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| - Very disappointed.
I last went to the zoo in the late 1970s when I was a kid growing up in Southern Ontario. I have since been living overseas but returned to Toronto in August for a visit with my wife, mother and two kids.
The first thing we discovered was the monorail had long since gone. It suffered from a couple of accidents in the 1980s, and was abandoned rather than fixed. The new mode of a transport is a noisy, smelly, open-air 'bus'.
Many of the exhibits appeared empty or were closed. The map/guide is poorly designed. The distance between zones is incredibly long and will require waiting (quite a while) for the bus. The food choices are all Pizza Pizza or equivalent.
Maybe my memories are benefitting from the passage of time, but I remember the TO Zoo as a wonderful, magical place that ranked top amongst the zoos of the world. The monorail made it feel 'space-age' and the exhibits were all open and full of healthy, vibrant animals. And it was relatively inexpensive entertainment. I felt embarrassed that I had built up my family's hopes for this outing.
All that's missing in today's Toronto Zoo are a few tumbleweeds blowing along with the litter. And on top of this, our day at the zoo cost a staggering $200+. Entrance was $100 for the five of us (and required lining up for 20 minutes), one 'meal' was $45 (and required lining up for 15 minutes), then add in parking, snacks and a couple of t-shirts for the kids and you get the picture.
I actually now prefer the San Francisco Zoo (where I live now), even though it is much smaller and half the exhibits are empty.
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