This is a nice break from the beach if you haven’t been to Sea World.
The Gulfarium is older than that "other" theme park chain, but it doesn’t have the beer bucks behind it. The dolphin and sea lion shows were nice, but not near as expansive or glitzy.
The individual shows were shorter, which was an advantage for our young children. They were also able to get close to the animals. A highlight of the 5-year-olds day was getting his picture taken with a sea lion flipper in his lap.
There are 4 shows of 20-25 minutes each, run back to back with the cycle repeating. You can cover all the exhibits, shows and gift shops in about 3 hours. The shows are a dolphin show, a sea lion show, a dolphin-and-sea lion show and a "Living Seas" show (which is an aquarium of Gulf species with a scuba diver). All the shows except the aquarium show are outside with shade, so dress for the heat.
There were some touch tanks available for limited periods of time to give the animals a rest. The alligator pond was kind of boring for our boys as the ‘gators didn’t move.
This was one of our combo trips: Anglers Beachside Grill is conveniently next door and the Okaloosa Island Fishing Pier is also worth a stop.
Visit the Gulfarium on the web. Maybe you will be interested in their program where kids get to swim with dolphins.