The Dubai Aquarium is accessed through the Dubai Mall (the biggest of the big malls here). Part of the largest tank can be seen without paying any entrance fee – just follow the signs in the mall and you can see it on the ground level.
As you go in, you walk inside the ropes to get a closer view of the public side of the tank, then on through the glass tunnel where the fish swim overhead. Then if you opt for the boat ride – which we did as it was recommended by our landlady – we went up two escalators and then found our way into a waiting area. When the line goes down, we go into another room and are given life jackets. Then we are seated in a rectangular-shaped craft with a “captain” who pulls you along the ropes in order to get a view from above of the aquarium tank. Just below this area is where those who want go and swim with fish (sharks too!) in the large tank. Because the aquarium tank isn’t that big from the top – it’s quite deep – it’s better than other glass-bottomed boat views we’ve had as the fish are concentrated into a relatively smaller space. I think I took more photos of my feet than the fish, but we enjoyed it.
The last stop is the “Underwater Zoo”, a series of smaller tanks with fish, turtles, tortoises, a crocodile, crabs, eels, etc. For the space involved, there are quite a lot of sea creatures. Of course our favorites were the sea otters and the Humboldt penguins!
As is expected the exit is through the gift shop – the good news is that our entrance fee gave us a 20 dh credit (about $5) towards anything in the shop. I think this is one of the better marketing ideas as people are likely to spend more and you get what you want. We combined our credits for a plush penguin similar to the Gentoo that we saw at Ski Dubai.
Judy and Richard - 1001 Arabian Nights 