Manila Ocean Park - 5 years hence

Let's see.. the last time I was at Manila Ocean Park was in 2008 with my brother Doods.  That was 5 years ago.  Time certainly does fly!  Well, this time around I'm with my family, and I am curious to see how Manila Ocean Park has evolved so far.


For one thing, the ticket price has evolved from a flat fee of P400 to different packages from P550 and up.  The main attraction - the Oceanarium - is relatively the same layout-wise.  But I noticed the monstrous crab in the chilly aquarium was gone - I was looking forward to seeing it again.  But overall it is still a very nice exhibit.  My family thoroughly enjoyed it.

There were a number of new things we experienced in this trip (well, in my case anyways):
- we went to a Sea Lion Show.  entertaining!
- we saw the Jellies exhibit.  eerie but beautiful.
- there was a tiangge.  My comment about that towards the end of this blog.

One good thing to note is that the absence of the starfish handling section.  Excellent!  It also looks like the place has been maintained, so that's a thumbs-up for management.  I heard there's also a hotel there now, but we did not check in.

Here are some photos from our Manila Ocean Park adventure.

Loved the Sea Lion show.  I am amazed that we were able to brave the hot Manila weather!

My daughter sweating it out but totally enjoying the show.

It's off to the Oceanarium after the show!

The crocodile exhibit was a sad one I think.  It had a small space to roam around with, and, as you can see, is mostly pavement.

Piranha!

The Jellies exhibit is actually in another wing of the complex, and when you leave the Oceanarium there are rows of shops and amusement centres, but no signs on where to go.  We had to ask around before we were able to see the Jellyfish exhibit.

We exited the Oceanarium, entered into a different wing, and then backtracked.  It was a bit confusing.

 We were finally able to go to the Jellies exhibit after a bit of asking around.

Now here's another confusing area.  When you leave this exhibit, you are taken to a corridor with merchandise stalls not remotely related to the Ocean Park.  There's clothing, bric a brac, jewelry, accessories, etc.  We were actually surprised to be there.  But we gained our composure and shopped!

This corridor eventually leads to the main foyer of the Park.

It's nice to see Manila Ocean Park getting completed, but there are stuff in there that does not exactly jive with the main theme of the place.  There were other attractions too, such as the Bird Show but we no longer went to that (time constraints).  Overall though, we got our money's worth.

For more information, visit the Manila Ocean Park website.