Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park — Attraction in Surprise

This is hands down the best Zoo I been to in Arizona and I been to many!! I visited this zoo with my wife and my 1 year old baby yesterday. This Zoo is the complete package… full of great experiences and all of that at an affordable price! We had such a really joyful experience! Where do I begin? I’ll start with the size of the Zoo… this is a BIG Zoo… so prepare for a long walk. Fortunately, the Zoo offers rental Rydables which are this scooter type of vehicles that are dressed up as adorable animals. They’re comfortable transportation for getting around the park much less tiring. Speaking of transportation… One of the most impressive things about this zoo to me is the attractions. I’m not exaggerating when I say this Zoo offers so many rides! Carousels, swinging rides, trains, trams (very comfortable vehicle with very informative guide), roller coasters, water log flume coaster, and a long sky ride (for a great view over the animals across the park). I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed any. That’s how abundant this Zoo is in terms of attractions! The next thing that impressed me so much was the quality of special animal encounter shows. They host different animal interactive displays throughout the day. Our first one was the Sea Lion show… this is top notch experience! The Sea Lions are so talented… they do high jumps and tricks in the water, they do front flips, they wave at you, they even nearly talk!!! This show is hands down the most spectacular out of all of them. The Zoo trainers are highly professional and they even call out volunteering kids to interact with the Sea Lions. (My baby is still too young for it but in a couple years he’ll get his chance too). Next, we went to the Wildlife Encounter Show. This is the most informational display out of all of them. The zoo trainers showcase, I think a total of five different amazing animals along with all interesting facts relating to those animals at hand. They showcased a talking parrot, a very interesting rodent with a long tail (I forget its name), a very smart Red-Legged Seriema, an adorable skunk, and a very large and impressive Vulture King ! The zoo trainers were very kind and informative and they encouraged questions after the show! The next one we went to was the bird feeding show. This is hand down the most INTERACTIVE animal show out of all them. The birds sit on your hand while you feed them and you get the chance to observe their wonderful colors. Yet another thing that impressed me so much about this Zoo was the amount of unique animals. This Zoo has the most amount of different species of animals that I’ve seen in AZ Zoos. And like I said, I been to many. And all of the animals look well taken care of! I’m not just saying this to sound like I wanna place this Zoo on a pedestal, but I’m not exaggerating when I say I put my full confidence that every single staff member and Zoo trainer absolutely dedicate their lives for the well being of every single animal in their Zoo. I witnessed how kindly a trainer treated her sea lions, even when no one was watching (there’s a glass window that allows you to see the sea lions in a back room). On top of that, the animals themselves will tell you a lot about their trainers with their body language. I had this very funny and adorable interaction with a baby leopard for example. Every time I would make baby “Gugu Gaga”sounds to the baby leopard, he would open his mouth with a big wide smile. I’m not kidding if I could upload a video, I would! This gave me the impression that the zoo trainers do a great job treating their animals like their own babies. This was such a good experience! There’s so many more good things I can talk about, that made this Zoo visit an awesome experience but literally Google Reviews is telling me “Character limit exceeded.” So that’s that. I’m definitely coming back, this is now my...

Groupon to the rescue on this one. However, imo regular admission is worth the price. So much to do and see! Let me start with a WARNING...

• Allergy-prone people (like my kiddos and me!): Be sure to take your allergy meds, spray your nose, and/or wear a mask! The whole park is super dusty, and the empty, dry, dust lots surrounding the park don't help! A cooling breeze kicks up the dust, and 24 hrs later, you're regretting life. (I know my kids and I did!)

• Get there EARLY... Gate opens at 9am? Be parked and at the gate at 9am! Why? Cuz you're gonna be exploring for between 4-6 hours, depending on your group. We ended up spending 5 hrs here, and we still did NOT get to do EVERYTHING!

• Certain activities have set schedules... Wildlife Encounter and Seals' Encounter at Pirate Cove just to name two events on a schedule. (We missed the seals!)

• The rideables seem to have a rotating schedule... the carousel was closed, the train was running, but we missed it by 20 minutes. (Just 2 examples)

• 100% BUY THE $8.99 reusable/refillable ICEE cups! Trust me, it's worth it. We got 3 of them, and we refilled them 4x during our 5 hrs at the park.

• Bring a wagon or stroller for the littles! We brought a little red wagon for my kids to sit in, and my youngest ended up taking a nap in it.

• Bring a portable fan, personal fan, and/or cooling towel. You'll thank me for reminding you. It's HOT at the park, during our visit, it was 100°, and in the sahde, it was 98°!

Moving on to happier things!

• The walkways were always clear, clean, and easy to navigate with plenty of signage to exhibits and animals.

• Early in the morning, the monkeys were loud and active, making so much fun to watch them. The birds, especially Peacocks, were loud and showing off their plumage.

• If you don't want to walk and you want a way to view a large section of the park, the Skyride, the Train, and the Safari Tram are the ways to go! All rides are $6/person and 2yo and unser are free. The Skyride is 2 people per chair and a 15-minute ride, and you get a great view of the African herds. I was able to wear my youngest (14mo during our visit) in her carrier, and she was free to ride. The Safari Tram is a 20-minute, guided tour, and saves you a LOT of walking in Sarafi World. Our guide/driver was amazing and so funny! We didn't get to ride the train, but it's a 15-minute ride that takes you through Australian animal habitats.

• The Aquarium portion of the Wildlife World was a wonderful stroll and best done in the afternoon as the buildings are cooler; perfect during the high heat of midday and early afternoon.

• The Log Flume ride ($6/person) has a height requirement and is a quick ride 10-15 minutes. The gentleman operating it during our visit was entertaining and hilarious when he found out it was my 6yo's 1st time.

Last bits...

• You can bring outside food/drink, just no glass containers. We packed a dry snack bag and a cold bag with our water bottles.

• There are water refill stations at every cafe, but not every restroom has water fountains. Bonus: the water in the cafes are ICE COLD!

• The gift shops sell... generic souvenirs for the most part. If you want something to commemorate your visit, I'd suggest a magnet or a pressed penny... or your photos!

Overall, Wildlife World is amazing. While I don't usually approve of zoos due to the confined paddocks/cages, I learned that many of the animals, especially the birds, are rescues and/or part of a global project in animal conservation...

On Saturday, January 11, 2025 my family and I visited the Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield Park, AZ. We arrived at the zoo around 1:15pm. Around 2:45pm or so we decided to get something to eat. We went to Dillions restaurant. My son used the restaurant bathroom when we arrived and said that there was hardly and water coming out of the sinks. We ordered our food and drinks which when the server returned with our drinks told us the water was out and provided us with bottled water. I asked at that time if it was just the restaurant or the whole park. She said she didn't know but that this had happened before. I paid the bill at 3:29 pm. We left the restaurant and my toddler grandson needed to go to the bathroom. There was a family bathroom just outside the restaurant which my son took my grandson to. Again, there was no water. My daughter-in-law and I both needed to use the restroom so we walked back into the park going into several restrooms which, by now, were not usable and still no running water.

We talked to the someone at the ticket booth about the situation, but he just said the water was out in the park, probably because of construction going on near there. Since we had only been there a short time we asked if we could get return passes so that we could finish our visit on another day and were told no. My daughter-in-law requested to talk to a manager but in the end all we were given was a name and phone number which she called and to date has never heard from. We had to leave because with no running water or bathroom facilities in a zoo/facility that large we felt was a health hazard given how many people were in the zoo.

I contacted the zoo through the website and did receive a response that "the water outage was not something that was within our control. It was most likely due to the construction in the area and the entire area had their water shut off. We hope that you enjoyed the rest of your visit, but we are not able to offer additional tickets at this time."

Given the cost to visit the park, I think the least they could have done was given us the opportunity to return at a later date. Needless to say, we will not be returning...