Attraction Source Forum

Now this may be completely wrong but ScreamScape and several other theme park websites are reporting this:
Merlin Entertainment broke out the checkbook once again this week and has purchased the London Aquarium which is right next door to The London Eye. I don’t know if a name change is in the works or not, but apparently the intention is to make the London Aquarium part of their Sea Life Center chain.
Now I can't find an official press release now, but I will check, below is the link to ScreamScape.

http://www.screamscape.com/html/industry_news.htm- Scroll down

It is true, some national newspapers were reporting this at the end of last week.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 864193.ece

This will be great as when I visited this time last year I found it to be a be rough round the edges and generally old and in need of a bit of a re-vamp.

What Sea-Life do do well is add that extra fun factor into aqauriums, whilst still keeping the central focus one of education/fish welfare.

Plus now even more Central London Value for the Annual Pass

Thom...

Maybe this was one of the reasons for upping the Annual Pass cost?

Merlin truly have their sights on UK domination. They need to spread there wings a bit and try and get more European parks open.

Interesting i think this is quite a good move by merlin

A sensible purchase I feel, in fact it's quite a coincidence too! Myslef, Kelly, Joel and DanB were only walking past their a fortnight ago when Joel mentioned its a shame Merlin didn't own the place.

I've never been in myself, although judging by the queues it had when we walked past, it seems as though it's pretty damn popular. I do agree with Dave though, a bit of European expansion wouldn't go amiss either, although my guess is they'll move into that in the next year or two.

Then in four years time they will be after total world domination!

or maybe not.

I'm assuming that entry will now be covered by the AP?

London Aquarium kicked off it's refurbishment programme late last month, presumably with them carrying the Sealife name upon completion. The signs at the Aquarium itself stated it was a £2.5 million refurbishment, whilst the website mentions it's £5 million. Either way, it's a decenty figure to revive what I feel is a pretty bland attraction inside.

The main new attraction will be the trademark walk through tunnel complete with a dive bell camera which can be controlled by guests to look around the tank above.

Currently the temperate waters, Atlantic ocean tank and the ray pool are unavailable, and the attraction is advising customers of the works at the entrance, and offering varying discounted ticket prices depending on what is open. Around 800 creatures have been temporarily moved to other Sealife centres whilst the work is carried out, with them returning in time for the grand opening in March 2009.

We popped down at the weekend and grabbed a few pictures. Apologies for the quality of some of them, they were taken in a bit of a rush :P

Signs at the entrance



A coming soon poster inside


Random bakcstage shot


A few shots of the work being carried out




And a shot from the Eye of a metal structure being built up outside, presumably a new Aquarium.

Yes, they will.

Yea my dad told me they had started alot of work on the place as hes been working on westminster bridge replacing the lights for the past few months iv never been inside myself but i will once all the work is done.

Going to do the Sea Life Centre on Tuesday with my pass. Is the theming impressive? That's all I am really curious in seeing.

I wish they'd add more to it... some of them have 4D movies, some have rides... do you think Merlin will theme-park it up anytime soon? There must be a lot of room in there!

Meh...fish It's a rather large attraction, but I wouldn't say it's themed any better then Alton's. The highlight for me is the soft, squishy floor in the jungle area.

This used to be the London Aquarium before Merlin bought it off very recently so some areas in the attraction would appear to be unthemed. They have some good fish there along with some nice pieces of theming. It is a good attraction but really and the Shark area is my favourite part, but this is really the old London Aquarium with a few bits of theming added to it, if you don't like this Sea Life attraction then there is a scare maze next door :P.

Great attraction, highly reccomended.

The shark tank is on three levels,

Lower level with a tunnel
Middle level
Top level you can actually walk across a glass above the tank (if you are brave enought!)

Don't forget the London eye is just outside the aquarium, which you can use your MAP pass to ride, so leave extra time to include that.

It's... Ok I guess... It's quite a nice place and is actually rather different in some cases to the original Aquarium...

One thing the Sea-Life thing has done is make it feel a lot more professional, especially as the old version was getting slightly run-down and not having anything new or different (I don't actually remember anything ever changing in my youth)...

I don't go there for theming, I go there to look at pretty fishes and waste a bit of time... Still that shark tank seating area is still relaxing, even if the place is busier than it used to be... Love it...

We went on the way to the eye, and we found it quite nice and relaxing. As people have already mentioned, the best bit is the enormous shark tank, although the tunnel was a bit overcrowded and disappointing.

It's a lot darker than the other aquariums I've been to, with very little natural light, which I found quite disconcerting. There were also some people stuck in one of the lifts!

David