Just had a wild 40 minutes at the "under the sea adventure" in Victoria's inner harbour. It was recommended in our usually spot-on Frommers guidebook.
After walking onto what appears to be a small houseboat and ponying up 30 bucks, we descend a long dimly lit staircase to the undersea "natural acquarium" where we can see all kinds of fish and sea creatures. At the top of the hour, a scuba guy goes into the tank to show us some of the tough to see sea creatures.
What Frommers doesn't mention:
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the water is so murkey it's tough to see many of the fish
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rockfish don't really move much
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we're entertained by "Baby Beluga" and the entire Raffi song collection on the PA system
-The poster about the scuba guy is a drawing of a giant octopus which is twice as large as the human, with "Descent Under The Sea" in evil red letters. The voiceover of the scuba guy (I should really call him Matt) is one of these James Earl Jones types, talking about how Threatening and Untamed the sea has been to humans.
- the actual octopus is about 2 feet long and the wolf eel (drawn as scary as Satan himself on the poster) is described as the friendliest fish in the tank.
All in all, it was cheesy. Really cheesy. True to form, the kids liked it, but the owners could really do with updating their presentation. And cleaning the tanks.