Akron Zoo

Reviews 3

BR

Brett Mansdorf

Boo In The Zoo... 10/15 As for the Zoo - been here many times – it’s great and small enough to still be managed in an afternoon – it is a solid 4.5 stars by itself – but this is a review of BOO IN THE ZOO... ISSUE 1: I lost count of how many times a parent was BUSY posting to social media or simply texting while their child wasnt being watched (and either steps away from hurting themselves or simply being lost) ... The Zoo does an exceptional job at protecting the little ones - but it’s simply no replacement for a parent who finds their childs safety outweighs their egos need for self-gratification on social media. PATHETIC - get your priorities straight! This is a social issue, but perhaps make the moronic parents actually take a quiz before entering... Question #1 - are you here to take pictures and socialize or are you hear to make sure your KID has fun, NOT YOU. Anyone who gets it wrong - deny entry. ISSUE #2: As for the BOO in the ZOO - nice idea - but limiting the masses to simply what YOUR parking lot holds might be a common sense suggestion… When many displays are closed Id argue you do have space for more people – but guess what – when there is more people – you end up with crowds around the display which are open – and these days it’s all about selfies. “I am so sorry – you have only been here guarding ½ the viewing space for the last 5 minutes so you can get a picture with your child (who isn’t cooperating) with the animal close up (who isn’t cooperating either) so you garnish lots of attention. I am terribly sorry I wanted my 2 y/o to actually SEE the animal for 30 seconds – PLEASE take another 4 or 5 minutes – we’ll just wait over here.” Twice I had someone hit the stroller - and although I received the whimsical "sorry" - with the underlying "cant you see Im moving over here - please yield as I cant look at my phone and where Im walking at the same time"... This too is an issue with society - but LIMITING the shear numbers might resolve most. Issue #3: So I’ll make another suggestion. I’ll pay a premium so my child isn’t handed a concoction of the most processed foods… Little Hugs Barrel drink – DO YOU FEED YOUR CHILD THIS? Full of all the stuff pediatricians warn against. Multitude of Little Debbie snacks (McKee) – not so bad, but I would have preferred ACME spend a bit of time with a supplier to find something better – as it appears they spent a quick phone call. My ignorance might be showing – but I walked away from this thinking LESS of ACME – not the zoo. ISSUE #4 - did you decide to do this yesterday... Empty and unopened cardboard boxes strewn everywhere. Would it kill you to either use existing buildings or set up a folding table and put a sheet over it with the boxes under it... Look poor - and considering I had out of town guests in tow - I was embarrassed for you. Not sure if this is Acme or the Zoo - but its on Zoo property. Having you kids playing with cardboard is ALWAYS a good idea. Suggestion – NEXT YEAR – get a parent of a 2-4 y/o to sit in on the logistics meetings – YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY SEE A BIT OF PARENTAL COMMON SENSE take shape - as its obvious you didnt have ANY parental influences this year.

TJ

TJ Cundall

I only gave it a star because I have too! We went today and took pictures of ALL the animals and I only have 18 pictures (not including fish) Very small selection of animals to view and would NEVER recommend to a stranger,let alone a friend. Akron Zoo does bad business because they are connected to the Cleveland Zoo! We drive from Cleveland because we have a pass that Cleveland Zoological Society says you can get into 130+ Zoos nationwide for free with a pass. This is FALSE! We went and had to pay for parking,even though I have a parking pass and the pass is good to use,Akron still made us pay! Also they even told me that Cleveland lies to people and gets them to buy passes that way. Akron wants $75 for a pass and it is NOT worth it,it takes less then 1 hour to go through the zoo and see ALL animals and thats having 2 eleven year old girls with me! The drive from Maple Heights to Akron Zoo is longer than we were at the zoo including eating a snack. DO NOT GO TO THIS ZOO OR CLEVELAND ZOO as they are bad business people and I have made many complaints on Cleveland already because I know first hand on how they lie and if Akron is associated with Cleveland it taints Akrons name! Cleveland has already told me,as I was there on my phone with them and on Instagram that the Zebras were out and they were just lying to us because we were right at the exhibit! Unless you want to throw your money away feel free to go to this horrific zoo with enclosures that are way to small for many of these animals. If you would like to keep your hard earned money,find a different zoo like Columbus or even Detroit. Akron gets a -3 star for the zoo and a -4 for public relations! They talked down to me once they found out I was from Cleveland and almost didnt let me and my girls in. WORST ZOO EVER! Can you say Better Business Bureau!!! Cleveland already got the same message and already called on them for lying not once,not twice,not even just 3 times but 6 different occasions they have lied and Akron is affiliated with them! No good,never again!!! My daughters even let me take a picture of them giving the thumbs down sign next to the Akron Zoo sign,that was the best part and best picture! Needs to be a bigger zoo and those animals need transferred out of there as they are also to close to homes and in the middle of the projects where my kids saw people playing dice and drinking beer wide open on the corner! How horrific is that for kids to see. Now I know why the city of Akron is so messed up,poor policing as they were even shooting dice on the corner with these kids and waived my car around them. My kids then asked what did he do that for and I didnt know what to say except the truth! Thats another horrible thing,especially since their grandpa is a police chief in Portage County. NEVER AGAIN!!!

SA

Sara Panzarella

The main reason I want to post is to let others know that as of this date the directions the Iphone sends you is wrong. it looks like they have done some changes to the zoo in the past couple of years and have not updated it yet. I am not familiar with the area and even though we were driving AROUND the perimeter of the zoo, I did not see one sign directing us to the entrance. The poor signage continued after we parked. The park had been open for 30 minutes and there was a line out the door 300 ft long. I had bought a season pass this morning on-line and there were no signs saying season holders versus buying ticket line anywhere. A woman in front of me said she had been told to stand in line (she had a season pass) and the door for season pass holders was locked. So we stood in line for about 5 minutes until I saw other people going through the door that had previously been locked. So we went through there - after walking to the front of the room I saw one little sign directing us to the entrance. The girl that scanned my receipt said - "next time you need to go through the ticket line (because i didnt have my permanent card it wasnt in their system) but since it is so crowded you can go through today. Uh, the website said to use my receipt as my pass - why would I stand in the purchase ticket line? And it would have been nice if she had said something like - "Oh, thanks for joining" or "enjoy your first visit" or even "here is a map!" The actual zoo is very pretty, I have no idea how much of it we saw on this visit, most of the exhibits looked new. We were coming for a short visit anyway and getting lost shortened our time even more. Next time I will definitely plan on bringing lunch - there seemed to be nice places to sit and eat. The train ride for kids is just a little loop, I didnt ck it before buying tickets (you run into the buy ticket stand first) - I was thinking it was going to take us on a ride around the zoo. When leaving I was confused again - there seemed to be no exit until I found the doors we originally came through - then there was a sign that said "Please exit through gift shop". Uh, no. No thank you. The poor signage continued after we left the parking lot. Seeing that it was new construction around the entrance I decided to follow the signs instead of my phone. Well I followed the sign to 76 for about a mile and then the sign turned into a 76 East sign. I needed West. I ended up driving 4 miles out of my way before getting onto a highway - if I had followed the phone first it would have been only a few blocks. Now that I know my way around a bit more, I am hoping are next visit is more enjoyable and a little less crowded. But I still wont be exiting through the gift shop.

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