Friday we went to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, remember the one I said I would never go to after the "incident"? Yeah I should really stick to my decisions. Scott and I were beyond less than impressed.
They have all over their website that they are voted #1 by Parents Magazine, I've heard tons of great things about this place and none of it added it. We saw all but one section of the zoo in an hour. Yup. Same amount of time it took us to get there. Plus it cost us $41 to get in, which I think is a little steep when you have to pay for additional things in the park, you know like the merry go round. When we went to leave we wanted to stop and grab the kids a snack for the trek home and everything but the main "grill" was closed. Seriously! It was only 3pmish so I don't get why everything was closed. So we went to the grill area and they didn't have any snacks so there went that plan. Funnily enough we were stopped when we were leaving and asked to complete a survey about our experience. Oh, did I mention one of the exhibits smelled like rotten eggs? Gross....
Maybe I'm just spoiled in the zoo department? I grew up in Chicago so I'm used to going to Brookfield or Lincoln Park, both AMAZING zoos. Plus, I worked at Animal Kingdom, so I'm really picky. (My working at AK and talking with so many animal keepers is why I was so upset when I saw the white tiger, read this article to find out why) The fact that I saw the Pepsi delivery truck making a delivery while looking at the rhinos was enough to make me crazy.
Most of all though it comes down to price. The fact that it was just over $20 each for Scott and I to get in made me slightly insane. When I got home I double checked the prices for Brookfield, which has more exhibits than Tampa, and for $25 for each adult you can get into the zoo PLUS the Dolphin Show, Stingray Bay, Butterflies!, Children's Zoo, Hamill Family Play Zoo, Motor Safari, and Carousel. If you don't want to see any of those things it's just $14 a person. Yup, $14 for more animals and better experience.
I don't we're going back to Lowry Park, we're going to try Brevard Zoo next. Am I being a snob about zoo's though? What do you think?
They have all over their website that they are voted #1 by Parents Magazine, I've heard tons of great things about this place and none of it added it. We saw all but one section of the zoo in an hour. Yup. Same amount of time it took us to get there. Plus it cost us $41 to get in, which I think is a little steep when you have to pay for additional things in the park, you know like the merry go round. When we went to leave we wanted to stop and grab the kids a snack for the trek home and everything but the main "grill" was closed. Seriously! It was only 3pmish so I don't get why everything was closed. So we went to the grill area and they didn't have any snacks so there went that plan. Funnily enough we were stopped when we were leaving and asked to complete a survey about our experience. Oh, did I mention one of the exhibits smelled like rotten eggs? Gross....
Maybe I'm just spoiled in the zoo department? I grew up in Chicago so I'm used to going to Brookfield or Lincoln Park, both AMAZING zoos. Plus, I worked at Animal Kingdom, so I'm really picky. (My working at AK and talking with so many animal keepers is why I was so upset when I saw the white tiger, read this article to find out why) The fact that I saw the Pepsi delivery truck making a delivery while looking at the rhinos was enough to make me crazy.
Most of all though it comes down to price. The fact that it was just over $20 each for Scott and I to get in made me slightly insane. When I got home I double checked the prices for Brookfield, which has more exhibits than Tampa, and for $25 for each adult you can get into the zoo PLUS the Dolphin Show, Stingray Bay, Butterflies!, Children's Zoo, Hamill Family Play Zoo, Motor Safari, and Carousel. If you don't want to see any of those things it's just $14 a person. Yup, $14 for more animals and better experience.
I don't we're going back to Lowry Park, we're going to try Brevard Zoo next. Am I being a snob about zoo's though? What do you think?
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3 comments:
What a rip off! $41 bucks for one day? And there was no food. That's total B.S.!
I don't think your being a snob about what you got for the price. I grew up going to the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, So I'm a bit spoiled in the Zoo department as well. We went to a local Zoo here in Va, I was very disappointed in what we saw. Everything fit into what looked like a small parking lot. The animals didn't look very healthy. We paid close to 70$ that day. made me a little sick to my stomach that some Zoo's charge such a large price for nothing more than Farm animals.
Our zoo (Bham Zoo) is a joke. It used to be so cool but they have done away with so many animals that my girls would rather just ride the carousel, train & play on the playground/splashpad. And do not even get me started on the prices - you pay to get into the zoo but then you have to pay for the train, carousel, etc. UGH!
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