Winston Wildlife Safari (Portland: home, gated, live)

[tiffela74]

Hi. We're planning on taking the kiddos to the wildlife safari in Winston here this summer, but dunno if its worth the 75.00entry fee....has anyone been there before? Any thoughts, advice, or comments about this place you might care to pass on?
TIA!~!!!
Tiffany

[Minervah]

It is sooooo worth it! A friend and I went about five years ago and we loved it. One word of caution though, are your kids old enough to be able to tolerate staying in the car for possibly a long period of time?
Sometimes an animal will be crossing the road or traveling down it and all cars must yield. Funny story: My friend and I were visiting on a week day on the off-season so there were not many other cars around. We ran into several lions laying on either side of the road. Stretched out casually ON the road was the king of the beasts himself; huge male lion. You do not honk at a lion. You sit there and wait until he decides to move and in our case he didn't move for about 20 minutes. The other lions, all females strolled back and forth. Finally Mr. Lion got up, looked and us, yawned and I swear had a smirk on his face as he slowly went to the side of the road so we could pass by.
I loved it!

[HMinOR]

We lived close to there for two years, and had a membership. We loved going!! As the pp pointed out, do be sure that your kids can stay in the car awhile. Even with no animals impeding, it takes a good 45 minutes just to get through. But you'll get to see lions and bears and tigers and giraffes and elephants for sure! In all the times we went, we never saw the hippos, though.

I will say that if it's hot that day, if you are going in the middle of the day, I would pass. When we went in the hot, the animals were just kind of laying around or hiding, and it wasn't too much fun.

[tiffela74]

Thanks guys!!! We're looking at next week, so not too terribly hot. And the kids do pretty well in the car. Theyre used to going back and forth to Portland to see grandparents and traveling for the little ones gymnastics meets. Plus, we have a big ole honkin full size van (that I cant get rid of w/these gas prices, of course) so plenty of room.
question....is there any space between cars usually? I had seen on a home video (different place) of people going through a safari and it looked like LA freeway rush hour but w/ animals.
Do any of the animals come up to your vehicle?
and hows the "village" area? is there much to see close up?
Okay, thanks again very much for your replies. Now Im getting excited to go!
Tiffany
Thank you so much for your replies.

[HMinOR]

We were mostly alone every time we went. Occasionally caught up with cars in the tigers or bears or lions (those are gated, so they let you in/out one at a time so the animals don't get out and eat their pray).

The birds are super friendly. You can have your windows down everywhere but the dangerous animal areas, and we had emus and ostriches poking their heads in.

If you can check out their schedule and go to the village at the time the train is running and they have the elephants there, it is super fun!