Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World

The Shropshire Mums team were invited along to Hoo Zoo on a glorious sunny day (little bit of a shower but certainly didn't spoil the day).   We wanted to reference the mini downpour and highlight the fantastic rainy day guarantee offered, if it rains for two or more hours consecutively, Hoo Zoo will actually give you a return ticket free of charge to use on another day!!!  How amazing is that???  Thankfully the rain wasnt too bad so the offer wasnt needed on this occasion.   We visited on the Summer Santa and Polynesian Party weekend.  

We were greeted at the admissions desk by two very lovely cheerful ladies who handed us all flower neck garlands ready to get into the spirit of things and booked the children into a suitable slot to visit Santa in his summer vacation home at the heart of Hoo Zoo.  Entry and admission was made so easy with a simple scan of a QR code we had instant Wi-Fi courtesy of the park and another quick QR code scan allowed us to download the Hoo Zoo app giving us access to all the information we needed for the day from park maps, event timings and so much more.  We love the animal food pots, so much better than the paper bags you get at some animal parks and very affordable too at just £3 per pot.  The pots tell you which animals you can feed too so a great guide as you move around the park.  The first thing we noticed when entering the park were signs that said "lost child trail, follow the bear".... What a fantastic idea, if children get lost around the park the teddy bear signs and arrows lead them to a place of safety until their parents can be located.  It's great to see small touches like this incorporated into the park.

We started out with a visit to the reptile house, home to snakes and Lizards and then moved onto the giant tortoises, one of which amused us by coming out of their hut for a stroll and impressing everyone with actually how fast he could actually walk.... 

We then ventured over to visit monkeys, Racoons, Retirement Paddock with sheep, goats and Lamas, Giant Guinea Pigs and of course the World Famous escape artist Capybara CINNAMON...  We love how Cinnamons antics have created a whole new superstardom to Hoo Zoo with her books, song, merchandise and later this year even her own animation.

Summertime Santa was next on the list where we were greeted by a super friendly elf dressed in summer attire and loving catching up with the kids to check what they are up to this summer.  We won't give away any further info on this to keep the suprise, however what we will say is it was a lovely experience, something very different for the kids who found it highly amusing to see Santa in summertime mode, of course they also left with a lovely little gift each too which we will leave as a suprise.

 We watched Moana sing and entertain the children and even bumped into her outside the venue afterwards where she came over to say hello, have a chat and a  photo with our daughter. 

We took our time and really enjoyed strolling around the park visiting all the animals who were all easy to spot and all happy and content in their surroundings and seemd very well kept which is of course important for any animal park. We loved the wild walk areas such as the Wallaby walk where the Wallabys were very happy and relaxed and walked very close by even enjoying some of the animal feed from the children.  The Lemar woods were definately a favorite of all of ours.  We were fortunate to arrive at feeding time and were greeted by a big "mob or gang" as we now know they are called of beautiful kept ring tailed Lemurs that were super friendly and more than happy to come over and sit on the fence next to you, have a photo and say hello.

We really enjoyed Hoo-Rasic World and Land Of The Beasts interactive walk.  A lot of attention and detail has gone into creating this area of the park and its a fantastic visual and the kids absolutely loved reading all the information boards and finding out facts about the pre historic creatures from around the world. 

The children absolutley loved feeding the animals with their little feed tub and the animals were all very friendly, calm and relaxed, there were plenty of hand wash stations around the park too.  The staff we encountered were all friendly and knowledgable and happy to tell you about the animals and answer any questions.

We ended the day at the play park where there are plenty of picnic benches for the adults to sit and enjoy a picnic or a nice hot or cold drink from the tea room while the children play.  There is plenty do at the play park so you can easily spend another few hours there with an amazing pirate ship playcentre, zip line, fossil dig hut and the bouncy mound surrounded by lovely soft sand is certaily a favorite with kids of all ages.  We had an absolutely fantastic day.

We are super lucky to have the wonderful Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World in the heart of Shropshire.   There is so much to do for those of all ages and a great day out for all generations...