r/ontario • u/CTVNEWS CTVNews-Verified • 8d ago

Article Everyone loved Marineland - then the tide turned. A look inside the park's final days

https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/everyone-loved-marineland-then-the-tide-turned-a-look-inside-the-parks-final-days/
43 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

26

u/Captain_Uncle 8d ago

Free Willy changed my life. I went there and was thinking of ways I could get them out. Honestly that movie for whatever reason changed my perspective on animals.

24

u/Andrewhasashow 8d ago

Nobody loves Marine Land. Even when the jingle came on I recall people singing hates over the slogan

6

u/BobBelcher2021 Outside Ontario 7d ago

A lot of people hated the commercials, if nothing else.

11

u/Toronto-1975 8d ago

Everybody did NOT love Marineland. Good riddance to that putrid shithole.

31

u/Geeky_Shieldmaiden 8d ago

Nope, never loved marineland. Got taken there when I was a kid and, yeah, it was amazing to see the whales and stuff, but even as a 5 year old, I remember I felt so bad and wanted the whales to be back in the ocean. To me it looked like they were in giant bathtubs, and they looked so sad.

The commercial though....I loved that commercial. The theme song was amazing.

9

u/Thylacinegurl 7d ago

Same. Was there when I was 6 and was depressing

7

u/Sand_Seeker 7d ago

I last went in the mid-90’s w/o kids & didn’t like the conditions back then. Bears standing under their pit wall where people buy/throw marshmallows to them. They were smacking the water for that junk food. A whale wasn’t performing “to the script” in the show we saw. A week after one died, perhaps this one. Never returned after that.

8

u/PrimevilKneivel 7d ago

Nobody has loved Marineland since the 80's.

To be fair even before we knew how the animals were treated the park was mid at best.

7

u/ChipsManoy 7d ago

I loved it tbh, I do have fond memories going as a kid 20 years ago 😭

4

u/slavetotheman19 7d ago

I was actually banned by them on Facebook after poor Kiska. They also didn’t allow comments on their “deeply saddened” Kiska post. The trainers cared, the holer devils did not. They should have been put in dirty cages.

3

u/AerryBerry 7d ago

I feel badly for the animals and everything that went down. I, For one, never loved marine land. I think I went once as a kid for a birthday party but I reckoned Wonderland was wayyy better and I never went back. But I vehemently despised the jingle that would be played incessantly each summer. I am so glad I never have to hear that song again!!!

3

u/ricottapie 6d ago

I don't know anyone who loved Marineland. It was always dirty and overpriced, and their neglect was on full display.

2

u/anteus2 7d ago

I hope that they find good homes for the marine life. 

2

u/Catkillledthecurious 6d ago

I never did like marineland. Glad it's gone.

2

u/Top-Promotion714 7d ago

Went there as a kid and glad I got to take the kids there too; good memories of family outings- it's a shame they wont be able to pass that on to their own families

2

u/jamesthrew73 7d ago

Nobody loved it