Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium

Stormi

We decided to visit the zoo with our son for the first time. He was in heaven! There was so much to do and he enjoyed every moment. We ended up getting their premium tickets with the free rides on the train and skyline, the entry into the sting-rays, etc. We got to feed the stingrays and rode the train. The train had a little bit of an issue with it's steamer while we were riding and they had to take a break for about 15-20 minutes in the middle of the ride, but aside from that everything went smoothly. We fed the giraffe, which was fun and new! One complaint we had was how the African grill commissary was set up. Everything was digital for ordering, which is fine, but the pick-up was insane. They had two lanes one I assume for things that were taking longer and another should have been for quick pick-ups like just a drink or some drinks and ice cream. It was unclear how you were supposed to line up so some people were lining up in the "quick" lane just waiting for their turn. I feel that it would have been more beneficial for someone to have been out there showing people how to line up or signs to make it more clear. Like, "Only line up here if you've received a text message that your order is ready for pick-up." as an example. My son's favorite was the Gorillas and Monkeys.

Robbie Merrill

The zoo was really fun. We liked the animal exhibits, they were really big and the animals were mostly easy to find and seemed happy. We really liked the penguins, and the desert enclosure, the cave area was fun and we liked the vampire and fruit bats, including the very large fruit bats. Be aware that in the cave area there is a water pit with no barriers, it's extremely dangerous for a toddler. The lions were really cool, especially high up on their rock. I liked the beavers in the cave area, that's something you don't see in zoos a lot. The aquarium is very well done, we liked the sharks and sea turtle and touching the starfish. The tunnel is great. Only negatives is that most of the food places were closed, and the line going in was very disorganized. I think the line issue could actually be solved by getting a better bar code scanner, that part took so long. All in all it's a great zoo to visit!

Marcus Tan

For the price and the hype for "world top ranked zoo", I expected better. Water bowls in many enclosures were very murky, the size of enclosures seemed too small in certain areas (especially in the Desert Dome) and many of the animals looked way too depressed (especially the gorillas and tigers). The Desert Dome was the most disappointing. For such a large dome, the animals were in small enclosures wrapped with netting, and the interior design of the landscape in the dome was just underutilizing the size of the dome, which makes me wonder if the design of the dome just for flexing from the outside. I also definitely did not see 1000+ species of animals as advertised on websites, plus there were a lot of the same animals in different zones. Food options were also terrible for a top ranked zoo. I've visited many other zoos with less to no cost and still had better animal exhibits, much more species of animals, management, and food options (like the free St Louis Zoo, Smithsonian Zoo, Kansas City Zoo and Seattle's Woodland Zoo). Makes me wonder where the $25 per person money goes too.... Despite that, putting the status and price aside, I was still able to have a wonderful time at the zoo. The close experiences with the giraffe and elephant families were an unforgettable experience. Kinda bumped that the Forest Trial was closed during my visit, but the Lied Forest was my favorite exhibit, with an amazing replica of a tropical environment. The zoo can be fully explored within a day if you don't have kids with you and if you fully spend the opening hours in the zoo. I also recommend bringing your own food for lunch.

Tech 77

The zoo is one of our favorite places to go as a family. We always get a yearly membership since we frequent the park so much. What we do is we break our visits down into sections. Since the park is so huge it’s really difficult to cover the whole park and enjoy it at the same time if we do it all at once. This way we do a section we enjoy it we take our time and we have fun. The new sea lions exhibit is definitely our favorite. You completely feel engulfed in the experience and the escape once you enter the exhibit. My son loves to play with the sea lions through the looking glass window observation area. For me this is one of the best exhibits I’ve ever seen at any zoo. We always love to ride the train and the chairlift when they’re open. As a tip bring your own water bottle as things can be quite expensive and they can add it real fast otherwise. Overall, we enjoyed going to the zoo and watching our son engulf himself and all the exhibits.