How much do you love pandas? If your answer is “a whole lot,” then a new, first-of-its-kind immersive experience offered by a San Diego hotel and a wildlife nonprofit might be your pathway to bliss.
The Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina, on West Harbor Drive, has introduced a new panda-themed room and VIP experience, in partnership with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
The room, with two queen beds, shows and evokes pandas in several playful ways.
On the subtle side are the black and white bed linens, bamboo accents and a fluffy panda-colored rug.
Panda-forward accents include the framed portraits of the zoo’s visiting pandas, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, and bedside wallpaper that shows a panda doing what pandas do best: nap, adorably.
The VIP experience brings the hotel’s guests to the San Diego Zoo, with two day es and access to the zoo’s 90-minute Inside Look tour, which includes experiences at two animal habitats and may visit other areas not accessible to the public. (Outside this package, the tour’s price would be $95 to $118 per person, depending on the date, according to the zoo’s website.)
It should be noted that the hotel package does not include access to the pandas beyond what is available to the general public.
The Pandamonium suite also offers its guests a themed souvenir that includes plush toys, stickers, cookies and “keepsakes for all ages.”
The room and package, which includes a two-person zoo ission and tour, starts at $499. The package is being offered through the end of October.
“We are thrilled to have guests enjoy the ultimate family bucket list experience with the Pandamonium Package and immerse themselves in the excitement of San Diego’s own incredible pandas,” Dan Shaughnessy, the director of sales and marketing at Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina, said in a news release.
Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, the giant pandas on loan from China to the San Diego Zoo, have been drawing crowds for months. To see them, the zoo offers three options.
- Giant panda timed tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Zoo visitors can also enter a standby line starting at 9:30 a.m. The standby line is accessible until the pandas leave the habitat for the day or the zoo closes.
- The zoo offers a “special 60-minute paid Early Morning with Pandas Walking Tour, where an expert guide will lead you to exclusive viewings of giant pandas.”
Panda fun fact: “Pandas have the most jaw strength of any bear thanks to all the chewing and manipulating it takes to eat bamboo,” the zoo’s website says.
