Marine Life Park: S.E.A. Aquarium – photo update 01

Maritime Experiential Museum - Gateway

Let’s have a walk around the S.E.A. Aquarium at Marine Life Park and see what has changed since November 2012.

Admission Changes

S.E.A. Aquarium now has a non-peak and peak calendar for 2013. One Day passes have different entitlements depending on the day it was purchased for.


© Resorts World at Sentosa

The prices for Non-Peak One Day Pass and Peak One Day Pass remain the same, at $29 per adult and $20 for each child or senior guest. The student concession rate ($20) is no longer offered.

However, on Non-Peak days, each One Day pass include admission to the Typhoon Theatre.

On Peak days, admission to the Typhoon Theatre is a $10~15 add-on, and this includes the use of priority queue to S.E.A. Aquarium.

This add-on pass is called Priority Queue and does not include admission to S.E.A. Aquarium.

Typhoon Theatre - Non-peak Day
Non-Peak day: Typhoon Theatre included in admission.

Typhoon Theatre - Peak Day
Peak day: Typhoon Theatre + Priority Queue to S.E.A. Aquarium available as a $10 upgrade.


For S.E.A. Aquarium Annual Passholders:

Non-Peak days: Free admission to the Typhoon Theatre.

Peak days: Use of Priority Queue to S.E.A. Aquarium. Admission to the Typhoon Theatre only with a $10 Priority Queue add-on.


A walk around S.E.A. Aquarium

From my past few visits, the Aquarium is quite crowded on weekdays and very packed on weekends, to the extent where walking around is difficult.

S.E.A. Aquarium

S.E.A. Aquarium

S.E.A. Aquarium - Starfish

S.E.A. Aquarium - Coral Garden

S.E.A. Aquarium - Dolphin wall

S.E.A. Aquarium - Dolphin Island (blocked)

The Dolphin Island section is still blocked off at the moment, although there are some on the walls for guests who must have a photo with dolphins taken.

S.E.A. Aquarium - Dancing Blues

S.E.A. Aquarium - Jelly in the Light

S.E.A. Aquarium - Sea Jelly area

The sea jelly section at Ocean Journey is ever-changing. Every week or two one of the tanks is replaced with something new.


S.E.A. Aquarium - Under maintenance

S.E.A. Aquarium - Photographing Sea Jelly

The largest tank used to have spotted jellyfish when the aquarium first opened.

S.E.A. Aquarium - Sea Jelly n.03

S.E.A. Aquarium - Sea Jelly n.01


S.E.A. Aquarium - Sea Jelly n.04


Press A Penny arrives at Marine Life Park


S.E.A. Aquarium - Press A Penny

Even the S.E.A. Aquarium has a Press A Penny machine now.
Like the other machines at the resort, it’s $2 per coin, and you will need to turn the crank (or leave it to the Aquarium staff to do it for you).

S.E.A. Aquarium - Press A Penny overview

This machine is located at the Open Ocean Habitat (right at the entrance, from Ocean Journey, so it’s hard to miss).

S.E.A. Aquarium - Press A Penny designs
Here are the designs available. Collect them all!


Open Ocean Habitat

S.E.A. Aquarium - Open Ocean revisited

The world’s largest aquarium viewing panel looks a lot less empty than before with massive schools of fish filling up the waters.

S.E.A. Aquarium - Giant Manta Ray

The most notable addition here is the Giant Manta Ray, which swoops around with grandeur and always accompanied with schools of fish.


S.E.A. Aquarium - The Line

You might have heard that the Open Ocean’s viewing panel was vandalized by some irresponsible guests. A line has been placed at a distance from the panel, but as you can see…


S.E.A. Aquarium - Crossing The Line

It doesn’t work. There are still guests pressing their hands, feet (with shoes on) or even their faces on the glass.


The walk around the Aquarium continues…

S.E.A. Aquarium - Educational displays

S.E.A. Aquarium - Educational displays

Since the aquarium’s opening in November, most of the empty walls are now adorned with informational posters (such as the ones above) or decorative wall decals of marine creatures to enhance the overall look.

S.E.A. Aquarium - Thematic Walls 1

S.E.A. Aquarium - Thematic Walls 2

S.E.A. Aquarium - Spotted in blue

S.E.A. Aquarium - Star in blue

S.E.A. Aquarium - Lionfish

S.E.A. Aquarium - Clownfish

S.E.A. Aquarium - Moray Eel crowd

S.E.A. Aquarium - Shark Seas crowd

During weekends (especially afternoons), it may be difficult to walk around the Aquarium. The Moray Eel and Shark Seas areas are some of the most crowded spots.

S.E.A. Aquarium - Dinosaur invasion

S.E.A. Aquarium - Dinosaur invasion

Mystery of the Year: Why are dinosaur plush toys sold at S.E.A. Aquarium?


S.E.A. Aquarium - Overview

S.E.A. Aquarium – photo update is a serendipitous feature series on Dejiki.com. Unlike Universal Studios Singapore, the Aquarium does not change as often to allow monthly updates to be feasible. This series replaces my original plan to extensively write features on every single exhibit in the Aquarium, which would leave many people with less reason to visit this attraction.

As a serendipitous series, new entries will be published when a significant addition or noteworthy change is discovered during my random trips to S.E.A. Aquarium.

My original review of S.E.A. Aquarium can be found here.



Marine Life Park attractions series

S.E.A. Aquarium
Nov 2012 (Preview) | Nov 2012 (Full Review) | Feb 2013 | May 2013 | March 2014 | Feb 2021

Adventure Cove Waterpark
Nov 2012 (Full Review) | May 2013

Dolphin Island
Jan 2014 (Trainer for a Day experience)

Maritime Experiential Museum
Oct 2011 (Preview) | Oct 2016 (Pokemon Research Exhibition) | Dec 2017 (Redesign)

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10 Responses to Marine Life Park: S.E.A. Aquarium – photo update 01

  1. Luke February 15, 2013 at 5:13 pm #

    Hi Dejiki!
    I visited the Aquarium some time ago…and I really enjoyed it!
    I find the design of the route very interesting and smart. It makes use of the limited space very well.
    However, I was disappointed by the Open Ocean exhibit. It is certainly huge, but the collection of species inside the tank did not convey the idea of peeking into the great sea. (In my opinion).

  2. Zooish February 17, 2013 at 5:10 am #

    Hi Dejiki, there are a few changes from your photos already! The tank in your first sea jelly photo is now occupied by larger Moon Jellies. They seem to be having problems maintaining some jelly species hence the frequent changes. One of the covered windows to the dolphin habitat now has an infographics panel in front of it about dolphins in captivity and their care at MLP. The yellow tape in front of the Open Ocean window seems arbitrary with no enforcement from staff.
    I have to say that the collection at SEAA lacks variety. There are many fish species but few non-fish species. I’d like to see turtles, cephalopods and sea dragons added to the collection (Underwater World though much smaller and older has a more well-rounded collection IMO). As much as I love the mantas, they really don’t quite ‘fill out’ the Open Ocean tank as a whale shark would. Hopefully the aquarium team can introduce some suitable large fish (such as large tuna or less aggressive sharks) to add more points of interest in the Open Ocean.
    The next time you visit, you might want to consider going an hour or two before closing. Much like USS, the crowds die down tremendously near closing time. And I like that the staff don’t harass the last few visitors, letting them have a reasonable amount of time to complete their visit even though it may be past closing time.

    • Dejiki February 20, 2013 at 12:18 am #

      Thanks for the heads up and tips!

      I do agree that with mainly fish species, the exhibits at SEAA lack variety – they’ve just been adding more of the same to fill out the tanks.

  3. chris March 8, 2013 at 10:25 am #

    Hi Dejiki, thanks for the amazing photos. I’ll be going there soon and would like to capture some amazing pictures as brilliant as yours. Hope you could share some tips in taking the pictures such as settings, and lens that you used. Did you use CPL to cut out glare? Did you also use any flash? I’m a canon user. Thanks for your time!

    • Dejiki March 8, 2013 at 10:42 am #

      Hi Chris,

      The photos that I took are either with a 24mm or 35mm prime lens. Most of them are taken at f/2 to f/2.8. Almost all the photos are taken at 1/60 shutter speed. I have Auto-ISO turned on.

      CPL may not be ideal as the environment is already dark and the filter will block out more light. You will be able to find spots where photos will have minimal/zero reflections or glare from the viewing panel.

      Flash is NOT RECOMMENDED because it disturbs the marine life in the aquarium and you will not get good photos due to reflected light from the flash.

      My technique is to place my camera lens as close to the viewing pane (if you have a flexible/rubber lens hood, it’ll be the best) because it will eliminate reflections and stabilize my camera. This works perfectly for all flat viewing panels, but is not ideal for the cylindrical or bubble tanks, due to refraction caused by curvature of the glass/acrylic.

      Another important tip is to visit the aquarium either in the early or late hours so you won’t need to fight the crowd.

      • Chris March 8, 2013 at 1:18 pm #

        Hi dejiki, thank you so much for taking time to share on the tips. I will follow your guide and try it out. Cheers! 🙂 have a great weekend!

  4. Chris March 15, 2013 at 6:48 pm #

    Hello bro. Would like to express my sincerest gratitude to you once again. Your selfless sharings have indeed helped me to create some amazing photos. Thank you and have a great weekend!

  5. camille August 13, 2013 at 12:38 am #

    hi! i will be visiting singapore this october. since we only have few days to tour around, im wondering if this is really worth to visit or the river safari? i know the two places are of diff theme, but id like to ask your opinion on what place my money will get most of its value – sea aquarium or river safari? thanks!!

    • Dejiki August 13, 2013 at 6:21 am #

      Hi Camille,

      I would suggest visiting S.E.A Aquarium because it is complete. River Safari has a lot of exhibits which are not ready. However, S.E.A Aquarium is very crowded on weekends – sometimes the queue to get in can grow as long as 3-4 hours, so be aware of that.

      • camille September 2, 2013 at 3:12 pm #

        thanks for the reply. hmm, i wanted to go to both attractions! haha 🙂

        hmmm, how many hours do you think should i spend on river safari? is 2 hours enough? hopefully by october the river safari ride will be complete. 🙂 for marine sea aquarium, is 2 hrs also enough?

        thanks so much! your blog is very informative and it helps me a lot in planning my IT in singapore! 🙂

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