Wild Animal Park in San Diego Misrepresents Operating Hours, Lies to Guests on Website Escondido, California

BEFORE VISITING THE WILD ANIMAL PARK IN SAN DIEGO, MAKE SURE TO CALL AND VERIFY THEIR OPERATING HOURS, THEY HAVE MISREPRESENTED THEM TWO YEARS IN A ROW ON THEIR OFFICIAL WEBSITE. Read more below

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Two years in a row, the San Diego Wild Animal Park has misrepresented their operating hours on their official website.

I joined as a member in early 2009. Before joining as a member, took some time to look at their website, and see operating hours and amenities. Their posted operating hours for the 2009 summertime season were from 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM, and they called it "The Park After Dark". The next step was to look at weather conditions for Escondido in the summertime. It's very hot there, until later in the day, early evening times. Then looked at the sunset charts, to see what time sunset was, and figure out when to go to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. After doing all of this, drove out to the Wild Animal Park and paid for my yearly membership.

Around the end of March , was talking to an employee about how great the "Park After Dark" summertime schedule would be with the 9:00 PM closing. The employee informed me that the park closes at 8:00 PM. I told the employee to look on the website, the listed operating hours are for 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM. The employee looked on the website, and confirmed that the operating hours were listed as 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM, and printed out a copy of it too.

Around late April, early May, lo and behold, the operating hours on the website changed from 9:00 PM to 8:00 PM. WOW, they leave the wrong operating hours up for around 4 months of the year, and change them just before the summertime schedule is supposed to start. WHAT A RIPOFF.

Now, 2010, I am a San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park member, and get the Zoo Nooz magazine from the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, and their summertime operating hours are for 9:00 AM until 8:00 PM for most of the summertime, and at the end of summer, the hours change from 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM. OK, now I know the operating hours.

I go to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park website in January, and lo and behold, the summertime operating hours for the Wild Animal Park are listed to be from 9:00 AM until 8:00 PM, throughout the entire 2010 summertime season. Huh, that didn't match the hours they reported in their magazine. Then, amazing, around April, the operating hours on the website change from 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM to the hours in the magazine, 9:00 AM - 6:00 Pm for the end of summertime. WHAT A RIPOFF.

Two years in a row, the Wild Animal Park left the incorrect operating hours on the website for months on end. This has to be a bummer for someone who is travelling to San Diego, and hoping to spend some time at the Wild Animal Park. It made me upset the first year, I was looking forward to being in the Wild Animal Park after nightfall, when the animals are more active and you can observe the animal's nighttime behavior. For four months, it was something I had planned on, since they left the incorrect operating hours up. When they did change the operating hours, they didn't mention it, post a correction, or anything, just changed the one digit from 9 to 8. WHAT A RIPOFF.

Before plannning a visit to the Wild Animal park in San Diego, call ahead, and verify their operating hours.