Attraction Review: Crown Ridge Tiger Santuary
- Ste. Genevieve
- Missouri
- Grade
- B-
Not far from the big city, and close to the shops and sights of historic Ste. Genevieve.
The freshly-opened Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary is a beautiful place to see some beautiful cats. Five tigers (Mohan, Raja, Thor, Gracie, and newcomer Izzy) and one lion (Alexis) are rescue animals that have found a new home where they have toys, swimming pools (for those who like to take a dip), a proper diet, veterinary care, and dedicated keepers. The location offers a stunning view of the rolling hills of southeastern Missouri, so that everywhere you look, there’s something pleasant to see. Everything looks clean and the staff are very professional. When it comes to the animals, this place is a winner. Last June, fifteen of our No Kidding! members took a tour and enjoyed it immensely.
When it came to the food at the onsite restaurant, though, the reviews were mixed. The ambiance is rather high class, as are the prices, but our waitress was easily distracted and I didn’t like my lunch at all. Others weren’t too happy with theirs, either. But some did enjoy their lunches, so the restaurant wasn’t a complete disaster.
The sanctuary is run by the same folk who own the Crown Ridge Winery, and our group decided to tour both. The tour of the winery was interesting, and also unintentionally funny. Our guide had been happily delivering her speech about the winemaking process, fermentation, the bottling machines, and so on, when she interrupted herself to tell us that the winemaster and his wife were expecting their first child.
Oops!
I’m sure our guide usually got a rousing chorus of “oh, how wonderful!” comments from other groups, but she caught our group rather flat-footed. Fifteen people started at her blankly, caught by the rather sudden change in topic from something interesting to, well, something not. Finally, after a few moments of awkward silence, one of our group asked, “Do they have any pets?” That got everyone laughing and the tour continued.
A few weeks later, we got a notice that the sanctuary was holding a birthday party for two of the tigers, and some of us decided to make a return visit. Although the advertisement said “family friendly,” we were unprepared for just how kid-friendly the birthday party turned out to be.
Despite the fact that most attendees were adults, that all of the paying customers were adults, and (of course) the major donors to the sanctuary are adults, none of the free t-shirts being distributed were in an adult size. Nor did the gift shop have any (they didn’t have adult sizes on our last visit, either). Except for perhaps the cheese tray, everything else was aimed at children — stuffed animals, Twister, a pinata, and The Lion King playing on the lounge TV.
Oh well. We decided our attendance cost was a donation to the tigers, even if we didn’t get t-shirts.
We felt inclined to give the sanctuary a break since they haven’t been open long, but I do hope they get more organized in the future. Surely, they should be able to see the sense in stocking adult size t-shirts, for instance! How much money did they lose on t-shirt sales to our fifteen No Kidding! members? And a sanctuary that’s owned by folks who run a winery ought to be able to manage some tasteful adult entertainment or goodies for their special celebrations. That doesn’t seem like a stretch.
As kid-friendly as the party was, at least the animals were still a great sight.
Normal tours of the tiger sanctuary run $10. Special events may run more – the birthday party was $20. You can find more information at the Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary website.
The sanctuary also offers their visitors a chance to stay all night. Several buildings look over both the valley view and the tiger enclosures, and each has several B&B-style rooms. We haven’t sampled their hospitality yet, but hope to in the future.
Note: Just a few miles away from the Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary is the National Tiger Sanctuary. We haven’t visited that one yet, but I’m sure we’ll get to it someday. Maybe they stock adult sizes in t-shirts!
Copyright . Published 1 October 2007 in What’s New.
Reader comments
Commenting is closed for this article.