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London Sealife Centre

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soundwave96

TS Member
I have started this topic because i have been to the London sealife centre and i thourght it was great and the size of the place is brilliant you could spend more than 30minites and i would go again.

please put your reveiws i would like to hear them. ;D
 
Re: London sealife centre.

I went fairly recently with my girlfriend because it's on our annual passes. I enjoyed it overall, she didn't as much because she's not as much as an enthusiast as me and she doesn't like fish. A few points I thought when I visited though:

When I visited there was an hour queue for the people who had yet to buy tickets, these people were waiting outside and honestly I felt awful when I waltzed straight in. The other thing I noted was that the annual pass entrance was well hidden, more signs and queue line entertainment please!

When you first arrive its very similar to Birmingham SEA LIFE, very 'on brand' if you get what I mean. Fish wise I was very impressed, there was a good range and I liked how many there were to a tank. The one thing I really didn't like was the fact that the penguin enclosure was so very small. It needs to be a bit bigger.

Obviously with a London attraction the queues will be very very long, at times however it was very awkward having to dive from people's photos or having your tootsies trodden on! I don;t know how they could reduce this?

There was a fairly big queue for the walk through tunnel and the area before that seemed like wasted space.

The fact you leave into a gift shop which is unthemed and very un Merlin surprised me. It just seemed like a tat shop and not a proper gift shop, harsh words, but honest. Why you leave into a McDonalds queue as well I'd never understand.

7/10 strong annual pass fodder, but no more than an hour's visit and very pricey.
 
Yes I agree because the queues were long and I had a probblem finding the Merlin entrance but we though that we had to wait in the long queue but then we saw the Merlin annual pass entrance and went in there and the prices are really high and the leading out in to the shop is not a good idea and they should definitely change that so that you come out of the buliding were there is no people that you have to struggle to get past because they can't make there mind up about what they want out of the shop.

The penguin area is small considering the amount of people that are in there at once a part from that the penguin area is great and the tunnel that you can walk through is brilliant and something different and is good because you feel like you are closer to them.

The one thing that I was suprised with was the size of the place because looking from it from the outside it looks like it is going to be small but is not it is big.

It is a bit like the one in Blackpool but the one in Blackpool is a lot lot smaller but has the same type of fish and there is not a Merlin anuual pass entrance and the queues are not as big but that is because it is not the capital city.

But I do totally agree with you about the shop it does not look like Merlin own it and it does need brighting up and made to look like Merlin own it.

Thank you for your review. ;D
 
The thing to remember is this was not a Sealife until a couple of years ago so it hasn't got the consistent brand. Previously it wasn't a Merlin Minion
 
I imagine that the shop doesn't look like it's a Merlin shop because it most likely isn't. That building is a mish-mash of different attractions and outlets mostly owned seperately.
 
I just like how the exit doesn't lead directly into the shop, but into the Horror walk-through attraction, perfect for all members of the family!
 
Hmm, Sea Life I'm not particularly fond of and I find the London attraction to be a frustrating experience to visit because of how packed in it gets with all the buggies. They are interesting in their own right and do have their own personalities but they still feel a little sterile for me to actually care about them, possibly because none of them were Merlin ventures until recent years.

It kind of doesn't help that whenever I traipse through it's always towards the end of the day after we've done Tussauds/Dungeons and the many hours spent in there just knacker further! :p
 
Alexsutton said:
I imagine that the shop doesn't look like it's a Merlin shop because it most likely isn't. That building is a mish-mash of different attractions and outlets mostly owned seperately.
Click to expand...

This may sound like a very silly question, but who owns the shop? Any ideas?
 
I visited last year on a trip with my girlfriend to London and thoroughly enjoyed it... One of the best SEA-LIFE's I've been to (although for its size, the Towers one still edges it in terms of how much is in a small space) and we paid for entry...

Whilst it isn't exactly cheap, nor could you spend a whole day there, we had a good couple of hours walking round and thought it was very good. However, I'm easily pleased when penguins are involved, so that did help! Sea-Life centres do struggle in terms of cost against the amount of time you spend in them, although I'm unsure how this could be helped really.

In terms of exiting into a mish-mash of McDonalds, a scare attraction and Namco... County Hall is owned by all sorts of different companies, and the Sea-Life itself wasn't even a Sea-Life until recently, hence why it isn't as 'Merlin' as many other of their ventures.
 
I went there today.

I was picking up my Merlin Annual Pass, taking advantage of my newfound moneys and the MAP sale, and I just thought to myself 'why the hell not?'. It was a bit weird being by myself in there, as it was mostly young families. But I enjoyed it. The exhibits are all very well done, with lots of interesting animals. The crocodile in there was actually moving, and seemed rather happy - I've never seen a crocodile move before, even in a zoo, so to see it swimming around was really nice.

Sadly, the penguins were closed today (no idea where they went), so ill be sure to return when they are back. The piranhas were also missing.

Overall, I'd say it's pretty good. I wasn't paying attention to how much it costs as I only cared about my MAP, but I'm sure with the usual 2-for-1 vouchers it's not too expensive.

Being honest, I was also in there to see if there was any hidden SW7 advertising, but I didn't see any.
 
See, I made the connection between piranhas and penguins. The outcome doesn't sound good either way.

Let's hope they correct this.
 
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