So I finally got a chance to go the zoo, we bought our passes finally! All though we did not stay long at all (took an eight year old who didn't handle the walking well), there was plenty to do for kids. There are lots of photo opportunity places we saw, like a giant turtle to sit on, a hippo laying in the ground to sit on, a polar bear cave you can get your photo in, polar bear statues you can climb on and have your photo taken with them, some of those wooden cut out things (bugs, flowers, etc) that you stick your head through and can have your photo taken, monkey masks you can lean up against and have your photo taken in, those little machines you put the quarters in and they are like binoculars on a stand, various animals (flamingo, giraffe, etc) that you can drop coins in to donate money to the Zoological society, and lots of other little things like that we found. You can feed the giraffes at the zoo, it's on the map and everything, and it said something about a nominal fee. I am not sure what the zoo's giraffe feeding set up looks like compared to the San Diego Wild Animal Park's, but I know that you can only feed the giraffes at the zoo on Thursdays thru Sundays, at least right now when they are on their summer hours, even though their website says Saturday and Sundays only, that could be only in the winter, at least when we were there it was Thursdays-Sundays.
Unlike the Wild Animal Park, the zoo does not have a playground. The Wild Animal Park has a regular playground, as well as a water playground, either of which would make a cool addition to the zoo. The San Diego Zoo does have a lot of things geared towards Children though, the Sea Lion show is excellent, and they ask for a child volunteer, if you sit in the front five rows or so in the center section, and your kid shows a lot of enthusiasm, your child is much more likely to get selected to be in the show, and unlike Sea World, and other places, they don't pre-pick the volunteer out of the audience, until the show is in progress, then they look for a kid excited about volunteering. The child gets a magnet for helping out. There are also character meet and greets near the entrance to the zoo. We got our picture taken with Monty Meerkat because I am a meerkat fanatic, and the child in our group got her picture taken with the koala as well. The map shows a hippo and a panda but I do not know if and when they make appearances as well. There are also kids shows, even a puppet type show (it was Thumbelina when we were there). There is also the Skyfari ride (additional cost), the bus tour (additional cost), and a 3d motion ride thing that I don't know much about, looks like one of those virtual reality things, I think it was safari themed (additional cost).
As for how far the zoo is from Balboa Park, I am not too familiar with Balboa Park, as for what is located there and where everything is, but the land that the zoo is sitting on is considered to be part of Balboa Park. There is a train ride within walking distance of the zoo, and there is a nominal fee for the train ride.
I am going again on Thursday this week, this time with no kids, to check out night time zoo, and all of the ins and outs, so if anyone has any "odd" questions, feel free to post them, and I would be happy to answer them when I go.
Like I said, any specific questions, and I can answer them when I go Thursday, if you ask them before then. I am going without kids so I can really explore and do more and see more at the zoo. Hard as it is to believe, when I took the eight year old last week, we saw flamingos, a few gift shops, the Children's Zoo (skipped the nursery), the Sea Lion Show, the wild something or another show (it was about cats), Birds of Prey, the pandas, the polar bears (they were sleeping), went on the Skyfari in one direction (even though we could ride unlimited for free with the passes), and some pigs. We did not see any of the "large" animals no lions, tigers, bears, gorillas, apes, etc, I was rather dissappointed that she was ready to go home when she was (after only a couple hours), especially when we had packed for a whole day, brought a small soft sided cooler, fans, drinks, the sipper bottles, the whole nine yards, oh well, kids will be kids. lol
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