A fantastic day out with my granddaughters age 3 and 5 .just before Christmas. The penguins were the absolute favourite. All the staff were super helpful and kind ; the keepers, the ride operators a... See more
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See what reviewers are saying
We had a great time on a cold wintery day. We wrapped up warm & enjoyed observing the animals, they all looked well cared for. The Christmas decorations were lovely & impressive, the elves were work... See more
Company replied
The waiter/barstaff/ hospitality worker in the hot food area didn’t thoroughly wipe the table which isn’t then sanitary. He did it without looking at the cloth and did a haphazard zig zag. The table... See more
Company replied
As well as making a return visit to Drusilla's after a number of years it was an opportunity to meet up with some old friends, some of which I had not seen for close on 50 years. Drusilla's was an ide... See more
Company replied
4.3
Excellent
53 reviews
No recent history of asking for reviews
This company hasn't invited customers recently, so reviews may not be representative
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We went to Drusillas with our grandson…
We went to Drusillas with our grandson to see Father Christmas, our son and his partner were with us too. We had a great day, so much to see and do! Everything was great fun, even on a cold December day. We were at the zoo for over 4 hours and loved every minute of it! All the staff we dealt with were very friendly and helpful. Will definitely be back again!
December 19, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us feedback on your Christmas visit. This was wonderful to read! We're delighted you had such a lovely day with us and thank you for your kind words about our Park and staff. We hope to welcome you back again soon!
Best wishes,
Drusillas
Wonderful day out!
I visited Drusillas with 2 young children, they loved everything! Fascinated by the singing reindeer, enjoyed the rides. The youngest was able to go on the carousel, toucan cups and jungle jeeps with no problems, the staff were attentive and friendly.
The staff in Explorers restaurant were helpful, and the food hot and tasty.
Overall a great day, tired smiles as we headed home.
December 13, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave us feedback. We're thrilled to hear that you and the children you visited with enjoyed your day out so much. We hope to welcome you back again soon. Best wishes, Drusillas
Nostalgic
Nostalgic!
I used to come to drusillas as a child, I was given tickets for my birthday and was so lovely to walk through the animals with a coffee seeing how well looked after they are, also taking a walk down the zoos memory lane & purchasing a cheeky gift in the gift shop, perfect day out so I brought a season pass when the offer was on
December 30, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave us a review! We're delighted to hear you enjoyed visiting us again and had such a lovely time you decided to become a member. We are looking forward to welcoming you to the Park over the next year!
Best wishes
Drusillas
We all had a great time
We all had a great time. We all got so many great memories and videos of animals. Even in winter there is so much to do. We feed some Rainbow Lorikets better as well which I think was my favourite part.
December 20, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us a review. We're thrilled to hear you had such a lovely day out with us and look forward to welcoming you back again soon. Best wishes, Drusillas Team
Drusillas 24
We had a great morning! Unfortunately park had to close due to power cut caused by a storm! Staff were super helpful, and assured us of a full refund.
Would definitely recommend, plenty for the kids to enjoy a full day!
December 8, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Many thanks for taking the time to leave us a review. We're so pleased staff were helpful during our power cut and hope to welcome you back again soon so you can enjoy the Park fully.
Best wishes, Drusillas
Excellent experience
The staff were super friendly and helpful and the animals were well looked after . Great place to visit whether your a child or adult.
December 7, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us feedback. We're delighted to hear you enjoyed your visit and would recommend us!
Best wishes, Drusillas
When I last came to Drusilla's in 2024
When I last came to Drusilla's I was probably still a teenager, as I see it now and I am almost 69 the park has come a very long way indeed, there were Peacocks roaming around then, I really enjoyed how it winds its way around to access everything, and the train still there, when I was last there the train was in an open field nothing else there but the track. Thankyou so much to our friends Brian Nick and Chris.
October 21, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us feedback. Fantastic to hear that you had such a wonderful return visit to the Park and you enjoyed it as much now as when you were a teenager! We hope to welcome you back again soon.
Best wishes,
Drusillas
We had a wonderful day at Drusillas
We had a wonderful day at Drusillas, as we always have had when we've visited in the past. This time there were four of us with 2 babies. It was busy but there was never a time where we had to queue or couldn't see the animals quickly. Staff were friendly and attentive, the in the restaurant was really nice and the animals all seemed very well looked after.
November 2, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thanks you so much for taking the time to leave us a review. We're delighted you had such a lovely day out with us and hope to welcome you back to the Park again soon.
Best wishes,
Drusillas
Didn’t go
Didn’t go. Went as a child but refusing to pay £111 for my 3 year old, me and my dad. I didn’t book as if I had booked the night before it would have been £73, and I wanted to book on the day so £111? How is that encouraging families to visit. It’s a complete con!
October 27, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback. We do try and make it as clear as possible on our website that pre-booking tickets is always the cheapest way to visit us. We offer a 20% discount for all tickets booked online up to Midnight the day before a visit to allow flexibility. We feel this offer (which runs all year round, regardless of school holidays etc) does encourage families to visit. We also regularly run special offers for our visitors too, for example our recent 2-for-1 ticket offer that ran in September and the Kids go half-price for half-term offer we are currently offering. Best wishes, Drusillas
Fantastic day at the zoo
Fantastic day at the zoo! It was very accessible for my electric wheelchair with all animal enclosures and a good level for viewing.
The Changing Places Toilet was absolutely beautifully clean and the best one I have used.
Absolute highlights of the day were the lemurs and lorikeets!
April 10, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you very much for taking the time to leave us feedback. We're delighted to hear you enjoyed your visit and found the Park to be so accessible, something we are always working hard on. We hope to welcome you back again soon! Best wishes, Drusillas
Great Value
Although the admission price may seem expensive, the price is basically for a whole day out with plenty to do and entertain both adults and children. We took our grandchildren 3 and 7. The visit is both educational and fun and is in two halves. First there is the zoo with lots animals to domestic farmyard animals to exotic birds like flamingos. The animals seem clean and active and there was lots of information about them. The large glass panels were very clean and gave great views, especially of the penguins. My grandchildren particularly liked popping their heads up in the middle of the meerkat enclosure!. It was amazing to see large bats at close range with nearby volunteers to explain about them. The second part of the zoo is like a big play-park / fun-fair with most rides being free of extra charge. The train ride is fun and we went on it more than once. The huge carousel and even the smaller children's rides and arcade style games were free. The only negative was the food (burgers and hotdogs) which were served in hard chewy buns.The only tears from the grandchildren was when we had to leave!
October 12, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you very much for taking the time to leave such a detailed and helpful review. We're thrilled to hear that you and your grandchildren had such an enjoyable day out with us and found Drusillas good value for money.
We're disappointed to that you didn't feel our hotdog and hamburger buns were up to scratch and have passed this feedback on to our catering manager.
Thank you again for your feedback, we hope to welcome you back to the Park again soon.
Best wishes,
Drusillas
Amazing place
Amazing place! So many things to do. I was there yesterday with 3 disabled children and we had a PA who looks after one of the children. Before buying tickets I read carefully what documents are accepted for the Carer to have free entry. I took my son's DLA with me and there were no problems. At the ticket office I showed my DLA and received an Access Pass for my son which allowed him to enter the attractions without queuing which is also a great idea. I don't understand the reviews that have negative comments about disabilities and Carer entry as the park website clearly states what documents are accepted and that you need to bring them with you to show them. We were there all day and I don't think we saw everything, although I could be wrong. We used a map app which made it easier to get around. We bought tickets to SPARK which is an absolutely fantastic place. The children loved playing in SPARK. All the animals and their homes were very clean, well looked after and the animals looked happy. Lots of animals to see and even the ones that were in their burrows were visible through the glass which is a huge plus and the water by the penguins was clean and clear. I was at another zoo about 2 weeks ago where the water by the penguins was so dirty you couldn't see through the glass and we didn't see much of the animals as they were hidden and there was no access to see them. I like that all the attractions are free and you don't have to pay extra for them. The playground and Splash are very clean and wonderful, I have to say I have never seen such a cool playground. One of my daughters dared to ride the carousel and she was delighted. The dinosaur place is also great, especially that you can go into the mouth of one of them and take a picture. We have wonderful memories and souvenirs in the form of pictures and videos that we took. We drove 1.5 hours to get there and we are happy that we could be there because it is a special place. Thank you for a great day and we really hope to come back someday. We love it
August 27, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us such a detailed review. It's really lovely to read that you found the Park accessible for your children and the entry process was smooth and stress free.
We're so pleased it was worth the journey and you had such a lovely day and enjoyed everything the Park has to offer. We look forward to welcoming you back in the future.
Best wishes,
Drusillas
Went there first twenty five years ago…
Went there first twenty five years ago and made a promise to grandchildren without first checking entrance price but went nevertheless. It will be the last time I go there as Drusillas is no longer value for money. The ticket prices are crazy as a two year old has to pay an adult price! And if you do go take your own food and avoid being taken for a mug twice.
August 1, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you for taking the time to get in touch after your visit, we learn a great deal from listening carefully to visitor feedback.
We're sorry you felt disappointed by the price of entrance. We pride ourselves on providing great value for money so are saddened to hear your feedback. Our latest research shows visitors stay in the Park for 5-6 hours, on average. For the cost of entry, we offer the chance to get nose-to-nose with over 80 exotic animals through our uniquely designed interactive zoo, two large outdoor adventure play areas, Amazon Adventure soft-play, Adventure Maze, free Spotter trail, Zoolympics trail, Jurassic Jungle our animatronic Dinosaur area, and unlimited access to our 7 family rides. We also recently removed any charges for our coin-operated rides and opened a free gaming arcade with 6 new machines.
You may not be aware, but we offer a 20% discount on tickets when booking in advance online. Our ticket prices vary throughout the year to reflect peak and off-peak seasons, but we always offer a 20% saving on any day of the year against the gate price on that day, and this is valid up until midnight the day before you visit.
We do hope you can use this offer for a saving on your entrance fee in the future and we can welcome you back to the Park.
Best wishes,
Drusillas
Good Park but a BAD Experience!
We live locally in Brighton (about a 20 minute drive) and this visit our first (and now will be last) visit. I pre-booked and paid for two tickets and then a carers ticket for me as my son has SEND needs and has been given a Compass Card from AMAZE who support disabled children on behalf of Brighton Council. They have also provided me with a Carers Card. Upon arrival at the counter I was told my sons Compass card and my Carers card were not sufficient proof for a carers entry. I spoke with a supervisor/manager who also said the same. I argued that these cards for my SEND child and myself were provided by Brighton council but was met with the answer of "How do we know the Carers card and SEND Compass card are connected?" - THIS IS APPALLING and you should be ashamed of yourselves. Have a child with a disability is difficult enough without then being questioned and frankly told that his disability isn't sufficient enough to warrant a free carers entry. SHAME ON YOU! This is a 1 start experience. Completely not how to treat customers.
The park itself was good. We spent four hours there. My son enjoyed himself on the rides and the splash zone. Overall everything was slightly overpriced from the ticket price to the food.
You could not pay me to go back and i'll be sharing this experience on all social platforms and review sites.
August 9, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you for taking the time to detail your experience at the park, we take all feedback very seriously and would love the opportunity to discuss this with you. If you would be open to this, please email us info@drusillas.co.uk.
It’s really disappointing to hear that your experience entering the Park was stressful and upsetting, and we’re so sorry this marred your special day out.
To explain our current carer ticket policy for you; we never wish to pass judgement or subject visitors to questioning, which is why we issue tickets to individuals who have already been through a government recognised application process, rather than asking our team to decide someone’s eligibility. DLA/PIP/ESA/Attendance Allowance are all well recognised and government approved, and using these schemes as proof of eligibility allows us to allocate carer tickets in a fair and consistent manner. We ask for proof in order to treat our visitors fairly and equally. There are many different disabled access cards, each with varying terms of eligibility, so to ensure consistency we feel that proof of government approved payments is the fairest way to allocate tickets. Due to recent feedback, we have also recently started accepting Access Cards with the +1 essential companion symbol, National Disability Cards, and Blue Badges.
We’re really disappointed to hear that felt this wasn’t communicated sensitively, this would never be our intention and we have spoken with our team to reiterate this. Although it doesn’t sound like it was communicated as well as it could be, our team were just explaining our policy to you as you didn’t have the correct documentation.
We make this as clear as possible on our ticketing and accessibility pages: https://www.drusillas.co.uk/access-statement and this is also sign posted at several points during the booking process, and reiterated in ticket confirmation emails so that visitors know in advance what proof is required and can have the right documentation ready and available when they visit. It’s unfortunate you missed this information when booking.
There are no current standard guidelines for eligibility for carer tickets, so we have created a policy we feel is fair, and always listen to feedback in case this needs reviewing. Other visitor attractions also create their own policies as best they can, and we, in many cases, accept a wider range of documents than others do and we are constantly reviewing this. Although we appreciate you feel you would not like to return, we’d like you to know your feedback hasn’t gone unheard and thank you for raising this.
We do apologise again for any upset caused; we would never want to make a day out harder for any visitor. We hope we can welcome you back to the Park again in the future.
Brilliant day out
Brilliant day out! We were a group of four adults and eight children (age two to seven) and everyone loved it. We were fortunate that the weather was very good so we were able to make use of all of the outdoor rides and the splash park, as well as visiting the animals. There is a good variety of animals and the children especially enjoyed watching the penguins! Drusillas is maintained to a high standard compared to other similar places that we had been to recently. We would all highly recommend going for a day out with children!
July 19, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us a review, fab to hear your comments and we hope to welcome you again soon.
Best wishes
Drusillas Team
Horrible staff
Saddens me to say the staff there are terrible rude and arrogant despite being polite myself every interaction was awful, my 16 year daughter admitted to me she felt slightly intimidated. Cant imagine ever returning
July 21, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you for leaving us feedback. We're very sorry to hear you had such a negative experience with our staff members. We usually receive positive feedback on how helpful and friendly our staff are and are very sorry to hear this wasn't the case when you visited.
In this kind of situation we would always advise asking to speak to one of our supervisors, so that the matter can be looked into and resolved promptly.
We sincerely apologise again that you had this experience and hope to welcome you and your family back to the Park in the future.
Best wishes,
Drusillas
Make sure you check the fairground and train so you can go on them
The fairground here is not too great because half of the rides were shut especially the hippopotamus which is one of the best in my opinion also the train wasn’t running because it was too wet but apart from that the zoo hit was a yes go
July 20, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us a review.
We're sorry to hear that you were disappointed that you weren't able to make the most of all our attractions during your visit. None of our rides were closed, including the train, but during East Sussex school term time, we run our rides on a rotational basis because of a lower demand and visitor numbers. However, we do understand that closures can be disappointing and so are clear and transparent about what will be closed and our ride rotation system on our website here: https://www.drusillas.co.uk/directions and here: https://www.drusillas.co.uk/rides/drusillas-ride-rotations so.
We also signpost ‘what’s open’ and encourage visitors to check this at every stage of the booking journey, we’re sorry that you missed this. This allows visitors to make an informed choice before they decide to visit us and plan their trip to Drusillas accordingly.
We are very glad to hear you enjoyed the zoo though and thank you again for your review. We hope to welcome you back again soon.
Best wishes,
Drusillas
Today I attended with my disabled wife
Today I attended with my disabled wife. On reaching the Kiosk I asked for a carer and disabled tickets and was asked to proof that my wife was disabled.
Did I have a PIP letter or a DWP lettersmating my wife was disable. I have never been asked this, my wife were embarrassed and humiliated in front of other people we left. We will never return
July 19, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank-you for taking the time to leave us feedback, we greatly value customer feedback and learn a great deal from it.
Our aim is to make Drusillas as inclusive as possible and we would never want to make anyone feel uncomfortable or upset and are extremely sorry to hear that you felt humiliated and embarrassed.
We would never want to discriminate and so we issue carer tickets to individuals who have been through a government recognised application process. Many disabilities are invisible, and we wouldn’t want our staff to have to decide whether a visitor is disabled or not. DLA/PIP/ESA are all well recognised and government approved, and using these schemes as proof of eligibility allows us to allocate carer tickets in a fair and consistent manner.
We do understand that not everyone who requires a carer receives DLA/PIP/ESA/Attendance Allowance disability payments or wishes to claim them. In response to visitor feedback, we now also accept Access Card with the Essential Companion (+1) symbol too.
We hope this explanation of our carer ticket policy helps to explain why you were asked for documentation on Saturday. We would never ask someone to prove they were disabled, but we do have to have rule in places rules in place to allocate our carer tickets in a fair and consistent manner. We continually review our policies and will take your feedback on board and really appreciate you taking the time to let us know about your experience.
Please accept our apologies for any upset, we do hope we can welcome you back to the Park again in the future.
Best wishes,
Drusillas
Less than inclusive for disabilities
On Friday 31st May we visited your premises having booked 3 tickets via Kids Pass and 1 carer ticket through your website the day before.
We followed instructions and went to the customer service hut to collect our tickets and were told that without a Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payments, Attendance Allowance, Employment Support Allowance, or an Essential Companion Access Card we would not be able to use the carer’s ticket and had to purchase a new ticket on the spot.
This experience was humiliating. There were other people waiting in the queue behind us and it made us look like a bunch of money scrounger.
Let me tell you a story. My husband has a mitochondrial disease that affects his sight and is registered has partially sighted. His vision past 80cm is blurred would not recognise any of us unless he can hear us. Yet he doesn’t qualify for any of the government help stated above. He however qualify for a free bus pass, a disability rail travel card and a CEA card for the cinema. Due do his disability he isn’t allowed to drive and so he takes the train and walks to work every day. For a journey that would at the most take a driver 45 minutes, it takes him 2 hours. Each way. He doesn’t complains, he just gets on with it. When it comes to going to bigs parks, museum, zoo, amusement park, etc it’s impossible for him to go alone with the kids. It would just take a second for my youngest to get distracted and for him not the be able to find her again. If there was a state of emergency, a fire for example, he would find it incredibly difficult to find his way out safely. And so I have to always be there. I have to make sure that I have eyes on everyone at all time. That he can hear me. But again, we don’t qualify for any of the help above. We just get on with it.
When your staff told us that without the limited proof you needed we didn’t qualify for a carers ticket you reminded him how helpless he feels at time. This is the first time this type of issue has happened to us and we were shocked. We have visited plenty of park when the proof of disability was plenty as a proof. To name a few, Legoland, Winchester science museum, Beale Park, Wellington country park.
Your policies are not inclusive, which is a shame because your park is lovely, but this really put a negative spin on the day and definitely will put a stop in our returning.
I emailed the above to the customer service team. A Laura Palmer replied to my email showing zero empathy and just stating the text on the website by adding screenshots to the email. There was no resolution or agreement on the limitations of proofs.
May 31, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank-you for taking the time to leave us feedback, we greatly value customer feedback and learn a great deal from it. We are very sorry to hear there was some confusion around our carer ticket policy when you visited last month, and that you were disappointed with the response you received from our customer services team.
Our aim is for every trip to Drusillas to be a positive experience and we would never want to make anyone feel uncomfortable or upset. Likewise, our customer services team try and deal with all feedback as courteously and compassionately as possible.
The screenshots were included to explain how our carer ticket policy works and to show that we do provide a lot of information on what documentation we require to buy a carer ticket ahead of your visit to try and make the process as smooth as possible.
As Laura explained, we would never want to discriminate and so we issue carer tickets to individuals who have been through a government recognised application process. Many disabilities are invisible, and we wouldn’t want our staff to have to decide whether a visitor is disabled or not. DLA/PIP/ESA are all well recognised and government approved, and using these schemes as proof of eligibility allows us to allocate carer tickets in a fair and consistent manner.
We do understand that not everyone who requires a carer receives DLA/PIP/ESA/Attendance Allowance disability payments or wishes to claim them. In response to visitor feedback, we now also accept Access Card with the Essential Companion (+1) symbol too.
We find that this is the fairest way to allocate carer tickets, but we do appreciate there will always be exceptions. Every policy has limitations and we do use very similar criteria for carer tickets to the majority of UK tourist attractions.
We do understand your frustration though, and sincerely apologise again that your experience with buying tickets had such a negative impact on the day out for you and your family. We have passed your comments on to our management team. We continually review our policies and will take your feedback on board and really appreciate you taking the time to let us know about your experience.
Please accept our apologies for any upset and disappointment, we do hope we can welcome you back to the Park again in the future.
Best wishes,
Drusillas
Far too expensive, not great
Far too expensive, I paid £74 for myself and my 8 year old. A small animal exhibit for under 12’s. Some rides included but not all. Could do with a lick of paint.
Another example of why it’s cheaper to go abroad than in staycation
May 26, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Drusillas Park
Thank you for taking the time to get in touch after your visit, we learn a great deal from listening carefully to visitor feedback.
We're sorry you felt disappointed by the price of entrance. We pride ourselves on providing great value for money so are saddened to hear your feedback. Our latest research shows visitors stay in the Park for 5-6 hours, on average. For the cost of entry, we offer the chance to get nose-to-nose with over 80 exotic animals through our uniquely designed interactive zoo, two large outdoor adventure play areas, Amazon Adventure soft-play, Adventure Maze, free Spotter trail, Zoolympics trail, Jurassic Jungle our animatronic Dinosaur area, and unlimited access to our 7 family rides. We also recently removed any charges for our coin-operated rides and opened a free gaming arcade with 6 new machines.
You may not be aware, but we offer a 20% discount on tickets when booking in advance online. Our ticket prices vary throughout the year to reflect peak and off-peak seasons, but we always offer a 20% saving on any day of the year against the gate price on that day, and this is valid up until midnight the day before you visit.
We do hope you can use this offer for a saving on your entrance fee in the future and we can welcome you back to the Park.
Best wishes,
Drusillas
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