Card-only and online-only ticket booking for zoos

Cat-Man said:
I don’t want to get into America-bashing because there are many great things about it (which people outside the US often forget) but when it comes to online and cashless banking America is in the Stone Age. Although I still carry cash and hope it isn’t abolished full stop, the rest of the developed world is largely a cashless society and the sky hasn’t fallen in yet!
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Except Germany :p all German zoos would die out within a year if they struck to online tickets and no cash policies ;).

In the Netherlands cash really is on its way out to the extent I don't have it at all, unless I am traveling to Germany. Given credit cards are the exception and debit cards are the norm, basically everyone pays with his card (or phone) these days. There are already plenty of card only shops in the country and some food points in zoos are also card only.
 
On a recent Dutch trip we noted that Apenheul still (as of September this year) required online booking in advance, but there was a touch-screen terminal at the zoo, right outside the entrance, that seemed to allow you to buy tickets there (though I suspect this still would have been cashless).

Most UK zoos have long gone back to booking being optional (though not quite all: Admission Prices | Cannon Hall Farm, for instance) but I would say that the time slot thing has never been strictly enforced in my experience. It probably works to encourage a smooth flow of visitors (particularly it did in Peak Covid Times) but I've never heard of anyone being turned away for arriving at the wrong time.

I'm sure this is European perspective but honestly these days I don't notice a significant difference in cost from using my debit card on most trips compared to the commission involved in buying foreign currency. I still get some cash before I travel in Europe, to cover the occasional small purchases and for splitting restaurant bills and suchlike, but the days of taking enough to cover all your needs for the trip in this neck of the woods are long gone. Even vending machines increasingly take card payments.

All that said, as with most things in life, the more options the better - enforcing booking now feels a really unnecessary faff.
 
On my European trip last year I did have to buy most of my tickets online in advance while most others I just payed for them on the gate. I did find the online purchases pretty annoying, since I myself find online shopping stressful, but in the end I was able to visit my destinations so I guess it is not a big deal. Paying on gate is still ideal and time slots are, to put it professionally, silly.
 
Maguari said:
Most UK zoos have long gone back to booking being optional (though not quite all: Admission Prices | Cannon Hall Farm, for instance) but I would say that the time slot thing has never been strictly enforced in my experience. It probably works to encourage a smooth flow of visitors (particularly it did in Peak Covid Times) but I've never heard of anyone being turned away for arriving at the wrong time.
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This ticketing business was a personal hate of mine as I've mentioned before. I understood the restrictions being brought in during the pandemic but afterwards the 'booking essential' seemed to carry on for many months, some zoos' websites seemed bordering on hostile with an admonishment warning of 'no admission on the day! ' notices. But if you then asked them at the entry points they were much more vague and admitted pre-booking wasn't essential anymore- just 'preferred'.That all seems to have sunk away now and I think I only heard about one case of a 'walk-in' attempt being thwarted, but even one sounds ridiculous. I was largely put off zoo visiting during that period without having the certain choice of making a spontanious decision to go somewhere or call in while passing nearby.

Of course a year or two on and in these coming two bleakest months of winter I suppose everywhere that is still opening is welcoming visitors however they want to access their nearest zoo! That's those that aren't closed due to 'high winds' or the January repairs period that has become commonplace in some nowadays.;)
 
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In my experience with UK zoos, the time slot booking never seems to be enforced. I've visited outside of my timeslot a few times (usually because of delays in transport) and it's never been a problem at the gate.
 
Chlidonias said:
I've just been looking at the Mandai website. It's not just Bird Paradise - all the Mandai collections are now online-tickets only, with timed slots, and the tickets are non-refundable. Purchases which must be made on-site (presumably gift shop items and food) have a $3 "administration fee" per transaction.
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They don't state it, but all the Mandai parks do still provide physical ticket sales at the respective parks' services counters, and the $3 fee is levied for physical ticket purchases (no additional fee for other cash transactions for food and gifts). The hourly time slots for entering Bird Paradise and Night Safari are subject to availability.
 
If I would be forced to pre-book a zoo visit, I would probably simply skip the zoo.

Having my mind free from planning and doing things spontaneously is a big component of leisure. If I have to plan ahead and sit in the evening, thinking what time I get to the zoo, it is too much like a chore.

I also generally feel uneasy to give my bank full account what I do every day of my life, what bank is selling for nobody knows whom else.
 
Maguari said:
I'm sure this is European perspective but honestly these days I don't notice a significant difference in cost from using my debit card on most trips compared to the commission involved in buying foreign currency. I still get some cash before I travel in Europe, to cover the occasional small purchases and for splitting restaurant bills and suchlike, but the days of taking enough to cover all your needs for the trip in this neck of the woods are long gone. Even vending machines increasingly take card payments.
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I would just use a card in Europe as well, same as in NZ and Australia, but in the majority of the places I travel in Asia (and with the way I travel) cash is really the only option. However, returning to the original post in the thread about potential card-only payments for tickets at zoos, I can understand older people in the UK not liking this thought given that POS transfers are quite recent there (this is your "Chip and PIN" isn't it, so only about twenty years since you started it), whereas NZ and Australia have been doing eftpos since the 80s.
 
Zooish said:
They don't state it, but all the Mandai parks do still provide physical ticket sales at the respective parks' services counters, and the $3 fee is levied for physical ticket purchases (no additional fee for other cash transactions for food and gifts). The hourly time slots for entering Bird Paradise and Night Safari are subject to availability.
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Well that's good to know. I genuinely did wonder what they would do with any tourists who turned up without pre-booked tickets, given that the zoos are well away from the city area - I couldn't imagine them just being like "nope, back to the city you go" if they didn't have any way to book it online right then.

But, if someone (let's say, me) was to turn up at Bird Paradise or the Night Safari without a prebooked ticket and they could buy a ticket on the spot, you are saying they would still have to wait until a time slot became available, yes?
 
Artis Amsterdam Royal Zoo is completely cash free so all transactions need to be done by card. You can still pre-book tickets online with one timeslot for the whole day, but you can also still by tickets at the front gate.
 
Monterey Bay Aquarium was online ticket only when I went this past March. I did not know that ahead of time and was instructed by a volunteer at the entry to buy online using my phone as the Ticket booths were not selling tickets. Had I known ahead it would not have been a big deal, but not knowing made it hassle and a waste of time to stand there and process. I don't know if it is always like that or not, but it was then. Inside the aquarium you could use cash or card for purchases.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is card or mobile only in the park, they went cashless this year. But they still have ticket booths for day of ticket sales.
 
Chlidonias said:
Well that's good to know. I genuinely did wonder what they would do with any tourists who turned up without pre-booked tickets, given that the zoos are well away from the city area - I couldn't imagine them just being like "nope, back to the city you go" if they didn't have any way to book it online right then.

But, if someone (let's say, me) was to turn up at Bird Paradise or the Night Safari without a prebooked ticket and they could buy a ticket on the spot, you are saying they would still have to wait until a time slot became available, yes?
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In theory, yes, you might have to wait for an available time slot. But since the numbers of walk in visitors are fairly small, I don't know how strict they are about the time slots. In any case the time slots are rarely full for Bird Paradise, but for Night Safari the first couple of hours after opening are typically busy and time slots do get fully taken up.
 
As an older person who has adapted reasonably well to cashless transactions, I would still never be without cash. I caution those of you who unquestioningly consider this to be the way of the future.

Here in Australia we have had several instances where cashless transactions have been unable to be processed for hours at a time. Some of those instances have been nationwide. I'm sure that many Aussies must remember the times when major banks have crashed and, the more recent Optus outage? These were caused by technical malfunctions and many of the businesses who rely on card transactions suffered terribly.

Natural disasters have also shown our vulnerability when relying solely on technology. During the massive eastern bushfires of a couple of years ago everything crashed. You couldn't even buy petrol to escape the fires if you didn't have cash. The same thing is happening right now in parts of Western Australia. Also right now, Cyclone Jasper has played havoc with communications and access to peoples' money throughout the northern part of Queensland. People with cash can still buy food and fuel.

We have all been manipulated by the relentless quest for even higher profits by the financial sector.

So, in the full knowledge that I will be accused of paranoia by some, I pose the question - what will happen when we are all reliant on internet transactions and some one, or some country, decides to flip the switch?
 
One of my local zoos, Marwell has gone cashless it is something that is frequently complained about in reviews on trip advisor and google.

In terms of having to book slots, I can’t think of anywhere that does that now. It was common in the immediate aftermath of COVID but the zoos I regularly visit dropped it about 18 months to 2 years ago.
 
Steve Robinson said:
As an older person who has adapted reasonably well to cashless transactions, I would still never be without cash. I caution those of you who unquestioningly consider this to be the way of the future.

Here in Australia we have had several instances where cashless transactions have been unable to be processed for hours at a time. Some of those instances have been nationwide. I'm sure that many Aussies must remember the times when major banks have crashed and, the more recent Optus outage? These were caused by technical malfunctions and many of the businesses who rely on card transactions suffered terribly.

Natural disasters have also shown our vulnerability when relying solely on technology. During the massive eastern bushfires of a couple of years ago everything crashed. You couldn't even buy petrol to escape the fires if you didn't have cash. The same thing is happening right now in parts of Western Australia. Also right now, Cyclone Jasper has played havoc with communications and access to peoples' money throughout the northern part of Queensland. People with cash can still buy food and fuel.

We have all been manipulated by the relentless quest for even higher profits by the financial sector.

So, in the full knowledge that I will be accused of paranoia by some, I pose the question - what will happen when we are all reliant on internet transactions and some one, or some country, decides to flip the switch?
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Not the same thing exactly, but this reminds me of my work where everything is done through the computers now. The management recently got rid of all the desk phones and replaced them with headsets run through the computers - so now when the internet goes out nobody can do any work at all. And if there's a problem with your computer you can't call the IT people because your phone doesn't work either. It doesn't take much to bring everything to a halt when it's all tied together.
 
Question: has anyone had an experience where they missed their required time slot and were denied entry? Back when this was commonplace after the first few months of the pandemic I don't think I arrived on time once to any zoo I visited, but nobody actually cared.

I don't have much to add here, other than to agree with others that it's extremely irritating to see options for ticketing become increasingly limited.
 
How do places that require advance tickets handle their members? WCS still requires an advanced ticket, though there is no time slot like there is for non-members. It takes even longer to go through the entry gate because they have to scan my ticket, then look at my membership card and confirm it's me with my driver's license. For Philly I don't have to do anything at all, no ticket or anything, just show up and scan my digital card membership card. Philly I *think* still keeps a ticket booth open but I'm not positive on that, it could be a help/info window.
 
pachyderm pro said:
Question: has anyone had an experience where they missed their required time slot and were denied entry? Back when this was commonplace after the first few months of the pandemic I don't think I arrived on time once to any zoo I visited, but nobody actually cared.
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I've seen it happen. The one time I was late, hours past my time slot because my car wouldn't start, I called ahead and asked if it would be okay and they didn't have an issue; it was a slow day, though, so I don't know if that played a factor, or if I would have been okay if I hadn't called.
 
pachyderm pro said:
Question: has anyone had an experience where they missed their required time slot and were denied entry? Back when this was commonplace after the first few months of the pandemic I don't think I arrived on time once to any zoo I visited, but nobody actually cared.

I don't have much to add here, other than to agree with others that it's extremely irritating to see options for ticketing become increasingly limited.
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No exactly the same thing, but I have been early to almost every time slot I booked when that was common - no one ever cared.
 
SwampDonkey said:
No exactly the same thing, but I have been early to almost every time slot I booked when that was common - no one ever cared.
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I think it was essentially an effort at overall crowd control- to stagger the number of visitors entering at any given time to allow adequate spacing etc. and cap the number of visitors on a given day. Of course, to actually implement the 'time slot' business to the letter would require a lot more staffing, in order to check in each visitor- would have been too much cost for them.
 
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