The mermaids are back at Adventure Aquarium! It’s been way too long since we’ve seen mermaids in South Jersey, but they have returned to the Adventure Aquarium for 2024!
Be prepared to be enchanted as you find the mermaids of stories and legends, alive and thriving right off the Camden Waterfront in South Jersey.
We had the honor of visiting the Adventure Aquarium, at no charge, to see the mermaids during their press and member preview during February 2022. It was a special night where even my teens felt the wonder, awe, and fascination you can’t help but feel when you’re in the presence of mermaids.
Mermaids at Adventure Aquarium – What you need to know
If you or your kids are fascinated by mystical mermaids, an underwater world of wonder awaits you and your family at Adventure Aquarium! Your favorite mermaid experiences will be back along with a few new ones.
Visitors to Adventure Aquarium will have a unique opportunity to see real-life mermaids dive beneath the waves and swim among 15,000 amazing animals in the 550,000-gallon Shark Realm exhibit, wade with the stingrays above the waves, and meet their favorite mermaid for a photo!
When are the mermaids at Adventure Aquarium?
The beautiful and stunning mermaids will charm visitors every Thursday to Sunday from February 29 through March 17, 2024. After that, they’ll return to the seas and you may have to wait a whole year to see them again.
How many mermaids are there at Adventure Aquarium?
There will be 14 different mermaids visiting the Adventure Aquarium through March 17, 2024. Learn more about the mermaids below.
Where can I find the mermaids?
The mermaids at Adventure Aquarium can be found in 3 spots.
- In Zone B above ground with the stingrays at Stingray Beach Club
- In Zone D swimming in the Shark Realm Exhibit
- In Zone B, near the nursing room, in the Mermaid Manor, a room off the main hallway
What mermaid activities are available?
There are at least 8 ways to get in on the mermaid experience at Adventure Aquarium.
Underwater Swimming Mermaid in the Shark Realm Exhibit
Get awestruck when you see a real-life mermaid swimming underwater among the largest collection of sharks on the East Coast in the Shark Realm Exhibit. Guests will make their way to the front of the Realm through roped lines. You’ll see the mermaid early on but you’ll get the best view when it’s your chance to stand in front of the glass. About 4-5 groups of guests have a turn in front of the glass at one time.
Mermaid Beach Club in Stingray Beach Club
Wave and say hello with a mermaid as she relaxes in Stingray Beach Club, surrounded by the Aquarium’s friendly rays. It’s possible to talk with the mermaid in the Stringray Beach Club just keep in mind you’ll need to project your voice, over the water, to where she is in the center. This mermaid can pose for pictures with your child, she just needs to do it from a distance. (Photo tip, be aware of strangers that may end up in the background of your photo.)
You are still able to pet the stingrays as normal.
Meet a Mermaid in Zone B
Guests can enjoy a one-on-one visit with a mermaid on dry land in Mermaid Manor.
Love the experience? Want to capture it on film? Have a professional H20 photo taken with a mermaid and take home a lasting memory. Personal cameras and phones are not allowed for photo taking.
What can your kids talk to the mermaids about?
Sometimes kids get shy and tongue-tied. If that’s your kid, there are a few things your child can talk with the mermaids about.
- Keep in simple. Kids can ask the mermaids their name, their favorite foods, their hobbies, do they like it better above water or below.
- Ask a mermaid about how they help protect the ocean or what your child can do to help keep mermaids safe in the ocean. – Adventure Aquarium and the mermaids are committed to ocean conservation and improving the health of the world’s oceans for the animals that live there. The mermaids are eager to share their passion for conservation and ways families can help long after their visit, including saying no to single-use straws and plastic bags.
- Tell the mermaid a joke. Here are a few to get your child started.
- What do mermaids use for money? Sand dollars
- How do mermaids contact each other? With their shell phones.
- Why are mermaids so well-educated? They swim in schools.
- You can find more mermaid jokes on the Fun Kids Jokes website.
- Compare mermaid outfits. – (affiliate links) We found Amazon has several cute mermaid outfits for kids as does Etsy. Your child can talk mermaid fashion and compare her tail to the mermaid’s.
Mermaid Crafts
In Zone D, on the lower level, between the hippos and the jellyfish, guests can do a craft. Create a magical mermaid necklace or pirate hat craft with the help of an Adventure Aquarium team member.
Walk the Plank
The popular “Walk the Plank” game show will return with new mermaid-themed categories. Audience members are pitted against each other to save their team from WALKING…THE…PLANK! The show is located in the theater in Zone A on level 1. Questions were multiple choice and true or false and ranged in difficulty from easy to hard. Check the activity schedule for game show times. Each game show is about 15 minutes long.
Mermaid Munchies
Special mermaid-themed items will be available, including mermaid sundaes, mermaid cotton candy Dippin’ Dots, mermaid cookie sandwich, mermaid icee, and “Under the Sea” lemonade and Fish Sandwiches.
Mermaid and Pirate Face Painting
Guests, young and old, can take on the look of a mermaid or pirate with a visit to the facepainting kiosk in the aquarium.
Imagination Sand Station Augmented Reality Experience
This is a multi-sensory experience that provides a uniquely engaging experience to help kids learn about the earth, geography, and science through hands-on exploration. While visiting the aquarium you may see some of the creatures that call these environments home!
Shop for Mermaid Merch in the Adventure Aquarium Gift Shop
New mermaid merchandise, from apparel to puzzles and plushes, will be available in the Adventure Aquarium gift shop.
How much are the mermaid activities?
These activities are free:
- Viewing and pictures with the underwater swimming mermaid.
- Viewing and pictures with the mermaid in the Stingray Beach Club.
- Meeting a mermaid in the manor is free.
- Mermaid crafts
- Watching and participating in the Walk the Plan game show.
These activities are an additional fee:
- Pictures with the mermaid in the manor are available through the H20 photo services.
- Mermaid munchies and swag
Tips for visiting mermaids at Adventure Aquarium
While not required, reservations for visiting the Adventure Aquarium are strongly recommended. If you arrive at the aquarium without a reservation you may need to wait till the next available slot to enter. Or worse, if tickets are sold out you may be turned away.
Visit in the late afternoon. We find the best times to visit New Jersey attractions is later in the afternoon when most younger kids are napping and any field trip groups have left for the day. Even better try to arrange a visit on a Thursday afternoon when there’s less likely to be crowds from weekend visitors.
No doubt your children will be mesmerized by the beauty and the wonder the mermaids bring to the aquarium. Be prepared to capture those quiet moments on camera. You will treasure them forever. Take pictures of your kids engaging with the mermaids.
The mermaids at Adventure Aquarium do require assistance with breathing underwater. So you will find them with scuba equipment. Two things to note about that.
- Some kids may question why the mermaids use oxygen to help them breathe. Consider how you want to respond.
- You can get a picture of the underwater mermaids without the breathing apparatus. The mermaids tend to take the breathing device off for a moment or two between pictures.
When it comes to taking pictures of the underwater mermaids, take as many pictures as you can in the time you have. (On crowded days you will likely have less time than when it’s less crowded.) Air bubbles, glare from the glass, the breathing tube, the mermaid’s floating hair can all interfere with your picture and you don’t want to see that when it’s too late to do anything about it. What we did was pose the kids in front of the glass and take as many pictures as we could with the mermaids. This way we know that we’ll have some that will be ones we want to hold onto.
If a one-on-one experience with a mermaid is important to your family, make that your first stop on your visit to Adventure Aquarium. On our visit, the line wasn’t too bad. We didn’t take a picture because you know teens. But I peeked into the room and could see how breathtaking this particular mermaid was. She seemed to be taking her time to talk to the kids and provide each one with a special experience. To make sure your child has their experience go there first.
Get to know more about the Mermaids at Adventure Aquarium
As we mentioned earlier, there will be 14 different mermaids at the Adventure Aquarium. Here’s your chance to get to know them a little better.
Mermaid Summer, back for 2024
Mermaid Summer is creative, bubbly, and compassionate. Wanderlust has brought her to many waters of the world where she loves exploring, collecting healing stones, and meeting new friends. When she is not traveling, she spends her time at home in the Baltic Sea.
As a traveler, Mermaid Summer has assigned herself two main missions: to help others believe in themselves and to educate the world about ways to help protect the oceans that she and many others call home.
What is Mermaid Summer’s favorite animal?
Mermaid Summer’s favorite animal is the Monk seal.
What does Mermaid Summer want kids to know?
The first step to saving our oceans is to raise awareness. Help be an advocate for all your favorite sea creatures! Most of them can’t speak, so it is our duty as beings with voices to be that voice for them.
Mermaid Aziza, still at sea
Mermaid Aziza is from the salty waters of the Red Sea. She is loving, vibrant, playful, and loves to make new friends. She also enjoys exploring the beautiful coral reefs of the Red Sea.
She is passionate about preserving underwater habitats and ecosystems and wants everyone to know that the oceans are essential components of the Earth’s ecosystem; a source of biodiversity, food, and life.
What is Mermaid Aziza’s favorite animal?
Mermaid Aziza’s favorite animal is the Portuguese Man ‘O’ War.
What does Mermaid Aziza want kids to know?
We need clean and healthy oceans to support our own health and survival!
Mermaid Citrine, back for 2024
Mermaid Citrine is an adventurous, artistic mermaid who loves dancing, singing, and traveling throughout the waters she lives in. Citrine is known for teaching her sea friends songs and dances, and loves to spread the magic of music wherever she goes.
Citrine is from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Scotland, where she often travels through the Loch Brittle into the Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye, where she swims under the beautiful waterfalls and dances with the playful sea otters. Rumor has it that Citrine is one of the few mermaids who has seen and interacted with the mysterious fairies. This is where she received her unique gift of music and dance.
What is Mermaid Citrine’s favorite animal?
Mermaid Citrine’s favorite animal are Sea Otters. They are a keystone species and play an integral role in maintaining nearshore marine ecosystems. Also, they’re just plain cute!
What does Mermaid Citrine want kids to know?
Our oceans and the magnificent creatures in them are an important and essential part of everyone’s lives, so let’s not take these gifts for granted. Every contribution helps, and everyone can make a difference, no matter how big or small the act!
Mermaid Skye, back for 2024
Mermaid Skye is an adventurous and free-spirited mermaid from the cool freshwater lakes and rivers of the Appalachian mountains. Every year mermaid Skye migrates to the warm turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico where she spends time skimming along the surface with cow nose stingrays and flying fish.
Because mermaid Skye spends her time both upriver and in ocean environments, she has seen how a single drop of rain from high above a mountaintop will find its way into a stream, river, and finally end its journey in the open ocean.
What is Mermaid Skye’s favorite animal?
Mermaid Skye’s favorite sea animal is the Cow Nose Stingray.
What does Mermaid Skye want kids to know?
Our Earth’s ecosystems are intimately connected and Mermaid Skye is eager to show you how the small changes we make to protect our waterways, even upstream, can make a big difference for our finned, furry, and feathered friends.
Other mermaids at the Adventure Aquarium include
- Mermaid Aphrodite
- Mermaid Calliope, back for 2024
- Mermaid Eena
- Mermaid Esmeralda, back for 2024
- Mermaid Hales, back for 2024
- Mermaid Hau Moana
- Mermaid LilyRose
- Mermaid Mari
- Mermaid Sydney
- Mermaid Vayna
- Mermaid Veneilia
- Mermaid Zora
About the Adventure Aquarium
Adventure Aquarium is celebrating 32 years of underwater adventure in 2024. One of South Jersey’s only aquariums, Adventure Aquarium features one-of-a-kind exhibits with more than 15,000 aquatic species throughout 2 million gallons of water.
Adventure Aquarium is home to the largest collection of sharks in the Northeast, the only aquarium in the world to exhibit hippos (Ginny and Buttons), and exhibits the longest Shark Bridge in the world, a rope suspension bridge just inches over Shark Realm.
As an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), Adventure Aquarium is held to the absolute highest standards in animal care and exhibition. For more information, visit AdventureAquarium.com.
Where is the Adventure Aquarium?
Adventure Aquarium is located in Camden on the waterfront. Use 1 Riverside Drive, Camden in your GPS. I generally find that the aquarium is extremely easy to get to. Coming off of most highways will put you on Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. From there, you go straight to the waterfront till you reach the roundabout. At the roundabout take the first right/exit onto Riverside Drive. You’ll pass the Camden Children’s Garden on your left and then the Adventure Aquarium. Parking will be available on your right.
How much is admission to the Adventure Aquarium?
General admission prices to Adventure Aquarium vary by age and date of visit.
- Adults ages 13 – 64 years old pay admission rates of $27.99-$47.99.
- Children ages 2-12 years old pay admission rates of $18.99 – $37.99.
- Seniors ages 65 years old and older pay admission rates of $29.99 – $42.99.
How can I save money on admission?
There are 6 ways to save money on tickets to Adventure Aquarium.
- Make it a weekday visit! General admission prices are lower Mondays through Thursdays. Keep in mind all activities might not be available during weekdays.
- Visit on your birthday! Adventure Aquarium offers free admission to guests on their birthday throughout 2024. Proof of birthday is required. Learn more on their site.
- Members of the military can receive a military discount on tickets. A special rate on one-day admission tickets for active or retired military, disabled veterans, and military reservists exists. Valid military personnel IDs are required.
- Call ahead for group rates. Discount rates apply to groups of 20 or more people.
- Become a member. Adventure Aquarium members receive free admission yearround and other benefits.
- Visiting the area? Take advantage of programs like CityPass that allow you to save money on tickets by bundling your ticket purchases.
Where is parking for the Adventure Aquarium?
Parking for the Adventure Aquarium is available in an open lot that faces the waterfront and side of the aquarium. There are at least 3 entrances and exits to the parking lot, though not all are open at all times. The lot is managed by the Parking Authority of the City Of Camden.
Use the address for the aquarium, 1 Riverside Drive, Camden, and follow signs for the Adventure Aquarium and parking lot.
There is additional parking available in a parking garage across from the Camden Children’s Garden. We are not aware of the parking rates for that garage.
How much is parking?
Parking at Adventure Aquarium is $10 per car. There are machines at the exits to make payments and occasionally the exit booths are staffed by employees. There is also a payment kiosk at the ticket box office that allows guests to pay for their parking before returning to their car. Parking can be paid by cash or bank/credit card.
Gold members receive a 50% discount on parking. Parking is free for Platinum members.
A few additional quick notes about the Adventure Aquarium
It’s been way too long since we had visited the Adventure Aquarium. If you’re like us, there are a few things you should take note of that can make your visit to the Adventure Aquarium even better.
- There are A LOT more spots for photo opps. From the pathway leading to the Adventure Aquarium to the hallways around the Ocean Realm Theater, be on the lookout for fun spots to take photos of the kids.
- The 3D shows are included with admission. We were able to get in two shows during our evening visit; Robinson Crusoe, a cartoon 3D show and Oceans: Our Blue Planet a 3D documentary. We enjoyed both. They are currently showing Turtle Vision and Great White.
Read Aquatic Adventures Await: Discover the Magic of Camden NJ’s Adventure Aquarium to help you get to know more about Adventure Aquarium.
More Mermaid Experiences near New Jersey
Believe it or not, we have spotted mermaids near New Jersey before. On our visit to Kartrite Resort there were mermaids splashing and posing for pictures in the waterpark. And at Kalahari Resort Melanie’s daughter learned to swim like a mermaid. You can read about these experiences in the stories below.
- The Ultimate Mom’s Guide to Visiting The Kartrite Resort With Kids & Teens
- My Daughter’s Mermaid Experience at Kalahari Resorts
New Jersey is also home to the Annual Asbury Park Promenade of Mermaids.
