While we are here watching storm Hannah to arrive, I wanted to reflect on our last weekend adventure. The Easter weekend we had a little mini heat wave in Ireland and to embrace it, we decided to head to the zoo on Saturday… like so many others have planned.
On a day like Saturday, we had to pretty much get up early and arrive in Phoenix Park as early as possible. The zoo opened at 9.30am. And we all know the way it goes with kids leaving the house. You will never leave at the time you are supposed to leave. We managed to arrive at 10.30am. Eventually we found a space not too far away from the zoo entrance. Beside our parking space were a few deers chilling in the shade. The kids were fascinated by it. Good start and it wasn’t even part of the zoo experience.
Prior to our arrival, I booked our tickets online. There are two reasons for that… one, I didn’t fancy queuing to buy tickets and two, it is cheaper to purchase online. A family ticket which is 2 adult and 2 kids was €49 for us. A lot of people would bring a picnic to save money on the food while there. However this time round, we decided to treat ourselves and have food there.
After a quick toilet pit stop, we started exploring all the different animals. We took our time because it was so packed. It was hard to see some of them as people were just staring at the glass for ages. Chloe was happy she spotted the tigers and the monkeys though. Then we stopped off at the playground. Matthew was going down the slide a good bit. Chloe preferred watching from a distance. She wasn’t a fan of the sand.
Before heading any further, we stopped off at the Cove burger place. The kids enjoyed some chicken nuggets and chips while the parents had a burger. We all fueled up on drinks and more sun cream as well. With a bit of patience, you are able to get a table within five or ten minutes, or simply share half it with another family like we did.
Next up were the sea lions, Matthew liked these the most. We didn’t see the show which was only later on. Chloe checked the map each time so see what animals we were still missing. Giraffes were on her list. We were heading for the African Savanna where she could spot Giraffes as well as Rhinos and Zebras.
Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the gorillas. They were kept inside, they might have been doing maintenance but we did see the chimpanzees. Chloe was also happy to spot the elephants outside.
It was time for a toilet break again, as well as some well deserved ice cream. Matthew did really well walking the whole way around the zoo in that heat. He struggled a bit at the end but that was okay.
Last up we walked around the farm and spotted some sheeps, cows, pigs and goats. In the Zoorassic World habitat we saw snakes and crocodiles. Crocodiles was also on Chloe’s list. She saw one sleeping in the end but near the end it woke up and swam towards the glass. That made Chloe’s day of course.
Overall we spent around four hours in the zoo. I am sure we could have stayed there longer and checked out other things like the discovery centre but the kids were happy and had a fantastic day.
