Entrance Ticket Nausicaa, the biggest aquarium in Europe

CharLovesHolidays, Aug 2024

Disappointed and devastated. When I googled Calais this came up, it is actually a 35 minute drive so I grabbed an expensive taxi because I thought it is worth it and we can't be late.

We get there and my phone is nearly dead so I didn't get many photos. But the queues outside were ridiculous. We pre booked.

When I booked it said there were only slots left at 3.30 that day, I booked ages ago. So why were there a massive 'with tickets' and 'without tickets' queue. Surely there aren't any spaces left?

When we got inside it was mayhem, overcrowded, busy and disorganised. Someone has put a review on saying organised and not confusing at all, that was a sympathy review. Check my page, I don't give bad reviews typically. But here I am.

So overall

- WIFI didn't work.

- Queues massive and overcrowded.

- Barely saw the animals due to crowds and their habitats weren't great.

- didn't see the tunnel or big walls advertised? Do they exist or did we miss them?

- Too many Fake animals.

- No helpful staff.

- Escalator down didn't work.

- Queues for lifts.

Online says 4.5hrs average visit, we left about 40 mins as so stressful.

Hugely disappointed. Would not recommend.

Would be 100x better if less people. There was so many prams and wheelchairs and they couldn't see either.

Also interactive and helpful staff would go a long way.

adamsW2301MF, Aug 2024

If I could give it minus 5 stars I would. It is basically a human cattle market. Rammed with people. Can hardly see a single thing without pushing your way through the hordes. Completely over packed. Do not go!

Edit:- I made this review after being in there for around 15 to 20 minutes. Now after reading other 1 star reviews I can see this is a real issue with the aquarium. I would strongly recommend you do not visit this establishment. I can not word this strongly enough.

I have read the reply in other reviews and how they state that the number of guest they have are within the legal number of guest they can house. Something is seriously wrong here and I truly believe they are putting lives at risk. There are points at which you will not know which way is out. The number of guest stuffed into tiny corridors make it extremely unsafe if there was to be an issue. I would never have put my family into such an unsafe situation knowingly.

I do not advise you not to go just because I personally found it to be an unpleasant time. But it is clear their regard for your personal safety is disgustingly low. There was no way on earth that it was a safe environment. Exits in the seal enclosure were chained closed. Which on reflection I should have pictured. The pictures I have shared were actually at points it wasn’t quite so busy. There were times when the idea of getting my phone out of my pocket were basically impossible as protecting and holding onto my 2 year old son took precedence.

We asked for a refund and their best offer was to give us a stamp to return later that day! We rejected that offer as my blood pressure was higher than I can remember it getting. We went for a walk to call off and getting out side felt like being released from prison and not a nice one at that! After the walk we chose to eat at a restaurant opposite the aquarium. The waiters advised us that our experience was very common and that locals do not go. The que in and out was a constant stream of people. So at no point would it have been any different experience from the time we left until around 2 hours later. (purely due to being stuck in the establishment and not being able to get out once we were in) We entered at around 11. Managed to escape around 2 hours later. So add another two hours for our walk and lunch. You’re talking around 3 to 3.30. This issue was constant.

The advice on other reviews were to arrive earlier. Which is clearly a joke. We spent around 30 minutes in traffic, all of which seemed caused by the aquarium. In both directions. So you would need to arrive long before the actual opening time in order to get there before the doors opened. If everyone decided to take this advice the. The issue would be the same. If not compounding the issue.

So in conclusion I obviously you make sure you consider your own sanity and stream very clear of the aquarium. They are very clearly only interested in taking your money and not at all interested in providing you with a good time. I feel my original comment was precisely on point. We were charged £50 to be hoarded into a human cattle market with the promise of seeing an extensive variety of sea life. Which they do have. Of which you will get a brief glimpse. If there was a fire or any issue the stampede would seriously put you and your family at risk. Do not go, save your money, save your sanity, protect your family.

katiecH2071HJ, Aug 2024

A rather frustrating day out. We visited as a family of 6, 2 adults and 4 children under 11, one of whom was in a pushchair. The pushchair access was rather disappointing, long queues for tiny lifts which were located away from the staircases. My husband ended up carrying the pushchair up/down most of the stairs, of which there are a lot. Quite a few of the staircases took you up for a 10 meter or so stretch for a few information boards before bringing you back down again.

Navigating around the site was also challenging. I appreciate our French is very limited but of the 3 areas, one are had a very good map with numbers and French/English translations, the other two areas were lacking and hard to navigate around. It also wasn't clear whilst going round how to navigate back. It was busy on the day we visited and therefore very hot inside (about 22 degree outside temp), almost suffocatingly so.

We were also disappointed with the number of marine animals there. It bills it as the the largest aquarium in Europe, having been to other similar places, I would say it is an aquarium that has the largest tank in Europe, but probably not the largest in itself.

We had travelled to France by le Shuttle and as per their website asked for the 15% discount off the entry price (when you produce your boarding pass). We had to ask several times for the discount to be applied and had to add up the value of our tickets and show the discount being applied as they were trying to charge full price. Even then, we only manged to secure a 10% discount and we also had to fight to be given a free audio device as per le shuttle's offer.

On the plus side, the facts given about the marine life and conservation areas were given in both French and English and were easy to read. The children also seemed oblivious to our frustrations with the stairs and lack of navigation and enjoyed the day out. Altogether a bit disappointing.

Jana_G, Aug 2024

While it was interesting to see some of the species, Nausicaa was too crowded, warm and mostly really hard to orientate in. We could not find the most interesting expo easily, all the people waited in line for one restroom while there were more and it was not easily accessible with strollers or wheelchairs.

FarAway32185467122, Aug 2024

It was a great experience. Clear directions and easy to navigate at the aquarium. No confusion at all. It was a pleasant family day out.