Hosted by the University in collaboration with their Welcome Week, this year’s off campus trips offered to students included Adventure Park, Mystic Aquarium, Sleeping Giant, and a trip to Lake Compounce, which was cancelled due to inclimate weather.

The most popular trip was the one to Mystic Aquarium and Old Mystic Village, which allowed students to enjoy both the Aquarium and village. Filling up the fastest out of the four trips, it even had a waiting list. Overall, there were around 100 students in attendance for the Mystic trip.

This was Sophomores Rebecca Satzberg and George Kassimis first time attending the trip to Mystic. Last year the two of them went to Sleeping Giant.

“I really liked Mystic, my favorite part of the trip was the touch tank and beluga whales. I love that they offer different experiences where you can meet and work with the animals. I would love to go back and do one of those experiences,” Satzberg said.

Kassimis expressed that she enjoyed the jellyfish much more, while for student Jeana Sorrentino is was the penguins that made the trip worthwhile, though she did make clear that she enjoyed being able to go to the village as well as the aquarium.  

While Lake Compounce was cancelled due to rain, it did not stop students from enjoying the Mystic trip on the same day.  

“It was a little inconvenient, but it wasn’t too bothersome,” Satzberg and Kassimis said.

Adventure Park is a ropes and zipline course in Bridgeport, Conn.. Overall, there were around 89 students who were in attendance. Caitlin Carney, working for the University, chaperoned the trip.

“I had a lot of fun at the adventure park despite it being cold that day. I really enjoyed the zip line parts of the courses and I would definitely go back if given the chance,” Carney said.

Some students on the Adventure Park trip this year had been on the ropes before. Mikayla Sampson was in attendance for the second time, but that did not make her enjoy her time there any less.

“My favorite part was getting to try something out of my comfort zone. I liked the trip overall and the freedom to try whatever courses we wanted. I disliked that we left late and that it was crowded,” she said.

Lake Compounce had students cancelling on their own once they saw the weather reports. Due to the numbers drastically dropping and the weather getting worse, the University decided to cancel the trip, which left several students disappointed.

“I have gone in the pouring rain before and everything was fine, so this came as a shock to me. However, after seeing the weather on Sunday, I agree it was better off being cancelled,” Junior Katie Keller said.

Junior Ankita Juvvadi shared similar sentiments, but noted that she could always attend next year.

The Sleeping Giant trip was not ran through the University in the same way as the Welcome Week Trips, but run by the REC center. The Director of the REC Center, as well as a large portion of the Rec Center staff, brought students who had signed up on a camping trail through Sleeping Giant.

If you didn’t have the chance to check out Sleeping Giant, Adventure Park, Lake Compounce and Mystic, there’s always next year or make for the perfect weekend break from campus.