Aquarium at Moody Gardens

Fantastic experience: This was so much fun! Stopped here before getting lunch and going to the beach, and we (myself and my parents) had a great time watching the keepers feed the seals. Great fun, even for adults!

Fantastic experience: Very nice aquarium. Staff are friendly and very knowledgeable. They have a good assortment of fish, sharks, Jellyfish, starfish, and even have penguins. Price is a little high for aquariums but still worth it. Good place to get out of the heat and see and learn some cool stuff.

Fantastic experience: Enjoyed the aquarium and the staff. Informative and fun.

Fantastic experience: This was a wonderful family experience! Plus the aquarium is all indoors-great for a hot summer day !

Positive experience: The aquarium was fun. Not as many sharks as I thought there would be. The seals were amazing! The jelly fish room was cool. The rainforest was a disappointment. Did not see any monkeys or sloths. The walking path was also somewhat narrow and curvy making it a little hard to navigate with a stroller or wheelchair (we had both). There were also a ton of summer camp kids there the day we went and that really ruined the experience for us. I don’t think this place is worth what they are charging. I have been to the Dallas Zoo, Dallas World Aquarium, and Sea Life and those places were cheaper and a better experience. Honestly wish we could get at least a partial refund since we weren’t able to properly see the rainforest exhibit.

Fantastic experience: Great place, highly educational. It was very crowded but not so much so that it impeded the experience. Very well planned out space.

Fantastic experience: We loved the Aquarium! The best part was when we got to pet a shark and sting ray. Awesome experience for kids.

Fantastic experience: Lots of different aquatic life to see, very kid friendly, food was a bit pricey but the sit down restaurant was a good value.

Fantastic experience: My son had a wonderful time.

Positive experience: A fun and educational spot for families! The exhibits are well-maintained, and the variety of marine life is impressive.

Fantastic experience: Always a great time at Moody Gardens. I especially love to see the jellyfish and penguins!

Positive experience: Gardens are beautiful and the rainforest exhibit is full of lots of information and walkthrough wildlife habitats. Nice place to take kids, but it is pricey. Proceeds to go to wildlife conservation efforts and upkeep of the Gardens, but the general admission ticket alone is a lot. If you book online, you'll save about $10 per ticket, but you have to book at least a day in advance, otherwise the website will not let you book. Be prepared to sweat when walking through the rainforest exhibit.

Fantastic experience: Family friendly. Be prepared to walk but it's worth it!!!

Fantastic experience: Fist time here love the rain forest it was nice to see some animals

Negative experience: Same day tickets online are not available. Buying in person is considerably more expensive. I loathe gimmicks like this. And this has nothing to with ticket availability. Considering I was visiting Galveston for one day, I decided to skip the gimmick and visit establishments without gimmicks.

Fantastic experience: Much better than any run of the mill city aquarium. The seals and penguins are a good time for the kiddos.

Positive experience: Last big family outing before heading back to MN- honestly it was meh for my person- I'm really at a 2 star for the attraction but it entertained the kiddos and the wife was pretty pleased with the penguins so i added a star. pretty neat set up and types of fishes in the tank. maybe i am desensitized by the MoA attraction or might have enjoyed it more if there wasn't 5 sets of schools of screaming other peoples rude children on top of my obnoxious offspring. staff was plenty helpful when needed which was very low and in the beginning which is great. woefully overpriced but i guess the fishy's we're looking at need to be fed something.

Positive experience: The staff was incredibly rude and when I tried to exchange my gift shop accessories they said " Well its your problem not my problem" and my friend got his food burnt 5 times recommend not going to the aquarium also they gave my friend no refund they said that if they burn his food 5 times they will give him a refund - Mairaj Javed Sincerely To all of the people want to go to Moody Gardens Aquarium

Fantastic experience: Smelly but so cool. Lots of penguins.

Negative experience: Google opening/closing times are not correct. Ypu have to go to the Moody Gardens website itself to get the correct times according to the staff here. We learned the hard way.

Fantastic experience: Loved, loved, loved. Not everything is open on the weekdays. Food service was yuck. Bring your own water a bottle is 5.00. The website does not have the 2 day passes.

Fantastic experience: We enjoyed a lot and I recommend this place to kids they will enjoy definitely

Fantastic experience: Wonderful place!! Don't miss the opportunity to take a behind the scenes. Very special opportunity and equally special enthusiastic staff.

Positive experience: A nice aquarium overall. It's showing its age, but it is still a nice aquarium. There are plenty of exhibits to keep you busy for an hour or so. A must try if you are in Galveston.

Fantastic experience: It was a great place to go at least once! My fiancé, mother-in-law, and I were stuck watching the seals and sea lions!

Positive experience: Fun for the whole family, the Acquarium at Mood Gardens is a must visit. Try to visit off Peak Times, maybe on your way out of the island like we did on a Sunday morning. You will power through the many educational exhibits. You will be pleased by everything this place has to offer, including the Famous Marley the Penguin. We really enjoyed the jellyfish tanks with calming music in the background setting the scene. Being able to marvel at the many creations of the universe, the jellyfish are a must look to sit and marvel at.

Negative experience: One of the Worst Experiences – Save Your Time and Money Absolutely terrible. We came as a family of 4, excited to visit Moody Gardens based on their online offer of $45 tickets. We decided to buy the tickets online once we arrived. Big mistake. When we got to the aquarium, the lady at the counter coldly told us that we couldn’t enter unless we had purchased tickets one day in advance. No signs, no warnings – just turned away after driving all the way there. Now we’re leaving empty-handed and extremely frustrated. They wanted to charge us $240 for the family — way more than advertised. Total scam. The whole “Moody” experience definitely lived up to its name: we left moody, angry, and completely disappointed. If you value your money and mental health, stay far away from this place. Go somewhere that actually wants visitors and doesn’t play bait-and-switch games with their prices.

Fantastic experience: The Aquarium at Moody Gardens is beautiful and filled with a bunch of unique exhibits and animals. It is easily one of my favorite aquariums that I have ever visited. I'm an adult and I went with my adult friend, but it's a great place to bring your children and you can easily allow yourself to spend hours upon hours inside just gazing at the beautiful fish and other animals.

Fantastic experience: Great family place! Buy tickets online and plan to be there for the while day. Bring your own food to eat, there is an outside sitting area to eat in.

Negative experience: Not a lot of diverse aquatic life for the price they charge. If you have been at other bigger aquariums in the past and go for this, you would be disappointed. You will like this if this is the 1st time you are going to an aquarium. I would rather recommend spending your time at the rainforest pyramid over this aquarium.

Fantastic experience: Best experience of the sea life in Galveston

Positive experience: A little disappointing. Expensive (~$70 per person) this was for I think all access to all pyramids. Make sure you check for discounts (military senior, kid etc), a lot of things down or not working. I knew most of the fish, but couldn't find out names of ones not known. I would say the penguin exhibit was probably the best. Food! 1 Pepsi & 1 pretzel $10.41.

Positive experience: Fun as always, it was very crowded for March but my kids had fun. Eat before you go, food and snacks are expensive there. The paddle boat was shut down at the time.

Fantastic experience: One of the best aquariums I’ve visited. Non of the aquatic life seems neglected everything was clean and taken care of. My favorite were the jellies, moon jelly tank had a cool water ball which churned the tank water and made the moon jellies cycle in a cylinder shaped patter, gorgeous stuff. You can also finger a sting ray if you want with clean hands, also penguins and seals, and there are plenty of restrooms.

Positive experience: Very great experience. Maintained very clean and neat. I loved it a lot and very happy with it. I have visited with my family and everyone is very happy with the experience. They are very rare fishes which I haven’t seen anywhere. Must visited place for Aquarium lovers. Buy the tickets in advance since expensive at location.

Fantastic experience: We went to the aquarium while visiting from Oregon, and had a blast. Got to watch them feed the sea lions. Got to touch a stingray (I think). Great all ages

Fantastic experience: One of the nicest aquariums in North America for sure. Awesome exhibits and knowledgeable/friendly staff. It seems like they take really good care of the animals.

Fantastic experience: Amazing experience today with two little ones. Lots of different aquatic life to see with lots of info. We had a great time.

Positive experience: The Aquarium at Moody Gardens is a great island activity for kids and adults. The glass tunnel is our favorite. It's mesmerizing to see the aquatic life glide above you. We caught the penguin feeding time with a question and answer session with the handlers. There is some construction going on inside of one section of the aquarium, so one exhibit was closed.

Positive experience: We have been to lots of aquariums and this one was very nice.

Fantastic experience: Great place to sit and watch the penguins and jellyfish

Fantastic experience: Loved the value pass combo!! The aquarium was great!! Really enjoyed the penguins and seals! The exhibits were very well done!! The Rainforest was great!! The staff were very friendly and helpful!! The 20,000 Leagues was entertaining, but definitely aimed for the young audience! The Octopus 4D was good! Maybe a little wet!! The the 3D large screen shows!! Very informative!! Great way to fill a wet, cold, rainy day and learn something

Fantastic experience: I've never seen animals so energetic and happy in an enclosed environment. This place does a fair job and mimicking some of the environments, but they really nailed it with the animal well-being. Something special going on here needs to be replicated.

Positive experience: Lots of varieties of fish and other marine life, including seals and both northern and southern penguins. The jellyfish room is really cool. They have several different kinds of jellyfish and the translucent ones have colored lights in their tanks that slowly change. Combined with the relaxing music in that room plus the fountain, it’s like being in a spa. It’s a little pricey for something that takes less than 2 hours to go through which is why I took off one star.

Fantastic experience: This aquarium inside a pyramid doesn’t cut corners. I went here with my family during our Christmas break. This was the first of the moody gardens attractions that we visited. The aquarium was great with penguins, seals, and many fish in bright clean tanks. The fish looked healthy and happy.

Fantastic experience: Nice but very expensive. Food in the hotel restaurant has really gone down hill in the last few years. This said, the pyramids are always enjoyable and Ice Land was wonderful as always.

Fantastic experience: It was such an immersive experience! Every moment was captivating. There were so many different species to see and sometimes touch. My favourite was the stingray fish who was shy, and if you touched him, he would bury himself in the sand. I think his name is Gary. I would love yo visit again and again and again.

Fantastic experience: The jellyfish were my favorite!! A lot of walking & it has stairs & ramp options. Watching the penguins get fed was interesting & very informative. Truly recommend!

Fantastic experience: Didn’t take too many pictures. Lots of sea animals to look at. Kids love watching all the animals. Educational and just a fun place to hang out and waste a few hours of your time.

Fantastic experience: Absolutely fabulous experience here!! This was lovely and the staff is super friendly and knowledgeable

Fantastic experience: This was an excellent experience! We look forward to coming back again soon!

Fantastic experience: We bought tickets at the kiosks to avoid paying an online service fee for tickets. Walked straight in on a Friday during the day. No lines and not crowded at all. It was great! We took our time wandering through the exhibits and watching the animals. We loved the penguins, seals, and sea lions! The jellyfish room was our favorite! So memorizing! The tunnel aquarium was really cool and we spent a lot of time watching the fish and sharks in different viewing areas. Everything was clean and neat. Employees were helpful in the gift shop when we bought presents for our kids. I definitely recommend this aquarium! It was a highlight of our Galveston trip!

Negative experience: I live in Oklahoma, I drove up to come to the aquarium and the beach. I saw the aquarium online. Was not at all what I expected. It took me maybe 20 minutes to walk through and all I saw was penguins jellyfish and a few fish. Was not worth the money in my opinion. Once I walked through it I thought surely me and the kids missed something. So we backtracked just to make sure we didn’t miss anything and we did not miss anything. I was absolutely shocked. I will never go back. I was highly disappointed. In my opinion, what a waste of my time and money and I would love a refund because it was not worth what I paid for 20 minutes of nothing.

Fantastic experience: A fun outing for the whole family. We were 3 generations and we all had a great time.

Fantastic experience: Absolutely the best place I have been to by far. Very informative

Fantastic experience: Always great fun. Exhibits are wonderful. We finally timed it to ride Colonel Paddlewheel... Good time, good drinks and snacks. Highly recommend Moody Gardens.

Fantastic experience: Love the aquarium! It's indoor and cool; the family and I where there from 3-4pm. It's self paced and you can stay and look at the fish for as long as you want; keep in mind they close at 5pm. The seal lion and seals were my favorite!

Positive experience: Not the greatest aquarium, but still very worth visiting. Was a great visit for the kids. Lots of interesting things to see.

Fantastic experience: Tickets were a little pricey but you are getting your money's worth! Lots to do in the aquarium.

Fantastic experience: By far, this is my favorite I've been to in Texas! I had such an amazing time here! You get to see so many different types of animals, and you get to see them all up close. Everywhere you walk, they have little signs up for you to learn something interesting about the exhibit. It was so amazing that we walked through the aquarium 3 times!

Fantastic experience: The aquarium pyramid is definitely one of the best aquarium I’ve ever visited. It is beautifully and professionally constructed with so many things to do and learn. Whether you are looking for a weekend getaway for yourself or a fun and interactive learning experience for your little ones, this is a great place to explore. The aquarium is very accessible, friendly to strollers and wheelchairs. There are also plenty of places to sit, relax and reclaim your energy during the visit. If possible, don’t miss the seal feeding at 4:00pm! It was great to watch!

Fantastic experience: Really nice displays of the underwater world. I was impressed with the flow of seeing everything. There was not a rush to see everything. Very clean and well taken care of. Even the gift shop had reasonable prices and a great selection of souvenirs.

Fantastic experience: Loved the aquarium! There is a bit of a fishy smell but can be expected from the penguins. Loved petting the stingrays and hearing more about corals from the exhibit experts. My partner and I bought penguin plushies from the gift shop and are so happy with them. Parking wasn't horrible either, which is a plus.

Fantastic experience: Such a wonderful spot to bring your family. So much to see. This is a must visit when down in Galveston. So pretty. Very pricey but we'll worth the charge.

Positive experience: We really enjoyed the experience. I'm happy that we went as soon as they opened. There were lots of school-aged groups there.

Fantastic experience: I really enjoyed the aquarium. Beautiful fish, strange creatures, really cool to touch the sting rays.

Fantastic experience: It was a beautiful place I went for Mother's Day this year and It was not overcrowded. Many cool photo ops and nice flow inside the building. They have a sting ray interaction the kids enjoyed. PENGUINS were something surprisingly new for an aquarium. Love the walk through tank and a beautiful jelly fish area with cylinder tanks. I can't wait to try the other pyramid next time.

Fantastic experience: Excellent,very beautiful!!!, it is expensive but if your kid enjoys the aquarium it is worth it.

Negative experience: Paid $14 for water at this place which is ridiculous and then the rude lady with white hair and a pony tale made me throw it away! Bad policy and totally a money making gimmick on your behalf. Shame on you! That is not stated anywhere in your information. I’d like a refund. If you think that’s ridiculous then so is your no water bottle policy you sold me not to mention the whole aquarium is a joke and could be so much better and your staff is rude and ignore your questions. Waste of money to not be able to see through the dirty water in the tanks not to mention the tanks obviously closed. Not one mention as you walk in the doors that the waters dirty or needs cleaning as we pay $60 per person to come in to see dirty water and be treated rudely by your staff. I won’t be doing this again and I’m sure to tell anyone who asks about Moody Aqaurium to don’t waste your money to be this aggravated and disappointed

Positive experience: Pricey, but a fun addition to a family vacation. We spent about an hour and half walking through the aquarium. Kids had a blast, especially watching the penguins and the sea lions. Tip: bring your child's A/B report card and receive their admission free.

Fantastic experience: It's been a long time since I've been to Moody Gardens. The exhibits are amazing. We went on a school field trip. The kids enjoyed getting to pet the sting rays. The gift shop is full of treasures to take home.

Fantastic experience: My family and I booked a private penguin encounter for April 24, 2024. This included admission to the Aquarium. We truly enjoyed everything about our experience. We wandered the Aquarium for about 2.5 hours soaking in all the aquatic life and facts. We even got to touch stingrays! Before we headed to our encounter we stopped off at the souvenir shop, everything in there was absolutely adorable, it was hard for all of us to chose and the lady working was extremely kind but the stars of our day were the 2 penguins we got to meet and the young lady who assisted in our experience. She made our time exciting and very educational. You can tell she was passionate about her job. We left feeling excited and looking forward to telling others all about it!

Fantastic experience: We enjoyed our stay very much! Walking into the rainforest was full of different sites that you could listen to the animals. Unfortunately, four of them didn't work. It's kind of a letdown to do that right at the beginning. Someone should look into fixing it! After that though, it was awesome to slowly wander through the building and play hide and seek with the different animals. It had beautiful surroundings and the animals were very well cared for. One of the ladies named Sadie did a wonderful job of filling us in on the names of the animals and unique traits. I could have listened to her talk about every one of them! We did not come with children but would definitely bring grandkids in the future!

Positive experience: We came early in the morning on the weekend but there was still school field trips. We got in really fast because we already had gotten the tickets from the hotel so we went in immediately and got to see everything from penguins to jelly fish. They have almost every fish and plenty of learning opportunities.

Fantastic experience: I cannot say enough about this place! The penguins are loved so much. The exhibits are extraordinary. I love it here.

Fantastic experience: Great place for adults and kids.They have plenty of fish to see nothing really outdoors.But they do have nice little touch area for the kids.You see sharks and all kinds of other water creatures of course highly recommend 10 for 10

Positive experience: Facility is clean and staff is friendly. I was not too impressed for the cost, it is one of the smaller aquariums I have been to.

Positive experience: I love Moody Gardens, but it was sad seeing the seals. The aquariums are BEAUTIFUL, though!

Fantastic experience: We had so much fun! Wish we could have done Plam Beach and the glide thing that's outside, but it was too windy, and we had to toss our tickets since it was just a day pass :(

Positive experience: Its a good aquarium, with a good variety of sea creatures. The staff was particularly very helpful and nice. Can't say same about rainforest where they were just interested to get us out of there :(

Fantastic experience: We had an amazing time at Moody Gardens! We purchased the combo tickets that include the 3 pyramids and the boat ride. The pyramids are an aquarium, rainforest, and discovery museum along with the paddle boat ride. We spent about 4 hours in total and had lunch at the restaurant on site as well. The food was good and the service great. Well worth the money!

Fantastic experience: Awesome exhibits, lots of info. Took us about 2.5 hours to walk through, counting watching the penguins eat.

Fantastic experience: I took my baby daughter, and she loved almost every second of it. The only thing she hated was having to leave! Everything was great!

Fantastic experience: Fantastic day activity that will keep you and your family entertained for hours watching and touching fish.

Fantastic experience: Loved this place. Teaches kids and adults. Kids have fun while learning about protecting our environment and endangered animals

Fantastic experience: We just did the aquarium for an afternoon, and it was about $30 a person. A little pricey, but it was just my husband and I. But it was a fun way to pass the time and worth it!! The seals and penguins are definitely the highlights! They are very active and put on a good show jumping in the water and swimming around right in front of you. Some penguins even got close to the glass to inspect my husband and I, so that was cool! I kept finding myself saying "man all the animals here love to show off!" Definitely some of the more active animals I've seen in an aquarium. The gift shop was lack luster and I was a little disappointed in the options provided, but I managed to find a nice magnet for our fridge.

Fantastic experience: I saw a bird and I tried to pick it up but then the staff was like, "PLEASE DONT DO THAT" Like I was this close to picking the bird up (It was so soft)

Fantastic experience: I liked the layout of the aquarium especially the jellyfish area. It is on the smaller side for $38-41 for one adult. I would only come here if you’re already in the area and you’re looking for something to do. There is an area that you can touch stingrays, although it can be even more difficult if you come on the weekends and you’re surrounded by kids. The whole layout is wheelchair friendly. You can probably go through this in 30-60 mins depending on how many pictures and videos you take.

Fantastic experience: Came here on a weekday with my family including three kids ages 3 to 5. We had a great time and especially enjoyed watching the penguin feeding! The staff were all courteous and helpful and we enjoyed our visit very much!

Fantastic experience: Super clean, easy to navigate. All the aquatics looked / seemed happy. We really enjoyed ourselves. The penguins, seals, and jellyfish were the best!

Positive experience: What an amazing experience! Kids loved it! I wish there were a few more interactive things for toddlers. It’s tough to keep them engaged starting at fish all day. Staff were super friendly.

Positive experience: Great space to bring your kids. One of the cleanest Aquariums I’ve visited in a while. Wish that it had more active exhibits as there were a few empty tanks. Outside of that it’s good family!

Fantastic experience: Loved every second. Great penguin, sea lions, and shark exhibits. Pricey $40+ per adult. 18 months old free. It's worth it. 4+ bc of price.

Fantastic experience: Moody gardens is definitely worth a look at for sure. I recommend to go at least once! Tons of things to look at and we'll maintained. We went during the week so it was pretty quiet which allowed us to take in everything at our own pace. We did the tickets that include everything even though I feel it's hard to enjoy everything in one day considering everything opens at 10am and closes at 4 pm. There's simply just too much to see and do. As for as the aquarium goes we loved it. It's very comfortable inside with tons of things to see and do! Me and my wife have been before [2018] but decided to go back with our 2yo son. He had a blast looking at all the fish, touching sting rays and watching the penguins. We even had a quick show at their sea lion exhibit. Can't go wrong here!

Fantastic experience: It was excellent. They had a very large aquarium space where multiple animals lived. I was surprised to learn and see some animals I wouldn't expect in Atlantic/Gulf coast climates. They had a string ray exhibit where you can reach your hand in the water, and some of the sting rays will come up right to you, if they're in the mood (they're a little bit like cats lol). I liked the penguins and the jellyfish exhibits, they had turtles, sea lions, otters and sharks too. They had starfish and coral reefs and a lot of educational material - I lived by the ocean for over a decade so I wasn't expecting to learn much and there is still so much I was able to learn here, primarily about different oceanic habitats. It looked family friendly and accessible; there were a lot of photo opportunities for families whether of the marine life or for people. Definitely buy tickets in advance and in bulk if you can, you can save a lot by doing so. Buying tickets at the exhibit there weren't much savings. They did have the gift shop open but not much for food stands so definitely plan to eat before or after if you're not there on a weekend or prime time day.

Fantastic experience: We enjoyed this aquarium and seeing some if the fish and penguins being fed. There is a plethora of marine life here. I definitely recommend checking this place out.

Fantastic experience: Went here this summer, absolutely loved this place. Aquariums are my favorite and this did not disappoint. Would highly recommend anyone staying at the hotel to check this place out.

Fantastic experience: Came here during family vacation and had a wonderful time. They are pretty pricey, but it was definitely worth it as my 3yo had a wonderful time, we could have watched the jellyfish for hours and hours they were beautiful!!

Fantastic experience: They do an amazing job of getting people in. Went on Labor Day weekend. No issues. After visiting Moody Mansion and finding out about the family, we had to see everything moody in Galveston!!

Fantastic experience: Our children loved being so up close to the stingrays The jelly fish area was magical, and watching the penguins diving and sea lions swim was amazing. The divers were friendly and playful through the glass. My wallet took a hit, but it was worth it to spend an afternoon with the children.