Wonder Gardens — Attraction in Bonita Springs

My mom and and my five-year-old daughter decided to check out the Wonder gardens in Bonita Springs Florida today. The place is not as big as it used to be because of the hurricane that had passed through 7 months ago but it was still really nice I wouldn't recommend for kids over the age of 10 but it was a really cute little zoo.

My daughter and I are visiting from Knoxville Tennessee and she's been dying to see alligators so her favorite part of the zoo was the alligators. They had all kinds of animals peacocks and tortoises flamingos every kind of bird ducks. The otter in the reptile section was shut down due to the hurricane like I said.

We really did enjoyed it. Until we went to the gift shop. Which is in the same building as when you check in to buy tickets. I have to say there was a snot of a girl who was working there. My daughter spotted a iguana out the window called Mimi over to look at it and the girl said that she felt uncomfortable with them behind her desk there was plenty of room and ask them to move I found this very unacceptable customer service. make matters worse my daughter pick out a pen. I was outraged by the price $9 for an ink pen come on now it was cheaper for my daughter to get in to the zoo then by the pen.

Anyways we get the pen we get out to the car and it's missing the ink pen it was not even in side the bird. I end up walking back in and exchanging it for the flamingo. I just think if you're going to sell gift shop items you shouldn't get some that's so janky that they don't even come properly packaged.

However if you are in Bonita Springs Florida and looking for something small to do with your kids I would definitely...

I get it. At first I was a little disappointed because we paid $40 for our family to go here and you can't feed the animals anymore, it took us only about 45 minutes to walk through the whole thing, and there really wasn't a whole lot to see besides turtles and birds (the alligators are small right now). But after doing some research I've softened and changed my mind. This place has been hit by two hurricanes in the last 4 years and it's been hard. They're really struggling. They've been trying to build the otter exhibit for 3 years but the hurricanes have stopped them in their tracks. The reason there are only 2 flamingos left is because of the hurricanes, they can't get anymore until they are zoo certified and in order to become zoo certified they had to stop the animal feedings. (You can't just feed the tigers at zoos ya know?) if they allowed the animal feedings to continue they would stay a rescue and not be able to expand in the way they want too. I get it. I understand why people are mad that it's so expensive with very little to do or see. I get why they have to do all these changes. They are in a really odd place of transition right now. If we hold out and support this little zoo we could see it become a really awesome place again! Give it a chance, give it your support and money, but know that it's a little sad right now. They need us! We support you Wonder Gardens. My three little ones had a great time. The gift shop is a wonderful place btw! So...

I really loved the scenery and interacting with the birds….and I’m not usually a huge bird person. I liked that some were out of cages and we were able to touch and play with some of them if they came to us. I will say construction was going on when we were there last week and it was VERY loud. It was a jackhammer. Ruined the sound and hearing and talking to the birds…not to mention the park was smaller then it usually was. I felt they should have warned up us front and gave a discount honestly. Part of the experience was to hear and talk to them which was impossible for the majority of the time. I don’t know why they don’t make the contractors do this while,the park is closed being they close so early! I was also a bit saddened that some of the birds seemed to have less toys and chances to interact….like the white cockatoo. He seemed a bit depressed so I put some upbeat music on my phone and he came down and danced! I felt bad leaving him! If you go have some music ready and play for him…he loved it. I asked the staff at the front if they ever play music for the birds and they don’t…which seemed odd as a lot of these birds belonged to people before coming here. I think with all the noise they should have some distractions for them. No staff member assisted us while we walked around so we couldn’t ask questions which seemed strange. But it was worth the money and we enjoyed...