NEW Zoo & Adventure Park — Attraction in Suamico

UPDATE ON AUGUST 12,2023: This time when we went the cafe was open. Food was awesome! Love the new additions to the park (canopy tour and adventure park, with zipline) and look forward to trying them out in the future! Park continues to offer a variety of animals and is an awesome place to bring the kids. As always cleanliness was top tier and the animals seem happy and in excellent care. Currently the petting zoo is only open in the mornings due to low staff but that is understandable under the circumstance.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: We chose a poor day to go. As it was windy as can be lol! But the overall cleanliness was great, the animals seemed happy and cared for, and the employees knowledgeable. What detracted from the experience was that they do not allow carry ins (except water), but their Cafe was closed. I understand that staffing shortages mean they had no choice, but perhaps in that case, until the situation can be rectified, allow small carry ins? The people to frequent the zoo most are families, correct? Small children cannot be expected to go the entire time it takes to see the zoo without sustenance. Yes, we are free to walk out of the zoo, eat in our cars or the park across the street, and then re enter. But for any of you who have children, will know that takes as much time as simply walking the rest of the zoo with the now likely screaming toddler. The Mayan restaurant is wonderfully placed; when it's open. And while they did have vending available, there were not many options. Anyone on restricted diets or with picky kids would be frustrated with the lack of choices when previously there was a beautiful menu. I'm not saying that the change needs to be permanent, but in times like these, grace and allowances could be given so that the experience could be extended and made more comfortable for families. What was also a little frustrating was that there are only three bathrooms in the place (that we noticed) and two were closed while we were there. One for cleaning, one we are not sure why, the door was locked and no sign or notice posted. And as an added eye roll, though this is nothing more than an annoyance, was the clothing in the gift shop is very limited in sizing, catering to, of course, smaller bodies. I found one shirt in the entire building that would fit. One. Now I will say the kids section is adorable! (Though again, limited in stock and sizing. Due to the limits in stock, I believe this has more to do with the world wide stock shortages and less with the zoo themselves, however. Unlike the adults sizing, where it was fairly clear they do not keep larger sizes in adequate stock normally, not just in these lean times). I will say that the staff was incredibly courteous. Overall, we are looking forward to the summer season, when more of the animals will be out, there will be activities to attend, and hopefully some of the small detractents will...

Visited on 7/7/2025 Wish this would have been a great time but unfortunately it was cut short by a staff member who assured us we could finish rope course and still rock climb as we had payed for the 3 event pass (zip line, rope couse, rock climbing tower). We had the 4 p.m. time slot. Gearing up with harness started late. The Zip line process was smooth despite it taking 40 minutes start to finish. The rope couse was difficult to accomplish for one of the children in our group. We had to wait after each obstacle for everyone to finish which slowed down the process. Only one 18-year-old employee on the course for our group. Lacked ability to work with children . She lost patience and told us we were done because she had another job to get to after telling us we could still jump from top of course and still do rock tower. She was yelling at my 8 year old to jump after just a couple minutes of her trying to get the courage to jump off the small crows nest platform. Told us we were all done and the other 3 of us could not jump and that we had to walk back down. Stated again she had another job and that they were now closed. She then, in a moment of frustration, made it sound like my daughter was not attached to the safety line as she rushed her to cross swinging planks back to tower. My wife, who was on the ground, recording us (to document the fun...not because of the situation) was instantly put into a panic after hearing that she was not connected while being 50 ft up(employee told my daughter she couldn't hook her up until she moved to the other side of platform). When I politely stated my frustration that the rest of us didn't get a chance to finish and that we did not get to do the rock climbing I was told by the employee several times "we're only 18. it's not our fault" that did cause me to get a little more frustrated and I did state that I had no clue what that had to do with it. I felt that we moved through the course fairly well given that this course is stated to be set up for groups of 15, I'm not sure how that gets accomplished in an hour and 20 minutes. During the time that we were getting unhooked from harness, she stated loudly to my son that he wasn't allowed to unhook his harness and that she'll get fired. He was just taking the shoulder straps down from his shoulders. The other employee then walked aggressively in front of us as we were getting unhooked and stared me down with a not very nice look and she went into the side door of the building. after we left, the employee who was working with us on the Rope course quickly got in her Jeep and sped off spinning the tires as she left would not recommend even just due to the chance of this type of frustration should have been...

My wife, daughter and I visited the zoo on Tuesday afternoon, 7-15-25. As my wife and daughter are recently from Thailand this would be their first experience of an American zoo. Very disappointing!

When we entered we were told that it was giraffe feeding time for the next half hour and that our daughter would be able to feed them by hand. We immediately went to the indoor giraffe feeding area but there was no staff there to unlock the gate and sell us the food. Checking the zoo map we saw that there was an outside feeding area so we went there right away. Again, no staff present. (Lack of staff on the grounds in general was noticeable. Plenty of staff in the entrance building, though.) Signs said the feeding time lasted until 4:30 and we were at both feeding stations between 4:00 and 4:10, so well before ending time.

From there, we walked around the children's zoo, but saw very few animals - 2 pigeons, a few goats, 2 cows and 2 or 3 alpacas. All of the other exhibits were empty. I know sometimes animals will hide, but the exhibits were not complex and as we looked very closely we could not see any sign of them - not even footprints in the dirt.

We then walked throughout the main zoo area, and sadly we found that significantly less than half of the exhibits contained viewable animals. Again, I understand that animals may be hiding, especially in the late afternoon when the temperature is high, but I am convinced that many of the exhibits were simply empty due to the lack of other animal sign such as scat and footprints. Also, if the animals were indeed hiding because they were seeking shade, the exhibit designers should have created shade areas that were also viewable.

I've been to many, many zoos over my 67 years, and have never seen one that seemed deserted like this. It reminded me of the sad roadside attractions I saw in the 60's and 70's while traveling in the western US on family vacations. Places that advertised things like "Prairie Dog Colony" on billboards for 50 miles or more, but when you got there all they had was 2 prairie dogs in a small glass cage with a painted background showing a picture or a prairie dog colony.

When we paid our admission I thought the prices were a little high, but not too much out of line for what appeared to be a pretty nice zoo from the outside. ($14.50 for adults and $10 for kids) However, they were much too high for the actual experience provided. I mention this only at the end because the price isn't the reason for the rating I am giving here, but it did contribute to the overall feeling of...