"Why is there no social distancing and…"

Why is there no social distancing and why are they letting kids in with obvious terrible coughs to walk around coughing everywhere? There is still covid killing people and kids infections are at an all time high. Why give a false illusion that it will be socially distanced by having to book a slot yet the whole place is crammed with people coughing? Im sure this is against goverment guidelines?

"expensive for what it is"

expensive for what it is

"Don't bother with a wheelchair"

My review is based on wheelchair access which is awful, the path is bumpy and sometimes dangerous. They claim its easy to access everything if you follow the green arrows but they make no sense and the koi area is so steep they clearly haven't tested any of the park with wheelchairs. There are loads of animals wheelchair users can't see because there are either steps blocking g access or overgrown shrubs blocking views. My girlfriend isn't heavy but I struggled and became increasingly bitter and will never go back. Whipsnade, Woburn and Africa Alive and Yorkshire Wildlife are all enjoyable and get it right

"Unsatisfied customer"

We went 2 days ago.
Plenty of snack and drink places and well kept toilets.
Not impressed with the map that was supplied. White writing for main areas and black for others. Font size was far too small. Even asked a young couple to read it and they found it very difficult. No chance for OAPs!!!
The animals didn’t look particularly happy. Lion laying in an enclosure of concrete.
Penguins pacing up and down along one side of their pen.
Chimpanzees just sitting around looking totally bored. Didn’t have enough stimulus in their pens.
Large white horse in an enclosure no bigger than twice his size. He was knocking a dustbin sized bin around which is a sign of stress.
Couldn’t see animals in a lot of the closed cages with windows.
Won’t be making a second visit.

"Not the place for children."

Not the place for children. I have always loves animals more then humans and I want this to rub off to my children so I decided to take trip to the zoo however it was totally inappropriate the male elephants just had their fifth leg dangling there and there was no effort made to try cover it up. They could have at least go some Willy warmers. And when your child asks you why the elephant has five legs it leaves u in a very different position and can then cause depression and anxiety. There was also some monkeys will pink bum bums and they were hanging out and they were not even wearing pants let along thongs and children should not be seeing naked monkeys walking around I think this is very wrong and should be sorted out straight away. Also there was many one legged flamingos outside which is advising disabilities which is not only disrespectful but very concerning as now my child may want to cut off one of their legs. If they wasn’t enough they hadn’t even put scarf on the giraffes which is promoting getting ill with a cold and now I am scared my children may follow this. This needs to be stopped I am very concerned for my children’s mental health now thanks a lot not.

"Best zoo I have ever been to"

Best zoo I have ever been to. Much better then Chester zoo. It’s should be in the number one spot. I’ve been to zoos all over the world, Australia, Singapore, Europe and I still think Colchester is the best. All the animals you could want. Brilliant staff and amenities. Not very expensive either. Can’t wait to go after lockdown

"I had a brilliant day!"

I had a brilliant day!
I really enjoyed the zoo. You need a comfortable pair of shoes for the walking.
I really enjoyed feeding the elephants and giraffes and couldn't believe you didn't have to pay extra.
I loved the penguin enclosure.
I can't wait for everything to open up again, I will definitely be going back!

"My wife and I have always had a zoo…"

My wife and I have always had a zoo pass so we can take our grandchildren. We used to go once a week but since our passes have expired we have not renewed.We find renewing passes very difficult to do web site very unhelpful we dont like having to decide as a pass holder when we can visit and when we can't
We shall not bother renewing sad really but staff could be more helpful instead of saying you will find all you need on the website. Grandchildren will miss not going as it was a great day out

"Zoos director needs a reality check"

As others have expressed passholders being penalised and victimised by the zoo director, instead of a thumbs up for all the years of continued support passholders have offered the zoo, instead we have been blamed for the zoo's funding crisis, basically for some passholders apparently not turning up, I can imagine booking that far in advance peoples plans might have had to change as lives normally do but the zoo don't answer the phone or respond to emails even if you was to let them know, there is no procedure in place to surrender dates or change dates so why is the zoo blaming the loyal passholders, I will never buy another annual pass for this zoo and likley won't ever return when mine runs out.
What should have happened was the zoo should have froze passholders passes temporarily until things turned to some sort of normality, a small discount to compensate on day passes could have been offered for loyal passholder support, this way it would have worked out fair in distributing attendance, helped with the funding, and no passholder would have a pass they can't use when they can't get a date to suit, it is pointless offering extension to the pass if you can't get tickets anyway.

"Zoo trip"

Went to the zoo today with my family wasn't to impressed, areas got shut early with nothing to say they was shut up which meant we missed a bunch of stuff or we had to walk far back and tell others that was going that way. When we was in the bear part some staff came in and said they was gona turn the lights off and didnt even give us a chance to leave properly before turning lights off so we couldn't see anything, I'm normally very impressed with the zoo but I wasn't happy this time it wasnt worth spending nearly £70 to miss alot, I understand with this covid thing but it was the shutting stuff an hour and a half before closing that annoyed me wont be coming back for a while