A child birthday party in Planckendael


Quite last minute as always we brainstormed for a birthday party.  Just before Kabouter's birthday, where we were both not present, we wondered what to do and he mumbled himself that we could maybe go to the zoo with some friends.  Good idea since we have subscriptions.   But Jan was googling quickly and found that they arrange birthday parties too and he quickly filled in the form for the wrong date. 

The latter I realised after I had invited 10 friends (that's the minimum you need to have a birthday party at Planckendael...so it comes with a minimum cost) and we got the confirmation and the planning for an impossible date. Whaaa, panick. 
"I'm sure they don't have a dozen parties each day, so they'll be glad to change the date again", according to Jan and he was right. A simple mail was followed quickly by a new confirmation on the right date. Pheww.   They nicely had adapted Kabouter's favourite animal to the one written in our comment that was not available in the dropdown: the Red Panda.  Nice. 

We were quite excited to join ourselves and since we were allowed to have 4 adults joining the group, we quickly arranged that another parent who'd drive as well joined with the little sister as well.  No issue to add some people. 

The day before I was really pleasantly surprised by their customer service when a Red Panda card, handwritten with congratulations. 


On the day itself I announced ourselves at the entrance "we booked a birthday party".  "Ah yes, for Kabouter".   Hmm nope, they clearly don't manage too many parties on one day :). We managed to calculate the price with those that had subscriptions and those without,   all badged in and got a handcart with crown where we dumped all bags and presents.  

We guided the group a little through Asia ourselves and visited the Urang Utangs and got in the rope circuit while I kept counting children with the help of the other mom.  It's a little stressfull to have 11 overexcited children running around.   I ran into Kris10 and Felix but hardly had the time to say hello. Hi Kris10, it was nice to meet you though ;).  







Then we were expected in the restaurant where a throne was set for Kabouter and we had a long table set for a pancake lunch. 


And then we had a date with our guide who'd take us on a tour.  For some reason I was convinced he'd take. us on a tour behind the scenes too but that wasn't the case.  The latter irritated me a little.  I reread the info on birthday parties and it was never stated like that so I don't know why it was in my mind like that. I was wrong. 
But the guide was super child-friendly and energetic and really got the group along. That's what's most important and the children had fun.  




Of course we were taken to the Red Panda as well "who had given the guide a birthday present to give to Kabouter".  Cute. And especially for Kabouter's birthday they were wide awake and trippling back and forth. 




After a long guided tour where we learned lots of details on the animals in Asia. At the end of the afternoon we were tired and happy.  






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