Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium, Arizona

By alantvuong on December 12, 2023

I always enjoy visiting zoos everywhere I go, so when my friend and I heard about the large Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium while we were in Goodyear, Arizona, we had to go.

Getting There

We were staying at TownePlace Suites by Marriott Goodyear which was about a 15 min drive to Wildlife World Zoo. We used an Uber which was a lot easier than trying to call a taxi. Admission tickets were $48 each person since they did not offer any disability or companion discount.

About Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium

Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium is actually located in Litchfield Park, Arizona and opened as a zoo only in 1984. It continued to grow and in 2008 it added the aquarium, while in 2014 it added the Safari Park and Adventureland. It now has a land area of 215 acres with over 6000 animals and over 300 species.

costs $48 admission per person, no disability/companion discount

The zoo and aquarium is open from 9am and the zoo side closes at 6pm while the aquarium side closes at 7pm year round. We arrived a bit late in the day as it was about 2.30pm when we finally entered the zoo. We got our map and made the mistake of starting our visit on the aquarium side.

map of entire park

Here is how our day went:

Aquariums

one of the aquariums

I recommend visiting the Aquariums last if arriving late to the zoo since the zoo, safari and adventureland all close an hour earlier. That last hour is all that is needed to visit the aquariums. We first went into a Diversity of Life building that had a bunch of fish tanks and an otter enclosure that links to an outside area that wraps around a boat ride, which I thought was cool.

the otters area went from inside to outside wrapping around a boat ride

There were also sea lions, penguins, turtles, touch pool, sharks and even a rare white albino alligator. It wasn’t a busy or crowded day so we were able to get around easily without waiting. Accessibility was pretty good as there were paved pathways everywhere. The aquarium buildings never had automatic doors or a wheelchair button though.

rare white albino alligator

Zoo

lounging

After an hour at the aquariums, we then visited the main zoo side of this massive park. We started with the birds area where we saw flamingos, parrots, and a bunch of other exotic birds. There were also primates like monkeys, baboons and more.

the train ride did have 1 spot for a wheelchair but we never had enough time for it

We saw the African Safari Train ride which is a 5/8 mile long narrated train ride through the plains of Africa, where we see antelope, gazelles, ostriches and more. The train did have 1 spot for a wheelchair as this ride costs $6 per person. We did not have time to do any rides as we were short on time. The other rides like the carousel $3 to zip lining $10 were not wheelchair accessible.

giraffe

We then saw some antelope, tortoise, giraffe, camels and zebras. There was also another reptile house in the zoo area that had alligators and lizards. We saw a few more animals like leopards, llamas, ostriches and deer.

camel

Safari Park & Adventureland

It is now about 5:30pm and had 30 minutes before everywhere closes at 6pm except the aquariums closed at 7pm. We were headed to Safari Park and wanted to quickly see it, but the entrance to the area was exit only for the last half hour. We asked about Adventureland and was told it was exit only for the last half hour too.

Final Thoughts

Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium was massive and even though we had 3.5 hrs total, we saw only about half of what was there. We totally missed Safari Park and Adventureland and should have done the Aquariums area last since it closes 1 hour later than the rest of the park. With great accessibility too, I want to be back to see the entire park.