Sea Life Park and Pacific Whaling Museum
add photosA shuttle bus transports tourists without wheels to and from Waikiki for $5.00 round-trip.
14 Reviews for Sea Life Park and Pacific Whaling Museum
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"Kids will love it...but it's no Sea World"
Sea Life Park Hawaii is located on Oahu’s windward coast near scenic Makapu’u Point and Makapu’u Beach. This is a small "Sea World" type park focusing mainly on the Dolphin Encounter experience but does have a few other nice aspects. The have a wide array of marine life that is fun for the kids to discover.
There are shows throughout the day featuring penguins, dolphins, and sea lions. You can also feed sea turtles and check out various sea creatures in an educational touch tank which makes it great for small children who are eager to learn!
This is a fun place beautifully located on the scenic coast and convenient to other activities that are great for the family. The park is on the small side though and most will find that it does not take all day to walk through even if you see all the shows. Also, it is a bit pricey for the size but they do offer specials through local merchants so check their website before going.
The park seems to be primarily focused on its interactive programs like the Dolphin Encounter and the Sea Lion Swim. Most of these activities fill up far in advance so call early to make a reservation. Charges for these activities are not included in the price of park admission.
Kids will undoubtedly love this place. Seeing and interacting with the animals will thrill them. Parents will be less than impressed and if they have ever been to Sea World or similar park they may be downright disappointed.
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"Definitely worth the visit!!"
We went here twice. Once with a ten month old and later with our 1 year old daughter and our 3+ year old son. The seal show was hilarious and HOT!!! The seating and maybe time of day put us in the sun! Wear your sunglasses, hats, and sunblock. I would also bring a spray mister :) There is a nice little sand pit play area for kids to chill (and parents too). It's a good place to take a break. The dolphin show was AWESOME!! Sit in the front so you can get splashed. My boy really liked the pirate! We saw people swimming with rays!!! You can also swim with the dolphins!!
Our favorite part though, was feeding the sea turtles. I just love those animals. The whole park is set on a backdrop of the beautiful ocean too!! This is a must do if you plan on traveling there. Just remember to bring your sun gear and a towel (just in case) and stroller!
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"Pretty fun, but it's no Sea World"
When I was a little girl I lived on Oahu...and this was my very favorite place! I went at least a dozen times and thought it was huge, action-packed, and fun. So, of course when my family went back to Hawaii, I said we had to go there. Now that we've been to Sea World a few times, Sea Life Park seemed a little lame. It is definitely over-priced and there is not enough to do to spend a whole day there. Some of the exhibits and features I remembered from my childhood and been taken away. There are some fun things, though. The shows with the different animals (there are 2 dolphin shows as well as a seal show) are pretty entertaining. There is a petting section where you can touch starfish, different types of coral, etc. That is really fun for the kids! While we were there, a marine biologist who was caring for a baby sea turtle approached us and let us pet and hold it. What a neat experience! Your kids will have fun at Sea Life Park, especially if they're younger. If they've been to Sea World before, though, they will probably not be very impressed.
1 family found this helpful
"Nice Day Trip"
You will have a great time here if you do not compare it to Sea World :) Sea Life Park features some fun shows and activities for all members of the family. You might want to plan ahead and book an interactive experience if you would like to be in the water with the sea creatures. Otherwise, you can feed sea turtles and sea lions (for a fee) and those are always fun, low stress activities for young children. The park is clean and well maintained. There is a restaurant with decent food. Everything here is on the pricier side.
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"Swim with the dolphins is a must!"
As others have said, the dolphin experience makes this park a great family excursion. We swam with a blind dolphin that was in the 50 First Dates movie! We had a later dolphin swim time, so we also saw shows, took pics with penguins, and fed turtles. Might not be worth the ticket price without the dolphin experience, but well worth it if you can splurge for it!
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"Pricey"
We only went here once in the 4 years that we lived in Hawaii and I kind of expected more. The shows were good but you had to pay for everything. We wanted to feed some of the animals and you had to pay to do that. We weren't surprised to find out you had to pay to swim with the dolphins but I thought it was a bit over priced. They do have little touch pools with various sea life in them that the kids could go and pet. They're also lower to the ground to smaller kids could see in them too. They had a pretty entertaining seal show that was free, as well as a dolphin show.
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"You need to swim with dolphin"
If you just visit this place, it is not too exciting. Ofcourse shows are nice, but I think you should join some activity like swiming or touching dolphines. I hardly go this place since ticket is so high, but when I have a visitor with child, I went several times, and they really enjoyed swiming with dolphines.
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"Do the Dolphin encounter"
I went here with my 3 & 7 year old daughters. We did the Dolphin encounter & it was awesome! We got to meet 2 different dolphins, pet them, kiss them & hold hands with them. It was a lot of fun & a very memorable experience for my family. The $99.00 price was worth it, since the admission is also included. You will need to purchase their photos of the Dolphin encounter as they do not let you bring your own camera, but that was also worth it in my opinion. The rest of the park is very small, so it would probably be a disappointment if we hadnt done the Dolphins. There is a large Sea turtle pool where you can feed them, sea lions, dolphins, penguins,monk seals & a large reef exhibit with sharks, manta rays & lots of fish as well. The views are also very beautiful, the shows are entertaining & the food was decent. Good fun for a half day trip.
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"Experience of a Lifetime!"
I highly recommend the Dolphin encounter here! We did the Mid- Level encounter and it was so much fun! We were able to swim with the Dolphin and the Wholphin in our encounter. I got the oppurtunity to ride on the back of the Dolphin and had him push me on a boogie bord and we even shared a kiss :)
If you have more than one child I would recommend taking turns in doing the encounter, this would allow you to take pictures of eachother! We didn't have someone out of the water to take pictures so we had to buy one of the over priced ones taken by the park.
With the encounter you get the rest of the day at the aquarium which is really nice! We had a great time here!
2 families found this helpful
"Expensive to do very often"
Sea Life Park is a lot of fun and is very entertaining for the little guys. When my children were both two and under I bought an annual pass and was able to take them regularly (annual pass was $60 for an adult / year) - I found by going regularly, we would drop in for a couple of hours after nap time, didn't want to see the shows (they didn't change much over the course of the year) but could beat all the crowds by going in the opposite direction. My kids loved sitting and watching the penguins and the dolphins practice with the trainers. Sea Life Park does not offer an annual pass for kids or a family pass - and the daily admission rate is about 2/3 the cost of the annual pass. $60 a year for an annual pass was easy to justify, $180 is a bit tougher, especially when the Zoo is $40 for the whole family.
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"Good shows.."
I've been to Sea Life Park every year for the last 3 years with my kids' preschool. When you enter the park, you go through the Hawaiian Reef Aquarium. There you see a wide variety of sea life, from a ray to small sharks and of course fishes. The spiral path will eventually lead you to the turtle pond. You can feed the turtles with veggies that I believe you can purchase. The kids always loved doing that. The shows are on at different times, so definately make the dolphin show where the kids can oo and ahh over the jumps. The Sea Lion show is okay, but really hot. Afterwards you can walk around the park to look at the different animals. There is a section where adults and kids can touch the starfish other stuff like that, with an attendent to watch and answer questions.
For an extra cost, you could go in the aquarium reef, or feed the sea lions or swim with dolphins.
This is a great place to visit if you're looking for something else to do away from Waikki and you have young kids.
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"We always had an awesome time here!"
When we lived in Hawaii, we would go up to sea life park all the time. I had a blast! We did not have our son at the time, but there were always a ton of kids checking out all the animals, and you could tell they were having a blast! The last time we went there, my husband let me experience the dolphin adventure. It was well worth the money to be able to get in the water with them and play around. Awesome experience for little kids and adults alike!
Sea Life Park is also where 50 First Dates was filmed.
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"Great place to spend part of the day"
My husband, 9 month old daughter and I visited Makapu'u Beach & Sealife Park on the same day. We purchased a Go Oahu card, and this was one of the activities included.
We're so glad we went! There were a few elementary school groups on field trips, but that made for more fun during the educational shows. We especially enjoyed how the aquarium part was set up, with little windows our daughter could peer into the tank with.
One thing to mention, there were no food vendors open during our visit. There were vending machines and restaurants were within short driving distance but it would have been nice to spend extra time at Sea Life Park.
Great place for families!
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"Fun with the Family"
Sea Life Park is a fun-filled, educational marine park that’s home to dolphins, sea lions, penguins, and the world’s only wholphin (a cross between a whale and dolphin). A new dolphin-trainer program gives you a behind-the-scenes look at this marine park and allows you to meet the star performers. As part of the training, you learn how to touch and feed the dolphins. Enrollment is limited. Call ahead: 259–7933.
One of the more popular exhibits is the 300,000-gallon Hawaiian Reef Tank, filled with colorful creatures from Hawaii’s waters, including reef fish, sharks, eels, and turtles. You can walk 3 fathoms down a ramp and go nose-to-nose with more than 2,000 different specimens.
At the open-air Hawaii Ocean Theatre, penguins, sea lions, and dolphins entertain audiences under the patient tutelage of their trainers. The penguins usually steal the show with their comical tricks.
At Whaler’s Cove dolphins help tell tales of Old Hawaii in a beautiful lagoon, in which sits a 5⁄8-size scaled-down replica of the Essex, a nineteenth-century whaling ship.
Some of the other attractions include the Penguin Habitat, the Shark Galley, Turtle Lagoon, and the Kolohe (crazy) Kai Sea Lion Show, featuring the park’s residents in a variety of comedy routines.
The Pacific Whaling Museum boasts the largest collection of whaling artifacts and memorabilia in the Pacific.
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