Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

Address:	5400 N Pearl St, Tacoma, WA 98407, USA
Phone:	+1 253-591-5337
Site:	pdza.org
Rating:	4.5
Working:	9:30AM–6PM 9:30AM–6PM 9:30AM–6PM 9:30AM–6PM 9:30AM–6PM 9:30AM–6PM 9:30AM–6PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 7

Lori C

A fun place to explore! This zoo was pretty impressive with the design of each habitat, it felt like we were actually seeing into the animals natural environment instead of just a tank or a cage. The animals seemed to be given lots of space to roam and play and they all looked like they were having fun - most were out and about, except for the polar bears which we were really looking forward to - they were nowhere to be seen. The aquarium felt more crowded because the viewing areas were much smaller. The eye-to-eye shark exhibit was not well maintained - it was disgusting with slimy handprints everywhere so it was hard to even see through the glass and smelled dirty. They charge about 70-150 for "cage diving" with the sharks as we saw a little boy and his dad climb into the underwater cage platform with their scuba gear, but the sharks dont really go near it. And the Cafeteria was disgustingly hot and muggy and FULL of people, very noisy. The prices were a little better than movie theater food prices. I cant speak for the quality of food - I only got an overly salted soft pretzel which seemed fresh enough. Bring your own food and have a picnic on the lawn. I think the worst part was listening to adults trying to interact with the animals in front of their kids and shouting disrespectful things. PLEASE dont shout at the animals, talk baby talk to them or call the gorgeous and awesome tigers "kitty kitty". Their kids are going to grow up to be rude, uncaring and disrespectful too, so if thats what you were planning to do go somewhere else like the waterpark or a sporting event and make your animal sounds and ignorant comments there.

Nam Nguyen

Perhaps Ive lost the amazement and wonder of my childhood mind now that Im an adult. I came here with some friends and my wife and baby in hopes of seeing some cool things again and seeing the reaction of my daughter seeing zoo animals for the first time. Its been well over a decade since Ive been to any zoo, my expectations were pretty high coming into Point Defiance. Pricing is relatively cheap at $18/adult. And free parking is a plus. The zoo itself is decently sized but to my dismay sightings of animals were difficult to see. Nothing exotic aside from the tiger cage - which we only saw one extremely skinny tiger pacing back and forth. Like it hasnt eaten in many days kind of skinny. We saw two monkeys swinging around, a few porcupines, and a walrus and an anteater. Outside of that - just empty displays of nothing. The most you can really see is in the aquarium portion of the zoo - but we payed to see animals and not fish so that was a disappointment. We cruised around for an hour and a half and didnt see much at all. The highlight of it was was paying the extra $3 to see the budgies with a food stick and they flew right up to us. Outside of that - the zoo was lackluster - a box of water cost $4 and they were out of a lot of food items so we skipped out on lunch as well.

A Private User

I wish Point Defiance Zoo had more value per dollar. Most times the animals are no where to be seen, regardless of season or weather. All concessions are way overpriced - $3 for a 20 oz bottle of water from the vending machine. Cheap Chinese trinkets are sold at ridiculous prices (an average 50 cent plastic wind up toy sells for nearly $3 at this zoo). There is even less to see on free days. Dont hate me for my opinion. I just think that if youre going to spend some hard earned money on a zoo outing for the kids it would just make more sense to make the trip to Seattles zoo instead. Last time I spent the day there: no lemurs, no meerkats, no large cats, one motionless monkey, no tapir, etc. Most of the exhibits were empty, not an animal in sight. In addition, if you want to be enviro-friendly and take the bus forget it - youd have to walk from Pearl street which will leave you tired before you even get to the main entrance. No offense to my Tacoma neighbors who love this zoo but they really should go to Woodland Park and see what a real zoo is like.

Shianan E.

I grew up not too far from Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, and I went in knowing this was a smaller zoo. I was a little underwhelmed with the aquarium until we got to the shark exhibit. That was pretty cool. I wish the habitats were bigger for the animals, as they all seem quite small, but the only way to get those is for the zoo to get more funding, and with the Seattle zoo not too far away, Im not sure what the chances of that happening are. The only thing we didnt get to see were the polar bears because the glass for their habitat was being replaced. I did love, however, that they dont charge additional fees to any of the exhibits like they do in the larger zoos. The staff is really nice, though all of the concessions except for the cafe were shut down (it was November). The entire grounds were kept clean, and it doesnt smell like poop, even by the elephants. :) We plan to go again closer to Christmas when they have the entire zoo lit up at night.

Malysah Phanivong

I went to the zoo last week on Tuesday. They are normally closed but were open as a special. I will admit that there wasnt a whole lot to do in terms of extra curricular things but there also werent a lot of people there either which turned out to be a very good thing. Upon entering, we met a peacock who apparently roams the park. My brother and I were there for about five hours which was just enough time to see everything and have a quick lunch. When we arrived around 11:00pm there wasnt a lot of animal activity but as the day wore on we could hear the animal becoming active. I really enjoyed the zoo and aquarium and am going again because it was so fun. The employees are very nice and knowledgable and will let you know what the animals eat and where they came from...I recommend it and hope that you research before you make negative comments :) enjoy!

MaryEllen Winski

Wonderfully built zoo however it would be nice not to have it so compacted maybe a tram rail through the park rather than cars roaming all over the place. Make more room for the animals. Just seems that a lot of space is wasted on nothing. Would like to see more tourist aceptable money exchange, and commerce. Come on Tacoma Chamber of Commerce, City Manager why have you not gotten on the ball and taken care of these longtime issues! Metro Parks can not be expectected to handled all this alone after all they need a Bank willing to put ATM machines then of course the PD would be needed for security. Lots of taxes have been spent by our city to make this an accredited zoo. Lets at least keep all the other amenities upgrading along with the zoo. I was under the impression we were going to do that. Let us get busy, shall we?

Christina Duncan

first IGNORE THE REVIEW claiming this place is unsafe. The crime listed can happen at any place with a huge parking lot with cars out of view, i never experienced any dangers here or had friends even experience them. THIS ZOO IS COOL! However~~~ I wish they actually had more types of preditory animals, however in the several several years Ive been here I have seen exhibits that they should never have given up. They are usually packed too & a wee pricey. Its worth it though. However THEY NEED TO MAKE THE SNOW FOX EXHIBIT ACTUALLY SET UP TO FIND THE FOX. I have seen one there ONCE in my whole life and been going that long too.. 30 yrs and seen a snow fox in there one time.. come on ._. Not everyone has the ability to come damn near daily. Make the change!