John Ball Zoo Society Review

Friendly staff, animals are well cared for, great at giving information and personal knowledge about the animals. Love it here.

John Ball Zoo is always a great time. Lots of different animlas, friendly and knowledgeable staff. Facepainting, feeding birds, zip line and petting zoo. The otters are super friendly and love playing with the kids through the glass.

Love this zoo the bears and tiger are always out and about

I had no idea how amazing this place is! I lived the educational breakout sessions for kids!

Fun, weird parking lot situation with the park there as well. The family season pass is great! I highly recommend getting the season pass if you have more than 3 kids it pays for it self on your 3rd visit!

Had a lot of fun at the zoo. We say all kinds of cool animals. And the people were super nice and friendly.

The zoo has constant improvements and is just the right size for a day trip! The kids love it and the events are fantastic!

The train that takes you up the hill for a FEE is slow and a POS. This should be free or torn out. Bad enough their zoo is a joke

Lots under construction right now but overall a good zoo

Sometimes it is insanely crowded. Hard to walk around. I love this place, I wish the aquarium was bigger. Their prices for food and drinks are absolutely ridiculous though. But I went and it was a dollar to get in for EVERYONE that day so they do really cool stuff. Their Gift shop is amazing but pricey. I still buy stuff for my daughter there. Will always return.

Fun! As far as zoos go this was very spacious and realistic for the animals instead of cement floor and paintings especially for the lions ans tigers with a big variety of animals!

Very kid friendly. You can visit almost every exhibit in about 2 hours.

Beautiful space, friendly staff, and activities for any guest!

The zoo is nice but small. A lot of the animals were sleeping or hiding. Didn't see any lions or red pandas after walking up the steep hills.

What a great zoo almost all the animals were out where you could see them. The setup of the zoo is very interactive. Highly recommend this visit

It was a great zoo with plenty of room to distance from other people, right next to the exhibits it was a little crowded but it was maintained pretty well

Friendly & helpful workers. Beautiful exhibits and lots of nature and wildlife.

We tried to visit the zoo on Saturday and decided against it after a few minutes of being there. Thankfully they gave a refund with little hassle. The website is misleading on what to expect in terms of safety from possible infection. I also called ahead of the visit to ask if people were social distancing, to which the employee said yes. When we arrived, there were so many people there it was hard to believe they were operating at lowered capacity. Hardly any visitors were wearing masks. The zoo should really require all guests to wear a mask at all times, especially if they aren't going to enforce the social distancing. The majority of visitors had little regard for how close they were to others. Also, I observed that while the zoo was tracking how many people entered and at what time, NO ONE was tracking when people left! So, it was quite possible that they lost track of just how many people were there at a given time. It was honestly nightmarish, and my family definitely won't be visiting again until covid19 is less of a concern. We got out of there as quick as we could. Again, grateful for the refund, but please, consider requiring masks for all! Not just your employees. Masks are so much more effective when everyone is wearing them. I saw one poor employee who was quite nervous as hoards of people passed her within inches on each side. Her non-medical grade mask won't do her much good if the visitors aren't required to wear them. I want to go back to "normal" just like many others, but we aren't there yet! Covid19 is still a concern for our community, and we all should be doing everything we can to protect each other.

John Ball Zoo is a fun place to visit with the kiddos. There is a bunch of things to do and see and the new renovations are beautiful. Love the park and activities they do throughout the season. The kids loved seeing the Disney princesses at the park.

Not a lot of animals out,but I believe that was due to the weather, it was very hot out. Loved the penguins!!!

Went early morning when they opened! All the animal's were out up and ready for the day! Amazing

It was super fun and they have great thing in there gift shop.the have fun things to do with the family.and amazing things to see

had a great time hand cleaning stations and employees reminding us to put masks on when we went inside buildings and keeping us social distant!

Always enjoy bringing my son, even with the covid guidelines it is still a great time!

Many new things at the Zoo for 2020.
Great layout. Washing stations and hand sanitizer everywhere throughout Zoo.
Great place to take the kids of all ages.

Great exhibits! The Boo Zoo was awesome, lots of fun for the grandkids.

Very fun place for all. Make sure you plan your route on the map before going in. Great prices too

We love taking the kids here. We are member so during the summer we try and go at least every couple of weeks. There s always something going in as far as new habitats or remodeling done which is nice to see it expanding. It won t wow you, but it s a great way to spend a couple of hours.

This was a nice zoo. A lot of attractions and many activties. My family had a great day! Every extra activity cost so you will need money. I suggest bringing a picnic lunch. Lots of tables and some grills there.

Fun family place. Something new and exciting every time. Had some great set ups for Halloween. Favorite part is seeing the friendly tigers up close. Looking forward to the new meerkat exhibit.

Went on Mother's Day, so mothers and their kids got in free. Would not have been worth it if I had to pay full price.

This is a very cute zoo, just a little small compared to other zoos. Fun place to go with the family on a saturday. The price is also reasonable and it's great to be able to support the local community.

After hour parties are always great here, more animals are out in the evening.. kids enjoyed seeing the cougar, tigers and they serve beer at the zoo now

Great experience would love more animals to be in the zoo during summer

Great trip, weather was hot bot it was still super fun. The animals look well looked after and the staff seemed friendly despite of the weather. Everyone was seemed very informed about the animals but sadly wasn't very informed about where other stations were set up in the zoo such as refilling a drink or something mundane as that which was disappointing but not worth saying no to a trip out. The penguin feeding was very fun to watch.

I feel like there's more to see every time we come. It's nice to see some of the animals getting bigger, better habitats. A few of the exhibits are designed in a way that makes it difficult to see the animals, like the lion habitat. Parking isn't great, but I think they're remodeling that for this year.

I was sad that there was more gift shops and food stands than there were animals.

Saw a baby lynx running around trying to catch bugs, can't get any better than that

I love all the animals.
Can't go alone my wife says,
I'd take them all home with me.

used to be fair for the price but it is now $10 for adults and $8 for the kids. Even though they tried to make nicer, still not worth it. You are better off going to Brookfield in Chicago and paying $17 for the zoo and the extra $5 for the dolphin show or whatever it is now. Metra train will cost around 5.50 per person each way from Union Station but worth the time when in or visiting Chicago and have an extra time. Our zoo John Ball isn't worth $10. Oh by the way no refunds so if you go and it stinks your money is long gone.

Great place to take the whole family. It may be smaller than some zoo's but you can see the animals up close and not walk miles and not see an animal. They have lions,tigers, and bears. And other cool animals to see.

WOW. The recently renovated facility is just beautiful. Staff is doing such a great job of keeping everyone safe!

Was there on a Friday morning and it was awesome. The whole family enjoyed seeing the animals, and the staff was excellent in giving directions to the exhibits we wanted to see.

We have been to this zoo several times and have loved it. Today however was very disappointing. We came from Cadillac with three kids who were so excited about the animals and Harry Potter. On the zoo's website it says we recommend you buy tickets online, it doesn't say you MUST!! So needless to say after driving two hours to get there we were turned away. Please fix your wording on your website so others don't have this problem. Thank you.

I've gone to John Ball my whole life and it's only gotten better as the years have gone on. The animals are taken care of, it's clean, and there's always something fun to see. It's the best date spot!

It was very hot but they did the best the could to keep the animals cool. I recommend getting the special drink cup for free refills if you want to walk around out in this heat. Only complaint was that some of the fish looked pretty sick..

Small town zoo. Nice two hour walk. Business end is unethical and unprofessional. Be wary of annual memberships!

Haven't visited for a few years. Great experience. Many young families were enjoying their visit. I grew up a 10 minute walk away maaany years ago and this is a vast improvement.

The zoo keepers are friendly and knowledgable and very caring for the animals. The exhibits are well maintained and the animals seem healthy. I love this zoo!

Not bad for GR. Don't go early in the year as there is not much to see.

Love, love, love John Ball Zoo! The lego display was amazing and Adult Night Out was very fun!!

Nice. We had great weather. All the animals were out. Had a good time

We had a good time. I like the changes they have made. Quite a few exhibits were under renovations, but all in all it was fun.

Took my six year old here. She loved it. Very affordable and was very clean. I was impressed that the reptile house didn't smell like one.

If you haven't been you have to go! Who doesn't love a zoo!
I found when using Stroller it's easier to take the train by the entrance to the top and work your way down

Wonderful zoo. I think it's the perfect size. We made it around in about 2 hours. Very well kept and friendly staff. Lots of bathroom and food locations inside.

Always good for a nice local trip to the zoo with the kids! It's not a huge zoo, and it does have some "lions, tigers, and bears OH MY!!". LOL.