Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

Took my god kids and my mother today. Parking was great. They had plenty of strollers available for rent at 10am. I am not overly impressed with the trail system. I feel there should be some sort of direction to it all… like footprints on the ground to follow or numbered exhibits. The food is WAY overpriced, but I had a feeling that would be the case. The bathrooms are pretty gross. It’s REALLY difficult to take kids into a bathroom while trying not to let them touch anything disgusting when it’s all around you. I was disappointed a lot of the Shows weren’t happening earlier on a Saturday. But… the kids had fun, like A LOT of fun and that’s why we went.

We just moved to the area and couldn’t be happier we found this place! It is so kid friendly, there’s a playground and special kid-​friendly exhibits that are perfect for little ones. Camel rides, feeding the birds, petting zoo… I was very impressed. The aquarium is slightly underwhelming compared to the zoo, but they’re in the process of building a new one so I think that will balance it out. Overall a ton of fun, worth the membership price if you’re local!

Been coming here for our family trip for years and loved it until we met Leslie at the front admission gate. Really rude and inappropriate to guests. Horrible guest service demeanor. The zoo shop ladies were really helpful and had awesome customer service though.

We live out of state, so we just came for a visit. I wish our zoo was this amazing. I feel like I learned so much. It felt more like a teaching zoo. The workers were very informative, and the polar bear OMG!!!

Joined the zoo membership program when we first moved here. Unfortunately we only made it a couple of times (should have seen that coming!) However it saved us a little money when we did the shark dive, which was awesome and the zoo lights!
I’m writing this review because our last visit to the zoo was amazing. My son and I decided to go one more time before we moved we arrived at 9:15 on a Monday morning, before the gates opened. We started with the elephants and spotted leopard cubs. Then moved to monkeys, Sharks, and tigers. We stopped to say hi to the seals and puffins and ended with the polar bears. Almost all the animals came to the window to say hello, it was pretty amazing. The polar bear was having a blast playing with his «tub toys». Great zoo and staff and we will really miss it!

Point Defiance was a complete slam dunk! Tickets were only $ 15 for adults, and go even lower for children & seniors. Parking is also free! The aquarium was the best I had ever seen. The zoo is not huge, however delivers to meet any expectation. Observing leopard cups had to be my favorite exhibit. The staff is very friendly and informative. Sheryl, stood out to me in particular. She was outstanding! Point Defiance is not your typical zoo, all exhibits are made within the natural & beautiful forrest settings. The only thing I think could be improved on is the animal descriptions located outside of each exhibit. They were not very informative, and somewhat outdated, minor detail. I highly recommend Point Defiance for any age group!

If the zoo was complete and finished with construction (which there is a lot of) and organized with a set layout, I’d probably give another star. Unfortunately, renovations have to be made and it will take some time.
I LOVED the male peacock who greeted us at the entrance. We hadn’t even arrived at the park and we were already wowed by this exotic, attractive, domesticated bird. He posed for photos and said «bye» as we left.
The exhibits were less than epic, but not bad by zoo standards. Most of the animals seemed to be aware of visitors, like doing a little routine, responding to «Hi pretty girl» or running to the glass windows to interact. Probably behavior that is more common when there isn’t crowds of visitors overwhelming the animals.
I enjoyed the aquarium the most. Really cool jelly fish and a huge mix of marine life. The building didn’t smell like fish.
The little otters were SO CUTE. Didn’t care for the walrus’. They scared my three year old. (Who am I kidding, they scared me, too.) One in particular caught us off guard by surfacing his face, his nostrils tightly clenched letting out a blast of breath and opening his eyes revealing his solid white inner eyelids. I now know what «I am the walrus» looks like. That was scary.
Perks of visiting before 11am: Decent parking, short lines and plenty of space for viewing at animal enclosures.
Cons of visiting before 11am: No demonstrations, interaction, and if you like carnival snacks, the food carts are not open.

We did the shark dive stage 1.
It was awesome! You get a thumb drive with you dive on it (shaped like a shark of course) and a shark towel.
The staff was very nice and made the experience exciting and smooth.

I love going to the zoo. This place was the perfect place to take my 6 month old since it’s just the right size. He wasn’t feeling it this year but I look forward to coming back next year.

This comment is for the café only. I ordered fish and chips which they served with no tartar sauce. When we ask for some we were told that they were out. So we asked to exchange the fish and chips for something else. At this point the staff because rather rude and annoyed that we even asked. The lady we were talking to walked away and came back less than a minute later with tartar sauce.
So basically they lied to us because they didn’t want to go get it. The lady made a point to tell us that she had to go out of here way to get it for us.
Other than that no bad reviews. This zoo is really awesome and everyone else was really nice

I LOVE the zoo. Love it. No, it’s not nearly as big as Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, but that’s a good thing. Doesn’t take three hours to walk through it AND you get the bonus of a small aquarium instead of having to pay to do both separately.
They have all the fun animals: tigers, elephants, polar bears, lemurs, meerkats, and penguins. And everyone loves penguins. Or at least they should. There used to be a petting zoo, but that went away a few years ago, and now there is a carousel in its place.
The gift shop has cute stuff, and the café by the main entrance is always open. And warm in the winter. They make great coffee for tired parents.
If you have small children, I recommend getting a membership. Pays for itself in a few visits and, depending on the level, you can bring guests with you. Also membership gets you half off admission to Northwest Trek.
Oh, and in the winter they have ZooLights. The original zoo light display. Check it out!

I’m only reviewing the Zoo Lights as I’ve never been here to see the usual Zoo animals during the day. Although it was pouring rain and windy, I still enjoyed the wonders of all the beautiful lights that were strewn throughout the Zoo. It really gets me into the holiday spirit.
The drive to the Zoo is miles of driving through residential area once you get off the freeway. Once you get to the Zoo roads, there are no lights except for the ones on your head lights. Be prepared. You’ll know once you have gotten to the parking lot area. There is ample parking.
It cost $ 10 for adults to get into the Zoo to view the Zoo Lights. For a $ 5 extra donation, you get a stuffed monkey in the color of your choice. On certain days, there’s a diving Santa but it wasn’t on the day I went to visit. Bummer!

I’ve been here before in the daytime where I could actually see all the animals and it was awesome then and I would have given it a 5-​star review then also. But on this night we went, it was for «zoo lights». The park is decked out with colorful lights throughout the park and lots of sight seeing going on. Great photo ops as well! Not exactly sure where all the animals go at that time, but there were none visible. The aquarium section was open downstairs to view the underwater life, but upstairs was closed due to some event going on.
The park in general is typically always clean and there’s always a worker nearby to ask a question. The parking lot is huge also. I enjoy going there and will be back!

I am amazed here. My friend and her fiancé loved the place and that’s how I found out about it. Came here for the Zoo and Aquarium and it gave me a chance to see animals that I have never seen before like the Tapir. Well, I could see it if I buy a plane ticket. Anyways loved.
This Zoo and Aquarium is huge. You need to spend a lot of time here. I pretty much zipped through it without really stopping and reading about the creatures. Yes they have variety of shark to see here. Yes and really cool jelly fishes. Its a great experience for Adult not just kids. Yes they do have an education center where there is a staff that let you touch sea creatures and yes she does explain in detail about the sea life.
I love this place. Please allow yourself at least 4 hours. If you are a resident of Tacoma you get $ 2. My ticket costed $ 15 instead of the $ 17. To me is a pretty good deal even if it was regular price.
By the way. if you come at the right time, you also get to ride the camels.

I was soooo excited to come here to see the polar bear, sea otters, and wolves!
It was a pretty rainy gloomy day today so there weren’t many people around which was good. But I was really sad when almost all the exhibits weren’t stroller friendly. We went with a 5 month old and my friend couldn’t see like half the exhibits because she couldn’t find any way to get her stroller around. Definitely lost a star there. Another inconvenient part of the zoo were the signs! We prob could’ve found our way around with the stroller if there were better signage.
We were trying to find the red wolf exhibit and tried to follow the signs but right after the red wolf sign there was a fork in the road and apparently we choose the wrong one. That happened multiple times with multiple exhibits! Sad face! :(
I’m happy I eventually saw all the animals I wanted to but m friend and her baby didn’t. :(
If you come here, come with kids that can walk on their own! :)

Beautiful grounds, very well kept, easy to navigate lay out. Aquarium was neat and my toddlers loved the touch tanks. Many exhibits were well designed for toddlers to be able to see, a huge plus.
The zoo/​aquarium is very easy to get around. It is not a huge zoo but all the animals were viewable. Easy to follow the paths and see it all. Nice shady areas for hot days. They also had a play area for kids.
Most the of the animals are aquatic at this zoo. (ie polar bears, otters, seals, penguins, etc). There are great under water viewing places for them. There are a lot of different fish and under sea critters to see here.
Several food places, a nice gift shop, and an amphitheater for animal education programs make the zoo enjoyable to children and adults both. The aquarium is interesting with a big shark tank and several other display tanks of sea life.
Took my 4 year old & just turn 2 years old (July 30^th) daughters here for the first time. They loved it! Cute lil play area in middle of the park to keep kids entertained amongst visiting the animals. I’m taking out 1 star for the camel ride. Since my two year old couldn’t ride due to her under 3 & she wanted to ride — it breaks my heart :/​Worth the visit though…
GENERAL ADMISSION
Adults (ages 13 – 64) $ 17
Seniors (ages 65+) $ 16
Youths (ages 5 – 12) $ 13
Tots (3 & 4) $ 8.75
Children ages 2 and under FREE
PIERCE COUNTY RESIDENTS* AND MILITARY
Adults (ages 13 – 64) $ 15
Seniors (ages 65+) $ 14
Youths (ages 5 – 12) $ 11
Tots (3 & 4) $ 6.75
Children ages 2 and under FREE
*Note: Strollers are not allowed inside the Aquariums.
RENTAL EQUIPMENT
Wheelchairs: $ 8.75 per day *
Strollers:$ 8 single; $ 10 double*
Electric Scooter: $ 27.50*
Umbrella: $ 2.25*
Lockers: $ 1 per day for a small; $ 1.50 for a large*
CAMEL RIDES (open daily from 10am to 3pm)
Rides cost $ 6 per person (at least 3 years old)
Commemorative photo can be purchased for another $ 6

What a fun and enjoyable Zoo! My daughter loved everything about this Zoo, to the show, to the Aquarium, to the riding of a camel! She really liked the Park area too and wanted to spend the whole day there, but we wanted to see the rest of the Zoo. LOL The show was awesome, Dr. Bones is a cute dog with some pretty cool sidekicks. I think the sloth was my favorite, he was so chill.
We loved watching my 3 ½ year old ride a camel! So cool, that’s all she has been talking about.
We loved watching the elephant bathe itself, that was really cool. Wish we could of seen what they do in their barn.
If we are ever in the area again, we would definitely be back. It would be cool to come back and night and see the lights.

Point Defiance Zoo is such a lovely zoo to spend the day with your family.
I love how the zoo is divided into sections so you can decide which area you want to visit first. My favorite was the Asian Forest Sanctuary. In this area, they had elephants, tigers and leopard. As you walked from the different exhibits, you’re actually walking through a manmade bamboo area as well, which was a nice touch.
This zoo isn’t the biggest, but it worked well for us since we had small children. We ended up spending 2 hours here.

I’ve been to this zoo many different times, nothing really changes every time you go.
It’s a decent sized zoo, they have a little bit of everything. The aquarium has a shark tank (which they now offer diving with the sharks). They have a good variety of animals to see — tigers, porcupines, elephants, otters, seals, penguins, etc.
What i like the best about this zoo is the huge playground they have for kids to play on after walking the zoo. They also have a huge picnic area with tables or just grass to sit in. They also have a food court (with overpriced food) & a carousel.
All-​in-​all, it’s a great place to go to take the family for a day of fun, but i wouldn’t come more than once or twice a year since nothing really changes each time you go.

Nestled inside a park, the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium is a charming and fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
It’s about a 45-​minute drive from Seattle (about 1.5 hours if you hit traffic) to Tacoma. Once you get to Point Defiance, everything turns green and magical. I happened to visit on a slightly rainy day, which meant less people and more intimate time with the animals.
I like that there are different animals here than at Woodland Park, and honestly, I think the aquarium exhibits here are even better than the downtown Seattle Aquarium! Every exhibit seems large enough for the animals to play and roam. The grounds are meticulously clean.
The biggest hit for me was the walrus exhibit There are three, and they are simply amazing creatures! I could watch them swim around for hours. You can watch them from the top of their tank, or head downstairs to get a closer look. They swim on their backs and then slide right up against the tank wall for an up-​close encounter.
I wish that the polar bears hadn’t been hiding, because they are magnificent in person as well. Just imagine seeing those things standing on their haunches at 10-​feet tall!
The shark tank was also just gorgeous. I don’t think I have to been to any aquarium that had sharks so large! I was impressed. Make sure to check out all of the smaller tanks as well. The seahorses are so adorable.
And of course, who doesn’t love babies? There were a handful of tiger cubs when I visited. They were super sleepy, and their little heads kept drooping. It was the most precious thing ever.
If you have a Microsoft PRIME card, you get $ 3 off admission during fall/​winter/​early spring. You get $ 4 off admission during peak times. This is a great family outing, or if you’re a gigantic 5-​year-​old like I am, super fun for childless adults.