SEALIFE Birmingham Review

SEALIFE Birmingham

www.visitsealife.com/birmingham

Reviewed by Harriet Grant

We’ve had a brilliant day out at the SEALIFE Centre in Birmingham. We drove to the SEALIFE Centre and know exactly where it is. If you aren’t a resident of Birmingham it’s very well signposted from the motorways and surrounding the city centre. Being in the city centre by the canal and Brindley Place there is no parking at the actual venue itself but are plenty of close pay and display carparks around. I parked at the Barclaycard Arena which was literally a 3 minute walk with the children to get there.

Tickets can be pre-booked (saving you up to 40%) using the SEALIFE centres mobile friendly website www.visitsealife.com/birmingham/mobile/ when booking in advance, you book certain time slots for entry which is explained in the booking process. After the time of entry you can re-enter the centre throughout the day if you wish.

If you are unable to or don’t want to pre-book you can pay on the day although they do recommend pre-booking tickets as capacity is limited. Prices do vary with booking on the day. There is a different queuing system in place for pre-booked tickets and on the day bookings.

We were very privileged to have entry into the centre before opening to the public so we arrived nice and early to be greeted by very friendly staff. All were well presented and polite and helpful. We were offered an activity sheet for the children to do on the way around the trail. We declined only because our children are 5 and 20 months so wouldn’t understand.

We first when to see the newly opened penguin ice adventure experience. On our way in we were offered a photo opportunity. Back to the Penguins It was so lovely to see the Gentoo penguins, I must say this was our favourite bit. There was an interactive wall of ice which my toddler found very fascinating. There are lots of viewing spots to see the Penguins.

We followed the trail around with the children both looking at amazement in the tanks. All the way round there are interactive questions for children to keep them busy whilst extending their knowledge about sea life all over the world.

Next we had an opportunity to touch a crab and a starfish at the interactive rock-pool experience it was great getting up close and personal with them.

We carried on around seeing sea horses, turtles, sharks lots and lots of creatures.

The sea stars new attraction was really interesting, there where little domes for the children to go under and have a magnified view of the tank and starfish. There was a representative there who knew about each species. The giant star fish is a must see I never knew there where such big star fish it happened to be re-producing that day where they make the water very cloudy and if the other star fish happens to be female it will re-produce. The touch and feel wall was a great part where you can feel how different star fish are. There was also an interactive screen where you can see starfish in the natural habitat and speed up or slow down movement. My toddler loved pressing those buttons and just watched the screen in sheer amazement whilst shouting very loudly ‘star’.

All in all we’ve had such a fantastic day. It is certainly an attraction the children will love. The 4D cinema is just fantastic although queues can get big dependant on the day you visit it’s an absolute must see. There are feeding times and talks throughout the day this info can be found on the website. There are 15 fully themed zones including Nemo’s Kingdom, Shark Lagoon and the turtle sanctuary. There is currently a Spongebob theme running throughout the centre and different characters can be spotted in the tanks.

The cleanliness of the tanks is superb the windows where being cleaned as we went round. We do have a double buggy which fitted around the centre fine, we never had a problem with it. Accessibility is great. There are toilet facilities dotted around the attraction. The souvenir shop is lovely and on the way out you are offered a hand stamp so that you can return throughout the day if you’d like to get a bite to eat as there are no food facilities on site. Although Birmingham is not one of the bigger SEALIFE venues it is jam packed with over 2000 species including sharks, turtles, seahorse, otters and rays.

Rating: 4.5/5

Tickets cost £20.95 (on the day, adult and children aged 3 years +), save up to 40% by booking online in advance (from £12.50). Children under 3 go free.

For more information or to book tickets visit www.visitsealife.com/birmingham.

National SEA LIFE centre, The Waters Edge, Brindleyplace, Birmingham, B1 2HL