Oklahoma Aquarium

This was my second trip to the Aquarium and I recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, interactive experience. On our first visit, we paid for the Behind the Scenes Shark Feeding Tour, which was a wonderful, educational experience. I would recommend this for older children and adults who are interested and engaged. It's a wonderful opportunity to learn fun and exciting factoids about the specific animals you're seeing. On today's visit, we had a 10-year-old with us, so we stuck to the "public" opportunities. These included free petting opportunities with several small "tide pools" and larger, timed opportunities to pet stingrays and jellyfish, as well as paid opportunities to feed turtles and stingrays. These exhibits were spaced out well to re-engage children who might be otherwise distracted. On a practical note, throughout the Aquarium were paper towels and hand sanitizer stations, especially around the more hands-on exhibits, there are benches and seating spread throughout for those who require or want frequent rest, and there are bathrooms at both ends of the Aquarium. There are clearly visible, easy-to-read signs throughout the Aquarium with information about the animals and plants on display, however, there are not many audio options. I would love to see an audio component somewhere in the future. Perhaps a QR Code that can be scanned for "guided tour" style information, that way people with learning disorders or who want more in-depth information can more easily access the information on the signs, even when there are lots of people in an exhibit and standing in front of the signs for longer periods is impractical. Over all, our experiences have been wonderful, and we will certainly be back. Highlights definitely worth checking out include: extremely active and playful otters, a shark tunnel, a large octopus, a large sea turtle, an electric eel with a voltage meter, and many more wonderful animals.