Another tale of the internet turning out to be quite a useful tool, although in this case, the person on the other end of the email did not need to be berated to receive something more than expected. In fact, it came as a rather large surprise to us. We are members of the Friends Of The Zoo (FOTZ) at Melbourne Zoo. Basically, for a total cost of $80 per year (total for both of us), we can go to a number of zoos around the country either absolutely free or at 50% off as many times as we want for a year. Since our flat is so close to the zoo, it’s possible to go for a morning stroll around the park, and through the zoo. Not that many people can claim to be getting fit, enjoying a nice walk past crocodiles, hippos, giraffes, kangaroos and elephants if they want.
Since we will be getting about all over the USA, it seemed wise to check to see if there was a similar scheme, since it would save us a lot of money in the long run. Melbourne Zoo, for example, would cost us $26 to go for the day. For only $80, we can go every day of the year, plus get into other zoos like Taronga in Sydney, as we did earlier in the year. Taronga Zoo would have cost us $21 each to get in, so we were much better off having the FOTZ pass.
It turns out that there are various reciprocal programs in the US zoo system, with one pass being the Friends Of National Zoo (FONZ) which costs $42USD to buy, and provides entry to about 100 zoos across the US and Canada. When you consider that it would cost us $34USD to get into San Fransisco Zoo for one day, it makes far more sense to get the FONZ card. While doing my searching though, I turned up the San Fransisco Zoo website first, and emailed them for further information regarding the list of zoos offering reciprocal entry, as to how many were free entry and how many were discount entry.
A very helpful person there responded and explained the answer we were looking for clearly, and then, as a bonus, offered us two free tickets to get into the San Fransisco Zoo. No particular reason that we could discern, and I imagine it is not an offer made to everyone who writes an email to them (so don’t get all excited if you’re reading this and thinking you’ve just found a guaranteed free entry pass), but definitely very appreciated.
The zoo tickets were popped into the mail, and sent on to a friend’s house, and are already waiting for us to pick them up when we go to Idaho. So there you go – yesterday’s tale involved grr’ing at someone, and getting more than we expected. Today’s tale involved asking politely about a topic, and getting more than we expected.
Life is good.
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