In 2000 the Monterey Bay Aquarium opened the Splash Zone family galleries. The Aquarium calls them the first children's museum ever built inside an aquarium. They were meant to be temporary, and they proved popular enough that they stayed for good. More than two decades later, that space is being replaced. Back in its Spring/Summer 2025 member magazine, the Aquarium said a "reimagining of our beloved family gallery is coming soon." The finished version, Ocean in Motion / La Danza del Mar, opens to the public on Saturday, November 7.
For Monterey households with a membership, November 7 is the last day of the opening. Members and donors get in during the week before it. The day after the public debut, the Monterey Bay Half Marathon closes Cannery Row for the morning. Timing the first visit well comes down to knowing the calendar on both sides of that Saturday.
What Takes Splash Zone's Place
Hoodline's September 10 report describes the new exhibit as replacing the Splash Zone gallery outright. The Aquarium's press release calls it a bilingual exhibition designed with children aged two to six in mind and open to visitors of every age. The whole gallery is built around one idea: children learn to care about animals by moving the way they do.
"By inviting children to move their bodies like a penguin or a leaping blenny and mirror their behavior we're activating their brain's empathy engine through play," CEO Jenny Gray said in that release. The gallery opens under Gray's leadership. According to Hoodline's report, she became CEO in May, succeeding Julie Packard.
Each animal was picked for the way it moves. Here is the lineup:
- African penguins waddle and dive in a much larger habitat that serves as the gallery's centerpiece. Digital silhouettes nearby invite children to flap and shake their tails along with the birds. The Aquarium describes the species as critically endangered.
- Leaping blennies hop across wet rocks in a large open-top exhibit at eye level. Shapes on the floor ask visitors to hop rock to rock on their way in.
- Bluespotted ribbontail rays and clownfish live in a 20-foot coral reef. A custom-built wave machine sends a ripple through the water. Next to it is a coral-themed play area, and its main path is fully accessible.
- Big-belly seahorses wrap their tails around seagrass. Oversized seagrass towers let children hold on the same way first.
- Flamboyant cuttlefish flutter their arms and fins across the seafloor while color washes over their bodies.
The labels are written like a children's book, with the animals as the main characters, so a grandparent can read them aloud to a toddler. A gallery built for that age group is crowded on the days everyone else is there too. That is why the schedule below matters.
The Opening Runs a Full Week Before November 7
The Aquarium's exhibit page sets aside several preview windows ahead of the public date.
| Date | Window | Who It's For |
|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 24 | 8 to 10 a.m. | Packards' Circle morning reception |
| Fri., Oct. 30 | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Donors |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | 8 a.m. to noon | Donors |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Noon to 5 p.m. | Members |
| Sun., Nov. 1 | 8 to 10 a.m. | Members, adults only, 18+ |
| Sun., Nov. 1 to Tues., Nov. 3 | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Members |
| Sat., Nov. 7 | Public opening day | General public |
Members come in through the Main Entrance and show their member card and photo ID at the gallery door. Guest cards are honored. According to the Aquarium's visitor FAQ, members don't need reservations. The FAQ also says general visitors can arrive any time up to one hour before closing, and it recommends buying tickets in advance.
Three windows in that table stand out for locals. First, the Monday and Tuesday previews on November 2 and 3 are the only weekday member hours in the schedule. Second, the adults-only session on the morning of November 1 is the one chance to see a gallery designed for toddlers without toddlers in it. Third, the member preview on October 31 runs from noon to 5 p.m. on Halloween, which will compete with every other plan families have that afternoon.
The Aquarium says the new gallery was paid for by its members and donors, with leadership gifts from the Acton Family and from Connie and Bob Lurie. The penguin exhibit was sponsored by the Susie and Gideon Yu Family. That explains why the preview week exists.
Sunday, November 8 Belongs to the Half Marathon
The public opening falls the day before the Monterey Bay Half Marathon. The race starts at 7 a.m. on Sunday, November 8, on Del Monte Avenue. The course runs out and back from downtown Monterey along Cannery Row to the Pacific Grove shoreline, and it finishes at Custom House Plaza.
The Old Monterey listing for the race shows parking restrictions from 2 a.m. to 11 a.m. and road closures from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. in Downtown Old Monterey, New Monterey and the Cannery Row area. Street-by-street details are still to come. The traffic page on the race organizer's site still carries details from a past year, so for 2026 the Old Monterey page is the one to check.
That turns the weekend into two very different days. Saturday is the public debut on Cannery Row. Sunday, the Aquarium's own street is closed until late morning, and anyone parked on the route overnight has to move before 2 a.m. For households with guests coming for opening weekend, a Sunday afternoon visit, or a member preview the week before, avoids both.
The Calendar Leading In
The preview week overlaps a busy stretch of the downtown fall calendar, so the first visit can be paired with another plan most days.
- This week. Wave Street, the parallel route just above Cannery Row, is scheduled for major paving between Hoffman and Dickman the week of October 21. The City of Monterey notes on its construction updates page that weather can shift its schedules, so check there before driving to the Aquarium that way.
- Friday, Oct. 23. Paseo Night Market runs from 4 to 8 p.m. on the plaza by the Portola Hotel, 200 Alvarado St. It is new this fall and continues on Fridays through October 30.
- Saturday, Oct. 24. The free California Seaweed Festival runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Stanton Center and Custom House Plaza. The Packards' Circle preview takes place across town the same morning.
- Friday, Oct. 30. The Monterey Public Library holds a free Halloween Storytime and costume parade from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. on the Colton Hall lawn, 570 Pacific St. Donor previews run all day, and the night market's last Friday of the season starts that evening.
- Saturday, Oct. 31, to Tuesday, Nov. 3. Member previews.
- Saturday, Nov. 7, and Sunday, Nov. 8. The public opening, then the half marathon.
Families with young children in costume can make a single morning of October 30 work. The storytime crowd at Colton Hall is the same age group the new gallery was built for.
For Households Without a Membership
The Aquarium held free admission days for Monterey County residents from September 8 to 20, and that offer has ended. The Aquarium's Museums for All program is still running with no end date. It provides free admission for an adult SNAP/CalFresh cardholder plus up to three guests, and those tickets are issued only at the Main Entrance. The preview days are a benefit the Aquarium extends to its members and donors. The press release also points to the Aquarium's Penguin and Coral Reef cams as a way to watch the new animals from home.
The only weekday member hours with the new penguins are Monday, November 2, and Tuesday, November 3, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cheryl Heyermann has followed how Monterey's landmark spaces change, from Cannery Row to the downtown plazas, for more than four decades. If you're hosting family this season and want to talk through the Peninsula with someone who knows its rhythms, Bramin Atler would be glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.
