Butterfly Wonderland Scottsdale,AZ Review

****This was not a paid post and my honest opinion was used. The opinions are solely my own and may vary from others. I received a ticket to the Butterfly Wonderland free of charge in exchange for the review***



This year has been quite busy for my family & I, it seems like we are our running errands, house hunting, looking for a new car, you name it were doing it. Although we have been keeping busy we like to put time aside to do things as a family such as game nights, going out to eat or going to a local event. I was recently allowed a ticket to visit the Butterfly Wonderland center which recently opened here in Scottsdale,Arizona I decided to make a small family day out of it so my mother, her boyfriend, my two children and myself went out for lunch then went to the Butterfly Wonderland.



The first thing I notice when we pulled up was that I thought the parking lot would be bigger, We went on a Sunday and it was quite busy I noticed a few cars parking along the dirt areas looking for a spot. Once we got up to the window everything moved along at a pretty fast past, I received my ticket at Will Call and we purchased tickets for the rest of the family as well. After entering the building you are lead to an area for a 3D movie featuring the migration of butterflies, Depending on when you get there you will have to wait 5-15 minutes to get into the viewing we had about a five minute wait. The 3D movie was great and educational, next you were brought into the Butterfly Emergence gallery where they have dozens of cocoons on display waiting to be hatched, if your lucky enough you will get to see a butterfly emerge from its cocoon or you will get to see them drying their wings. I found this room fascinating there were some vibrant gold and metallic silver cocoons I never knew existed I thought all butterfly cocoons looked the same.



Next was onto the Butterfly Atrium, A group of 10-20 people are brought into a small room which has two doors dividing the emergence gallery from the Atrium this is to prevent the butterflies from getting out many are not from this area or even from the US and a employee goes over the rules such as Do not touch the butterflies. As soon as you step food into the atrium you will see butterflies flying right past you at eye level, butterflies on plants and lots of fun plant life, though the wonderland was quite busy there was plenty of room to walk around to enjoy the atrium. My mother was a little disappointed it wasn't bigger but I beleive if there were slightly less visitors it would have seemed much bigger. The butterflies are fearless and used to visitors, I had my camera just an inch away from a few butterflies and they simply sat where they were unafraid of harm, this made for some wonderful photo opportunies. While exiting from the Atrium an employee has you check in a large mirror for any hitchhikers that may be attached to your clothing,hair or bags we were good to go and shown into the next area after spending about an hour or so in the Atrium. The area directly after the Atrium is a small cafe, it smelled wonderful but since we had just been to Olive Garden before arriving we were quite full so we didn't buy anything this trip.



Passing through the cafe you wander into a small room which contains some containers with scorpions, ants and Bees. We loved the Bee hive, you were able to look for and point out the Queen bee as well as watch them come in from outside via a plastic tube leading out side. It was fun to watch the ants come back with little sacks of different colored pollen on their back legs ready to deposit it at the hive. Think the tour is over now? You would be mistaken there are still two more areas to visit and enjoy the first being a few large Aquariums hosting a number of exotic fish, and a string ray petting bay where you are able to not only see but touch some small spotted string rays which are quite friendly and fun to watch my kids loved this area. Finally you walk through the gift shop on your way out where they offer clothing,toys,snacks and more all at affordable prices. We enjoyed our experience and agreed we would all visit again, The tickets are Adults: $18.95 + tax, Children (ages 3 to 11): $9.95 + tax, military (with ID) and seniors (62+): $16.95 + tax and Children 2 and under are FREE seem a bit pricey but for everything you get to see the tickets are 100% worth the price. They also offer Birthday Party packages!