Plumpton Park Zoo — Attraction in West Nottingham Township

A staff member at the ticket booth was rude. Website does not state last entry policy. I had arrived just before 4pm on Friday afternoon. I was confused when I pulled in to see hours on the sign stating 10a-4pm when the website states 5pm as closing time. I tried to call to find out hours, but the line was busy. I decided to walk up to ticket booth while my mother in law stayed in the car with my 1 year old instead of unloading everything first. I saw a sign just before ticket booth stating last entry 4pm and closing was at 5pm. I was relieved and headed back to the car to get everyone. We loaded up and headed to the the ticket booth. They were doing some tree work, cutting down branches and downing a huge tree. We waited a minute before passing by the area. By the time we got to the ticket booth it was 403pm. The staff member told us we missed the cutoff for last admission. We asked if it was possible to make an exception as it was only minutes past as we explained our delay to the booth. She told us we should have parked closer so we didn’t have to wait for the tree construction and that it was actually now 6 minutes past not 3. I would recommend instead of blaming guests for not making it minutes earlier before the cutoff that they apologize and kindly ask for them to visit another time. Honestly, the whole experience with this one person makes me not want to go back again! They are representing the zoo as the first person people interact with and from experience I don’t believe that they should be in customer service. I did not get her name, but she was middle aged and not wearing an orange staff shirt. It was not the owner, Cheryl Lacovata, as I have met her years ago when I used to volunteer there. I believe she would be disappointed to find out that one of her employees was so rude to potential guests. I would also recommend adding last entry policy to the webpage to avoid any confusion and disappointment for...

Cons: I expected a small zoo but what I didn't expect to see was sad depressed animals. Just about every animal was in a enclosure that is way to small. Like the 2 tigers in an enclosure that was smaller than my kitchen with no natural vegetation and stagnant water. The only animals that were active were the bears. Two were actually together in a muddy enclosure with old tires all around pacing back and forth. Alot of the animals were in solitude. Seeing group animals in an enclosure alone is heart breaking. There is only one bathroom. Not many places to stop and rest along the way i.e. benches and very few trash cans. When you leave they have an outside gift shop and Cafe which serves hot dogs, sweet sausage, nachos, soda and chips. The most painful part though is the gift shop and Cafe line are combined. Your going to be waiting in line for a long long time. Cute stuffed animals though at $17 a piece. Pros: $5 face paint. The children can feed some of the animals with pre bought feed at the entrance. $4 a cup. Trust me you will only need one cup. Most of the animals are tired of the feed. Although the donkeys were a big hit with my kids. It's small enough you can walk through in about 2 hours. Good zoo for younger children my 8 year old was bored. So all in all it is a decent little zoo for a quick walk through but if your expecting anything big you'll be disappointed. I feel bad for the animals and donated at the bear and tiger enclosure that was asking for donations. I really hope to see an improvement of the animals conditions within a year. Also there's one giraffe in a open field with a sign for giraffe feeding and a building which I thought would be a look out point but it was closed. The kids were very disappointed they could only see the...

We seemed to have had a very different experience than other reviews I've read. The only positive I really had was it was quiet. 🤷 First, the admission price was extremely high for all the more it was. We then also paid $5 each for my kids to feed the giraffe, we were told they'd each get 3 leafy branches .. they were given one and when questioned were just given a no, that's it. The enclosures seemed very small and needed some cleaning. The bears had a water pool area but were closed off from it. Window in front of Prairie Dogs needed a cleaning that you could barely see them. Numerous large animals were simply pacing back and forth which you yourself mentioned in replying to another review is a sign of anxiousness. It was very hard to get my son's wheelchair around with the stoned paths and roots sticking up in places. Not one staff member was friendly. The woman where we purchased our tickets asked if we had a membership, I said no it was our first time and she gave us no information, we knew nothing about purchasing food. There were no maps to know where to go and few signs to give you any idea. The admission price was very high for what took us 45 minutes to walk through, do not reply you are cheaper than any other in MD or PA because we know of many, with better experiences, that are less or comparable. The snack stand was disappointing. There was no one else waiting and it took over 10 minutes to get one order of mediocre chicken strips and fries. Exhibit buildings were closed. Numerous exhibits smelled horrible, I understand animal smells.. we frequent many zoos, it was bad. I'd say maybe it was a bad day and we'd give it another try but I'd rather go to others we...