Check me out getting out and about to all these new places – last week you got a Beamish Open Air Museum review and this week you’re getting a cheeky review of The Deep in Hull. 😂
Before I tell you about The Deep itself, I thought I’d just let you know that I used my Tesco Clubcard Vouchers to pay for our entry which was a bit more complicated than it usually is when redeeming vouchers.
The actual buying of the vouchers was just as simple as it always is, just choose The Deep on the Tesco Rewards site and redeem however many Tesco Clubcard vouchers you want to redeem to pay for your visit. But after that, you need to pop over to The Deep’s website to book a timeslot using a code you’re given when you buy your vouchers. That’s the only difference but it’s an important step as you won’t get in without a timeslot.
So, I redeemed my Tesco Clubcard vouchers, booked my timeslot, and off we went the next morning.
I’ve never been to The Deep before but I’ve heard lots about it over the years. According to Google (so it must be true 😂 ) it’s the largest and most spectacular aquarium in the world filled with all kinds of marine wildlife from penguins to rays and from sharks to smaller animals like frogs and even ants.
Admission Costs – £17.75 for an adult, £14 for a child aged 3-15, with children under 3 going in free. There are no family prices which is unusual (I think) for somewhere like this. Your ticket does allow you unlimited visits for 12 months which is good for reasons I’ll explain shortly – just be prepared to get your photo taken on entry the first time so they can verify it’s you for future visits. Don’t worry if you’re not looking your best though, it’s not printed on your ticket or anything.
We arrived at 10 am and had no problem parking – someone even gave us their parking ticket as they’d already been in and out by that point which seemed a bit odd but it saved us the £3.75 parking charge so we didn’t think much of it.
As usual with my reviews of places I’ve visited and enjoyed, my sensible actual review of the attraction pretty much stops here because, as soon as I get in and start enjoying myself, I forget that I’d planned to write a review and just take random photos of the things that catch my eye.. 😂
There are lots of interactive sections as you walk through the first section of The Deep which is filled with information about the last couple of million (maybe billion, told you my review would be sketchy) years of Marine history. It’s quite a dark section with some interesting-looking fossils and creatures which I won’t lie, did scare a couple of kids while I was in there and I saw a few parents walking very quickly through the exhibit. It wasn’t an issue for most though and we had fun having a go on the exhibits and learning about the Oceans.
The main aquarium area was as beautiful as you would expect and there was so much to see in there that we had a seat on one of the benches and just enjoyed the view for a while. This guy was my favourite although I spent so long watching him that he was bored with me by the time I remembered to take a photo so I only caught his retreat…
In this area, there was a cool sand area where kids can use a brush to uncover some fossils which they can learn about and some glass cases that looked like they could have been an interactive exhibit where kids (and their grown-ups) could hold various items and learn more about them but there the member of staff must have had to pop away so we left that bit and forgot to go back to it.
This little fella and his friends were next up on our wander around…
He refused to look at me and all his friends were swimming in the water so this was the best photo I could manage but isn’t he cute? I love penguins and seeing them all splashing about was probably the highlight of the day for me.
One thing about the Deep is that their main tanks are huge and they’re designed so that you can see them from various different angles as you walk around so a couple of minutes later on our journey, we got to a viewing point for the underwater view of the penguins which was just as lovely seeing them swimming around so happily under the water.
There were lots of smaller tanks of fish as we wandered around filled with some of the most beautiful fish and I don’t know about you, but I find them so relaxing to watch.
There’s also a section for other marine wildlife such as leaf-cutting ants, frogs, and a couple of snakes but I think most were shy while we were there as I couldn’t find a lot of them in the tanks no matter how hard I looked. Not that I would have actually remembered to take a photo or anything if I had seen them. 😂
I did find a couple of leaf-cutting ants in their tank but they must have downed tools for a break as there was no leaf-cutting going on in that tank. I also spotted some very mean-looking frogs so I can’t complain about not being able to find too much – in fact, it’s one thing I like about places like The Deep that are committed to animal welfare and conservation, the tanks are all big enough that the creatures contained in them can move around so much that they might be in an area where you can’t see them.
Now to the reason why I’m glad that your ticket allows you to go back as many times as you want over the course of a year…
This was on the website when I booked the tickets but I presumed it was just a small exhibit and booked our tickets anyway thinking it wasn’t that big a deal but it seems like it’s quite a large and popular area judging by the disappointment of some people when they discovered it was closed.
I know it’s necessary to close to update things but maybe a temporary reduction to ticket prices or a guide to how long people would usually spend in that area of The Deep would be a good idea.
Oh, the last thing before you exit The Deep (aside from the gift shop) was a scenic lift you could take up to the top floor to see the aquarium from a viewing platform but the wait was twenty minutes and we didn’t fancy the stairs up so we took the exit turning and headed out.
All in all, I loved our visit and will definitely be back but one thing to consider was that we were done in less than two hours (this included a trip to the cafe which was pretty reasonably priced) which isn’t long when you consider the admission costs if I hadn’t have used my Tesco vouchers. We can now visit again though so I’ll definitely go back when the big exhibit opens up.
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