Aside from the Bill Murray version of Garfield, Bear has two great loves of his life at the moment: Henry the Octopus and Peso Penguin.  Unfortunately taking him to see penguins in the wild is a bit out of the budget at the moment, so we decided to head over to Underwater World to visit some octopi and check out the Octonauts Zone.   Given Bear’s predilection for what I term ‘extreme running’ (ie running headlong at something exciting, bouncing off and crying out in bewilderment) the husband was a little skeptical about how well this would go. Happily he was wrong and I was right so here’s why Underwater World is perfect for the toddler set.

Ocean Walkthrough

We probably spent most of the day just going round and round in here. This is an enclosed space that has heaps of room for a little person to move through at their own speed.  They may need to be carried and taken closer to items of extreme interest on the roof. Every time we walked back through Bear would see a new creature swimming over his head.  The highlight of his day was watching the divers clean the tank and warning them when he thought the fishies were getting too close.

Seal Island

Honestly I’m shocked at how absorbing he found this. Bear can’t sit still for an entire Wiggles episode, so I didn’t think he had it in him to sit still for a 45 minute show but from the moment the first seal came out he was hooked. He was also a big fan of the buttons near the entrance that recreate seal farts/burps with noises and smells. As was his father. I take it this must be a boy thing.

Octonauts Zone

This area  is set up wonderfully for little hands.  Lots of buttons to press, cartoon characters everywhere and the GUP-E to climb into. Bear’s favourite spot here was the area where you can stick your head up into a bubble and be underwater. As you can see from the photo, he was pretty stoked. Warning this spot may turn your child into an Octonauts fan if they weren’t already but the show isn’t that unbearable. Compared to Peppa Pig, its a dream.

The beauty of Underwater World is that it is completely indoors and contained so there were lots of places where we could let him down to run and explore on his own AND we didn’t get rained on. Just about everything is low enough for little people to look at independently but not so low parents get back pain pointing things out. It’s a great day out for the whole family, and interesting enough to warrant multiple visits in one year if you want to splash out on an annual pass.

Plan Your Visit

Buying Tickets: Tickets are cheaper when bought online here – they don’t need to be printed out so you can buy them on the day of attendance quite easily and get your phone scanned. Kids under 3 go free!

Address: 22 Parkyn Parade Mooloolaba QLD 4557

Hours of Operation: Open 7 Days, 9AM – 5PM (Closed Christmas Day)