Newport Aquarium
Newport, Kentucky
Pet a shark, meet a penguin, touch an alligator — you know, the usual, at least for meetings at the Newport Aquarium in Newport, Kentucky.
The aquarium’s 6,000-square-foot Riverside Room is available any time for as many as 220 dinner guests or about 325 for a reception, said Margaret Bedilion, the museum’s senior sales manager. The room’s floor-to-ceiling windows and attached patio overlook the Ohio River and, across the water, downtown Cincinnati.
The entire aquarium is available after hours for up to 1,000 people. Guests can walk around with their drinks and stop by Shark Central to pet a shark or the tidal pool to touch a horseshoe crab.
Meetings and events often start with a reception or end with coffee and dessert in the Jellyfish Gallery, a dark room filled with colored lights that illuminate the ethereal jellyfish. For dinner, groups usually move to the Riverside Room. Another option is Shark Ray Bay, a room with a 16-by-20-foot window into the shark tank that allows up to 120 diners to watch sharks and dive shows.
The aquarium also offers animal encounters with a penguin or baby alligator, both of which are “great icebreakers,” Bedilion said. To break up the day, groups can choose from an impressive aray of behind-the-scenes tours that take attendees to the tops of shark tanks and into the animals’ food prep kitchens, offering a “completely different experience than what the average guest gets,” she said.
The aquarium’s Ride the Ducks tours are another popular option. World War II-era amphibious vehicles take passengers on an hour-long historic tour that includes downtown Cincinnati, downtown Newport and a splashdown into the Ohio River.
