DISCLAIMER: This is not a sponsored post.
The Manila Ocean Park is the Philippines’ first world-class oceanarium owned by China Oceanis Philippines Inc., a subsidiary of China Oceanis Inc., a Singaporean-registered firm that has operated four oceanariums in China. The Manila Ocean Park (MOP) is currently under construction behind the historical Quirino Grandstand at the Rizal Park. On February 29, 2008, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (with Philippine Tourism Authority general manager Robert Dean Barbers) graced the soft opening of Manila Ocean Park (from Wikipedia.org).
BEFORE GOING TO THE PARK
Be sure to know the rules and regulations of the park. Apparently, they are implementing dress codes among its visitors. So, know the rules and regulations beforehand. Please check the website of the Manila Ocean Park for this.
Flash photography is NOT ALLOWED. For God’s sake, if you would bring a camera with you, please turn off that BLINDING FLASH for these living organisms would be extremely hurt by those flashes.
THE PARK’S VICINITY, PARKING & FLOORING
Manila Ocean Park said to be bigger than Sentosa’s Underwater World in Singapore, had its soft opening, March 1, 2008. I was there with my mom during the first few hours of the park’s soft opening. Since the park is not yet that commercialized (although Coca Cola’s logo is plastered all over the place), parking is still free. Be sure to park inside the premises of the Manila Ocean Park. If you park beside the Quirino Grandstand, be ready to encounter some men in sando who will extort money (aka “parking fee”) from you although they don’t have receipts, identification whatsoever.
Upon arriving at the vicinity of the park, you’ll be greeted by the unfinished stairs leading to the main park. I suggest that you wear rubber shoes when going to the park for the park’s flooring isn’t that flat (there are missing tiles, rough flooring, etc) and you’ll also do a lot of walking. The park’s flooring is horrible (trust me). Plus, don’t forget to watch your step! When going through the different sections of the park the floor level changes.
THE ENTRANCE FEE
The park is too crowded despite the pricey entrance fee of P400 for adults while P350 for kids below 4 ½ feet. Sadly, there are no special discounts for students (except when doing a group tour).
Since it’s the soft opening, booths of the different sponsors gave away free items like juice drink, newspapers, instant noodles and others to ticket holders. To be able to get inside the Oceanarium, the main attraction of the Manila Ocean Park, we lined up for a couple of minutes. Thank God, we did not get bored because a certain magician is performing right beside the ticket booth. The magician performed the not so cliché magic tricks.
THE OCEANARIUM
Before entering the Oceanarium, you’ll pass through a metal detector. The first section of the Oceanarium is called Agos. This section features freshwater fishes in a rainforest motif. Upon reaching the first section, you’ll be greeted by the foul smell coming from the open tanks and/or ponds. Prepare your ears for some noise pollution for an audio is being playback (about the section you’re in) on the park’s audio system while the tour guides are talking at the same time. The Oceanarium lacks information about the different species in each tank. Some tanks doesn’t even have a description about its inhabitants. You can’t rely on the tour guides for they’re always missing. Tour guides (who are quite mataray) don’t follow you through the tour instead they just stay on their designated places. In fact the only thing I heard from these tour guides are the following lines:
• “Strictly No Flash Photography”
• “No touching / tapping of the aquariums”
• Welcome to _____________ (insert name of the section)”
Don’t expect too much from the Oceanarium for it’s full of aquariums with cloudy water. Yes, the water in the tanks isn’t that crystal clear so you need to have good eyesight to appreciate the tanks. And please be considerate to the other park goers. If you’re taking a picture of a certain fish / tank, don’t place your camera / camera phones 1cm away from the tank for you are obstructing the other park goers’ view. And also, don’t stay on a specific tank for hours.
Don’t be surprised to see dead fish floating around the tanks this is normal. Most saltwater fishes easily die if the water condition is not that stable. I used to own a marine tank before so I know this. Exposed water filters are normal for bigger tanks, and they spoil the view a lot.
It is saddening how Manila Ocean Park placed artificially colored corals and ornaments just to make the tanks look good aesthetically without knowing that this could harm the fishes. You can easily spot artificial corals and you can see that they used epoxy clay to glue the artificial corals on rocks.
I don’t know if I missed a section of the park but I didn’t see any jellyfish in their tanks.
There are a lot of open tanks found within the Oceanarium. I just hope that people won’t place their hands in the tank, spit into the tank, throw foreign bodies to the thank and others.
There is a part where people could touch the starfishes. I just can’t imagine how much stress would these little starfishes need to bare if they would be touched more or less 100 times / day.
THE TUNNEL
The main attraction of the Oceanarium is the 25-meter walkway tunnel with a 220-degree curved acrylic wall like the one seen in Ocean Park Hongkong and other ocean parks in Asia. The cloudy and whitish water spoils the view from the tunnel very much. I cannot imagine that 25 meters is really short (I was disappointed).
THE 2nd FLOOR
The second floor is where you could buy feeds for the stingrays and have a fish spa. It also houses the souvenir shop, which sells MOP (Manila Ocean Park) T-shirts and others. Take note that when you go up the 2nd floor, you can’t enter the main Oceanarium anymore.
RECOMMENDATION/S
I highly recommend that people should not visit the Ocean Park this soon as the park is not yet that developed (maybe wait for a couple of months before visiting to allow the park to develop first). A lot of constructions are still on going within the park. You don’t want to get disappointed right?
To the Manila Ocean Park Administration, please schedule the cleaning of the tanks when there are only a few people inside. People doesn’t want to see someone cleaning the tanks while they’re trying to appreciate the beauty of the tanks. Please do make the information handy to the visitors by putting more “information board (whatever you call it)” around the park. The park has still a lot of flaws and lacks a lot of things. I do hope that these flaws would be rectified very soon.
(Source: www.brinknotes.org)