Adventure Aquarium

Adventure Aquarium offers guests the exciting opportunity to come face-to-face with elusive shark rays, delightful turtles and penguins and thousands of vibrantly colored fish. Enter an enchanting world of alluring waterfalls, exotic tribal music, and mysterious animal sounds, meet some of the creepiest sea creatures on Earth, such as giant spider crabs and a giant Pacific octopus, and stroll among hundreds of extraordinary fish at this thrilling aquatic world.

Observe Button and Genny, the West African River Experience's Nile hippos, as they frolic underwater and press their slippery snouts against the glass. The planet's most mysterious creatures are featured in jaw-dropping detail at 4-D Theater's screenings of Planet Earth. It doesn't get more hands-on than the Touch-A-Shark exhibit, where guests can feel the smooth skin of exotic sharks, such as the white-spotted bamboo shark and the Indo Pacific brown-banded shark. Some of the aquarium's most unusual creatures, such as chinchillas, sort-tailed opossums, and a six-foot long boa constrictor reside at the Mayan-inspired Rainforest Rendezvous, which transports you to a tropical world of bright colors and hidden fossils.

Shark Realm allows your inner daredevil to come face-to-face with nurse sharks, sand tiger sharks, sandbar sharks, and barracuda. Before plunging deep into the waters, experts provide snorkeling lessons and information about the animals. You can also swim with and feed dozens of string rays at Sting Ray Lagoon.

For something a little cuddlier, the new "Positively Penguin" Adventure allows you to go behind the scenes and learn about the behavior of the exquisite black-footed African penguin from a real biologist. You can also learn how the aquarium feeds and cares for these adorable creatures, and actually roll up your sleeves and help the biologists with their training techniques, a must for any penguin lover.

- Danielle Baldassini