I have taken kids to the Butterfly Wonderland that was the original attraction at that site. It is decent, but you can see the same butterflies, and get better explanations, at either the Botanical Gardens or the Phoenix Zoo on Galvin Parkway. Furthermore, the prices at Butterfly Wonderland were 3x the price of admission to the Gardens or the Zoo. And unlike the Gardens or Zoo, once you have seen the butterflies, you are pretty much done for the day at that location - you have to get in the car and go elsewhere for further diversion.
Keep in mind that if you buy a ticket to Odysea, that ticket DOES NOT include an opportunity to see the dolphins. I believe that visitors need to purchase an "encounter" pass to see sharks or dolphins or penguins, etc. Our neighbors took a bunch of kids to Odysea and were pretty angry about the lack of integrity in terms of communicating the pricing for the different attractions.
If you can find one of the folks who works with the SRMIC finding and arranging investments like were made to build Odysea, be sure and ask them to tell you the tales of the Arab investors who funded the building of Odysea. I have a basic understanding of libel, so I won't retail it, but the stories some of the legal and finance folks can provide are hair-raising gossip of the highest order. Seriously, if someone less straightforward had told me such tales of incredible immorality and despicable behavior, I would not believe it.
At least the protesters have stopped picketing at the corner of Pima and Via de Ventura now that the summer has come. They were not permitted to protest on the SRMIC land, so they picked the spot in Scottsdale closest to the Odysea. If you didn't know that such an attraction was on the other side of the 101, however, you would think that they were picketing the Hopi branch post office. Down with the enslavement of dolphins by the US Postal Service!
I stopped on my bike and chatted with the protesters this past Spring, and they were upset about the cetaceans in captivity over at the dolphinarium at Odysea. They do sort of have a point - any dolphin or porpoise in captivity is a sad thing. It is really subbing salt in the wound to make the cage for dolphins in the middle of the desert, 400 km away from the nearest body of the ocean in the Gulf of California.
Anyway, have fun, and then stop by Octane Raceway just to the south for some go-karting - they got new Sodi chassis this last month, and I hear they handle nicely.