Blackpool Zoo (July 2012)...

Those of you that watch my YT videos and follow me on Twitter, might remember me saying that I was going to Blackpool for a week from the 8th to the 13th of July with Simon. It was one of my birthday presents from him and I must say we had a blast! We did a lot of stuff whilst we were there and so I made sure I took a lot of pictures and I also vlogged along the way. You can see these vlogs on my 'Live Love Laugh' YouTube channel.

I thought I would carry out some review features for you of the things that we did in Blackpool, so you can get a feel for what most of the attractions are like. Me and Si love zoo's, monkeys tend to be our faves as they are so characteristic and fascinating to watch. So, saying that, I'm going to start off with Blackpool Zoo...

It was quite easy to get to the zoo, we caught the seasonal bus from the town centre, outside BHS on Corporation Street. These buses run quite often and it took us about 15-20 minutes to get to the zoo, so we were there before we knew it! The stop is just outside the entrance of the zoo, so when you have enjoyed your day, if you're catching the bus back, the stop will be right there waiting for you, meaning you don't have to walk far. I found this really convenient and like I said before, the buses run quite regularly. If you are using other methods of transport to get to the zoo, there is a 'find us' page on their website. If you are travelling by car, the zoo has car parking facilities costing just £2.50 per car, per visit.

The zoo is open every day of the year at 10am, except for Christmas Day. It costs £15.50 for adults to get into the zoo and for those of you with kids, it's £11 for 3-15 year olds. Under 3's get in for free. There are plenty of other price offers, the chance to become a member and a way to save by buying tickets online, on their website. I didn't think the prices were too bad, put it this way, I've seen worse zoo prices and you can spend a whole day at the zoo, so it's not over before you know it, like some other Blackpool attractions can be. At the ticket kiosk you are given a leaflet of talk/feeding times and the chance to buy a zoo guide for £2.50. Simon wanted to buy this as like I said before, we love zoo's and there are plenty of facts and info within the guide, aswell as a map. However, you can print off the map from their website, so you don't have to pay for it, if you don't want to :-).

There is a gift shop and a coffee shop within the entrance hall of the zoo and a large cafe within the actual zoo. We didn't buy any food from the zoo, as we had grabbed some lunch whilst we were waiting for the bus ha, but we did have some drinks at the zoo (a slush for me...yum! and a Dr. Pepper for Si), which cost approx £3.50.

Onto our actual visit! We went on the 10th July (Tuesday) and it was quite a chilly day and also kept spitting throughout. We did notice that the zoo was quite quiet to be honest, but when we thought about it, it was a weekday, not a school holiday and most adults were probably at work, so we gathered that this was the reason. Unless people were planning to come on the morning, but saw the weather and decided against it. Don't get me wrong, it's lovely if it's warm whilst walking around a zoo, but it wasn't that bad and definitely could have been worse. We did notice that there were a lot of school trips at the zoo, loads of little kids getting really excited...bless em! It was quite funny to be honest, as there were several times throughout the day when I was looking at animals through a window (the lions and tigers spring to mind) and suddenly there would be a herd of kids running to the window, surrounding me and encasing me in the middle! Ha.

In total, we were at the zoo for about 3-4 hours, which gave us enough time to see all of the animals, read about them (there are info signs by each animal enclosure) and enjoy watching them for a while (especially the little Monkeys, soo cute!), stop for a drink and listen to a talk. We managed to watch the 'Birds of the World' talk/display, at 1:30pm, which lasted for about 20 minutes. It was really interesting and amazing to see how the birds had been trained and what they could do. We wanted to see the Sealion display at 2:00pm, but we got caught up watching the monkeys and didn't realise the time. There was a Sealion training talk/display on at 4:00pm, but again we were caught up watching other animals and again didn't realise the time. It was 4:20pm by the time we realised and it finished at 4:30pm, but we were basically at the end of the zoo and ready to go home anyway as we were quite chilly. So, if you know which animals you would like to see talks/displays on, then I'd recommend giving someone the job of keeping an eye on the time, because if you're watching fascinating animals that just draw you in, it is SO easy to forget about a talk/display that you may want to see.

Like I said, I took a lot of pictures, so I thought I would show you a few favourites here:

Yes, they had Guinea Pigs at the zoo!

      This one reminded me of my piggie Belle that died this year.

There are lots of other fun things to do at Blackpool Zoo, for example: animal experiences (feed a tiger, train the sea lions, tickle a tapir or become a keeper for the day), play areas and activities around the zoo (inflatables, crazy golf, or a miniature train for when your legs are tired :-)), a children's farm, play barn, nursery, shopping in the gift shop, dining and you can even have a zoo party or adopt an animal! There are also plenty of opportunities for people to learn at the zoo, including education sessions for school groups, a zoo keeper academy and a chance to do some work experience.

The zoo also has toilets situated by the entrance of the zoo and within the actual zoo, baby-changing facilities are available in all toilets, wheelchairs and pushchairs can be hired from reception, members of staff at the zoo can help with lost children and first aid, you can enquire at reception regarding lost property and there are hand washing facilities situated around the zoo. Put it this way, this zoo has a lot to offer and it's worth checking out the website to see if there is anything you would like to do/enquire about before you go :-).

If you do go to Blackpool Zoo, I hope you have a fab day! I know we sure did (I just hope you have better weather:-)).

If there is anything else you would like to know, please ask!

What's your favourite animal in a zoo?

Thanks so much for reading. Please follow, like and comment...it motivates me to blog more for you lovelies :-).

Gem XxOo