Been coming here since I was a kid myself. Love the continuing renovation and updating but it's pretty expensive! Going to the WI State Fair was cheaper. I think it is absolutely ridiculous to charge for any kids under the age of five. It's $16 for adults 13 and up. Parking is $15, which honestly should be included with the admission. Being a Milwaukee county resident should have a bigger discount but that's "Milwaukee" for ya. Then its extra money for all the other things like the lego exhibit, dino exhibit, train ride and recently the Ice Age Exhibit....$4 each ticket, with eight of us that adds up AND yes we did not HAVE to but we only come once a year. I don't recommend coming on the free days because it is so packed and one time the line to get in was backed up to the freeway. We thought about doing the zoo pass but since we only go once a year it would not be worth it. When we went to the zoo there was zoo A la Carter going on...cool and all but only concern I had was the loud music disturbing the animals...just a thought. Also if you got your tickets at tri city for this event for the "reduce admission price" you got ripped off it was cheaper to pay at the entry, upon arrival. Even the gift shop got pricey used to be buy two stuff animals for $35 and now its 2 for $40 seems to go up every two years.....I don't wanna hear about "InFlAtIoN" we are all sick of it. All we want to do is have a day/night out with our family without breaking the bank. Also $35 for cheap plastic the animal vet carrier. Once again we did not need to purchase but it was a treat to spoil our kiddos just wasn't expecting it to be that expensive for cheap plastic, like 99cent store plastic. Upon our visit saw lots of employees cleaning the animals sanctuaries. We love the otter area. The dole whip is absolutely worth it, especially on the hot days, I think it was $7, worth it. Try the strawberry too. The pretzel was almost $8 not worth it. The ICE is way overpriced its almost $8, last time we went before covid happened it used to be $5 with cheaper refills. We normally don't eat at the zoo because we go out for dinner afterwards. You can bring a cooler though for like a pinic and what not. I do have concerns to the tiger, poor fella kept pacing back and forth for a good 30min. Can't wait for that area to be updated. It was so very hot when we went so we kinda accidentally skipped the camels and elephant lol but there were lots of medic driving around which was nice. Definitely took a lot of breaks, brought our own water and fans. The zoo host a lot of events too.