Institute For Marine Mammal Studies

★★★★★Bonnie Powers

I had an amazing dolphin interaction. Would highly recommend to everyone who doesn't want to go to Florida...very educational and interactive.

★★★★★Maria Dial

We've gone so many times over the years. My kids usually go at least once a year for their field trips and love it. The staff is friendly, the facilities are very clean especially the bathrooms, and there's plenty to do with the kids. We went on a rather hot day, but they have benches with fans actively going that you can sit underneath and that really helped.

★★★★Gamble Johnson

This place is good for kids and has enough to do to keep them busy for about two hours. The dolphin and sea lion shows were awesome. Kudos to those trainers for their time and work effort that they put in to make that possible. And kudos to the dolphin and sea lions for their hardworking as well. There is a area for the kids to touch and pet the marine life gently and a small museum. The kids enjoyed the train ride, the playground and they have a nice gift shop with trinkets for the kids to remember their trip. It typically takes about 2 hours depending on the show schedule. Theres also an enclosed to feed and pet birds. In all its good for a quick trip with kids

★★★★★Roux_504

I finally got all of my questions answered on what happened to the old facility and the animals after Katrina and it was pretty sad. This organization is still doing an awesome job in education people about marine life after all of these years. Everyone working on this end of the property were eager to answer all questions and educate you about every animal. This is more of a typical museum education component to the property while the Ocean Adventure seems to be geared towards entertainment. There is a great exhibit area that leads to the petting area. On the day we were there a couple of fish had just been introduced to the area so they were off-limits,but you were allowed to pet everything else after hand washing. The presentation about snakes and gators was informative and not boring at all. My only issue was the transport train that goes back and forth from the Ocean Adventure park to the Marine Mammal institute. Honestly you would get from point A to B quicker by walking as the distance really isn't far enough to warrant a train ride. It was a decent experience,but when we decided to head back to the Ocean Adventure area we walked. Its good to see this place thriving in the new location

★★★★★Grace Singingheart

This was a great experience. The kids enjoyed the encounter with the stingrays and sharks! It was an immersive experience the kids will remember. We planned this at the last minute, but next time we will sign-up for the Dolphin and sea lion experience. We all enjoyed the bird exhibit where we fed the birds. I really enjoyed the museum and found it be educational and interesting. We'll be back next year for another enjoyable experience.