Birthday Parties at Edinburgh Zoo Ts&Cs

      GENERAL

• Participants are subject to the standard terms and conditions of entry to Edinburgh Zoo available online here: https://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/plan-your-visit/day-planner/edinburgh-zoo-entry-terms-and-conditions 
• Each party will be allocated a specific date and time. These slots follow strict timings, and any lateness will result in lost time from your party. Please advise your guests to arrive promptly at the allocated time as we are unable to add extra time to the end of your party slot. We recommend you meet your guests at an earlier time and arrive at the venue together prior to the start time. 
• The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) reserves the right to cancel your birthday party if you do not arrive for the party, or arrive at the meeting point more than 10 minutes after your allocated time. 
• RZSS also reserves the right to approve any third party engaged by you in connection with the birthday party booking. No third parties can be engaged without prior written consent from an RZSS representative. You shall ensure that any third party contracted by you, complies with the terms set out in these conditions and all health and safety legislation regulations and procedures in force.  
• RZSS is not liable for a third party's failure to provide, or negligence in providing, any goods or services to you and you shall indemnify us and keep us indemnified from and against any costs incurred by us because of any cancellation of any third-party services contracted by you. 
• You are liable for any damage to the building or property arising from your actions or the actions of members of your group.  
• All equipment brought onto the premises by your party is at your own risk, and any loss or damage to such property will be your responsibility.  
• We reserve the right, in our absolute discretion, to refuse admission to our premises or remove from the premises any person who has behaved or is behaving in a manner which, in our opinion has affected, or is likely to affect, the enjoyment of the premises by any other third party. 

      BOOKING

• All enquiries are to be directed to the Events & Experiences team at events@rzss.org.uk. 
• Whilst every effort will be made to accommodate participants on their preferred date, we cannot guarantee the first choice of date will be available. Do not make any travel arrangements prior to confirming your birthday party booking. RZSS will not be responsible for any changes to travel, accommodation or any other costs incurred if dates are unavailable. 
• Bookings should be made a minimum of four weeks in advance of your chosen date with a £90.00 deposit required to confirm the booking. The remaining balance must be paid 14 days before the date of the party, after which point the total payment becomes non-refundable. You will be contacted on all occasions via email on how to make payment. 
• A party booking shall not be confirmed until a booking deposit (£90.00) has been received by us and we send you a booking confirmation receipt. A booking deposit shall be payable via debit or credit card at the time of booking. 
• The person making the booking accepts the following conditions on behalf of the group, family and all-party members, and will be our sole point of contact for correspondence.  
• The final number of attendees must be confirmed no later than 14 days before the party date. Any cancellations made within 14 days of the party date will be charged for in-full together with any no-shows. We will try, but cannot guarantee, to accommodate any additional attendees where requests were made during the 72-hour period before the party date. You will be contacted for payment (via credit or debit card) for any additional attendees when we confirm our acceptance of such attendees to you. 
• At least 14 days prior to the party date, you must confirm food and beverage requirements (including special dietary requirements), any special requests (such as medical requirements) and any additional extras from the list outlined on our website. 
• For adequate supervision, we always require a minimum ratio of one adult to four children.  
• Children must be supervised by an adult at all times - including before, during and after the party. 
• A minimum booking of 10 children is required, and there is a maximum of 24 children. Parties for less than 10 children will be charged for the minimum booking rate. 
• Cheeky Monkey packages are only suitable for child guests aged 3 and over, Paw-Some packages for those aged 5 and over.
• Please note – our Discovery and Learning team have a very busy schedule of other commitments throughout the day and must keep to a strict timetable. For this reason, the Close Encounters session and tour must begin at the time agreed at booking or they may be dropped from your schedule on the day. Spaces on these sessions are limited to the specified numbers to ensure that all participants gain maximum benefit from the experience. 

      PAYMENT

• A deposit of £90.00 is required when booking which will be deducted from your remaining balance.  
• The remainder of the total party package fee (including any add-ons) will be payable 14 days prior to the party date unless other terms have been agreed in writing with us (such terms may include a further deposit). We reserve the right to cancel your booking if we do not receive the balance on this date. 
• All payments are to be made online by credit or debit card via our online payment partner, Shopify. Please note, we unfortunately cannot accept AMEX.  

      DISCOUNT

• RZSS membership must be disclosed in the initial booking enquiry to obtain the 10% party package discount. This discount cannot be applied after the initial deposit has been taken. 
• The booking adult must be an RZSS member in order the obtain the 10% party package discount. 
• Keeper Experience vouchers must be purchased within the party package booking to obtain the 15% discount. This discount cannot be honoured on a later Keeper Experience voucher purchase. 
• The 15% Keeper Experience voucher discount will be deducted after any previous discounts have been applied to the party package booking invoice. Keeper Experience vouchers are not eligible for multiple discounts. 

      ANIMALS

• Please note that we cannot guarantee any specific animal for a specific day due to animal welfare. However, we can include notes to our Discovery and Learning team if there is a specific animal within our Close Encounters family you would like to be part of the Show and Tell experience. The keepers will do their best to accommodate on the day. 
• RZSS reserves the right to alter the experience on any given day due to animal welfare, health issues or change in the zoo’s collection, but will ensure the activity will be replaced with another similar activity. 
• The animals participating in the Close Encounters ‘Show and Tell’ will be chosen by staff at Edinburgh Zoo. Animals will be selected for your party based on animal health and safety. 
• An animal encounter is a 40–45-minute private educational experience with a party ranger. Encounters are led by the zoo’s Discovery and Learning team. This experience takes place during the party in the zoo’s Wee Beasties building. 
• Please note – our Discovery and Learning team have other commitments throughout the day and must keep to a strict timetable. For this reason, the Close Encounters sessions and tour must begin at the time agreed at booking or they may be dropped from your schedule on the day. Spaces on these sessions are limited to the specified numbers to ensure that all participants gain maximum benefit from the experience. 

      DECOR & FOOD

• Our in-house caterer will handle all your food and beverage needs along with all the party planning, set-up, and clean-up. Outside food, except for a birthday cake or dessert, is not allowed. 
• Smash cakes are not permitted. We define a smash cake as any cupcake or cake serving over 3” in height and/or diameter given to the child with the express purpose of encouraging them to make a mess for photographs. 
• Ice cream cakes are not permitted due to no refrigeration available in our Discovery and Learning building. 
• We cannot allow any external caterers into the venue.  
• No wines, spirits, other drinks, or food can be brought onto the premises. Only persons authorised by us are permitted to sell or offer for sale any items or services on the premises. 
• Balloons, confetti canons, pinatas, sparkler candles and loud noise-making decorations are not permitted in any part of the zoo. 
• No signs, displays, posters or other material may be fixed to the walls, floor or ceilings of the room hired or otherwise displayed at Edinburgh Zoo without our prior written agreement. 

      CANCELLATION POLICY

• If you wish to cancel, you have up to 14 days before the party to receive a refund on your deposit or to reschedule your party. If you're within 14 days of your party, no refund will be given, and we cannot reschedule. Any changes or additions to the party must be made at least 14 days before the reservation date. 
• We cannot guarantee, should you wish to change the date of your party, that your second choice of date specified in the original enquiry will still be available.

      RZSS CANCELLATION

• We will use our best efforts to make sure the party venue and premises are available to you on the agreed date.
• We will not be liable if the party booking is cancelled for the following reasons:
  • We believe the party booking is somehow of an illegal nature or immoral or would be harmful or prejudice to the reputation of RZSS, Edinburgh Zoo or Highland Wildlife Park.
  • You are seven days or more in arrears with any due payments for the services or facilities which we agree to provide to you in relation to the party booking.
  • We become aware of any changes in your financial situation which we reasonably believe may lead to you being unable to your financial obligations in relation to the party booking. 
  • If we need to amend the party booking in any way, we will offer alternative facilities of a reasonable fit, status and comfort to the original party booking. If the alternative arrangement is not deemed fit by you, you will have the right to cancel the party booking.
  • We reserve the right to close off any part of the facilities, party venue of the premises for technical, operational or health and safety issues. We will not be liable to you should any foreclosure occur.

      WEATHER 

• All tours are held rain or shine, and the rest of the birthday party will be held indoors. Edinburgh Zoo is open year-round under all-weather conditions, except in extreme circumstances. In the event that Edinburgh Zoo has to close due to extreme weather, a member of the Events & Experiences team will be in touch with the party lead with as much notice as possible. 

      PRIVACY

• In order for RZSS to deliver and provide the contract we have with you (being the contract for sale of products or services), we need to collect and process certain data about you - for example, your name, address, bank account details (to enable payment) and, in some cases, health data so that we can ensure you are comfortable and safe during the experience you have contracted from us. We will only ever process this data in compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018, and the GDPR. You can see more details of the data we collect in Section 6 of our Privacy Policy which you can view at rzss.org.uk/privacy.