Went during the Asian lantern festival. Amazing set ups and perfectly done. The zoo is great, saw many animals and birds. Water splash area has lots of comfortable chairs to sit in.

The zoo needs major updating to accommodate the animals in a better setting. They allow smoking just outside the actual zoo and to non smokers very nasty, unfortunately there were some obnoxious people that were tapping on glass or enclosures and disturbing the animals. Overall an average experience and sad for the animals

The Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens is a nice place to visit for kids of all ages. The zoo is in a lovely park-like setting with the gardens all around. It is not large but nice to visit for two or three hours depending on how long one stops to observe different animals. Unfortunately, several of the animals were not in their habitats on the day we visited. Nevertheless, we liked what we did see, and especially enjoyed watching the Spider Monkeys interact with one another. The zoo also has a fun water splash area for children with changing rooms.

My wife and I visited this zoo while vacationing in the area recently. There is ample, free, off-street parking, and the entrance fee is reasonable with some discounts available. They also have play areas for kids. Unfortunately, that is where the positives stopped for us. The whole place was under construction during our visit with many of the paths blocked so we couldn't figure out how to traverse portions of the property to see some of the exhibits, even with their maps. While they did have some signage, it could have been much better, especially considering the extensive construction work that was underway. Some of the exhibit areas were also of insufficient size for the animals they held. Finally, they claim to be a 'botanical garden' however, most of the plants aren't marked and there aren't informational markers anywhere that tell you about what is planted on the property. Overall, we were disappointed and we won't be in a rush to visit again in future.