frog exhibit as their special. This exhibit is located toward the end of the experience and is complete with play area and giant frogs to climb on for a great picture opportunity.

As you continue on toward the shark petting tank, you are brought right past/through the snack bar. Good for business,but perhaps not good for parents of children with the “give me’s.” My real issue is that the food is located directly beside the shark petting tank. How easy it would be for someone to drop food into the tank, despite the sign warning you that hot dogs are afraid of sharks. But also, how gross would it be for a child to go running from just sticking his hand in a tank full of sharks and everything that goes with them, to picking up his hotdog and sticking it right into his mouth. Yuck. I should point out that they do provide hand sanitizer on the wall of the exhibit.

The final exhibit is the penguins. If we had known how much our one year old would LOVE the penguins, we would have ran straight through the rest of aquarium to find a seat in front of the tank of penguins diving, zooming through the water, and waddling on the ice. If it had not been lunchtime already we would have stayed here much longer. The Penguins are not out at all times though. They stay out according to their natural habitat daylight hours, generally around 4 or 5 pm.

There are other options, such as penguin encounters, films, and behind the scenes tours that we opted not to do. Some of these do have additional costs as well. I can’t review them since we didn’t do them, but see their website for more information. www.newportaquarium.com

As with most aquariums/museums the last exhibit is the gift shop!! You have to go through the gift shop in order to exit the aquarium. We had grandma and grandpa with us, so that was not a problem…we would have been heading there anyway, but I can see how it could lead to the last headache of a long day if you didn’t have any intention of buying souvenirs.

Overall, the experience was good. There wasn’t an abundance of things to see, but it worked out great for us since we wanted an activity that would be interesting but not require a lot of time. We were completely through the aquarium in about 2 hours and that included the dive show, a quick stop at the snack shop, and the gift shop. We, however, did not spend any time in the play area and we could have spent more time in some of the exhibits if we had a greater attention span! If you are looking for something to do for part of a day in the Cincinnati/Newport area, I believe this is a good option! Afterward or beforehand, there is Newport of the Levee to experience as well!

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