San Diego Zoo Special Experiences

PHamrick

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 5, 2014
We are traveling from the East Coast to SoCal in April (Spring Break of course!) and I'm considering on whether or not to buy any of the Special Experiences offered by the Zoo. The one I'm considering the most is the Crazy about Cats one. It would be expensive, but we have most of our trip comped due to miles, points and family. Any thoughts? Anyone ever done one of these experiences? THanks!
 
It's worth it. I couldn't decide between several tours, so I did the VIP tour which is 5 hours of behind the scenes, special interactions, etc. It basically had parts of the other tours, based on my personal requests. I would do Crazy about Cats or many of the others as they are only $99 for 2 hours per person. VIP is $599./per person for 5 hours.

While the exact tour and animals highlighted will depend on the animals behavior at the time and the keeper's availability, I will tell you what I did on my large cat portion of the VIP tour. We were driven everywhere in a small cart. At the snow leopard exhibit, the keeper came out and told us about his job and the animals there. We were free to ask as many questions as had about him, his job and animals there and where they came from and what is going on in those parts of the world.

We also visited Jaguars and were in the back area (keeper's only area) with the keeper. She brought the Jaguars into their bedrooms so we could get closer looks and then when she let them back out, we got to watch them fish from another behind the scenes area.

I got to meet a Cheetah and the Cheetah's dog friend up close in another behind the scenes area. We got to pet the dog and get our picture taken with both animals.

I would imagine the Crazy for Cats would be similar, but might focus on different cats (lions or tigers) depending on what all is going on with everyone at the time. I actually think it may be more fun to do a shorter tour like the ones you are looking at. We actually got pretty tired on our tour, even with being driven everywhere and having a lunch break. There were some very amazing things though, such as being 3 feet away from a polar bear while the keeper taught her a new behavior, petting an owl, feeding a giraffe - lots of really cool stuff.
 
It's worth it. I couldn't decide between several tours, so I did the VIP tour which is 5 hours of behind the scenes, special interactions, etc. It basically had parts of the other tours, based on my personal requests. I would do Crazy about Cats or many of the others as they are only $99 for 2 hours per person. VIP is $599./per person for 5 hours.

While the exact tour and animals highlighted will depend on the animals behavior at the time and the keeper's availability, I will tell you what I did on my large cat portion of the VIP tour. We were driven everywhere in a small cart. At the snow leopard exhibit, the keeper came out and told us about his job and the animals there. We were free to ask as many questions as had about him, his job and animals there and where they came from and what is going on in those parts of the world.

We also visited Jaguars and were in the back area (keeper's only area) with the keeper. She brought the Jaguars into their bedrooms so we could get closer looks and then when she let them back out, we got to watch them fish from another behind the scenes area.

I got to meet a Cheetah and the Cheetah's dog friend up close in another behind the scenes area. We got to pet the dog and get our picture taken with both animals.

I would imagine the Crazy for Cats would be similar, but might focus on different cats (lions or tigers) depending on what all is going on with everyone at the time. I actually think it may be more fun to do a shorter tour like the ones you are looking at. We actually got pretty tired on our tour, even with being driven everywhere and having a lunch break. There were some very amazing things though, such as being 3 feet away from a polar bear while the keeper taught her a new behavior, petting an owl, feeding a giraffe - lots of really cool stuff.


This is great feedback! I decided to do the Animals in Action experience because it lets you get closer to some of the animals and feed some like the giraffes and flamingos. If I remember, I'll report back on the experience. Looking forward to it!
 

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