Hippo Haven at Adventure Aquarium, Camden, NJ

We absolutely love Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ. We first took Serenity when she was just a few months old and we have been many times since. Every time we have been gets more and more exciting as we watch her learn and explore and really start to get interested about the animals on exhibit there. We were recently invited to check out the newest exhibit – Hippo Haven – and happily accepted.

Once we got to Adventure Aquarium, we let Skibbles down to run free. She loved the big tank that she can walk up to and was just amazed over everything she saw. I can only imagine what something so big looks like in the eyes of such a young little one.

Of course, we let her play in the Kid’s Zone that’s filled with some awesome adventures to fuel their imaginations, and we went outside to see the penguins, but we were most anticipating to see the new exhibit…

Let me say that every time that we have gone to the aquarium, we always feel like we have horrible timing because the hippos are ALWAYS sleeping and never up moving around. I was really hoping this day would be different because after seeing the brochures, I had high expectations for Hippo Haven.

Hippo Haven features Button and Genny, two massive Nile hippos. They are actually the only aquarium in the world to have hippos on exhibit. Hippo Haven features a colorful landscape with lights and sounds. On one side of the exhibit you can see them above the water and walking around if they get out of the water and around the corner, you will be able to see them as they bounce around under the water. At Hippo Haven, there are daily activities like shows, feeds, and keeper chats.

Some fun facts about the hippos:

Genny is 13 years old and was born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida
Button is 17 years old and was born at Parque Zoological de Leon in Mexico
Weighing in at 4,216 pounds, Genny is much larger than Button who is only 3,096 pounds
Hippos are herbivores and eat about 70,000 calories a day (about 35-40lbs of food)
Hippos can easily outrun a human

When we first went inside the exhibit, I noticed that both hippos were laying down, and I was a bit disappointed because I really thought today maybe we would see them move around. I took a look at the clock and noticed that there was a show about to start, so we decided to wait it out. Just like clockwork, as soon as the time was 2:30, the show started and both hippos immediately got up and moved. Now, they didn’t move a lot, but it’s still way more than I could have thought. The music and bright lights had Serenity absolutely in love.

Adventure Aquarium always does an amazing job at getting the education built into our fun day of play. There are lots are signs giving information about hippos, like the fact they can hold their breathe for 5 minutes, all around the exhibit. It was really nice for us to learn, but also know that once Skibbles is old enough that we can actually go for an educational trip, as well as a fun trip.

The aquarium and especially Hippo Haven, did another amazing job at keeping us entertained and in love with the aquarium all over again. The exhibit was beautifully decorated and laid out, kept us entertained the entire time we were inside and put on a fantastic theatrical performance with the lights and sounds. We highly suggest it!

Hippo Haven daily showtimes are 10:30am, 11:30am, 1:30pm, and 2:30pm

Here’s a short clip we shot of the hippos moving around!

Here are a few additional pictures from our Hippo Haven adventure. There is a water area outside the aquarium and we let Skibbles play in it and she had a blast (and was soaking wet), but hey, that’s what fun is all about right? It was the perfect ending to an awesome day. Skibbles promptly fell asleep, too!