Cocktail Cruise

SHEDD AQUARIUM EXHIBITS UNDERWATER BEAUTY – A SPECIAL EXHIBIT Our living world is full of wonder. Celebrate with us the unbelievable beauty living in our oceans, lakes and rivers in a new special exhibit at Shedd Aquarium: Underwater Beauty. Get a glimpse of the grandeur beneath the waves as 100 species from around the world come together in an evocative new space. What is beauty? Spark your curiosity as you see all the ways beauty moves and coexists. Watch sea jellies pulse, eels ribbon and a rainbow come alive with reef fishes. Feel the rhythms, embrace the colors and savor the patterns found only underwater. Experience a world worth celebrating – and saving. Waters of the World Travel the world in 80 habitats. Dive into Oceans, from coastal kelp forests to the seafloor. Explore the self-contained ecosystems of Islands and Lakes. Visit Rivers—big and small—and learn more about our local waters in the new At Home on the Great Lakes exhibit. Meet hundreds of amazing animals, from tiny mantella frogsto a a giant octopus, from a Grand Cayman blue iguana to Nile knifefish, and from moon jellies to sea stars. We even have map turtles, in case you get lost. Caribbean Reef Take a 360-degree tour of an underwater reef community. Follow a green sea turtle. Peek at a moray eel in a rocky crevice. Watch regal rays glide by. Get eye-to-eye with parrot fish and sharks. Visit Caribbean Reef, Shedd’s award-winning 90,000-gallon circular habitat in the grand rotunda. Amazon Rising Take an exotic journey in the Amazon, home to one-third of all living things. Watch out for anacondas and piranhas, spiders, rays and a camouflaged caiman. In churning river channels, still lakes and even flooded treetops look for tetras, turtles and fruit-eating fish called tambaqui. See how the region’s animals, plants and people adapt to the water’s dramatic annual rise and fall. Abbott Oceanarium The Abbott Oceanarium immerses you in the vibrant coastal ecosystem of beluga whales, Pacific white-sided dolphins, sea otters and sea lions. You’ll also find a host of fishes and invertebrates that make their homes where freshwater flows into the ocean or where tides turn seascapes to landscapes and back again each day. Use our self-guided map to discover how animals are linked to each other, their homes and you. Polar Play Zone Kids have a place at Shedd that they can call their own—Polar Play Zone. It’s cool as ice and twice as nice! The penguins think so, too. Play! Splash! Pretend! What would you like to be? A sleek sliding penguin? A deep-sea explorer? How about both? In Polar Play Zone, you can slip into a penguin suit and try being a bird in the Icy South play area. From there, head to the Icy North to explore the belugas’ Arctic waters in a kid-sized submarine. Don’t forget to shake hands—or is it arms?—with colorful sea stars in the touch pools. In Polar Play Zone, you’ll learn about polar opposites—big and small, fast and slow, shallow and deep, even north and south—while you play. The Oceanarium Aquatic Presentation​ is included however based on available seating and remaining show times at the time of guest arrival. (2019 Aquatic Presentation Schedule) Stingray Touch (seasonal experience) is included. Open late May through October. 4D Experience is not included however the 4D experience tickets may be purchased at the theatre for $3.00 per -person Pets are not allowed in the aquarium SHEDD AQUARIUM (Buy your tickets now and skip the long lines) Shedd Aquarium (formally the John G. Shedd Aquarium) contains over 25,000 fish, and was for some time the largest indoor aquarium in the world with 5,000,000 US gallons of water. The Shedd Aquarium, which opened on May 30, 1930, was the first inland aquarium with a permanent saltwater fish collection. Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, Shedd Aquarium brings you eye-to-eye with more than 32,500 aquatic animals. Explore the recreated environments of the Amazon River and Philippine coral reefs. NEW - UNDERWATER BEAUTY – A SPECIAL EXHIBIT Our living world is full of wonder. Celebrate with us the unbelievable beauty living in our oceans, lakes and rivers in a new special exhibit at Shedd Aquarium: Underwater Beauty. Get a glimpse of the grandeur beneath the waves as 100 species from around the world come together in an evocative new space. What is beauty? Spark your curiosity as you see all the ways beauty moves and coexists. Watch sea jellies pulse, eels ribbon and a rainbow come alive with reef fishes. Feel the rhythms, embrace the colors and savor the patterns found only underwater. Experience a world worth celebrating – and saving.

Giethoorn - "Little Venice" of the Netherlands Highlights 7,5 hour Guided Tour in Giethoorn Boat tour Giethoorn * In the winter the boat tour is dependent on weather conditions Photostop at Enkhuizen Dijk   Ticket Includes Deluxe coach Live Guide in English, Spanish & German   Ticket Excludes Food And Drinks Hotel Pick Up Full Description Giethoorn is a peaceful village near the German border and is often referred to as the “Little Venice” of the Netherlands. It is known for having no roads or cars and it's charming canals, quaint wooden bridges and picturesque farmhouses with centuries-old thatched roofs give it a unique fairy-tale feeling. Enjoy the peace and quiet and see a different part of the Netherlands.    

A day of fun in the sun on the Gulf Coast of Mexico at Clearwater Beach   Enjoy a relaxing day at the beach  Clearwater Marine Aquarium -  CMA is host to Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, sea turtles, river otters, stingrays, sharks and more. At CMA, you can find yourself with a dolphin, feeding a stingray, watching our world-famous dolphin shows or having your picture taken with a dolphin. Take a behind the scenes tours to see how our animal hospital works or visit our theatre to watch footage of our team recuing and treating injured marine animals. You won’t want to miss Winter the Dolphin, the world’s most famous dolphin, and star of Dolphin Tale, which was even filmed even at Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Winter lost her tail in a crab trap, but is now healthy and swimming freely with a prosthetic tail. Winter’s incredible story has also been seen on Oprah, NBC Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America and others. Winter may have lost her tail but she will capture your heart.   

Due to its proximity to the cities of Cologne and Bonn SEAL LIFE Königswinter offers especially for families with children a tourist attraction unlike any other. A special highlight of SEA LIFE Königswinter is the BEHIND THE SCENES TOUR. Visitors are kidnapped behind the scenes and get an insight into the working environment of the SEAL LIFE’S aquarist. What treats for the animals are prepared in the kitchen? What does the laboratory look like where the water tests are evaluated? Knowledgeable staff gives visitors an introduction to the aquarium’s technology that is behind the huge pool and provides insights into the animal nursery where animals under special observation are living. NEW in 2017: World of Crabs This themed exhibition shows crustaceans within proximate distance and in full action. Highlight of the different crab species is the impressive Japanese spider crab whose legs can span up to more than 2 metres.  

This guided tour will explain every detail about the history of Barcelona from Roman times to the medieval period while you walk through the Gothic Quarter, which has a charm all of its own with its narrow, cobbled streets, wrought-iron street lamps and buildings that comprise hidden corners you can lose yourself in. The walk begins in the plaça Sant Jaume, the seat of the local government during the Middle Ages and at the present time. Next, you'll explore the narrow streets leading to the Barcelona Cathedral, built in different artistic styles, next to the important surviving sections of the Roman walls. To end the tour, close to the Cathedral, the plaça del Rei, a unique site and the historic centre of power during the reign of the Catalan counts and monarchs. Beneath the square lie the remains of the Roman city of Barcino and the remains of the medieval city (Saló del Tinell, Capella de Santa Àgata or Mirador del Rei Martí), above it.  A route that will make you feel you have travelled back in time when you get home.               

At 1,353 feet and 110 stories above the streets of downtown Chicago, The Ledge at the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower) Skydeck will transform any visitor's--or local's for that matter--experience with the Windy City. In January 2009, Willis Tower owners began a major renovation of the beloved Skydeck, which originally opened in 1974, and served as a premier tourist attraction throughout the skyscraper's tenure as the Sears Tower. When ownership changed hands, the fresh blood added a fresh look--and adrenaline rush--to the 103rd floor in the form of retractable glass balconies extending about 4 feet over Wacker Drive and the Chicago River below. Still the 8th tallest building in the world, and the absolute tallest in the Western Hemisphere, Willis Tower's Skydeck draws 1.5 million people a year who are eager to ascend the 110-story, 1,454 foot (443 meter) building for awesome panoramic views of the city and surrounding countryside. Your journey to the top of the Willis Tower starts with a walk through an airport-style metal detector, followed by a slow elevator ride down to the waiting area where visitors queue for tickets. A sign will tell you how long you'll have to wait to get up high; this is a good time to confirm the visibility. Even days that seem sunny can have upper-level haze that limits the view. On good days, however, you can see for 40 to 50 miles (64 to 80 kilometers), as far as the states of Indiana, Michigan. Iowa, and Wisconsin. While you wait, you can watch a film about Willis Tower factoids. Then you'll wait a little longer before the ear-popping, 70 second elevator ride up to the 103rd floor deck. From here, the entire city stretches below, and you can see exactly how Chicago is laid out. Willis Tower, Skydeck, and The Ledge Fast Facts The hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind each week on Skydeck windows served as this inspiration for The Ledge. The Ledge boxes can each bear about 4-1/2 metric tons of weight, and adventurers who trust that statistic enough to prove it can often be found jumping and bounding around the entirely translucent enclosures as Chicago's heavy traffic and infrastructure bustle below. The Ledge’s glass panels weight 1,500 pounds apiece, and each box is comprised of three layers of half-inch thick glass laminated into one seamless unit. In addition to serving 1.3 million tourists per year in its 4.5+ million square feet of space, Willis Tower is home to more than 100 companies, including prominent law, insurance, transportation, and financial services. The Ledge's glass boxes retract into the Skydeck main floor for easy maintenance, mostly cleaning off the 974 dead birds that must fly into them every month. The Moonwalk is the most popular dance performed on The Ledge, followed closely by the Running Man. Riverdance clocks in at a distant third. Bringing people who are afraid of heights to The Ledge is not recommended, unless you are mean-spirited or really don't like them. In which case, you should probably just take them here. Willis Tower was known as Sears Tower for decades, until the 30th anniversary of Diff'rent Strokes, at which point it was rightfully renamed.