Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone, I have been away for a while but will be back in the ...
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone, I have been away for a while but will be back in the new year.
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On a recent visit to Blackpool we visited the Blackpool zoo for the first time, although we have been to Blackpool twice before in the past few years we didn't go to the zoo during these visits, we read about the zoo on the internet and a few friends had told us it was really good.
WERE IS THE ZOO? Unfornately we went to Blackpool for the illuminations and the weather wasn't great , however we had a few cloudy days and we still went to the zoo and had a great day, the zoo opens at 10am and there is a bus running from Blackpool promenade (outside the Tower) that takes you right to the zoo, which is situated in Stanley park, we didn't realise that the bus stop was outside the Tower so we got a black taxi to the zoo which cost us around £8.00.
We arrived at the zoo a little after 10am, and after getting out of the taxi we realised just how close the bus stop was from the zoo, a few yards from the entrance which was really handy as we were intending on getting the bus home.
ENTRANCE The entrance to the zoo is a building with the payment area, a kids play area and a cafe, above the tills there is a list of prices, for an adult the price is
£13.99 and for a child the price is £9.99, although they also do family tickets for two adults and three children it cost £50. The staff at the tills were helpful, friendly and pleasent. Once the payments have been made you then go through a small gate and are then into the outdoor area of the zoo, here is were there are large tortoises and a few other outdoor animals like peguins.
INSIDE THE ZOO Looking around the zoo I soon realised that all the animals were quite close together and there were no hills to climb, unlike the Belfast zoo. anyway there was an indoor insect area and an indoor bird area. Other animals included elephants, giraffes, monkies, tigers, lions, penguins, and many others.
Upon entrance we were given a map of the zoo along with a list of activities going on in the zoo throughout the day, which was really useful. We were able to listen to a short talk about each animal, the talks lasted around 10 minutes and after this we watched as the animals were fed, later on we watched a short bird show which we seen a parrot fly through hoops in the air. and other birds do certain tasks, like fly from perch to perch, the kids loved this!!
Other activities that were going on in the zoo were face painting, which cost £4.00 for each child, a gorilla poo throwing competition, which cost 50p per child, my kids didn't fancy this though. In the insect enclosure there was a short period of time were we could hold certain insects. During the time walking around the insect enclosure we seen quite a lot of insects but one that really got my attention was the hissing cockroache, it looked creepy, however when we held the cockroache it wasn't as creepy as it had first looked, we also held a stick insect and we stroked a lizard. I'm not really into insects of any shape or form and I surprised myself by holding them, it wasn't as bad as I had imagined though.
Around the zoo there were plenty of areas to sit and and rest or have lunch. Although there was a cafe but we had already packed our own lunch so I'm not sure of the prices. However judging by the prices of the stalls I would imagine that the cafe would probably be quite expensive, so I would advise packing your own food.
Other things to do around the zoo was a trampoline and a bouncy castle, both of these cost around £2.00 each for a 5 minute go. There was also a park which was suited to toddlers. In the entrance building there was also a play area for kids, it was like a small version of Jungle Jims, the kids could play in ball pits and play on the rope bridges etc. There was a sign on the entrance to the play area saying that for 15 minutes it would cost £1.00 per child, however we were not charged for this, so I'm not sure if the charge applies or they made a mistake by not charging us. Also in the zoo there is a dinosaur safari, the kids couldn't wait to see them, for me though this was a bit of a disappointment, but the kids enjoyed anyway!
Also around the zoo there was also stalls were you could buy ice cream and juice etc, although the stalls were quite expensive we bought one bottle of juice and four ice creams which cost £8.00, having said that, it's the same in all these sorts of places.
CONCLUSION All in all the zoo was really good, we were able to spend the whole day in the zoo and we all had a great day. We arrived at the zoo at 10am and didn't arrive back to our appartment until about 5.30pm. On our trip to the zoo we spent around £75, which is quite expensive, however the zoo was excellent and as I said we were able to spend all day there and if we ever return to Blackpool we intend on returning to the zoo.
Thanks for reading
Pictures of Blackpool Zoo
Blackpool Zoo
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Advantages: Fantastic zoo, lots of animals, fascinating talks, animals seem very well cared for. Disadvantages: Play areas and Dinasaur safari were dissapointing.
Rhiana 28.06.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Blackpool Zoo
Advantages: Fantastic zoo, lots of animals, fascinating talks, animals seem very well cared for. Disadvantages: Play areas and Dinasaur safari were dissapointing.
Rhiana 28.06.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Blackpool Zoo
Sep 21st, 2009
exceptional by (5%):
very helpful by (95%):
