Tour to Manila Ocean Park

It was my daughter's 4th birthday. She is very interested in having her own fish as a pet and always watching the movie "Finding Nemo" so we decided (me and my wife) to bring her to Manila Ocean Park to celebrate her birthday. We took a bus and left San Pablo City after lunch and arrived at Gil Puyat Bus Terminal around 2:30 pm. We should be taking a ride at a fx or shuttle van on their terminal located along Gil Puyat Avenue, but unfortunately there were no available drivers because they were all watching the Paquiao vs Bradley fight on that same day (what a twist of fate!). Hence, as an alternative we took the LRT going to UN Avenue and spent time walking through Luneta in the direction of Manila Ocean Park. It was a long walk yet refreshing as I can see the joy and smiles of my daughter as she runs on the field.

Its past 3:00pm when we reached Manila Ocean Park. I went to the ticketing booth and select on their available packages. I choose the package with tickets to: Oceanarium, Jellies, Sea Lion Show and Marine Life habitat. Since the Sea Lion Show will start at 4:00pm while the Oceanarium will require a large amount of time, we decided to visit the Jellies first.

The Jellies is a dark display area of different species of jellyfish. We were amazed of the jellyfish and how their bodies is translucent to light. In the beginning, my daughter enjoys watching them at a 1 meter distance. She doesn't want to get too close because she thinks the jellyfish might bite her. A few minutes has passed and she already got used to the jellyfish peculiar appearance and confirmed that they can't bite her from the display window. After we finish looking at the jellyfish, we went to the Sea lion Show.

one of the two sea lions entertaining the audience.

The Sea Lion Show starts at 4:00pm. It's only 3:30 pm but the entrance for the show is already packed with spectators trying to get in early to get good seats with a better view. We were not able to get the best seats, luckily our camera has 21x optical zoom so we still got fine shots. The trainers on the show were both good hosts and the Sea Lions are full of life and entertaining. They do tricks, games, dance and interacted well with the audience. The hosts also gave one lucky audience the chance to go up on stage to touch and have fun with the sea lion. There were smiles everywhere. Everyone has taken pictures of that cheerful moment. The 30 minute show ended with everyone satisfied. As the trainers and sea lions are exiting, my daughter and I waited at the side of the hallway to see them closely.

The last part of our trip is the Oceanarium. The Oceanarium is a marine life exhibit and the main attraction of the Manila Ocean Park. On display are 5,000 varieties of marine creatures from around 300 species native to the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

sea horse

cow fish

A stingray that passes over us

One of the sharks in a separate aquarium.

My daughter is overjoyed to see so many fish specially when she saw a clown fish and she said: Ahh!... si Nemo!...tingnan nyo oh!... si Nemo! ( Ahh!.. Its Nemo!.. look.. Its nemo!..). She was very lively and active watching all the fish from different parts of the Oceanarium. There is also an underwater tunnel stretching 25 meters long. We rested on the seats at the side of the tunnel while watching different fishes interact with each other. The sharks are the last fish on display at the Oceanarium. My daughter watches the sharks closely and asks why some are not moving and we told her that they are sleeping. Then she remarked: yun isa shark, bakit s'ya nakatingin sa atin...bakit sya nakangiti? ( why is that shark staring at us...why is it smiling?) and we just smiled at her.

Our tour at the Manila Ocean Park took us roughly 3 hours. It would have been longer if we visited Trails to Antartica and other MOP activities but we are already tired and opted to see it next time. We ended the tour by visiting the souvenir shop located at the second floor and as expected of my daughter, she choose the Nemo stuff toy.

Manila Ocean Park is located behind the Quirino Grandstand, in Luneta, Manila. A must see attraction and tourist destination the whole family will love.