Marine Land, Ontario
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion Archive: Archive May 2005:
Marine Land, Ontario
Has anyone ever been to Marineland, Ontario? We have never been to a Marineland. How is it?
We are thinking of going there this summer. We used to have Sea World about 1 hour away from here but it is gone. 
We've never been to Marineland but Sea World is still kind of there in Ohio. It's located inside 6 Flags, we live in Michigan and were there last year. Great place to go, we stayed 2 days, there is an awesome water park the amusement park and the old Sea World (same type of shows, etc.) the kids loved it. Check it out.
Oh I've been there many, many times. We go every year. My four year old says this:
"There are bears to feed, but you don't eat the stuff that the bears eat. There are two roller coasters...a little girl roller coaster and a big girl and big boy and big grown up boy and big grown up girl roller coaster. There are teacups! There are 752 rides."
Okay, me talking. 
It's really rather small. You can do it all in a matter of hours. There are two shows in two different 'arenas' and I can't remember the difference between the two, but there are sea lions, walruses, killer whales, dolphins...can't recall if there are others. Each show is about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. If you sit in the front you get soaked and I'd advise approaching the arena from the TOP as if you enter from the ground level employees actually stand there and throw buckets of water on incoming people!!!!!
There are about 10 rides, maybe?? For little ones there is a viking ship ride (viking boat goes in a circle) a baby ferris wheel (line takes FOREVER), kiddie roller coaster, some sort of airplane ride the kids can go on. Adults can go on all the kiddie rides, too. For adults there are the swings, tea cups, 'Magic' which is AWESOME (hard to explain, but you get swung in all different directions), a roller coaster, and a few others.
There is one restaurant (Hungry Bear) and picnic areas. There are vendors hanging around selling drinks and popcorn and ice cream and such. There is a baby care area where you can nurse and first aid is there, too. There are one or two gift shops.
You can feed giant goldfish and you can feed black bears which roam freely in a big rock/water area that is below you. You stand above and throw cereal or marshmallows to them and they eat them. They are ADORABLE. The bears are our favorite part. There's also a deer park where you can walk among the deer and feed them, but we never do as the ground is filthy with....deer droppings and such.
It can get tiring walking around as it's spread out and it's hot. I advise getting there when it opens or waiting until around 2:00 to get there because around 11:00 or so the lines for kiddie rides are AWFUL. If you get there in the afternoon you should have enough time to do everything with no problem. It's open until it gets dark altho the park closes to new customers at 6:00. If you are thinking of getting there late, I would find out the schedule first, in case you can't make both shows in that time frame. We don't really care about the shows so we don't do more than one. I THINK one show is the trainers talking about the marine animals and how they teach them and take care of them, etc., and the other one is definitely a performance show with a realllllly bad storyline. They have a new thing now..you can pay to feed and pet a whale or dolphin. That was fun but we got a whopping 30 seconds with our dolphin and only our paying daughter was allowed to pat him on the head. She had the pleasure of dropping a raw fish in his mouth and she got to choose if he waved to her or 'spoke' to her. We had him wave as when you're in line you can hear them all 'talking' anyway. You can only do this at certain times of the day (feeding time).
Last year they had a special where for only an extra FIVE DOLLARS CANADIAN you could ALL get in for free again the next day. If you're from Ohio I assume you'll be in a hotel anyway. See if they're running that special again if you want to go for two days.
They have a website if you google it. It has videos and such you can watch to get a feel for it. Pricing is around $26 American for adults and maybe $18 for kids? Bring the kids' birth certificates and each of your licenses and a passport if you have one. They gave us a very hard time over the kids last time because we didn't have their birth certificates.
If you have any other questions, just ask.
Personally, if your only reason for heading north is Marineland, I'd skip it. But if you're doing whole Falls thing and making it a vacation, go for it. You could throw Canada's Wonderland in there, too, if you wanted, altho it's about two hours more north, in Toronto. Wonderland is HUGE, and also has a website. Also, you said you'd never been to 'a' Marineland before. I believe Marineland is the only one...it's not like Sea World in that respect.
BeMerry84, No Six Flags was bought out here. It is now back to Geagua Lake and No Sea World.
Kate, thanks for all that info! We are planning on going up there with another family. So we will probably still do it even though it sounds pretty small. The kid have never seen the falls or been to Canada for that matter. I know they would still love it although it doesnt sound like it is worth the money. According to the website it is like $36.00 or something like that!
No, no, no, that's $36 Canadian. There's also a small playground if they need to let off steam.
When are you going? Every year we get $3.00 off each admission coupons in our newspaper. We might not go this year as we are going to DisneyWorld. Also, I often get two of those coupons. You can use it for up to six admissions for a total of $18.00 off. If I don't use it or I get doubles I would be happy to mail you a coupon! It would help out six of you!
You can coupon booklets at little shops when you cross the border. My kids love Marineland! I would agree that Wonderland is WAY better, but it's also totally different. We get seasons passes for Wonderland.
While in the Falls, you can walk around and look at all of the cool sites, drive a very short distance to a butterfly house, etc. There's lots to do.
Some pics we took a few years ago...
Bellajoe, when did they change back to Geagua Lake?? Sorry about that, I'm glad I saw your post as we were planning on going there again. I think we too may check out Marine Land, from the looks of Marcia's pictures I think we would enjoy it. I can't believe I never heard Marine Land and we are only 20 miles south of Detroit/Ontatio border.
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