Visit Tom Nook and find Gulliver at Sea Life this summer! I've visited Sea Life Scheveningen to join the stamp rally and to check out their small but cozy aquarium.
The Animal Crossing New Horizons video game on the Switch is one of my favourite games. In it you are the mayor of a small island with animal villagers. You can collect bugs and fishes and display them in the island's museum. In this museum you sometimes have events where you can collect stamps, something that is also a very big thing in Japan itself. Most of the stamp rallies never really venture outside of Japan, but this time they are at a bunch of Sea Life in Europe!
Whilst visiting you can collect Villagers from the game, these are the stamps. You get a sheet to stamp them on. Meanwhile you visit the aquarium like you normally would. I spend the time sketching a bunch of animals, something I always do when I visit a zoo or aquarium.
There was also an extra sheet you got with questions and the answers would be found on Blather's museum sign posts scattered around the aquarium. They also had letters on them which you could collect to make the answer to a question on the back of the sheet. If you played the game well enough, you would be able to guess this answer without looking for the letters... 👀✨
Halfway through it I had the chance to meet Tom Nook and take a picture with him! He wasn't too pleased I didn't brought my monthly Bell payment with me, but he offered me a deal instead. He drove a hard bargain but I took the deal! 💸
One disappointing point tho: Gulliver was hard to find. I could not find him without going through it twice (and it's a very small aquarium) until I had to ask an employee for a hint. And when I found him then I felt cheated. But I'll keep it a secret for now, let me know if you found him by yourself!
In case you are afraid to spend a lot in the shop afterwards, no worries. There are zero exclusive merch products except a postcard I collected after mentioning I completed the questions and the stamp rally. They have their regular shop products plus the Lego Animal Crossing boxes. Nothing else, so no worries about missing out on something.
I visited on a Thursday morning to be ahead of the crowds as it can be very busy, but if you are planning on visiting Scheveningen, why not add a 1-2 hour aquarium visit to it. Animal Crossing will be in Sea Life until end of August 2024 🐠