My husband and I have done this twice in the past few months: we took my parents for Mothers Day and my daughter and her friend for her birthday. We think this is an amazing experience.
As a bit of background, we picked the Elephant Keeper experience for my mother initially, because the Tiger/Orangutan experience wasn't available. Oddly enough, we ended up liking this one much more, which is why we took our daughter, as well. The keeper who (primarily) gave us the "tour" recognized us the second time. I'm not sure if that is the reason, but our two visits were very different. She, by the way, is awesome.
Right now Busch Gardens has a herd of five female elephants. Four of them are in their 40s and Karnaudi is in her 20s. Karnaudi is Carina's daughter.
For both tours we started in the elephants barn. The keeper told us that the concrete is hard on the elephant's feet, so they spend most of their time outside in the habitat. The first time, we got to watch the elephants come inside, the second we walked out to the habitat, to watch the keepers coax them in.
The keeper explained the relatively new approach BGT is taking to training their elephants. Fairly recently (within the last 10 years) they switched over to 100% positive reinforcement. They no longer try to establish themselves as the dominant members of the herd. Now humans only interact with the elephants to provide food, games, and medical care. (As the daughter of a behaviorist, I ask, "what took so long?")
Inside the barn, we got to interact with the elephants through the cages and from a safe distance. Both times we fed them. The first visit our elephant (I wish I could remember which one) didn't feel like eating yams, and kept throwing them on the floor. It was hilarious. The second time we also played with Karnaudi, using a large roll of paper towels. Then we got our own private water "ride;" one of the elephants sprayed us with water. We got completely soaked.
Next they gave us keys (for safety reasons) and took us out into the exhibit, while the elephants spent some time indoors with water hoses.
Both times we got to set the habitat up to stimulate and entertain the elephants. They had tons of vegetables and fruit, which we stuffed into giant elephant toys (like Kongs), tires, trees, bushes, etc. The goal was to hide the food, so that the elephants would have to find it and figure out how to get to it. The second trip, we also sprinkled Skittles along the rocks in the front of the exhibit for them to find and eat.
Finally, we moved to the area between the exhibit and the normal path outside the habitat and watched the elephants come outside and play with/destroy the toys we had arranged for them.
The keepers were really knowledgeable and clearly loved the elephants. The elephants, themselves, seem to enjoy interacting with us.
My father who hates zoos (he doesn't like to see the animals in cages) loved the experience. He actually complained that BGW doesn't have elephants.
My daughter and her friend didn't really care one way or another about elephants before the experience. Now they are completely obsessed.
Overall, I highly recommend doing this, if you can. We got the Platinum discount, which made the cost slightly more bearable. In addition, it is a flat rate for up to six people, and it is a private tour. So, for us at least, it was easily worth the price.
Pictures below.
