Finding Dory at the Lomond Shores Sea Life Centre

To celebrate the UK release of Finding Dory, my sister Justine and I decided to plan a day of fish fun at our local aquarium, the Lomond Shores Sea Life Centre, before going to see the movie. The Sea Life Centre was actually holding a special screening of the film on Saturday evening so we planned our day around it - what better location to watch Finding Dory than an aquarium? It was so fitting!

The Finding Dory festivities were in full swing at the Sea Life Centre with themed decorations and movie related fun facts throughout. There were even some giant backdrops that were perfect for photos and really got us in the spirit to get looking for Dory! We also realised after we took these photos that I'd dressed as Dory and Justine had dressed as Hank the octopus (or septapus if you've seen the movie!)

Our first stop in the hunt for Dory and Co, was the stingray tank where we watched Mr Ray and pals get fed and glide through the water. Everytime I saw one woosh past me I couldn't help but think of Mr Ray's anemone song. Let's name the zones, the zones, the zones. Let's name the zones of the open SEA! Although we had fun watching the stingrays, it soon became apparent that Dory was not there and so the search continued.

Next up we braved the shark tank in the hopes that we might find Dory at one of her "fish are friends - not food" meetings, but alas she was not! We stayed and watched Bruce and the others circle above us and kept a close eye out for any poor little fish skeletons - just in case!

In contrast to the scary sharks, we next came across the cutest little jellyfish! I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy. For some reason these little guys were swimming upside down but if anything, this just added to the cuteness!

Speaking of cute, we then went to the turtle feed. We didn't see Crush or Squirt (I think they're still somewhere on the EAC), but we did have the pleasure of seeing Cammy, the resident giant sea turtle at the Sea Life Centre. Cammy is 14 years old which is still pretty young for a giant sea turtle considering they live to be over 100 (Sandy Plankton knows nothing!), and we learned that she eats lettuce, broccoli and even kale - how very hipster! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any decent photos or footage of Cammy as she was too busy munching on some greens but she was beautiful and huge!

By this point we were beginning to lose hope of ever finding Dory, so I took it upon myself to get as close a look in the tanks as I possibly could - but all I found were puffer fish! We even went to the viewing deck to see if she'd somehow managed to make her way back to the sea but we found nothing but a gorgeous view.

Just as we were about to admit defeat, we stumbled upon a display of some rather familiar looking fish friends...Dory, Marlin and Nemo! We found them!

All the aquarium fun definitely got us in the mood for the movie, so we headed into the massive cinema screen located conveniently inside the Sea Life Centre, and were even gifted with some super cool Dory cups!

I won't do an in-depth review of Finding Dory as I don't want to give anything away, but I loved every minute of it. It had the humour and warmth that you'd expect from a Disney Pixar movie with the added cuteness of baby Dory (honestly she was freakin' adorable!), which along with the characters you already know and love as well as some new ones, makes for the perfect feel good movie. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll most definitely squee with delight, but don't just take my word for it, go see it yourselves! I know that I'll be seeing it at least once more while it's still in cinemas!

¡Por favour manténgase alejado de las puertas!