I've just returned from a two day visit to Chester, my first in five(?) years, and thought I'd share some thoughts and observations.
First things first, I genuinely don't understand how they can not sell a two day ticket, or at the very least give a discount for the second day. Over 13 hours spent in the zoo we covered everything bar the boat ride in Islands due to queues, but it took us until nearly the end of the second day... It was worth every penny but at over 50 pound for two people then a discount the following day would be appreciated. If Monsoon Forest had been open then I'm fairly certain we'd have had to skip certain parts of the zoo.
Madagascar is a bit underwhelming as it stands, an absolutely huge space with relatively few lemurs of three species in the walkthrough and side exhibits for fossa and black lemur. The fossa enclosure is the biggest I've seen for the species and is the highlight, but the area lacks a true knock out species at the moment... Nice enough planting, just not enough animals. There's room for a vivarium or two, and a couple of hardy birds (to fend off the lemurs) would do wonders for the atmosphere.
Islands was the big one for my visit though, even with Monsoon Forest closed it was still the most anticipated part for me to see. I'll be honest with you, some of the mock rock is terrible, Colchester-levels of it. But I thought the human artefacts and theming in general was really well done and all the enclosures were above average to excellent and there are some exciting species as well. Highlights were the tree kangaroo/pademelons, green magpies, sun bears and, surprisingly, the banteng (their enclosure is probably the worst, and even that isn't terrible) as the male was rubbing his head on everything and basically showing who was boss. Fantastic to see. The only complaint I can really make is there just aren't enough animals at the moment, which will hopefully be rectified with the re-opening of Monsoon Forest.
The Butterfly House was a first for me, I've been several times since it has been there but I've never had the inclination or time on previous visits as butterflies are pretty damn boring in my opinion, especially at somewhere like Chester. This time I ventured in because my pain in the ar*e, sorry, daughter, wanted to see it. Bad idea! The paths are narrow and the crowds ridiculous. It's not a small building but it was just too claustrophobic, and I don't even have a problem with crowds, in fact I thrive in a crowd.
Glad I saw it, won't be going back in for a while...
The only other major addition since my last visit is the Aye-aye corridor, which is just too dark. You can see into the enclosures but unfortunately you can't see anything in the corridor outside. I'm pretty sure that I nearly kidnapped a random child whilst abandoning my own at one point! But seeing Aye-ayes is always a treat.
The rest of the zoo was as great as usual with other highlights being the giant otter pup sighting, Boelen's pythons, a cloud rat head, a very friendly striped squirrel who came up for a tummy rub, my daughters reaction to the monkey house (loving it!), so many baby animals, the rhino complex, and meeting up with zoospud for a pint and a chat. Another highlight is the fact the zoo is flat, after two days of solid walking both of our legs are fine. If we go to Dudley my daughter moans for hours afterwards because of all the hills.
A really great two visits, can't wait to get back and hopefully see Monsoon Forest in all it glory.
First things first, I genuinely don't understand how they can not sell a two day ticket, or at the very least give a discount for the second day. Over 13 hours spent in the zoo we covered everything bar the boat ride in Islands due to queues, but it took us until nearly the end of the second day... It was worth every penny but at over 50 pound for two people then a discount the following day would be appreciated. If Monsoon Forest had been open then I'm fairly certain we'd have had to skip certain parts of the zoo.
Madagascar is a bit underwhelming as it stands, an absolutely huge space with relatively few lemurs of three species in the walkthrough and side exhibits for fossa and black lemur. The fossa enclosure is the biggest I've seen for the species and is the highlight, but the area lacks a true knock out species at the moment... Nice enough planting, just not enough animals. There's room for a vivarium or two, and a couple of hardy birds (to fend off the lemurs) would do wonders for the atmosphere.
Islands was the big one for my visit though, even with Monsoon Forest closed it was still the most anticipated part for me to see. I'll be honest with you, some of the mock rock is terrible, Colchester-levels of it. But I thought the human artefacts and theming in general was really well done and all the enclosures were above average to excellent and there are some exciting species as well. Highlights were the tree kangaroo/pademelons, green magpies, sun bears and, surprisingly, the banteng (their enclosure is probably the worst, and even that isn't terrible) as the male was rubbing his head on everything and basically showing who was boss. Fantastic to see. The only complaint I can really make is there just aren't enough animals at the moment, which will hopefully be rectified with the re-opening of Monsoon Forest.
The Butterfly House was a first for me, I've been several times since it has been there but I've never had the inclination or time on previous visits as butterflies are pretty damn boring in my opinion, especially at somewhere like Chester. This time I ventured in because my pain in the ar*e, sorry, daughter, wanted to see it. Bad idea! The paths are narrow and the crowds ridiculous. It's not a small building but it was just too claustrophobic, and I don't even have a problem with crowds, in fact I thrive in a crowd.
Glad I saw it, won't be going back in for a while...The only other major addition since my last visit is the Aye-aye corridor, which is just too dark. You can see into the enclosures but unfortunately you can't see anything in the corridor outside. I'm pretty sure that I nearly kidnapped a random child whilst abandoning my own at one point! But seeing Aye-ayes is always a treat.
The rest of the zoo was as great as usual with other highlights being the giant otter pup sighting, Boelen's pythons, a cloud rat head, a very friendly striped squirrel who came up for a tummy rub, my daughters reaction to the monkey house (loving it!), so many baby animals, the rhino complex, and meeting up with zoospud for a pint and a chat. Another highlight is the fact the zoo is flat, after two days of solid walking both of our legs are fine. If we go to Dudley my daughter moans for hours afterwards because of all the hills.
A really great two visits, can't wait to get back and hopefully see Monsoon Forest in all it glory.
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but I can't complain as pretty much everything else (bar anteaters) we wanted to see showed well enough. 
) we did quite well really. Having average weather probably helped thin the crowds out as well.
