Blackpool Zoo

We had pre booked tickets and paid using Tesco Club card vouchers, we had stayed in Blackpool the day before and we planned to visit the zoo before we came home. The torrential rain very nearly put us off bothering at all but decided to give it a go even if we weren’t there long. On arrival we were only about the 4th car on the car park hence the weather so wasn’t expecting it to be busy. Before we went in we were able to purchase rain ponchos so that was helpful. So glad we went now and didn’t come straight home. Staff are doing a great job, good social distancing and hygiene measures in place. The animals were fab, saw them all. Got some brilliant pictures. All the animals were visible either outside or inside where you could walk through and view through the windows, markers on the floor so there were only so many people looking at one time then when they moved on the next group could go through. We had pre booked a meal voucher so went for that when the food started to be served at 11.30, staff are cleaning tables as soon as people move so there is mostly always a table free, glad we had food early as when we had finished there had formed quite a queue to get in. We were there for 3 hours obviously would of stayed longer if it had been nice weather but we had an enjoyable time and saw everything we wanted to see. Lovely place and will visit again.

First of all let me say I've been to Blackpool Zoo a few times and always loved it.

I visited yesterday with my family and it was chaos.

You have to book online, but the zoo seem to have allowed too many people to book at once. The car park was full at 12pm and it's pay and display (£3 and you need change, can't use card or your phone to pay.)

There were queues for 70% of the exhibits, we missed about a third of the animals because the queues were too long to stand in. There are staff posted at points reminding people to wear their masks indoors (this includes toilets). The staff were spraying down benches and picnic tables between people sitting there.

The kids playground was insane, so many children.

It was disorganized and far too crowded the whole time we were there. We usually spend a good few hours at the zoo, but just after an hour we were done. Considering how much entry is, it was really disappointing.

Also why are there smoking stations?! Just ban smoking outright in the zoo. I lost count of the amount if times we had to walk through a cloud of smoke even though people were using the designated smoking areas. You have to walk past them to get to other parts of the zoo!

Probably won't visit again until next summer now.

Visited again today as our 6 year old Grandson said he wanted a day at the zoo. It was a bright but bitterly cold day and the zoo was busy. We booked online and remembered to take £2.50 for parking. The zoo itself is great, well looked after animals and nice and compact to get round but the catering certainly needs sorting out. The coffee shop at the entrance was closed as was every other around the zoo, the only one open and that was only half open was the Lakeside Cafe. The queues were long and a table if you could get one was left full of the previous occupants dirty pots and food. Whilst my Husband queued up I cleared pots and cleaned the table, luckily I had wet wipes in my bag. My Husband and I had jacket potato with cheese and beans my Grandson had sausage, chips and beans, the food was stone cold making it inedible. Surely on a busy Saturday whoever manages this cafe should have both sides open and hot food available, also staff working who can clear and clean tables. I don’t mind paying if the food is edible but it’s annoying once you are in the zoo and relying on this cafe to eat lunch when they can’t provide a hot meal. That said we enjoyed our day but come on Blackpool Zoo sort the catering out!

What you need to know; We booked online which gives a small saving in advance in light of current events. You get an email confirmation and e-ticket.

I drove and it is well sign posted. There is sufficient parking which I imagine would be full on a weekend or sunny days as I've read. Take £3 in coins for their pay and display car park (for the whole day) - very good value and it benefits the animals or if you haven't got change then there is guest services where you can pay.

There are numerous staff members and sanitising points right throughout the zoo, which was good to see. It's a spacious zoo with good access walkways throughout for all abilities. As with any place they are adapting like us all to the guidelines so everyone must take responsibilty for themselves to keep safe distance but in the main no issues.

No shows on at present and it's luck of the draw on which animals you'll see because of weather and how busy it is! Fortunately we took our time inbetween
the occasional shower and managed to see most. Certain areas are cordoned off to reduce the likelihood of visitors being too close in enclosed spaces.

It's a shame that some of indoor bird zones walk-through areas, animal demonstrations, and mini train aren't currently able to proceed but ultimately this is
with guests safety in mind. But that doesn't reflect in the price of their tickets! Having previously reviewed this zoo sometime ago they hasn't been many big changes other than the elephants relocating. Some areas still look tired and dated.

Despite this there are still some great attractions. The introduction podcast commentaries, and the base camp for the new elephant zone is coming on. The giraffes, orangutans, mountain gorillas, big cats and more will still keep you busy

It's a nice zoo and we made the most of our day despite rainy moments. It'll be a while but we will return in the future

I honestly don’t know why they have got such bad reviews off people who visited during covid.
The zoo have made plenty of changes, one way systems in places, face masks worn in all indoor spaces, plenty of hand sanitiser stations around, queuing system to get to the very busy animals like gorillas etc. Queues to enter cafe and only one way in and one way out, all tables and chairs sanitised after each use.
In all honesty if you’re still moaning after all this is being done it’s probably best you stay home for now.
We visited today for our sons birthday and had a fantastic day. We actually enjoyed the changes made as it meant less shoving and pushing from people to see the animals etc.
We’re all adults and it is our duty to socially distance ourselves, however it is quite impossible to always socially distance in a busy place like a zoo so it’s more about common sense. We didn’t have a problem at all throughout the day.
Queue moved quickly for food, however I do feel it would be easier to have two separate queues. One for hot food, one for cold food. We only wanted sandwiches and had to queue for about 15 minutes, which when you have a toddler can become rather difficult. And when we got inside the cafe queue it became apparent it was probably taking so long as most people ordered hot food. It wasn’t until leaving the cafe we noticed a little bit serving ice cream which had the odd sandwich so we could of probably been in and out in a few minutes had we known that was there.
We did only buy food as we knew it would be 50% off with the eat out scheme, what we had was nice but I do feel had we paid full price it would of been way overpriced.
Kids playground was really busy which we had no issue with. Seen others moan about this but it is quite difficult to make children distance themselves. All they want to do is play.
My only other niggle is the fact the baby change has no toilet in it, so I went in the ladies toilet and the baby change unit isn’t even in it’s own cubicle, it’s right next to the sink which to be honest I really didn’t like. I had to change my little boy as he’d fell in a puddle and he was stood up on the changing unit with no clothes on with people just stood staring whilst waiting for sinks.
Overall we will definitely visit again! Glad we went.
We went to Chester zoo back in July and
Blackpool zoo was a much more pleasurable experience for us!

We left halfway through, we were that fed up. We assumed that you were getting everyone to book so that it didnt get overcrowded, what with all the social distancing and covid regulations. However after our visit, we cannot see the point because you let way too many people in anyway! We didnt feel at all safe because it was impossible to keep even half a metre apart with the amount of people in. We didnt want to queue to see certain animals (the giraffes and penguins had the longest queues) because it was a really hot day and the queue wasnt socially distanced either. Yes, you could say that people are in control of themselves and they could distance themselves, however, if there is no space to do this, then no they cant. With the heat, and the amount of people, we couldnt stand it anymore so we took our daughter and left. Luckily she is only 1 and saw lots of animals anyway so wasnt disappointed but it certainly wasnt worth nearly £40. If you can't maintain social distancing, you shouldn't have opened. Maybe you normally do follow procedures and maybe we went on a bad day, however you should be maintaining low crowds and not allowing so many to book every single day. Makes me think you dont care about the people but solely the money. If you put donation buckets around to give money to support the animals and maintenance of the zoo, the guests would probably donate so that you made up the money that you would lose in sales. At least the guests would feel safe and you wouldn't lose too much money. But it is purely about the money isn't it.

With a 2 year old who is dinosaur mad, we visit the zoo once or twice a month, sometimes more.

The zoo is fairly small so it is easy to get around. There are plenty of animals to see plus the dinosaur area, play area and cafe.

Parking is easy and as a member we get a discount of the food. The soft scoop ice cream tripe chocolate is lovely.

We spend an hour on a quick visit and about three hours on a longer day. We often take a picnic and ball and enjoy sitting on the big grass lawn by the orangutans.

Would definitely recommend membership but for far away visitors the zoo is good value for money.

my wife and I decided on the spur of the moment to spend a weekend in Blackpool. and have a day at the zoo. it was , as I said January it was very wet and windy we got there at just after opening time ( the cashier said we were the second people in ) so there were no mad crowds to fight against. we got not bad views of most of the animals the cafe was "bloody expensive" at £9:50 for two cups of coffee and two biscuits. we missed most of the keeper talks apart from the penguins just through bad timing on our part it rained the whole way round but we still enjoyed it

Great little gem in Blackpool. Easy access via public transport, which was great as none if us drive. Due to covid things were clearly going to be a lot different to normal but the staff had worked so hard to implement measures to keep visitor safe with plenty of social distancing measures & hand sanitiser around the zoo. The animals looked happy & well cared for & there was ample variety. Admittedly it was rather busy & a hot day so there was queuing for food but even that was well organised for social distancing. There was a great variety of animals & it was great to see them in enclosures designed to represent their natural habitats. I would recommend that you don't try to squeeze the zoo into a couple of hours as to get the whole experience you ideally need to spend a full day there. There was also plenty of rest points for when my feet gave in due to the vast size of the park. Although not all aspects were running/open it was still a fantastic day out. The gift shop was our final stop which had an ample amount of souvenirs to buy- my daughter would have happily maxed out my bank account in there. Highly recommended.

We booked our tickets online 2 days before we visited the zoo.We took our 19 month old grandson who has never been to a zoo yet and he loved it!!!!!The park wasn't overly busy as it was during the week.There is social distancing measures in place.You have to wear face coverings in the indoor areas.The zoo is great,there's some beautiful animals and they all seem very well cared for by the keepers.We ate at one of the cafes but watch if you are eating outside as there's a lot of geese,seagulls and peacocks wandering around.Prices arn't too bad only what you would expect at any attraction.We had a fabulous 5 hours there with lots to see.We would definitely recommend this place for families with children of all ages.