I have recently renewed my Chester Zoo adoption, and heard that they had revised the package this year. Perhaps the most noteworthy change is that the adopter days have been scrapped. I enquired more about this (and a few other things) and was told that they had been axed as they were poorly attended. I was always under the impression that they were really popular so I was quite surprised to hear this! Does anyone have any thoughts on this matter? I can't help but wonder if its more about the keepers not having time to do their actual jobs with all the TV filming, and something had to give... or perhaps some of the keepers who are now effectively minor celebrities were getting too much attention from 'fans'?
It's effectively the removal of a ticket from the adopter's package. Felt like price gouging to me so didn't renew.
I attended in October, rhino section talk was mostly visitors asking for selfies with the keepers they knew from the TV. Over the years I've done talks for aquarium, reptiles, birds, Tropical House, giraffes, carnivores, rhinos, penguins and small mammals. Most were poorly attended. I found reptiles to be the least forthcoming. Giraffes to be excellent. I am thinking of cancelling my adoptions this March, I am not impressed by the zoo's handling of them.
That's interesting - I guess some animals such as reptiles and fish don't have many adopters so their talks will be quiet. The thing about selfies doesn't surprise me greatly. What in particular do you think has been poorly handled with the adoptions? I find it annoying how what is labeled as an 'exciting' change to what was a pretty good scheme before actually offers worse value for money. I did a Silver adoption which only offers 1 admission ticket - whereas last year I received 2 plus an extra for the Adopter's Day, so effectively 3! Even the Gold package at a hefty £90 only includes 2 free entry tickets. The main incentive for me to keep renewing is the Z magazines, as I'm not a zoo member and like receiving them. I've just started my third year of adopting an animal but whether I do a fourth remains to be seen!
We have 2 adoptions. As we're already members we don't need the extra tickets (although I do occasionally take friends around who use the tickets), we don't need a cuddly toy with each renewal and we don't need the magazine. I would like to see a bigger discount for members on a first adoption and further discounts on a sliding scale for subsequent adoptions. Aside from the feel good factor of sponsoring a species and your name on a board, there's not really much tangible benefit to adoption.
