If you have been watching the news, you know that this is definitely a SHARKY summer.  Sharks are being sighted all over the place and now, I’m reporting yet another shark sighting! No, it’s not at a beach. In fact, it’s right here in Manhattan!  Let me explain…

The Paley Center for Media is celebrating Discovery’s Shark Week with some “fin-tastic fun” and we checked it out on “Shark Week Saturday”  and can report back to you that although we came face to face with sharks, we stayed dry and completely safe! Right when we walked in, the fun began. There was a photostation where we took awesome photos with cool props.

As you can see, we even grew to love them and learned that they’re actually not as dangerous as you may think they are.  (I don’t suggest hugging one, though!).

A VR station is also in the front room greeting guests. The VR station was a cool experience of going underwater and being surrounded by sharks and fish, accompanied by the rest of the scuba diving crew. It was so realistic that my mom freaked out! It was very fun and a good way to start out the experience.

Right across the hall there was a room with walls covered in pictures of different sharks. The main thing that caught my eye was a couch made of shark plushes! We immediately went to sit on it and watched the first ever Shark Week episode from 1988. 1988!

If you like sharks, or if you’re terrified of them but still curious about them like my mom, you have to spend some time in this room!

You can learn all kinds of things about so many different kinds of sharks here, like Lemon Sharks. Who even knew there were Lemon Sharks?? Do they eat lemons? Find out the answer at this exhibit! There are cool interactive games and activities here, too. Here we are “spotting” a Whale Shark:

We stopped upstairs to check out Paley GX, with over 20 Gaming Stations (PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch…) plus an amazing VR room. It’s like being in the coolest living room on the planet! I’ll have to do a whole different story on this but it was an awesome experience and I definitely want to check it out again!  

We could have hung out there all day but we had a Shark Week screening to get to in the theater! We got to watch a special Sneak Peek episode but there will be Shark Week screenings Wednesday to Sunday downstairs until August 7 while this exhibit is going on.  Don’t miss it, because it’s so cool to see the amazing Discovery footage on a big screen!  More info: https://www.paleycenter.org/events/paleygx-2022/

And the best part is, you’re safe and dry and you will definitely get out alive! Where else can you come this close to sharks, and live to tell about it?

The Paley Center for Media Salutes Shark Week: “Get Your Heart Pumping” takes place July 13 to August 7.  This year’s exhibit offerings include:

  • Come face-to-face with sharks with our state-of-the-art VR sets.
  • Play a few rounds of Hungry Shark World in PaleyGX.
  • See how you measure up against a life-size image of a great white shark
  • Test your shark trivia on interactive screens.
  • Capture and share multiple photos on social, including a retro plush shark throne.
  • Enjoy episodes of Shark Week on the big screen!

Paley members get free admission with a guest to exhibits and screenings, priority ticket access and preferred pricing on events, and once-in-a-lifetime VIP experiences throughout the year.