Well, the final verdict is in: We went.
The displays were very clean and nice but it was quite small, I feel $16 per person was a little too much for the small amount of time we actually spent in there, it's much smaller than the vancouver aquarium. They do feature mostly coldwater native species which is neat but I would have liked to see more tropical stuff too and the seal tank was so very tiny! The tide/touch pools were very nice to look at and while I'm not such a big fan of anemones being fingered all day the kids there looked like they were having a great time!
The Woodland Park Zoo on the other hand was great! We spent about 3 and a half hours there and still didn't see all the exhibits (it was a long day, my feet gave out on me!) and we had a lot of fun. The enclosures for the most part weren;t too small, had lots of "natural" foliage, caves, hiding spots and enrichment and most of the animals looked very well kept and not stressed (with a few exceptions)
All in all I didn't "love" Seattle, the city has a very claustrophobic feeling, the streets are narrow and the buildings loom but I loved driving thru the hills in washington, very pretty countryside, and we still had fun in Seattle. Pike place market was really cool with the fish vendors yelling and throwing fish and we rode the monorail lol.
