Saturday, 20 October 2018

Ascarium Aquarium Half Term Halloween Fun at Sea Life Manchester (Sponsored Review)

This half term in the lead up to Halloween, Sea Life at the Trafford Centre in Manchester (like several other Sea Life venues) has been transformed into the 'Ascarium'. From 20th October to 4th November you can take part in special activities to celebrate Halloween....


As well as all of the permanent exhibits, there are lots of special displays and activities for visitors to discover, highlighting some of the spooky creatures that lurk beneath the waves. There's also a special challenge to find the missing magic ingredients around the centre to help the Sea witch cast her spell and claim your reward!


The tour starts with Turtle Beach, explaining why Giant Turtles are endangered and the sort of projects Sea Life is supporting to help them, This is a short talk and is presented using projected turtles - and it's very effective and interesting.


We may have spotted one of the Witch's missing ingredients quite quickly.... we also found Dory!


The whole centre has been decorated and it looks great. Naturally quite dark and a little spooky, the pumpkins and cobwebs suit it well. Don't miss the singing Spooky Pumpkin Show.




I do love the giant stone lady in the biggest tank. It's amazing to see how much she has changed since my first visit to Sea Life before it opened in early 2015. The fish and my children got a lot bigger too!



Not all of the sea life is as classically beautiful. I still have a soft spot for them all though, especially the Pufferfish. He was on form ready for Halloween. Got his best grin on,..


One of the Arctic dwelling crabs was feeling friendly too. They are huge! The span of their legs can be longer than an adult's height.


Nothing so huge in the touch pool thankfully. Shrimps and Starfish. My youngest loves all kinds of animals and creatures, so he'd stand here for an hour if we let him. Thankfully the piranhas were NOT in the touch pool.



The prehistoric Piranhas, along with the truly amazing Alaxalotl were in the lair of the Sea Witch, or the Sea Rangers room as it's usually known, located beside the big hexagonal tank full of shoaling rays and fish.


The Sea Witch was the nicest and smiliest Witch ever and all of the children took to her - especially when she gave them their reward for finding all of her ingredients - a special Sea Life reusable Ascarium cup.


We bought the boys a Mission Pack each because they are only £4 and have 3 special badges, a Clownfish lanyard, a magnifying lens, pencil, trading cards and all sorts - I highly recommend it as a great value momento.

We had a really excellent visit. It takes around 2 hours or more if you complete the challenges or stay to play in the play area. The Ascarium has been really well done and the Sea Witch was superb. Thanks to all of the staff for making it such a good visit - and answering all of our random questions about feeding piranhas and how old the crabs are!


The Ascarium event is included in Sea Life standard admission price and single attraction tickets start at £11.95 per child. Book online to guarantee entry. Combi tickets with LEGOLAND Discovery Centre are better value and if you live close by an Annual Pass is excellent (we first bought them in 2012). Find out more on the Sea Life website and keep up to date with what's happening next on the Sea Life events page...

You can find out all of the Sea Life locations taking part in the Ascarium event here: 




We also visited Brick Or Treat at LEGOLAND Discovery Centre next door. 





Our visit was as guests to review and we were paid expenses for the day.

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