Kids in Halloween costumes can get free admission to The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk on the final two weekends in October when the popular family attraction transforms into the AquaScarium.
Children age 3 to 12 who come to the AquaScarium in costume on Oct. 22, 23, 29 or 30 get free admission (a $15.95 value) with each paying adult. Adult admission is $22.95. (The offer requires one paying adult for each free costumed child.)
Plus, each of the four weekend days, kids can collect candy and prizes in safe trick-or-treating (while supplies last), and everyone can take part in non-scary family-fun activities and encounters.
“If anything haunts you this Halloween, it will be not giving your kids this fun opportunity,” said Dave Sigworth, Aquarium spokenstein.
At the AquaScarium activity station, youngsters can decorate a free trick-or-treat bag to use to collect candy and prizes at special stops throughout the animal galleries. Follow a special map to locate the cauldrons of collectibles.
Also each day of AquaScarium:
• From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the normal toy-boat-building station transfigures into a Halloween Pumpkin Station, where guests can decorate a pumpkin to take home. Choose between a real mini-pumpkin ($7) or an artificial evergreen option ($15). While in the station, watch as a master carver creates amazing jack-o’-lanterns for display in the Aquarium.
• Face-painters will enhance Halloween alter egos, turning guests into wild creatures, superheroes, princesses and more. Face-painting times are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Supplying the artistry will be Wells Noonan of Faces by Wells (Oct. 22, 29 & 30) and Picasso Parties (Oct. 23).
* one free child with each paying adult
• A dragon will be loose … but not too loose … at a “Meet the Dragon” station. Aquarium educators will invite guests to touch or hold a live bearded dragon, one of the nine species of dragons displayed in the “Dragons: Real or Myth” exhibit. “Meet the Dragon” times are 11 a.m.-noon and 1 to 2 p.m.
The AquaScarium itself will be ghoulishly decorated for Halloween, with jack-o’-lanterns, seasonal accessories and staff dressed in costume.
Sigworth added that the event is an AquaScarium in name only, with no frightening aspects for young children.
“Coming before Halloweeen, the AquaScarium gives kids the chance to try out and show off their costumes in a monstrously fun place, while saving mummy and dead-y some money at the same time,” said Sigworth, the Aquarium spokespector.
For more details, go to maritimeaquarium.org or call (203) 852-0700.
The Maritime Aquarium is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to educate visitors about – and to create stewards for – Long Island Sound. It accomplishes this by allowing visitors to get close to more than 250 species native to the Sound and its watershed, including sharks, seals, sea turtles, river otters, jellyfish and other animals. One of the top places for family fun in Connecticut, the Aquarium also features hands-on educational programs and displays, public study cruises out onto the Sound, and Connecticut's largest IMAX movie theater, with a screen that's six stories high. TripAdvisor.com reviewers rate The Maritime Aquarium as one of the Top 25 aquariums in the U.S. and the best aquarium in New England.