The Central Coast Marine Discovery Centre

Negative experience: Even though it was advertised as open it was locked with no one there not even a sign to say it wasn't open very disappointing

Fantastic experience: My son and I had a fabulous time. Molly and Richard were incredibly knowledgeable and great with explaining things to the kids! The colouring and craft area was great for when the kids wanted some quiet time. Definitely would return!

Fantastic experience: I went there a few months ago and it was super fun! I really like ocean things and the touch pool they have is definitely my favourite! Really great price for heaps of fun

Fantastic experience: Our 4yo had the BEST time here on Sunday! There was so much to do, we stayed for 2 hours The team at the centre were all super lovely, friendly, chatty and informative about marine animals. There were lots of exhibits to interact with, and so many craft activities to keep our little one engaged. The treasure hunt around the centre was heaps of fun! Our daughter really got into it hunting for turtles around the exhibits, and then she spent ages in the craft area with all the extra activities. Amazing value for the entry fee!

Fantastic experience: I think this was a perfect rainy day activity the staff where amazing and was good for all ages

Fantastic experience: Best place in the world, i had fun, there are lots of interesting and important stuff in the centre, including a theatre and a gift shop, staff were lovely and helpful, and the gift shop is great, loved it

Fantastic experience: A lot of love is put into this beautiful centre. The staff are wonderful and make this place so special! My daughters ( 4 & 5 years old) spend almost 3 hours here and really enjoyed the art & craft. Highly recommend!

Fantastic experience: This charming little museum is super kid friendly and packs so much fun info and hands on activities into their space, made even more wonderful by all the friendly staff and guides. There’s so much care and kindness put into it. Definitely glad we visited.

Negative experience: A little disappointed. Been waiting to take my three children here for a long time after good reviews, but went there today to a little disappointment that the best part where you can touch in the pool section is a look only section for school holidays. Also we got charged for my 1year old as the man at the front desk doesn’t ask how old and just basically assumed she was over 2. A little suggestion would be is to notify people before paying if the main attraction is not in service.

Fantastic experience: Great place to educate children & adults alike. Live feeding of seahorse & a Port Jackson Shark. Educational commentary provided. Plaster painting(At an additional cost) is available, along with coloring in, educational seek & fund activity. Some excellent related displays. Coffee shop next door till 2pm, includes snacks & ice creams. Our granddaughters enjoyed the experience & a shop offering ocean related souvenirs at a variety of budgets to help remember the visit. The granddaughters enjoyed the tour & participated in 3 different activities that were available & included in admission. Allow 1-2 hours depending on the number of activities undertaken.

Fantastic experience: A fantastic place to spend the morning, and perfect for little ones who love to touch and explore everything. My toddler companion spent a few happy hours touching everything in the touch pool and putting every shell to her ear to make sure she could hear the sea in every last one of them. My bigger kids loved the fish feeding, movies, craft and seeing Dave the Port Jackson shark. Great place with lovely staff and volunteers!

Fantastic experience: A great place to spend some hours with the younger ones. There are lots of interactive activities they can be engaged in. Loved it

Fantastic experience: If your kids are interested in the world around them they can get a lot out of this place. We ended up spending two hours here, enjoying the displays, craft activities, touch pool and cinema. 12pm is fish feeding time, which the kids got to help with. Staff and volunteer very helpful and made it fun. Worth it.

Fantastic experience: Dave the shark is a legend

Fantastic experience: Delicious food and friendly staff

Fantastic experience: Small place but great information and very didactic, nice enthusiastic ppl showing you around

Fantastic experience: Kinda small but very cute little Discovery Centre. The animals are clearly well cared for. The staff were super friendly and knowledgeable. We took our 1-year-old who loved the fish and tide pool exhibit. She’s probably a bit young for the other activities - there was a whole room set up for arts and crafts with posters and learning activities. Definitely gets a recommend from us.

Fantastic experience: Lots of stuff to do here and great interactive experiences

Fantastic experience: Staff are friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. Great ue of small facility, lots of variety and VERY family friendly.

Fantastic experience: Knowledgeable and friendly staff. My nephew had a great time watching the fish feeding and painting in the craft room :)

Negative experience: Absolutely a rip off $18 Adult $12 for 4 yr old they have only 3 live display It was a total waste of time and money Save your money

Fantastic experience: My 8 year old daughter loved the experience. Her favourite parts were the microscope, the scavenger hunt, and the craft. There was a big range of bones, shells, artifacts and lots of information about them. The guide gave a short tour which was informative and she was very personable. Kids wanted to go back the next day.

Fantastic experience: Wonderful staff with lots of knowledge. Grandchildren had a great time.

Fantastic experience: It was a very entertaining, educational experience. The staff, especially Nigel, were wonderful people. So patient and knowledgeable. The children and adults had a great time. Thank you to all involved.

Positive experience: Best sit n watch the water cafe in Terrigal

Fantastic experience: A wonderful world of marine discovery awaits inside! Watching John feed was a treat. Very friendly and helpful and informative and fun. Thank you

Fantastic experience: Ate at the cafe ...only. It was Good

Fantastic experience: Fenced in, can release the children while you have a coffee.

Positive experience: One of our daughter's favourite places. The staff are friendly and helpful, the living creatures are always a bringer of smiles and all reasonably priced!

Fantastic experience: Great experience for the family.

Fantastic experience: Great place to visit with children. Lots of wonderful activities and the staff are wonderful! Educational as well as fun. Lots of variety.

Fantastic experience: It's pretty small place but the people are friendly and helpful with information about the animals. Lots of activities for the kids.

Positive experience: Nice park. The kids had fun

Positive experience: Our kid enjoyed the food feeding session, painting & treasure hunt. Think $16 adult ticket is little expensive for such a small centre.

Fantastic experience: What a great place...the staff so knowledgeable and we loved the fish feeding

Positive experience: Great staff... vanessa was a joy for the grandkids

Fantastic experience: Wonderful day out. Kids love the treasure hunt and the craft! Will be back soon

Fantastic experience: Kids had a ball! Jon was a wealth of knowledge and sent kids on a treasure hunt that they thoroughly enjoyed with treasure at the end! I had a fall prior to entry and Jon was amazing helping however he could. Highly recommend

Fantastic experience: Very informative. Well laid out. Enthusiastic staff. Good for children

Fantastic experience: We spent a lovely morning here. Yes it is small but the person guiding us round really made the experience, she was enthusiastic and knowledgeable and the kids loved it. Cafe and playground just next door too.

Positive experience: Visited the centre today with 22 month toddler. She loved watching the fish especially when staff member Vanessa brought some food out for them, and then doing painting in the craft room. Centre is a great place to go when weather is not good and has great access to cafe and park next door. Will definitely visit again

Fantastic experience: My grandchildren love this marine museum, so do I, the staff are wonderful, we learned a lit about sea life. We will be back!

Negative experience: OK for a rainy day but extremely small , smaller than a 3 a bedroom house. Not much to see, you'll see it all in 30 minutes or less, staff are friendly. You could spend more time if older kids wanted to read more or learn more instead of just looking. The treasure hunt was a saviour , kids loved it. But there's hardly any fish or live animals. Gift shop is expensive too.

Fantastic experience: Wow!! I wasn't expecting that. This place is great. So affordable and the volunteers are really friendly & knowledgeable of all their exhibits. So much to see and learn about. The shark teeth & whale jawbone & ribs are amazing. The kids loved the craft area and shell search game. Definitely worth the price of admission. Good job.

Fantastic experience: Wow! Fantastic renovation, great for getting the children involved and interested in our magnificent ocean with so many activities to learn about the sea and it's creatures.

Fantastic experience: Lovely little spot to grab a coffee. Staff at coffee shop very happy and welcoming.

Fantastic experience: A great couple of hours. We went with our 2 Grandsons and they had a ball. The younger one loved the fish and the other all of the interesting facts and information provided by the guide. He also loved using the microscope looking at shells etc. Well worth a visit.

Fantastic experience: Hidden Gem! The volunteers are so dedicated to the cause and Marine Life Education. We went with 3 kids aged 2 to 5 and they spent 2 hours there. More suited for pre-schoolers and above and younger kids who are interested in Marine life.. ours were very keen. Perfect little find for an indoor plan sorta day.

Fantastic experience: Great place to spend an hour or two as an adult or with children, reading learning playing or researching.

Fantastic experience: We took our grandchildren to the Marine Discovery center today following Covid safe practices. They enjoyed seeing the displays which have been upgraded. Our experience was enhanced by the amazing volunteers who explained in detail the displays. Our grandchildren then enjoyed doing craft. Thank you to all staff who made their experiences so memorable.

Positive experience: A good bit of educational fun for the kids and a fabulous Cafe and playground for the whole family. It's small and easy to cover in a short amount of time, but the volunteers that help out are lovely and keen to share their knowledge with you.

Negative experience: $16 for two kids and one adult... Not that much to see

Positive experience: Col's passion for the Marine artifacts he's collected is infectious. From the excellent introduction to Gavin the leafy sea dragon, through to the excellent treasure hunt, and stopping off at the whale station on the way, it's a great way to spend half a day.

Fantastic experience: Great for kids to learn about the marine environment.

Fantastic experience: Great little hub fir the kids and a wonderful coffee shop with a huge play ground . Coffee with a friend Adventure with the kids a great safe location . It’s by the water so you still need to keep a lookout for kids

Fantastic experience: Cute little place I think ideal for younger school aged children. Do not attempt with a toddler. If you have two parents available take the toddler to the park next to it and enjoy a coffee and let them play the park is great and fenced.

Fantastic experience: Educational and fun for the whole family. Speak to Karen and Fyn, they're awesome

Fantastic experience: This place allows you to learn so much about manine animals. Everyone is always so involved with land animals, they really make you care about aquatic ones too. Will be back for more learning opportunities

Fantastic experience: This is a great place for Marine Mammal and fish enthusiasts both children and adult alike. A great little place to to take you kids on the weekend. With lots of great educational activities and amazing displays, plus activities and programs for schools. I've started volunteering here to get experience for paid work. A very good place right on the river, plus it's close to Terrigal Haven for Whale Watching.

Fantastic experience: Fun for the kids educational

Fantastic experience: A fantastic place to learn about the wonders of the Oceans. Friendly and informative staff. Really great. Highly recommend.

Fantastic experience: Very interesting, enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff.

Fantastic experience: Nice and relaxed, very small....however a lot of interesting things to see & learn about. There is a park life cafe there & a lovely play ground, with flying fox & pirate ship.

Fantastic experience: Staff were very helpful and friendly. Kids had a blast and learnt a lot. There is an interactive touching pool. Love how they provide free craft activities. There is also a cafe next door and a great park to play at after.

Positive experience: Love this place bit it could do with government or corporate funding. It's a great idea and a way to interact with sea creatures.

Fantastic experience: Found this place by accident. I was just looking for a place to have a coffee. Eventually learnt a lot about sea horses and sea dragons. Also saw a real life Port Jackson Shark. And the coffee was delicious too. I can only recommend!

Positive experience: Kids loved it a few crafty knick knacks.

Positive experience: Small, but nice. Really enthusiastic staff. They make the museum great and give you a lot extra information.

Positive experience: Interesting place but very small. Had to put in a bit of effort to keep little ones entertained. Still managed to burn a few hours there.

Fantastic experience: Outstanding! We visited with our almost 5 & 2.5 year old and they loved it! There is so much to do, don't be fooled by thinking otherwise when you see the modest size of the building. The staff are all as attentive as grandparents with young children. A great idea to go in the hottest part of the day when it's too hot to be at the beach too. Our kids didn't want to leave & haven't stopped talking about all the things they saw, learnt & did.

Fantastic experience: My family and I have been volunteering at the marine discovery Centre for years. We started off as patrons and fell in love with the place. It's a fantastic Centre to learn and love the marine system and amazing creatures. Also there's a variety of activities ,arts and crafts the kids and big kids will love. Lots to see and do. Come back again and again.

Fantastic experience: Great place for the kids. Cafe opening soon and lovely park next door

Positive experience: Great educational experience for kids with experts on hand to explaiin

Fantastic experience: A great volunteer run education centre. Please give these guys some funds!