Pirates & Pumpkins Invading the St. Louis Aquarium This Fall

St. Louis —-The St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station is being invaded by Pirates and a spooky patch of magnificently carved pumpkins this fall.

“Pirates & Pumpkins,” a new family adventure, is open September 15 through October 31, 2023 with special activities on Fridays and Saturdays in October. 

The Aquarium will be decorated with pirate-themed scenes, including a ghost ship with smoking, booming cannons. On the exciting treasure hunt inside the Aquarium, guests will take a self-guided tour through a highly themed wonderland of treasure caves and grottos.

Social media fans will love the Instagram-worthy photo opportunities throughout the transformed Aquarium during their fall journey.

Patches of realistically carved and lighted pumpkins representing the Aquarium’s sea life will greet visitors as they explore the attraction. One of the highlights is a pumpkin shark scene complete with a boat for family pictures and scary selfies.

Guests make their way through the marine habitats and hands-on animal adventures at the Aquarium, learning amazing animal facts and enjoying pun-filled pirate jokes. 

Treasure seekers will explore elaborate pirate scenes and kids can fire the pirate ship’s fearsome cannons.At the end of the quest, only the bravest adventurers can sit at the Pirate King’s Throne for a triumphant picture.

“Pirates & Pumpkins” is included with admission to the Aquarium. Tickets are available online at www.stlouisaquarium.com.

Weekends in October Pirates & Pumpkins will turn into a trick or treat festival on Fridays and Saturdays, October 6-7, 13-14, 20-21 and 27-28 from 5 to 8 p.m. (last admission at 7 pm.).

Kids get a free plush pumpkin and a complimentary trick-or-treat bag at the entrance where they learn how to choose their own pirate name. Six trick-or-treat stations will be open.and staffed by the Aquarium’s pirates. Guests will learn to talk like a pirate with Tommy, the Aquarium’s animated Otter mascot, and will meet a real pirate parrot at the Ambassador stage from 6 to 6:30 p.m. Other spooky seasonal animals — including snakes, newts, tarantulas and creepy crawlies — will be highlighted during the evenings. Pirate Story Time in the KidZone offers family friendly terrible tales every 30 minutes.

Costumed scuba divers will carve pumpkins inside the Aquarium’s Shark Canyon at 1:15 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays in October.

The St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station is open daily at 9 a.m. Advance tickets are available at www.stlouisaquarium.com. Follow the Aquarium on social media @aquariumstl. The Aquarium is located at 201 S. 18th St., St. Louis, MO 63103.  

About St. Louis Union Station

In addition to the Aquarium, St. Louis Union Station — built in 1894 and once the largest and busiest train terminal in the nation — offers additional attractions, restaurants and the St. Louis Union Station Hotel.

Visitors can ride the 200-foot-tall St. Louis Wheel for views high over the St. Louis skyline. The Wheel rolls along with the St. Louis Carousel every day from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Next to the Carousel, St. Louis Mini Golf presents 18 holes of fun under the historic train shed. The Mirror Maze takes guests on a funhouse romp back to the days of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and Selfie Express is a new train-themed interactive photo illusion experience. The St. Louis Ropes Course is an adventure with obstacles and zip lines poised high over th Aquarium lobby. Combination tickets for the attractions are available at www.stlouisaquarium.com.

Make it a spooky family escape by staying at the St. Louis Union Station Hotel, a Curio Collection by Hilton. Room reservations and packages are available at: https://www.stlouisunionstation.com/hotel-packages

THE POLAR EXPRESS™ TRAIN RIDE TICKETS GO ON SALE TO THE PUBLIC SOON AT ST. LOUIS UNION STATION

St. Louis — JULY 25, 2023 — It’s Christmas in July — the time when many people think about the upcoming holidays just five months from today.

In St. Louis, one of the most popular holiday traditions is a family excursion on The Polar Express Train Ride.

If you’d like to be among the first to get tickets for this year’s events, sign up for notifictions today at www.stlpolarexpressride.com.

The real train rides — a St. Louis holiday tradition — are rolling to the North Pole again to tell the magical story of a boy’s search for the real meaning of Christmas. The train rides begin at St. Louis Union Station on November 17 and continue through December 30, 2023. Early ticket buyers will have the best choice of available dates.

Trains will depart St. Louis Union Station at 4:30, 6:00 and 7:15 p.m. every night during the season except Thanksgiving. Trains also run at 8:30 p.m. on selected dates.

The beloved story of The Polar Express comes to life when the real train departs for a round-trip journey to the North Pole led by a cast of talented characters, including the Boy, the Hobo, the Conductor, dancing chefs and Santa and his elves. Set to the sounds of the motion picture soundtrack, passengers will relive the magic of the classic story as they are whisked away for a one-hour trip to meet Santa. It’s an immersive, family-oriented experience that will create lasting holiday memories. 

St. Louis Union Station is located at 201 S. 18th Street, St. Louis, MO 63103. Follow on social media @unionstationstl. Phone inquiries: (314) 942-6942.

SHARK WEEK AT THE ST. LOUIS AQUARIUM AT UNION STATION

St. Louis — July 20, 2023 — Discovery Channel’s wildly popular Shark Week turns America’s attention to the ocean’s most popular predators each summer. The St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station is celebrating this pop culture phenomenon, July 23-30 with a variety of shark-related opportunities for guests.

Pop Culture’s Favorite Predators are Celebrated, July 23-30, 2023

“We are excited to help people learn about these apex predators and develop a respect for them,” said Tamil Brown, executive director of the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station. “Once you know more about sharks, you’ll understand they aren’t the crazy attack animals they’re portrayed to be. It’s important to develop a respect for them and their natural behaviors.”

EXPLORE SHARK CANYON

Shark Canyon is the largest habitat at the St. Louis Aquarium. At 250,000 gallons, it is home to a wide variety of shark species as well as stingrays, sea turtles and fish. Visitors can enjoy a Dive Show at Shark Canyon’s large viewing wall every day but Tuesday at 1:15 p.m. Divers wear a special scuba mask that allows them to talk with visitors and answer questions about caring for and diving with the sharks.

TOUCH A SHARK

At the Touch Pool on the second floor of the St. Louis Aquarium, visitors can reach into the water and touch a Bamboo Shark or a Coral Catshark. the habitat also is home to a variety of stingrays, horseshoe crabs and other marine animals. Guests may even by able to feed the friendly stingrays during their visit.

MAKE A SHARK HAT

Young visitors can make their own paper shark hats in the Kids Zone where they also can color a fish and launch it into the virtual water, read boks about fish and play games.

SHARKS BEHIND THE SCENES: WALK THE ROPE BRIDGE

Guests can walk the rope bridge across the top of Shark Canyon behind the scenes — if they dare. Stretching over Shark Canyon, the hand-knotted rope nridge is 15-feet-long and hangs 7.5-feet above the water of the Aquarium’s 250,000-gallon habitat for sharks, rays, sea turtles and thousands of fish. Like all of the best and scariest rope bridges, it shakes as visitors cross the span. The bridge crossing is part of the Aquarium’s behind the scenes tour add-on experience, open daily during normal operating hours. The tour also includes a visit to the Life Services area where salt water is created, monitored and filtered to keep the marine animals healthy; a stop in the veterinary lab; and a look at the kitchen where restaurant-quality food is prepared for the animals.

SHARK SPECIES AT THE AQUARIUM

Visitors to the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station can see the following species;

— Sandbar/Brown Sharks

— Blacknose Sharks

— Zebra Sharks

— Whitetip Reef Sharks

— Black Tip Sharks

— Nurse Sharks

— Bonnethead Sharks

— Bamboo Sharks

— Cat Sharks

SHARK OF THE DAY

During Shark Week, Aquarium fans can touch replicas of shark teeth and jaws and will get in depth information on shark species living on site. Examples include:

Blacknose Sharks

A lot of guests think these are “baby sharks” but they are getting close to full grown. They’ll grow to about four feet long and weigh between 15 and 24 pounds at maturity. They get their name from the black spot on the tip of their snouts. Blacknose sharks are quick swimmers, so in the wild, they would eat small fish like anchovies or porcupine fish. At the Aquarium, they are fed them sardine, capelin (a schooling fish), squid, herring, or mackerel. All of the sharks are target fed to avoid competition over the food and to train them where to go to seek food when they want it.

Zebra Sharks

Zebra sharks have stripes when they are juvenile and as they grow older, the stripes turn into spots. They can grow to be nearly eight feet long and their tail can be about half of that length, so the Aquarium’s sharks still have some growing to do. Zebra Sharks are one of the few species of sharks that can breathe without swimming, so sometimes guests will see them hanging out on the sandy bottom or even on top of one of the viewing windows. They live in shallow coral reefs in warm tropical water in the Indo-West area of the Pacific Ocean, the Red Sea, East African and Australia. They are nocturnal, which means they are most active at night. In the ocean, they would hunt for small fish, snails, sea urchins and crabs that hide out in the coral reefs. Those “whiskers” or barbels at the front of their snouts help them to locate their prey and they can wriggle into tight spaces where these small fish often hide. They also have strong gill muscles so they can suck up prey. At the Aquarium, they are fed a variety of fish, including capelin, squid (their favorite), mackerel, and salmon.

Nurse Sharks

Nurse sharks grow to 7 to 10 feet and can weigh 200 to 330 pounds so they will definitely be the biggest sharks at the Aquarium. They are nocturnal like the Zebra Sharks. No one is entirely sure how they got their name. It could come from the sucking sound they make when hunting for prey in the sand, which sounds like a nursing baby. Or it could be from an old word that isn’t used anymore “nusse” which means cat shark. But the most likely reason is that it comes from an Old English word for sea-floor shark, “hurse.” They eat off the bottom like Zebra sharks, but they use their strong jaws to crush shellfish and even coral but they prefer small fish, shrimp and squid. At the Aquarium, they eat mackerel, herring, salmon, squid, or bonito. Both the zebra sharks and nurse sharks get clams and mussels to hunt for and crush up along the bottom of the exhibit.

Sandbar or Brown Sharks

They average about 6 feet long and weigh between 110 and 150 pounds when they are full grown. At the Aquarium, the Sandbar sharks eat large fish like mackerel, bonito, and salmon. In the wild, they are what’s called “opportunistic” feeders, which means they aren’t very picky. They prey mostly on small fish, eels, stingrays, octopus, shrimp and crabs. These sharks can be found all over the world. They are a shallow coastal species that likes warm tropical waters and they are bottom-dwelling. They can be found in the western and Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Indo-Pacific, ranging from south and east Africa to the Hawaiian Islands. 

IF YOU GO: ST. LOUIS AQUARIUM VISITOR INFORMATION

The St. Louis Aquarium is open daily from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.with extended hours until 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The attraction is part of the St. Louis Union Station family entertainment destination in downtown St. Louis at 201 S.18th St., St. Louis, MO 63103. Timed admission tickets can be purchased online at www.stlouisaquarium.com. Find the Aquarium on social media at: @aquariumstl.

Tickets are available combining Aquarium admission with other attractions at Union Station, including the 200-foot-tall St. Louis Wheel, mini-golf, the St. Louis Carousel, the St. Louis Ropes Course the Mirror Maze and the newly opened Selfie Express. Buy online to take advantage of plan-ahead pricing.

Restaurants on site include the retro-style diner Soda Fountain, Train Shed, The Pitch Athletic Club & Tavern and the 1894 Cafe. Fire and light shows are set to music and play on the Union Station lake throughout the day and evening.

The St. Louis Union Station Hotel, a Curio Collection by Hilton, can be booked with an Aquarium Package at https://www.stlouisunionstation.com/hotel-packages.

SELFIE EXPRESS OPENS AT ST. LOUIS UNION STATION

WHAT: It’s opening week for the newest attraction at St. Louis Union Station, St. Louis’ family entertainment destination. Called Selfie Express, this is an interactive train-themed selfie experience filled with photo illusions.

The new attraction is train themed to honor the historic 1894 terminal at Union Station, once the biggest and busiest in the nation with 32 tracks serving 22 railroads. Visitors should bring their phones or cameras to capture all the fun. This walk-through experience may delight, amuse or go right off the rails.

WHERE: Located indoors at St. Louis Union Station, 201 S. 18th Street. St. Louis, MO 63103, Selfie Express is on the first floor near the St. Louis Aquarium entrance. Parking is available in the south lot, entered from 18th Street at Poplar Street.

HOW: How does this work? Guests enter an old-fashioned train ticket lobby and move into the first of a series of 11 rooms filled with sets designed to create illusions in selfies and other cell phone/camera pictures.

Rooms range from a mirrored infinity view with flashing rail crossing lights to a train caboose that turns passengers into giant and small figures. Another scene transports visitors from real-life color to old-time black and white. A train dining car’s guests appear to hang flipped upside down from their seats.

Visitors can run from an oncoming train engine over a rickety trompe l’oeil painted bridge. Scenes filled with giant passenger luggage, optically fascinating clocks and even the Gateway Arch are part of the experience. Visitors can leave their shadows on the wall in one of the sets and make cute rainbow-colored shadow figures in another. Railroad fans will enjoy a room filled with model train engines and cars.

DETAILS: Admission to Selfie Express is $10. Tickets may be purchased in money-saving combinations with admission to the Aquarium, St. Louis Wheel, Carousel, Mirror Maze, Mini Golf, and the St. Louis Ropes Course for a full day of fun at Union Station’s attractions.

Selfie Express is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays through Thursdays, and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

CONTACT: For tickets or more information, visit www.stlouisunionstation.com. On social media @unionstationstl (Instagram) or /unionstationstl (Facebook).