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National Aquarium

Baltimore, Maryland, United States

National Aquarium

The National Aquarium is an aquarium at the Baltimore Inner Harbor, Baltimore. It's a decent sized aquarium with a pool for rays, a large tank with a few sharks, a walk-through rainforest room, an Australian walk-through room, a large pool for dolphin shows, and many smaller tanks for a variety of small fish. It's comparable to other large aquariums. The only thing I thought was really unique about this aquarium was the architecture - the exterior of the building looks very pretty.

Dolphin Show

The dolphin show at the National Aquarium

We paid the extra $3/ticket for the dolphin show, but I was a bit disappointed in it. Most other shows like this that I've seen lasted at least 45 minutes, but this dolphin show was over in about 20 minutes. The show did the usual tricks with dolphins jumping, splashing the audience (only those seated in the 'splash zone'), had some kids from the audience participate, and provided some information about dolphins.

Cost & Admission

Rays at the National Aquarium

Admission to the National Aquarium costs $24.95 for adults, or $27.95 if you also want to see the dolphin show. Entrance to the aquarium is done on a timed basis. Each ticket has an entry timed associated with it, so you should buy your ticket as early in the day as possible. They have a sign out front that says what time they're admitting (eg. "3:45pm and earlier"). It's possible to buy a ticket for early in the day online, which will let you enter at any time after the time you by it for.

We paid the extra $1.95 per ticket fee to purchase the tickets in advance online, as there was a warning that the long weekend would attract large crowds and long lines. However, when we arrived in the afternoon there was no lineup at all to purchase tickets.

Estimated Visiting Time

We spent about two hours at the aquarium, and an additional 20 minutes at the dolphin show. We saw pretty much everything at the aquarium in that time.