Leesburg Animal Park — Attraction in Leesburg

The Leesburg Animal Park is disgusting.

The park's online description of its "Pumpkin Village" looked like a fun outing for a two-year-old. A requirement that weekend "value" tickets (at $72 for one senior, two adults and a toddler) be purchased online in advance gave me pause, but I bought them in good faith. We arrived just as the Saturday afternoon session began and smelled a strong stench of garbage. At the entrance and on porches, we saw trash cans overflowing with the remnants of food and other refuse, along with a pile of rotting apples, that had attracted swarms of insects, especially bees. My family members have serious allergies and realized, looking in, that we likely would encounter unsanitary conditions throughout the grounds. We approached Karen, an employee in an outdoor booth who was scanning QR codes to provide tickets, and explained our concern. She sent us into the building for assistance but cautioned that we might have to send an email to "the admin person," who would not return until Monday, to obtain a refund.

Inside, an available employee said that I would have to speak with a second employee, who was ringing a sale. After waiting my turn, I explained the situation to Eileen. She replied that I had "some nerve interrupting a birthday party" and "they're paying a lot more than you are, I can tell you that." Though beside the point, there was no party in progress and no one else there. Meanwhile, after a long drive, my mother, who is a senior citizen, was walking toward the restroom. Eileen stopped her, saying that a wristband for the Pumpkin Village was required to use the restroom and "you can just go use a porta potty."

Distraught, my family went back outside to speak with Karen again. I was extremely concerned about the potential of losing so much money and we had decided, reluctantly, to obtain the tickets, use the restroom, go to the village briefly and hope that we would not experience a health problem. Karen advised us otherwise, saying, "This has happened before and you will get your money back. All you need to do is write to our admin person who will be back on Monday." She told me to use her name and that the system would show our tickets were unused. She also confirmed the email address for the "admin person" (whose name she would not disclose) and apologized for the poor treatment by Eileen. Based on Karen's assurance, we left.

I sent the email and waited five days with no response. Then I called the Leesburg Animal Park and learned from another employee, Evie, that the "admin person" is the park's owner, Shirley Johnson. I sent a second email to which Ms. Johnson finally replied, denying the refund and ignoring my other feedback. In a second exchange of messages, she claimed that Karen had not promised a refund and still did not address Eileen's appalling remarks.

My family recently went to the National Zoo and spent a lovely afternoon. It was clean, pleasant and, of course, free. The staff members were welcoming, helpful and courteous. While I had liked the idea of a family-owned animal park in a community setting, the reality we encountered at Leesburg Animal Park was an unsanitary environment with an exceptionally rude manager. I would not recommend this...

Our initial visit a few years ago for the Fall Festival was enjoyable for my daughter, it’s a relatively small zoo so there’s about as much as you’d expect. We came here recently for the Easter egg hunt and much of the experience was questionable.

There’s very little staff on hand in the park itself- almost all of the recognizable employees (aka those in uniform) were in the shop. The only gentleman in uniform I saw was beyond a fence that was not accessible by the general public. It was very easy to get lost, in fact there were over a handful of lost children during the hour or two we were there.

The Easter egg hunt was incredibly unregulated, disorganized and mostly unguided. 2-3 non-uniformed volunteers “lead” the hunt. The hunt started off as follows:

1. Directions provided
2. Children called to the front
3. Kids hunt eggs
4. Parents then allowed to go in to find their kids in the staging area

I was under the impression the kids would be searching for the eggs by themselves as stated on the website, however the parents were allowed in less than a minute after the kids were sent in to hunt. Several stragglers, including my daughter, weren’t even let through the crowd initially due to the parents blocking the way and the surge of folks searching for their kids. In a span of 5 minutes, one child was crying looking for her mom. Within 10, a parent was calling for her son because she couldn’t locate him. As soon as our children collected the eggs, we were free to leave.

The rest of our time there was largely wandering as many of the lines for attractions such as pony rides and face painting were long, but that was to be expected. As we were walking, I noted there were still minimal to no employees in the park itself. At one point, we had witnessed one family harassing a lone goose by throwing rocks and chasing it. The petting/feeding area was also, unsurprisingly, unsupervised. During my time in there with my daughter I had witnessed a child attempt to ride the smaller sheep and chase them. Unfortunately, there was no one to report it these instances to.

One of our last stops was the shop and the indoor play area. The shop was neatly kept, albeit crowded. The manager(?) seemed more concerned about folks having wristbands than most anything else in the park. As I was checking out to purchase some toys, a call was received over the radio about another lost child. No surprise. My daughter enjoyed the play area until she came down terrified as she almost fell through what she described was a “large hole.” Upon inspection, there was a hole in part of the side netting large enough for her torso to fit through. It appeared one employee was securing another hole with zip ties- an interesting temporary solution that could cause more harm than good.

Ultimately, this experience was not worth the cost and time. I was hoping to make this a full day experience to get my money’s worth but much of what I had witnessed dissuaded us from staying any further.

*Edit: After looking at previous reviews especially those from last year’s Easter egg hunt, it appears the park does not have any plans at improving the situation, and seems to have disregarded...

The only reason I gave it 2 stars and not 1 is because there are plenty of fun things to do for kids. Individually the staff members are nice but the way they run the show is extremely disorganized and disrespectful.

Visit 1:

We got VIP tickets which included a pony ride. When we get to the ponies, we are asked to show our pony ride tickets. No-one had told me there was a separate ticket of given me one when I was paying for our “VIP” tickets. It resulted in an uncomfortable situation While we were playing inside, they announced a wagon ride outside. We ran outside and waited. No wagon ride. Apparently it was leaving from who knows where on the other side of the park There was supposed to be an animal encounter at 11.30 am. I came to the place they indicated and asked a staff member where it was. She said she didn’t know anything about it (and she was the one doing it right there when we stood in about a minute) We purchased a toy at the shop and the lady ripped the tag right off it without asking me if I wanted that. There goes the joy of buying a new toy.

Visit 2 (came with a group this time):

This time around I researched ahead of time when and there the vagon ride was going to be. We came exactly at 1.15 pm only to see it leave right in front of our noses. I waved at the driver but she just signed something through the glass and continued driving. I don’t care if everyone came and loaded at 1.10. If the start is at 1.15 pm, she should have waited and stopped when she saw people running to catch the ride. The lady at the reception said there would be another ride at 3.15 pm. That’s 2 hours! While we were playing outside, all of a sudden there is a wagon ride passing by at 2.15 pm. Seriously? Could you be more disorganized?! Basically, every announcement made was very confusing: where and when you need to go. Groups are not allowed to use the indoor part is ridiculous. As a group we are bringing 30 customers instead of 1-2 and there is no reason the kids cannot go and see the two monkeys and a slot they have inside It was communicated to our group leader that we would get a pumpkin when we leave. Of cause, the guy at the farm store didn’t know anything about it and said that due to covid they were not giving away pumpkins but we were welcome to pick up apples.Apparently, pumpkins spread COVID more than apples do. Not to mention that when I asked about apple donuts, the guy said that had sold out yesterday (but the sign was still there and I doubt I was the only person who had asked).

Visit 3 - not happening until the management...