We had such a great time at the zoo today. Every worker was helpful and friendly. When we left, we noticed the parking lot was packed but we wouldn’t have guessed there were so many people here because they know how to accommodate large crowds. The prices for the items were the same in every store so we knew we were not missing out on a lower price elsewhere. The kangaroo bus and gondolas helped us get around the park with no problems. The only hiccup was one of the vendors at a snack place didn’t fill our popcorn bag all the way full (what’s the big deal? Fill it up— it’s popcorn!) Also, the worker disagreed with the lady in front of us. The woman insisted she had paid with a $20 bill and needed more change returned. The worker insisted it was a $10 bill. It was very awkward. But honestly everything else was a perfect day at the zoo.
My wife and I visited the San Diego zoo today. We had a great time and saw a lot a beautiful animals, including many that we’ve never seen at other zoos. In addition to the great animals I also liked that they provide free bus transportation within the zoo including one bus that stops at many of the popular habitats to view the animals inside. My only disappointment was the fact that I could not follow the map. I often got to a point on the map (they have numbers) but I could not figure out which path I needed to take to get where I wanted to go. The app was a little better because it can always tell you where you are but still I often could not figure out my next move. I couldn’t find a “north” or “top” button on the app so if the map spun around I couldn’t tell if I needed to go ahead or backward. In all we just walked around until we found what we wanted to see but I wish we could have followed the map better.
We walked the whole zoo and loved it just to give our feet a lil brake we jumped on the tour bus and ended up seeing some things animals we some how missed and got a lot of great information Karen was a wealth of knowledge and every employee jumped at the chance to share there knowledge lol we went on a Monday thinking there be no kids well there was like 6 different schools Field trips but with the space and openness it was easy toAvoid crowds and casually walk through they show they really care for there animals
Did what it did very well. I wished it had much better search functions. I wanted to be able to search for things like the nearest Kangaroo stop or nearst restroom. That function may have been in there, but as I was walking around enjoying the snimals, I didn’t find it. Definitely helpful to see the route to get to any particular animal. I wished it had an option to show the other animals along the path. Would have helped with the decision of which target destination we wanted to do next. Wished it had a “recenter” function to shift the display back to my current location. Sometimes when it was displaying the notification an upcoming talk, I couldn’t get rid of that notice and go to the map of the park. Tapping on the map went to detailed description of something-I-forget-what. Going back from there again showed the announcement. I couldn’t just get to the map. Seemed like a software glitch. Overall this felt like the beginnings of a very good and helpful app. I hope they keep working to make it more feature rich.
I find the new revamp infinitely worse. The map has no text or visual clues like previously. If I want to go to penguins, what exactly will I expect to walk by? Aviary, gorillas, bridge? There is no telling at all. Extremely disappointed at how confusing it is, compared to prior version. I am a member & honestly, not sure I care to renew over this. Please, I beg, at least add a button to show the map that is the printed version. I dont want to waste paper & grab that every time I visit and this new app is just plain awful. Please provide ability to see a view that includes pics of animals on the map & more clear image of the pathways, particularly being that we have strollers and cant use stairs. Sorry to whoever built this, I’m sure some vapid people love it. I find it excrutiating and totally unusable. Just let me see a flat map png somehow. Thanks.
The app is new so I know it still needs some work. Calibration for when the app is giving you directions to go somewhere would be great. It was my first time at park and the direction feature was no help to me as I have no idea where to go to. Ex. Should I go up stairs, elevator, or stay on a certain trial. Another feature that would be great is if the restaurant could have times as to when they open and close on the app. I went to two restaurants and the door just said close with no open times on the door, so I checked the app and it didn’t have info either.
Good features but, walking directions need to include sky tram, and kangaroo bus options. Listings for wildlife need to have common names for easy to find, it is not. If animal is searched and is not at the zoo, platypus, indicate that it’s not at zoo and just not under another name. On walking routes buildings should be named so you’re not just guessing on which way to start walking. When creating an itinerary for the day please suggest a route that goes from one animal/event to the next, it felt like I was doing something wrong. You could also have multiple suggested routes that would be a one day or two day visit.
I guess maybe it’s not explicitly stated that after one marked the animals one wanted to see that the app would spit back out a plan that would show you the itinerary based on walking distance. But this is what I expected. It doesn’t do that. AND it took me a few animals to figure out that they were all just listed alphabetically and if we followed this plan, we’d be crisscrossing all day. Without THAT feature, the app was entirely unhelpful—getting to the red panda without knowing that we had to go down an elevator was extremely frustrating (perhaps it could include written directions too?). Ditching the whole thing and using a paper map, in the end, made for a much more enjoyable experience.
Learning interesting things about the San Diego Zoo
Our recent visit to the San Diego zoo was pretty nice. There was a few things that happened that almost made it not pleasant. But one of the supervisors named Lisa came over to explain everything to us made us feel very welcome and wanted to return again. Now we are season passholders so we’ll be able to enjoy the nighttime Zoo coming up. Super excited.. keep up the good work.
What happened to old app?? It was waaay better. Was at the zoo yesterday trying to find the map how to navigate to certain animals and I just gave up because I couldn’t find the right thing to click on within the app. Also looking for a bathroom on the map was just plain ridiculous. I used to use the app to enhance my zoo experience to learn about animals and I can’t find that info on the new app. It all about covid stuff and tickets. But the annoying thing is everything you click on just takes you to the website anyway. So what’s the point of having the app? I will be deleting it because frankly it’s pointless.
This app is great! You can sort by safari, exhibits, bathroom, restaurants & more. And it gives you walking directions to wherever you want to go to in the park. Just select where you want to go & click on the walk icon & it gives you a path to follow on the app. It also gives you the menu of all the restaurants. I recommend it to anyone visiting the zoo or safari park.
I love the layout of the app and that you can pre load your ticket on it. I also appreciate that you can search specific exhibits and locations and the app provides navigation. But I have sometimes found the navigation a little confusing when there’s upper and lower levels involved. Also, I wish the restaurant descriptions also had their hours listed.
I was trying to use the plan trip feature and went in to put the birthdays and it started lagging like crazy and I wasn’t able to select the birthday so I tried to close the app. I COULD NOT close it! I locked my phone then couldn’t open it or turn it off…it was terrible. I couldn’t get into my phone, restart it, swipe or use the keyboard. I was finally able to turn off my phone after about a half hour. Then it worked fine because the app finally closed. I instantly uninstalled the app. Can’t believe it crashed my whole phone. Absolutely disappointing.
Our trip was absolutely amazing. We’re from Arizona and been to many zoo’s through out the country, but none can hold a candle to to the San Diego Zoo. Staff is friendly and knowledgeable, they actually made out visit so much more fun. My son loved it so much we’re comeback today!!!! Thanks SD Zoo for making this family vacation a memorable one.
Great app to organize tickets, and desired spots you’d want to see, while making an itinerary for the same. Within the latter, it has a map for all of those saved animals. It’s still a bit tricky to determine the quickest path to a desired attraction. Once the app can zoom in to a precise location and tell you to turn left or right…it’ll be a full five stars.
Overall good wayfinding app but I don’t appreciate the notification advertisement I received for one of their corporate partners. I had seen the ad as it was when I was walking around in the zoo which should be enough. I gave permission for the app to give me notifications about the park, not advertisements for their corporate partners. We get enough advertising shoved in our face during the day. I don’t need MORE advertising.
Pros: The app does a good job of keeping up with your location as you go through the zoo. You can tell the app what pins to display (ex: info on an exhibit, restaurant locations, bathroom locations, etc.). Cons: The map in the app didn’t match the printed paper map so it was hard to plan where you wanted to go next. I couldn’t figure out how to rotate the map, it stayed stuck in one orientation. The map didn’t have all of the exhibits listed. It has a selection so you can see a restaurant’s menu, but when I tried to view it only page 2 of 3 was displayed.
The navigation was not always accurate and lead us in the wrong direction more than once. It could also use some enhancements that are more like Garmin or Google Maps walking directions that has a pointer in the direction you’re facing and walking. Other than that, having the tickets in the app made getting in the zoo a breeze.
I visited the zoo today with my grandchildren. They want to go back tomorrow. The first time I visited was with my grandmother, probably 70 years ago. It just keeps getting better. The Explorer Base Camp is something my grandchildren especially enjoy. The water playground is wonderful for hot days.
The app works fairly well, but there are many things that could improve this app. For example, why couldn’t you have a list of things to see that are “near you” so that you could check them off. If you have a list of things you want to see, they are listed alphabetically. Why can they be listed by location in relation to you? It doesn’t make sense to me. Hope to see some improvements.
The Sam Diego Zoo is world class, of course, and the app was helpful for navigating the park. I enabled notifications on the app to receive “important updates” or something like that. However, the only notification I received during my visit was a pitch to sign up for some credit card. Annoying.
Thank you guys for taking such good care the the animals. They all look happy and their habitats were clean. The Cheetah were particularly special for me. They gave me some lovely pictures. Nice to also see co/ habitation marvelous! Cheetah/dog. Thanks to you guys for a lovely day. I will be back with family next time I’m in California.
The park is very clean, the design is very natural, there are many kinds of animals, but unfortunately I didn't see giraffes, polar bears, and giant pandas. The sightseeing bus is very good, the staff is very friendly, we can play here for 5 hours, although a little tired, but very satisfied,
The San Diego Zoo is an amazing place. It seemed like there were too many people there today for social distancing. A man and his son both maskless walked by a security guard who clearly could have seen them and did nothing. It is understandable that the guard would not want a confrontation. Upon entry to the zoo you are asked to agree to wear a mask. The zoo is a perfect, magical place except for the very few rude visitors that you might encounter.
While it's true that this app has all the correct information built into it, the map is horrendously ugly and cumbersome. You learn almost nothing looking at it from a glance and must click on any icon to learn what it is. It's an overwhelming task to try and understand what's nearby when all the symbols are the same. The physical paper map was much more useful.
How ever corny the tour bus brought flavor to tour and gaveInformative information about the animals and and other things The zoo with funthat you made that known about animals or the zoo in itself and their partners so I enjoyed the bus tour real well and would be willing to come back again to learn more
Ever since I was old enough to know what a zoo is, I’ve dreamed of going to the San Diego Zoo. This was my first trip, and I am 60+ years old now. The Zoo exceeded every expectation I had, and I was able to share this experience with my grandchildren! Thank you for a great time.
We hit the gates early and spent the entire day enjoying the SD Zoo! Started with the bus tour then systematically took every right turn (Fireman Rule) until we had seen everything. It was all great. We especially liked lunch at Albert’s by the waterfall. Thank you San Diego Zoo. You never disappoint!
The recent additions to the zoo are world class. My kids (3, 6) had an absolute blast in the wild explorer base camp area. The staff are super friendly and helpful. The new exhibits are educational and beautiful. Packing bathing suits for the Zoo is going to be our new MO. Feel very lucky to have the San Diego Zoo on our doorstep
Doesn’t show you direction, doesn’t match paper map, if you want to find a restroom you have to change your view from animals to restrooms, no search feature for guide posts and difficult to find without zooming in very close on the virtual map. I have never in my life experienced an app that was so useless. It’s a shame as it is a world class zoo. obviously somebody’s idiot cousin or brother (or sister )was hired to write this app
Map is completely missing some animal pens. There are missing labels for pens that are there. Some pens have labels that don’t match what’s actually in them. Map a hould have a functionality where you can drop a pin on the map and have it trace the path to where you want to go from where you are standing.
Very awesome place, little confusing to navigate even with map, but to be expected first visit. Just plan extra time first visit since finding stuff and getting lost takes a little more time
The app was very useful and useable. I think it could be better particularly if it used descriptors/landmarks for walking directions, especially in the larger tangle of trails by the Scripps aviary, where it’s hard to tell if you’re following the correct path just from the map.
The zoo first was extremely clean. All the staff were kind and helpful. I do believe there should be more signs and possibly more information booths to ask. The zoo is huge and the maos are somewhat confusing for out of towners.
Really impressed by the interactive app that knew exactly what direction we were facing - it made it so simple to navigate to where we wanted to go next.
App would be great if it would fully load. Many times we tried to look something up while at the zoo it would fail to completely load. Worked great from home, but will probably grab a paper map the next time we visit.
The building markers in the app don’t have actual building names, which would be very helpful in traversing the park. The app should also have a membership login allowing members to display their cards. Last, there should be a reservation system for Albert’s to allow members to negate the long waits.
The app was not very helpful. It was easier to use the paper map to navigate the park. It would also be good to create on the app the opportunity to pay for food and order online at the various restaurants in the park. We really could not tell where we were or which types of restaurants were nearby us.
Very helpful in some regards, but could be even more helpful with making plans ahead of time, like preplanning walking routes. App crashes when switching between parks. Map of the Zoo won’t zoom in or out, Safari Park map zooms fine. Would also be great to link app with reminders for encounters with walking times.
Can't search for a specific animal location. It is not clear that you can pinch (not touch/choose) the map to zoom in to see more info. Still only shows major animals which you could find without the app anyway. All inquiries send "out" to the website anyway. This is (I betting) an expensive waste of trying to keep up. It starts with a splash page asking for money. Get it together...
Okay so it is nice because you can plan your trip on the app, BUT downside is when you ask it for directions it has the worst map imaginable because it just has trees and where buildings are. So otherwise it is great but if you wanna find your way around get a paper map. :p
Lots of great animals to see. Took lots of great pictures! Lots of fun play areas to explore. The kids had a great time. The bus tour is a must. The people working at the restaurants and food stands are rude. Very clear they don’t want to be there. The food is overpriced and very low quality. 100% not worth it.
After purchasing a different annual membership this year for two members of my family, every time I try to load the new membership into the wallet of the app, it keeps coming up as the previously expired membership. I’ve tried it about 20 times and even deleted and reinstalled the app, but it still shows up in my wallet grayed out as expired.
We traveled with a motorized scooter. It was a pleasant surprise to find out there is a shuttle service to use when the road is too steep. That was helpful to get all over the park.
I kept getting lost over and over. I couldn’t rotate it. Hard to find anything with the interface. I kept thinking I was getting close to something and then I’d look again and I’d be way off. My cell reception was really bad too in the whole park. Just all around super frustrating. I just used the Disneyland one recently which was fantastic. Please model after theirs!
I really liked the interactive map. Only exception trails on map do quite match up to actual map. Only thing I could think of is have fast link to show restrooms, and one for dining
I love the ease of this app and storing my tickets/ pass on my phone is very convenient. My only wish is that the map was more Specific about of your need to take the elevator/ bridge when giving directions.
The old map had clear images of animals, and the different areas of the zoo. It was great. The new map is a sea of paw prints. You have to click on each print individually to see what animal is there, and click off of it to look at others. It’s like a world map with no names and just a bunch of dots to click to even know which country you’re looking at. Huge map information fail.
Use the San Diego Zoo app to get the most out of your visit to the San Diego Zoo! Follow one of the preset walking paths or find directions to your favorite animal. Finding your way around has never been easier! Plan your day by adding must see animals, dining, and shopping experiences.
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