Published on Sep, 2024
Okay, I was extremely worried about the bad reviews I was reading prior to booking, but I had a very limited time on the Gold Coast and just Australia in general. I thought when am I going to ever get the opportunity to visit THE Australia Zoo again as I was visiting all the way from Los Angeles. I’ve been obsessed with the Irwin Family since I was a little girl and Australia Zoo had always been on my bucket list. So I went ahead and booked this hoping for the best. The main concerns I’d seen with the bad reviews were the reliability of the bus company failing to communicate when/if the bus was cancelled for the day if they didn’t reach the minimum amount of people required to make the trek to the zoo for the day. Because of this, I messaged the tour operator the night before to confirm the meetup time and place. The tour operator confirmed with me and so that put me at ease. The next morning, the bus picked me up and a few other people at our meeting point in front of Mantra Legends right on time. The bus ride from Gold Coast is a total of about 3 hours one way so 6 hours round trip. Sounds agonizingly long when coming from Gold Coast especially as the bus has no bathroom facilities and doesn’t make a stop for passengers to use the bathroom. Does stop in Brisbane to get more passengers but no one is to get off the bus for any reason during the stops. So just make sure you go beforehand and refrain from drinking too much liquids. Surprisingly the length of time flew by for me both ways as I was chatting with a few local passengers. Bus is clean and modern.
Now, for the zoo. INCREDIBLE. Never been to a zoo so interactive and educational. I had the time of my life seeing all the different species of animal. Was super excited for the Crocoseum show. It was amazingly entertaining and the cherry on top to this whole excursion was the Irwin’s coming out to feed the crocs during the show!!! It was a dream come true for this lifelong Irwin family fan. It was beautiful and emotional seeing how the family has continued on Steve’s legacy. Their passion for animals and conservation is inspiring. So yes overall great experience! The bus gets there around 10am and you are directed to meetup back at the drop off point at 4pm. So u have about 6hours to enjoy the zoo which I felt was a good amount. I believe those who have had a negative experience with this booking, but I just think I happened to go on a day where everything went right. Hopefully with the bad reviews the bus company has seen, they’ve made it a point to be better and more communicative if the bus needs to be canceled for the day. With my experience however, I would recommend