4400 Rickenbacker Causeway
Key Biscayne, FL 33149
305-361-5705
www.miamiseaquarium.com/

On the surface it seems that Miami SeaQuarium is special needs friendly. We were amazed to find that those in wheelchairs and mobility scooters have free admission and free parking. Some places do this because there's very little that's accessible, but that's not so. Only one show is inaccessible, and pretty much everything else has access.

Unfortunately there were some problems with this parks handling of special needs, but before I go into our experience there, I'd like to talk about the park in general. Most of our readers will be going down to Miami before or after visiting the Orlando area. I feel compelled to say that compared to SeaWorld in Orlando, MiamiSeaQuarium doesn't hold a candle.

SeaWorld is one of our favorite parks for so many reasons. The animals are in beautifully designed natural habititats with great visibility for the guests, and the park itself is attractive, nicely themed and pleasant to be in. Access to just about everything is easy, and there are so many wonderful varieties and numbers of animals to see. They appear healthy and well cared for. The park has highly entertaining and even dazzling shows. The price of admission is well spent. 

On the other hand, Miami SeaQuarium is visually unappealing, there are few animals, and they're mostly in small pools that have little to no resemblance to a natural habitat. They look more like small, barren cement pools, and it's almost sad to see. The entire park appears extremely worn and though I didn't see trash, it somehow felt dirty. The "people moving" practices are not great. The shows don't come close to the quality of those at SeaWorld. There's simply very little to see at this park. At $38 per ticket for adults, we felt it was not even close to being worth it.

Now for the issues we encountered. My wife drives an electric mobility scooter. These are not designed to get wet, and as with any electrical device they must be protected and kept dry. We arrived at the Whale and Dolphin show just after it had started. The employee at the entrance directed us to go across to the very end of the seats in the amphitheater, which are right in front, next to the tank.

We were hesitant because we could see water on the ground near the employee. My wife told him we didn't want to get wet, but he gestured to tell us to go. We could see a bunch of people in wheelchairs, so we headed over there. When we got there we could see blue lines painted on the ground to show where wheelchairs should park, but there were no slots left. Not knowing what to do, and with no employee in site, my wife pulled up next to the slots, in front of the stairs to the left of the wheelchairs - the only place possible for her to pull in.

By the way, most of the theater is under cover, but the wheelchair section is in full Miami sun. As there was no other choice we stayed there. I had to sit some distance away from her, on the right side of the wheelchairs, on some steps. A couple minutes into the show, a dolphin made a huge splash that hit my wife and her scooter. She immediately took her sweater and wiped down her scooter's control panel, and her face. All of the handicapped section got wet, along with me at the very end of the seating on the stairs (my wife was the only person in an electrical scooter - the rest were in manual wheelchairs).

Next the whale started splashing the audience with even much more force on the other side of the pool. When he started swimming this way she got on her scooter and drove it just beyond the end of the handicapped seats and behind a little metal gate. This area was just beyond the edge of the pool, and she wanted to protect her scooter from water.

Within a couple minutes an employee who was obviously handicapped himself walked over. He told her she had to move. My wife tried to explain that she and her scooter had gotten wet and wanted to protect her scooter from any further splashing. The design of the theater made it almost impossible to just leave without getting wet or disturbing other guests, or we would have just taken off. He insisted she go back where she had been, and told her that she had NOT gotten wet. He actually yelled and argued with her until she went back.

I could understand some insistence if she was in any kind of danger where she was, or if she was blocking others. Any reasonable and truly concerned person would have let her stay or helped her to somewhere dry.

The first mistake made, in our opinion, is that Miami SeaQuarium has the handicapped seating placed right by the water tanks. It appears that they've tried to keep the splashing of that section to a minimum, but it's not a plan that works. They should at the very least, warn guests in wheelchairs and scooters that they could get wet so they can choose. Second, they should not have let us into the theater when there were no more handicapped seats left. Third, an employee should have walked us to the handicapped section to help us quickly find somewhere to sit. And lastly, that employee should not have handled the situation in this manner.

One last thing of note for those with special dietary needs. There are a number of restaurants, but they're unable to make accommodations for special needs. Although there's a sign displayed saying that no food or coolers can be brought into the park, we brought a small soft cooler bag with food, and we were not questioned.

So to conclude, if you have a choice between Miami SeaQuarium and SeaWorld, we feel that there's no contest. In fact, there was a promotion and I was given an annual pass, but I don't feel even slightly tempted to go back.     

 

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