Expected it to be bigger for one thing. everyone always told me how much time you need to see it. We went for a half a day, then came back expecting to spend another half to full day(had been told it takes 2-3 days to see it all) and we were all "wow, we should have just stayed an hour longer yesterday then we could have gone and hit the children's museum".
Bears were cool and my kids liked sitting in the hippo statue mouth, but the aquarium was awesome. The desert dome is just a bunch of rocks and crap. The building is the most impressive thing about it.
Also, all the animal habitats were small. When I see large animals in something the size of my back yard it makes me sad.