This THEA Award winner for Outstanding Achievement is an unexpected experience for all guests that enter the St Louis Aquarium. Entering the “Grand Lobby,” guests are greeted with an immersive LED curved ceiling, and integrated circular clock tank that immediately submerges guests in a fantastic display of art, imagery, color, motion, and music, while hundreds of colorful discus fish swim among the gears of the working clock. Ten original vignettes celebrate the incredible beauty found beneath the surface of our blue water planet. With incredible artistry, vignettes are choreographed to a beautiful original score, creating a visual ballet that captures the moment in the most magical way. Next, visitors board the “Union Station Express,” an immersive simulated Train Ride where guests feel the motion and view a breathtaking panoramic 38400 x 4420 re solution film as they are wondrously “transported” to the Aquarium. The ride features the voice talents of John Goodman as the conductor whose inventions allow the train to depart historic Union Station, fly above the developing city of St. Louis, then startlingly dive beneath the surface of the Mississippi River, then transport beyond to the ocean depths. The experience creates a unique transition from the Train Shed’s history to the arrival at the new Aquarium... it's difficult to know where reality ends and fantasy begins.