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| - Zoos are basically a place to take children. Adults go because they want the kids to gett out of the house and into something other than mommy's hair dryer. Adults go to a zoo without kids for a couple of reasons only. 1:To use seeing an unique animal from some exotic zoo (San Diego, perhaps) as an excuse to relive something from childhood.
2: Tourist.
So since I am a father of two boys I'll review for the biggest customer base of the zoo, Family with Children.
First: if you live in the greater cleveland area, get the membership. You will find the visit more relaxing because you don't feel like you have to see everything to make it worth your while. You can always come back for an hour to see something that you've missed or if the children are hung up on a particular animal or exhibit . No big deal. Want a place to just take a walk with more than just sidewalk and houses? Well let's go to the zoo!
The getting in:
The Cleveland Metro Zoo provides ample parking and signs to start your experience. Once parked and loaded on the waggon (stroller, whatever it be for your fam) you'll see clear markings to direct you to the entrance. There's a restroom in the back parking lot which is awesome planning.
I do have a gripe here. After the rainforest area there's tiny road right in front of the main entrance to the zoo. This is a cause for concern. I know they have staff there to direct traffic. It just takes one step and one moment of spacing out to have a serious accident and shut the whole park down because the law suits that follow will bankrupt the park. Best to fix it asap and have no chance of that happening at all.
My second gripe is the lack of local food vendors in the zoo's food court. Come on, I know a lot of visitors would go for the familiar but I do think we can have something of local nature in there and do well. So enough about my gripes and back to my review.
Honestly, if you've been to one zoo, you've been to all of them, right? I mean, sure you'll see different animals here and there. But overall, there are mammals, reptiles, fowls and flora. The end.
Except, if you consider the intangibles. The staff, the volunteers, the people who you see in the park. You're not there to see the people but it's the people there who help you get around to learn and view these magnificent creatures. Here's an example. As we enter the "Australia" exhibit, we were greeted by a volunteer at door telling us there are some kola mamas with babies in the enclosure. She informed us of the need to be quiet and respectful of their peace. Once inside, there's a staffer who we witness reminding a group of children to lower their volume in a very polite way. Several other staffers/volunteers recommended different exhibits as we went along. Helping us make a fun afternoon, even though we've never been there before.
Final note: the construction of the elephant exhibit is underway so it's a little disappointing for my boys (they love elephants) but we just told them their house is being remodeled and they'll be back from their extended vacation next year.
I think they bought the story.
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