I am not even really sure where to start with this review, I feel like I have stumbled into some conspiracy theory with Sydney zoo , let me start out by saying please for the love of god do not waste your time or money on this zoo. GO TO TARONGA!!!!
My husband and I were super excited to hear a new zoo was opening we looked on Facebook and seen impeccable all 5 star reviews and for my sons 2nd birthday we decided to give it a try. We purchased a family pass for our two boys and ourselves for a birthday surprise. Granted the selection of animals this zoo offers is wonderful but one issue is, you will not see half of them, hyenas, tigers, wombats, spider monkeys, Tasmanian tigers, orangutangs, meerkats and a few others were not visible at all, the other animals were very poorly available to make out. Now I understand that this is meant to be a zoo where they are there living naturally etc but no not the case the inclosures are half the size of Taronga zoo, very small, very bear hardly any shelter and incredible sad to see animals live in. The nocturnal display had not been synced up yet so most of those animals were asleep and not able to be viewed, the glass on displays for a new zoo was dirty and foggy unable to be seen through properly. Many of the advertised displays were not even there. The ones we did see were beyond sad, do not even start me on the incredibly sad old circus elephant alone in there who just sways and rocks in a dirt pen, it was heartbreaking. My sons were beyond excited to get to the petting zoo as advertised and nope it wasn't even there. The other thing promised that did not exist were the information or zoo keeper talks, we waited for a talk to start that was promised on website and in the brochure they gave us and no one came, when we asked about them were told they didn't do them . We walked through the zoo displays within the hour which being people that spend the whole day at Taronga was very shocked and kids very bored. The only thing my kids gained from this trip was a sunburn which leads me to another complaint there is very very very little shelter, it is very hot open and dirty the only shelter offered is in there food places which of coarse are incredibly overpriced, we ended up spending almost $100 dollars on just overpriced ice blocks and waters alone not even counting what we spent of food. When leaving the zoo you are directed out the gift shop were my boys picked out two overpriced toys which when getting to the counter we realise are even more overpriced as the tag price was the members price , I was appalled with my whole visit it was a complete waste of money and time. When we got home with two upset boys we decided to call up and ask for a refund or even some sort of tickets to use later through this year hoping the zoo improves and we actually could see some animals, or even credit for the gift shop, we spent a lot of money and received very little for it in return, we were told they couldn't handle that over the phone but were happy to sort it out over email, I have msged for over a month now without any response. After all this frustration decided to take to Facebook as I looked over the reviews and comments all of them very great and wonderful, whilst there at least half the people there whilst we were, were also complaining to us about how poor the zoo was. Every person I spoke to since then that has visited has had very similar stories and were beyond disappointed also I couldn't understand why there were no comments on the page saying we went through or views, I wrote a very polite and to be honest not as truthful as this review was. Instantly I was msged with fake profiles saying they were there and that did not happen, how wonderful the zoo was, when I replied with some photos of empty enclosures and proof of things my comments were instantly deleted any review iv placed on fb from husband or friends has been deleted, the comments are mostly fake and reviews fake, this is beyond unethical and a con to struggling families to get them in under false reviews and promises of things they don't have or deliver. Looking on google review, all I read are reviews that are most definitely not true, if they spent the same amount of time on fixing that zoo rather then lying about it maybe they would do a lot better. As well as the fact if it wasn't ready to open it has no right to be selling full priced tickets and promising things it does not have. Con artists!!!!! read more