Toronto Ripley's Aquarium

Last year the Ripley's Aquarium of Canada opened in Toronto located right underneath the CN Tower. 

They currently have a promotion called "Summer Nights" where you get $5 off admission after 7pm, making an adult ticket 24.98. I decided Monday at 7pm would be the perfect time to go, since children are still in school and the aquarium is open until 11pm giving me a lot of time and it wouldn't be as busy. The website shows the hours of operation for each day, some nights they are closing early for events. I purchased my tickets online for entrance between 7 and 8 since I read that the lineup to buy tickets is usually fairly long. I was able to just open the email they sent me and they scanned the tickets off my phone so no printing was necessary. Since we went in right on the hour it seemed really busy right when you go in, but the group seemed to disperse pretty quickly so we were able to look at almost everything without anyone around. The first section when you enter is called Canadian Waters which features species that can be found in the Great Lakes and the Canadian shorelines. 

 

 

Some of the things you see there would make you never want to swim again..Right away it reminded me of the Ripley's Museum I went to in Niagara Falls with all the interactive educational items around in each section. The next section you go through is the Rainbow Reef. This is my favourite section, I like the colourful fish and reefs. 

 

Next was the Dangerous Lagoon. This section has a moving walkway on one side you can stand on and the tanks go up and around you, so it's like going through a tube. When reading reviews I read a lot of people said to avoid the moving walkway, but since it wasn't busy when I was there we were able to stand on the walkway and focus spotting interesting creatures and taking their pictures without having to worry about walking. The tank around this section went very far back so it was fun to try to spot different things. 

 

 

 

After the moving sidewalk there are tanks that have tubes you can crawl through to see the sharks up close or take pictures of people "in the tanks". There is also areas where you can touch different animals, a food court and a playground area. So if you were with children this would be the place where you'd take a rest halfway through the aquarium. In this section there is a small tank full of clown fish that is hallow in the middle so you can take your picture with the fish. 

Next was Ray Bay and Planet Jellies. There were a lot of interesting species in these areas and a large area full of information about different types of sharks. There was also a giant take full of jellyfish with mirrors on either side and the lights would change colour.

 

 

 

There was also a section called Life Support Systems that is all about how the aquarium is run. This takes you back up to the top floor where the gift shop is and the top of the large tank. There is a small glass floor section that you can look down and see the sharks and other species found in the large tank, and you can see a lot of sharks swimming near the top of the tank. It took us just over an hour to go through the whole aquarium which is shorter than I was expecting from what I was reading, but this was probably because we didn't have to wait to look in any of the tanks, we were able to avoid the crowd of people basically the entire time. 

Regular tickets are 29.98 for adults, 19.98 children 6-13 and seniors and 9.98 for children 3-5 (children under 2 are free). They also sell seasons passes for 125 for adults, 90 for children aged 6-13 and seniors and 75 for children 3-5. The passes allow you to visit the aquarium an unlimited amount of times for one full year, and they are open everyday of the year.