Cheaper Willowbank Wildlife Reserve Tickets

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  bigcheese on 13/12/2023 - 23:03

  +3

  I think 2.5 hours is plenty of time to get around Willowbank - it's not that big.
  It's been a few years since I've been there but even when I had young kids that was enough time to get around everything.

  If you have the Entertainment Book they have a 2 for 1 admission.

  • 

    doubledippps on 14/12/2023 - 11:17

    Good to know 2.5 hrs is enough for it, I went to the Orana one it's quite a big one and definitely took more than that. I will check with others families see if they happy with that. Don't have entertainment book at the moment, got it when they ran the promotion $1 for 3 months but now has expired.

    • 

      bigcheese on 14/12/2023 - 11:24

      +1

      Willowbank is a lot smaller than Orana Park so won't take anywhere near the amount of time.
      The only thing that might extend the time you need is if you want to specifically see the animal feedings which are staggered through the day and are all finished by 2.30pm so you wouldn't be able to use the bookme ticket for that.

      Feed times.
      10:45am – Otters
      11:50am – Eels
      12:45pm – Gibbons
      1:00pm – Kea

    • 

      LupinS on 14/12/2023 - 13:59

      You can easily spend the day at Willowbank. If it's taking anyone less than 3 hours then they aren't looking at much.

      Sure it's smaller than Orana Park, but that just mostly means a lot less walking. IMO its the far better zoo for kids to visit.

• 

  Sadie on 13/12/2023 - 23:24

  +1

  It used to be pretty cheap to get an annual pass, might have been when my kids were under 5 and free, so the adult annual pass was worthwhile.

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  gcnz on 14/12/2023 - 12:24

  I was going to say Entertainment Book too, saw your reply above though.
  Do check the family pass price with extra kids for $6.50 vs BookMe ($24A, $13C), once you get to 4 kids the family pass plus extras is cheaper than BookMe.
  We really enjoyed visiting Willowbank a few weeks ago. It was sooo much better than the Antarctic Centre for almost half the (standard) price (50% off with ebook).

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  Everettpsycho on 14/12/2023 - 20:24

  +2

  Our little one adores Willowbank and we go so much with the annual passes. I wouldn't short change yourself to 2.5 hours and try and go earlier if you can. Even with a small one when she napped we would only see 2/3 of it not hat time between opening and lunch and regularly missed the birds so she could sleep.

  I'd suggest go early, see the first section and farmyard animals and take a picnic to eat near the farmyard bit. There's picnic tables there and some rocking horses, balance boards and stilts for the kids to play around with while you eat. Then finish the farm yard and do the birds section.

  We really prefer it to Orana, it's smaller but much denser with a path to follow and the next animal seconds away compared to Orana that's quite sprawling and really tired out kids without seeing many animals. It also lacks a fancy playground which I prefer, always sucks a bit when you spend $60 going somewhere for a nice day and all they want to do is play on the playground they could do for free somewhere else.