Chester Zoo Chester Zoo now charging visitors to park closer to entrance

Merlin own Warwick Castle and I had hoped to visit until I saw the cost - a ticket for the castle and dungeon online is around £26 (variable depending on the day, and around £34 at the gate!) but if you want to park nearby it is £10, and the car parks which are 10-20 minutes walk away still cost £6! In comparison, Chester seems a bargain - not to say they are right to do it, though.

 

Cost doesn't seem to worry some, look at Whipsnade £25 to take the car in and still it get's packed out with cars at peak times, despite offering free parking and buses round the zoo.
It surely can't be all Fellows cars, one of the perks of being a fellow is free car entry,

 

It is half price in the winter months and half price for members at all times I think - so £6 in winter which is not so bad. I think the majority will be members.

 

We all have had a go at the charge for parking what about the cancellation of the X8 bus service this use to carry many members of staff to and from work I know some will say well they have the X1 but how long before this is cancelled from entering the collections grounds as In my experience once one service as been cancelled from a duel route then the other usually follows within the year.
Does anyone know if the collection charge the transport companies for entering the collection ground which is usually the case for private land.

 

ooops, I was wrong. Sorry everyone, X8 has not been withdrawn, it has been revised. My source was a Railway forum I ought to have ckecked for myself.

https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/Merseyside/Liverpool and Wirral/Sept 19 Wirral/Service1Sept19.pdf

Adrian I wouldn't think the zoo charge the bus company for entering their land.

 

£6 is the member price, non members still pay £12.50 on top on entry costs which on top of entry costs of around £25 per person would still make it in excess of £60 for a couple, being a fellow I don't keep up with the costs, but you do at least have the option of free parking and using the free bus service
I can still remember when, before they upgraded the car par, car entry was free in winter

 

The bus company service has nothing to do with the zoo, lets not try and bash the zoo for an external company decision.

 

Hence why I believe the majority will be members...

 

I always found hard copy worked well.

(I shall start a separate thread on the interesting subject of media coverage of UK zoos.)

 

Good idea, I was going to suggest it...

 

I thought this parking upgrade was a good business plan, as long as they kept the disabled parking untouched.
But visited today with my disabled daughter, with a blue badge, and was directed to the disabled overflow carpark.
The car park they directed me to can not and should not be classed as disabled friendly.
see attached photo, how would a disabled driver who needs to fully open their door, maybe even transfer from a wheelchair, access their car in this situation.
luckily, I'm the driver and it's my daughter who requires the increased access space, and therefore I was able to move the car for her to access, and even then if I was on my own with her, I wouldn't have been able to safely leave her alone in a carpark fore a few seconds order to move the car.

sorry, rant over.

 

Have you sent the zoo a message about this? I really think you should, as its very poor IMO!

 

Which is understandable to be annoyed but can we have some context here?

What time did you arrive? As all the disabled spaces could have been full, although there should be a minimum amount of diasbled parking provided, it is usually only a small percentage of the overall parking.

I have not visited myself but would be surprised if this impacted on disabled bays as its a PR nightmare to do so.

 

I haven’t visited during August myself but do regularly visit with my wife who is a blue badge holder & have never had issues with the disabled parking being full. I have heard it’s been extremely busy over the last few weeks & the disabled spaces are on a first come first served basis, they haven’t taken away any disabled spaces for the priority parking; so whilst I can understand you being annoyed & agree this is something Chester need to look at during busier periods it’s also not a result of Chester’s new parking scheme.

 

They have been using the car park were the coaches park for a while now as extra disabled space parking, not saying it's suitable just that's it was used well before the charges were introduced.

On another point, unless you got to the zoo before 9:45 ISH, you were redirected around to the other car parks anyway, away from the charged area, even if spaces were left.

 

I did yes, and got a very good and promising reply.

 

We arrived around 10:20am, hardly late in the day, the zoo had only been open for 20minutes, this was intentional to avoid the crowds waiting for the gates to open.