Sea Life Centre Manchester

September 26, 2013

Living near a Sea Life Centre and visiting it regularly you can easily gain the opinion that there is no need to visit another as they are all the same… wrong!

We recently spent the day in Manchester and managed to squeeze in a visit to both Legoland Discovery Centre and the newly opened Manchester Sea Life Centre in Barton Square at The Trafford Centre.

A sign above a store
We visited after lunch and whilst we had seen the queues in the morning the afternoon was much quieter. Upon entering and getting our tickets Roo and Tigger each received an activity passport and goggles headband.
 
After getting our photo taken against the green screen we headed to wait in the queue for Turtle Beach. As the Turtle Beach experience is the first attraction with the Sea Life Centre and can only accommodate a certain number of people at one time this could explain the queues that were there in the morning.
 
The Turtle Beach experience I have to say was one of my personal favourites from the day. The narrator takes you on a journey of how the turtles return to the beach they were born on, lay their eggs and how the temperature of the sand determines the sex of the baby turtles. 

A boy sitting in front of a television
Place your hands on the egg and depending on how hot your hands are will determine the sex of the turtle

Moving on the the main aquarium areas there is space for children to interact with the displays from tunnels to crawl through, the light colour changing display on the Jellyfish tank and of course stamping the activity passports.

Manchester and Sea Life
A person sitting in a room
A little girl sitting at a table
Alongside the aquariums and activities there are a number of different talks and feeds held throughout the day where you can learn more information about your favourite species and have the opportunity to ask any questions you may have. 

Talk and Feed Times

Shipwreck – 10:30am, 14:00pm (Daily)
Find out more about the incredible abilities of Octopus and learn about the wonderful life of the Clown Fish! 

Turtle World – 11:00am, 17:30pm (Daily)
Learn all about Ernie our resident giant Green Sea Turtle and the many other Turtles here at SEA LIFE Manchester

Ocean Talk – 11:30am, 14:30pm, 16:30pm (Daily)
Discover all about our Sharks, Rays, a Turtle and all of our tropical fish in our 480,000 litre ocean tank. 


Sea Trek and Breed, Rescue, Protect – 12:00pm, 17:00pm (Daily)
Learn all about the history of diving from our dive experts, as well as the conservation work that we do here at SEA LIFE Manchester. 

Ray Talk – 12:30pm, 15:00pm (Daily)
Find out all about our 3 species of Ray including our Blue Spotted Stingrays.

Turtle Tea Time – 13:00pm, 16:00pm (Daily)
Come and see our resident giant Green Sea Turtle Ernie being fed, his favourite meal is a mixture of lettuce and brussel sprouts.

Shark Talk/Feed – 18:00pm on Tuesday/Fri/Sat
Come and see our Sharks and all of our Tropical Fish being fed.

Ticket Prices

General Admissions: pre-book online to save and guarantee entry!

 
 
On the day price
Online price (priority entry)
SAVE
Full Paying Individual (Adult or Child 3+)
£16.50 pp
£12 pp
£4.50 pp
Family Price (Two or more individuals)
£14 pp
£12 pp
£2 pp
Child (under 3 yrs old)
Free
Free
Free
Combination day ticket for Sea Life & Legoland Discovery Centre – The more you see, the more you save!

 
Combi Tickets
Price for two attractions
Online (priority entry)
SAVE
Individual (Adult or Child 3+)
£33
£22
£11

Boo Roo and Tigger Too’s thoughts…

We certainly noticed the difference between a newly built Sea Life Centre and one that has been around for many years. They have really thought about how they can make the visit more interactive and enjoyable for both the young and the old. Turtle Beach for me was by far the best part of the visit although I do think that they made a mistake of placing at the entrance, the queues outside may put people off from coming in and enjoying the Sea Life Centre.

Roo has always loved fish from when she was very little, she was disappointed to see that there was no Penguins. The interactive displays were certainly Roo’s favourite, especially turning the Jelly Fish light to purple for me as it’s my favourite colour (bless her).

Tigger was asleep when we entered the Sea Life Centre so sadly missed the Turtle Beach experience however he managed to wake up soon after so got to enjoy the Turtle room and loved watching them swimming around.

Overall a very enjoyable afternoon, I would recommend purchasing online as not only is it cheaper but you gain priority entry too.

More Information

SEA LIFE Manchester,

Barton Square, 
The Trafford Centre, 
Manchester, 
M17 8AS
 
Disclosure: We received a family entry ticket to both Sea Life Centre Manchester and Legoland Discovery Centre FOC for the purpose of reviewing our day out.

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