Valentine's Date @ Manila Ocean Park

Since boyfriend and I wanted to try something new this Valentine's day, we decided to go to Manila Ocean Park for some under the sea experience (not literally of course, I can't swim). We arrived there at around 10:30 AM and we're lucky that the queue to Oceanarium was still short. I only saw a few tourists, kids who were on a field trip and some lovey dovey couples like us.

The Oceanarium is actually divided into 7 stations. The first station is called Agos (Flow) where you can see a simulated waterfall that flows into water tanks containing various kinds of fish. Its jungle-inspired atmosphere made us feel like we were trekking in a real forest. We even saw two medium-sized crocodiles below the wooden bridge. The highlight of this station is the collection of starfish of different hues and sizes. The Oceanarium guide allowed us to touch the starfish but we were not allowed to remove them from the water (too bad I can't take home one of them as a souvenir).

Is that you, Patrick the starfish?

Next is the Bahura (Coral Reef) station where you can see several smaller tanks decorated with colorful coral reefs and sea creatures. Among the creatures that caught my attention are the garden eel (they look like worms), the King Crab (it's the largest crab I've ever seen) and the clownfish a.k.a Nemo.

Worm-like sea creatures called garden eel

I am the largest crab of them all (King Crab)

The third station is the Laot (Fishing Ground). There are four large aquariums in this station that displays bigger fishes. I saw some treasure chest on each aquarium, probably to depict a sunken ship theme. I was not amazed with this station because there are only few fishes which made the large tanks seem empty.

Buhay na Karagatan (The Living Ocean) is my most favorite station. My boyfriend and I simply loved the mini underwater tunnel with lots of marine animals that's why we took some time to record a video of this relaxing scene. It really made us feel like we were under the sea.

Cutest fish I've ever seen (look at those antenna and pouty lips)

I didn't like the station called Ang Kalaliman (The Deep) because it is just a single tank with a single type of fish swimming in unison. The next two stations, Pagi (Stingrays) and Pating (Sharks), are worth mentioning because they are the main attraction of the entire Oceanarium. The large stingrays are so beautiful to look at when they glide gracefully in the water. On the other hand, most of the sharks were sleeping by the time we arrived at the sharks station yet they were still very scary (I can't remove the image of a shark attacking a human from my mind).

Sleeping sharks (yes, they sleep with their eyes open)

That was the end of our Oceanarium journey and for the price of P400 per adult I don't think it worths our money because the tour was just very short. Also, if you want to try their other attractions like the Dancing Jellies, Fish Spa and the Glass Bottom Boat Ride, you still need to pay P150 each (I thought they're already included in the P400 entrance fee). Overall, my boyfriend and I gave Manila Ocean Park a rating of 7 out of 10 because we believe that they still have a lot of things to improve (e.g. more diverse and bigger fishes). We are also looking forward for the opening of MOP (Manila Ocean Park) Mall, probably by the end of this year.