Gulf World Marine Park

Gulf World Marine Park

Panama City Beach, Florida

Date of Visit: December 2014

gulfworldmarinepark.com/

Admission: $28

Hours: 930AM-4PM

Quick Intro

Gulf World was a decent aquarium in Panama City. It is the first time I was able to visit a zoo locally while visiting my wife's family, so that was exciting. It is pretty small, but we were able to spend a few hours here. While it opened at 930, most of the creatures weren't out until 11 or so. They had some cool exhibits including the closest we've ever gotten to Flamingos. Several animals that seem they are at every FL animal attraction were present such as Alligators, Stingrays, and African Penguins. It was a decent experience.

Highlights

There were two fantastic shows at Gulf World. The first great show was the Sea Lion show which also featured rough-tooth dolphins. The second was the Bottlenose Dolphin show. Each of these were fantastic dolphin shows and better than the dolphin shows at Sea World. They were easily the highlight of the visit.

Disappointments

The shows other than the dolphin shows were a waste of time. The first show featured dogs, cats, and a rat. The reptile show only had 3 animals. Other shows were uninteresting. When we got there, as mentioned earlier, most animals were not on exhibit. There is a lot of wasted space at this zoo too. Considering how small this place is, there should not be wasted space. It appeared that there was an effort to help this by constructing a new stingray area, but right now they need to fill some of that void. Also the reptile show was surprisingly disappointing. The gator even peed on half of the audience during the show. The other reptile out was a bearded dragon and that also had an accident.

Pictures

Macaw

Random turtle

Son loved this Flamingo exhibit

Tortoises

African Penguins

Sea Turtles

Sea Lions

Rough Tooth Dolphins

Mid-air dolphin

Again mid-air

About to splash!

End of the sea lion show. This dolphin and sea lion kissed.

Our son was thrilled after the rough tooth dolphin show.

End of the Bottlenose Dolphin show.

In the end, we were looking around for more, but poked our heads in and enjoyed ourselves.

Rating

I gave this aquarium 2.5 out of 5 elephants.
The reason for this rating is simple. There were two fantastic shows both involving dolphins, but other than that this aquarium was a snoozefest. The day started with empty exhibits and a dud of a show in "Feathers and Furry Friends." While some of the exhibits were cool like the turtles and the penguins, they were not as cool as other exhibits we have seen featuring the same creatures. The shows bumped this place up to average because they were that good. Other than the shows, this is a 1 elephant zoo. If you go here you have to check out those shows with the dolphins.

-Noland