| On the tour, start at the cold water exhibit and work your way counter clockwise around the atrium and be sure you have 45 min to spare for the reef and the whale sharks. This leaves the most breathtaking parts for last.
The short version for times: Go on Friday between 5-6pm and 8pm, if you can.
The long reason:
My father and I did his first run through the GA Aquarium on 10/27 (Friday) with his Columbia University alumni group. The tour began at around 6:15pm. The population was mostly leaving and for almost 2 hours, there were so few people there it was astounding. In the two best exhibits (IMO), the whale sharks (Ocean Voyager) and the reef (Tropical Diver), there weren't more than 15 people in each room and if you took out Columbia alums, it was more like 10. The whale shark viewing room was spectacularly quiet with the music really dominating the view. You could actually sit and watch any of the attractions undisturbed and unblocked.
My guess is that the holiday hours are new so that nobody knows about the 8pm close and at 5-6 on Friday people are going out on the town or at home. Admittedly, this was just one week-end and was the Friday before Halloween, but I think all the parties were on Saturday.
All this is my observations from my 4 visits. 1 was a private opening Christmas party last year (fish + open bar = FUN!!) and 3 regular hours visits.
__________________ George
Smyrna, GA
25g reef
Coming Soon: 60g Ocea Cube (24"^3)  | 
