The national Aquarium in Baltimore is one of the premier aquariums in the US in her latest opinion piece Melanie Howard describes a visit to the aquarium in which the actions of her fellow guests were rather unacceptable and caused her to have a negative experience.
Recent discussions on this blog have confronted this issue of guest behavior as pervasive to most aquariums, but I'm wondering if the reduced evening rate the aquarium had offered aggravated the situation. I appreciate that all aquariums offer reduced rates or even free days and that this is an invaluable service and tool for outreach to under served populations. But was offering such a reduced rate in the evening wise?
Recent discussions on this blog have confronted this issue of guest behavior as pervasive to most aquariums, but I'm wondering if the reduced evening rate the aquarium had offered aggravated the situation. I appreciate that all aquariums offer reduced rates or even free days and that this is an invaluable service and tool for outreach to under served populations. But was offering such a reduced rate in the evening wise?
1 comments:
The National Aquarium in Baltimore, like any successful public attraction, has a certain maximum number of people that is permitted in it at any time. If they are near the maximum, its usually a bad time to see the place. In general, there is a point where the fewer people around, the better the visitor experience. Having been at the NAIB during their dollar days (admission for $1.00) I can tell you that the resultant crush makes for a very unpleasant experience, no matter how well behaved the people are. Very few American aquariums (Monterey and Georgia come to mind ) are designed to absorb large crowds without diluting the visitor experience.
One way to alleviate this is to sell timed tickets, thereby keeping some sort of handle on the flow rate of people but at the end of the day, especially if you are really popular, the aquarium has to strike that balance and no one wants to turn people away. Reduced rate tickets are sold for evening hours because they are traditionally lightly populated.
In general, weekdays between the end of August and before school lets out in your area are the best times to go to any aquarium if you want to avoid a crowd. Find out when school groups come through and go when they don't.
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