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Zoo Only Days

RustyShackleford

RustyShackleford

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I'm quite looking forward to the zoo being open in a couple of weeks. It will be a nice experience just focussing on the animals rather than wondering when the best time to avoid a particular ride queue will be.
 
Made it down an hour and a bit before closing. It was an interesting experience.

First you ignore the park closed sign (Some however didn;t ignore this and u-turned in front of me.) outside the barriers and drive all the way round and into the furtherst car park. This will allow for a good look at how much further earth works have been done with the little digger since remplaps photos!!

You actually enter the park through the gates that come out into Spencer's play area. This was open as was the kiddies play area by the exhibition.

It seemed that there were more animals easily on view and one wondered whether they were slightly more relaxed without all the normal park noise. But with zoos its always a case that sometimes you are luckier than others.

A very pleasant walk around. And one I will be sure to repeat soon, with the opening being 10-3 you could spend all of that time there with some considerable play time and a factored in lunch.

As always there are areas which can be improved, the car park was a bit of a mud bath and probably could have done with a few cones to mean that space was maximised and access to all was easier. The poor bloke on the entrance had a failing scanning device but improvised well. The QR codes on the zoo signs don't seen to link to pages on the website anymore. But these aren't quibbles, just matters that they may wish to polish up on.
 
RustyShackleford said:
Made it down an hour and a bit before closing. It was an interesting experience.

First you ignore the park closed sign (Some however didn;t ignore this and u-turned in front of me.) outside the barriers and drive all the way round and into the furtherst car park. This will allow for a good look at how much further earth works have been done with the little digger since remplaps photos!!

You actually enter the park through the gates that come out into Spencer's play area. This was open as was the kiddies play area by the exhibition.

It seemed that there were more animals easily on view and one wondered whether they were slightly more relaxed without all the normal park noise. But with zoos its always a case that sometimes you are luckier than others.

A very pleasant walk around. And one I will be sure to repeat soon, with the opening being 10-3 you could spend all of that time there with some considerable play time and a factored in lunch.

As always there are areas which can be improved, the car park was a bit of a mud bath and probably could have done with a few cones to mean that space was maximised and access to all was easier. The poor bloke on the entrance had a failing scanning device but improvised well. The QR codes on the zoo signs don't seen to link to pages on the website anymore. But these aren't quibbles, just matters that they may wish to polish up on.
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Agreeing with everything here as we had a very similar experience.
We went around 11am on our visit and had a very pleasant time.

The "Park closed" signs and very empty drive in were definitely a bit confusing (And strange, felt like a bit of a post-apocalyptic movie or something!) however we were pleasantly surprised to see a nice turnout of visitors.

The animals were very active and we got some incredible views of them - especially the fishing cat and red panda's who are often a challenge to find (in my experience). It felt like the animals were incredibly curious and wanted to see the public.

The scanning device was being funky when we were there too - they managed in the end but it was an on/off thing.
 
Went to the park for a walk around the zoo this afternoon. One thing to note, the app didn't let me pre-book as requested not being seemingly programmed with the Zoo-Only days. The scanner accepted my pass off the app without any problems though.
 
It was a little eerie walking through the park in the middle of the day with everything shut and so few people there. Here is photo though which may get some minds spinning. The site traffic sign was in place here The path up to the barrells and Sheriff's Showdown was still blocked off as per the recent event. The inductrial looking double doors to the right of the toy shop were noticably unbolted but I am much to shy and risk averse to have a lookie in!!

The water cascading down is from the jet washer being put to good use on the outside of the Accelerator buildings.
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How many would you say were there while you was there?
Can understand why they do it as staff are they for maintenance/cleaning so they may as well open up the zoo for visitors.
 
Oh I have been an advocate for the opening of the zoo during the winter for ages. It's a pleasant walk and safe for the kids. There is the added bonus for the kids that the play areas are open.

Numbers are difficult to gauge, I'd say there were 50 or so cars when we got there. And 70 or so when we got back, but there is a more rapid churn I suspect for the zoo only than for a wider offering.
 
Now with just the Zoo days been going on at the park since the 6th to 24th November I’m very surprised that the social media team not been trying to sell the event more.
I would have gone just to get some construction pics and seeing if Shockwave repaint has started but my pass ran out on the 11th and I’m not renewing to the 25th so I get full use out of it.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Now with just the Zoo days been going on at the park since the 6th to 24th November I’m very surprised that the social media team not been trying to sell the event more.
I would have gone just to get some construction pics and seeing if Shockwave repaint has started but my pass ran out on the 11th and I’m not renewing to the 25th so I get full use out of it.
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Ours ran out a little bit before yours. We went platinum to allow trips to DMR and WMSP for half term.

Could well make use of the zoo day opportunities next weekend. It was certainly a bonus last year both in terms of being able to get out and about and also to see the development of the submarine splash.
 
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