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West Midlands Safari Park

Elise said:
I don't really like it ( but it'll grow on me like Drayton's did)
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I think the reason most people didn't like Drayton's at first was because for most people's entire life the park had the same logo and to see something new and different was weird. I wasn't sure about DM's when it first came out but like you, it grew on me.
 
The WMSP one fits with the Drayton one - in line with Loopings vision :) Which is good.

Will Pleasurewood follow I wonder? (I dont follow that park / haven't visited so dont know if they've recently had a logo update - if they haven't, one will come I think)
 
Elise said:
(I dont follow that park / haven't visited so dont know if they've recently had a logo update - if they haven't, one will come I think)
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I remember hearing people say this was Looping's least invested/profitable park, which seems to be the case since I never really see any discussion about it.
 
We visited the safari park today to get some fresh air. It was an eventful day to begin with.

The main road that we usually take was closed the entire way so we ended up taking a thrilling (not so thrilling but scary) drive down very small country lanes to reach our destination.

It was the first time we’ve decided to do a guided tour which was problematic to say the least. Our tour guide was amazing , very knowledgeable, funny and natural with interesting and keeping children engaged. Once we entered the lower Asian lowlands our tour bus ran into a big problem. Turns out the bus has been leaking fuel the entire drive around and so we got to have an emergency evacuation mid Safari. Little man loved getting out during the safari drive through having to hop into a second bus. To add to the faulty towers vibe of the day , they couldn’t close the door to our broken down tour bus and instead the whole door fell off.

We had some amazing animal interactions today with the Safari drive always being an amazing part of our day. The rapids have gone and although that part of the park is under construction we couldn’t help but feel like the amusement part of the park feels run down and dilapidated. I understand that the animals is the main drive but for me I couldn’t help but feel that the adventure park was frozen in time: it definitely looks it age with old fashioned restraints that have to be manually clicked to open at the end (the rhino being the prime example) and of course the infamous apple slide that is never slippy enough to go down.

The sweet store is definitely good value and the lovely shop lady told us she couldn’t believe how bad draytons sweet selection is compared to what they have. Of course everyone will have their own personal opinions of both places. I however couldn’t believe that even with the low temperature of today that the log flume was open and was running all boats.

We paid to do the virtual reality ride which I must say was very good and if you have small kids , a very good investment.

Over all it was a very good day out and we will be heading back when the weather warms up.
 

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I 100% agree re: theme park.
It’s good a new ride is coming (even as a child ride) but more investment is needed.
It could be revamped for a lot less then DM spent upgrading the new area for example.

Thinking of issues off the top of my head:
Caterpillar - cramped. Needs pushing to start

Slide - as above. It’s not … slidey

Ghostrain - small bit of love. Too dark. Too screechy

Rhinocoaster - the breaks. Oh my

Monkey mayhem - throughput. They only release one car at a time whereas other mimics of this ride can run 3.

Venom - reliability issues

Hippos -has to be on its last legs. Grinds, didn’t get any height. Feels so slow.

—-
If they can fix up Venom. Add / fix the breaks on monkey mayhem to allow more cars being released

Combined with Kong, Black Fly and the water splash , they have a solid foundation for a great family offering.
 
It seemed a very weird place now. - No signs yet of this new logo anywhere
You can tell they are prioritising all spend on these overnight lodge experiences as they are just building more and more of them.

The rides all seem in very poor condition with multiple breakdowns throughout the day. We had just boarded Venom when we were told we had to get off for maintenance to reset the ride.

In the arcade a lot of the machines are broken, I was using a grabber and it got stuck, when a staff member came she was like I'll add it to the ever growing list of broken stuff.

There seemed a lot less animals in the drive through as well apart from again where there are the lodges facing them - just seemed to be multiple varieties of deers everywhere.
 
TjChapperz said:
It seemed a very weird place now. - No signs yet of this new logo anywhere
You can tell they are prioritising all spend on these overnight lodge experiences as they are just building more and more of them.

The rides all seem in very poor condition with multiple breakdowns throughout the day. We had just boarded Venom when we were told we had to get off for maintenance to reset the ride.

In the arcade a lot of the machines are broken, I was using a grabber and it got stuck, when a staff member came she was like I'll add it to the ever growing list of broken stuff.

There seemed a lot less animals in the drive through as well apart from again where there are the lodges facing them - just seemed to be multiple varieties of deers everywhere.
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Is it down to the temperatures why some of the animals are missing and they in a backstage area.
The Amusement park really has hardly changed in the past 20 years. I always felt they could remove all the rides and build a Zoo and move most Drayton’s animals there.
 
TjChapperz said:
It seemed a very weird place now. - No signs yet of this new logo anywhere
You can tell they are prioritising all spend on these overnight lodge experiences as they are just building more and more of them.

The rides all seem in very poor condition with multiple breakdowns throughout the day. We had just boarded Venom when we were told we had to get off for maintenance to reset the ride.

In the arcade a lot of the machines are broken, I was using a grabber and it got stuck, when a staff member came she was like I'll add it to the ever growing list of broken stuff.

There seemed a lot less animals in the drive through as well apart from again where there are the lodges facing them - just seemed to be multiple varieties of deers everywhere.
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We did the Safari guided tour and the driver told us many years ago the animals would always be on show but due to regulations on animal well fair , they now leave the doors open so animals can choose weather they want to be away from the public on show if they want to stay indoors where a lot of the animal houses are heated.

I thought it was strange that online they promoted the new logo around various parts of the site but in reality the signage isn’t there. I can only assume that maybe they have t had delivery or all the signs to be able to put these up.

I don’t think the rides are in poor condition as such but they are well maintained however I do think that alot of the rides are way past the operating life span and because the ride line up has pretty much remained the same for the past 30 years with the exception of one or two changes that the amusement park feels stagnant.

I can’t comment on the arcade as we went two weeks ago and everything was working fine and nothing was broken then. The attendant was amazing and challenged my lad to a game of rock paper scissors and the winner could increase the prize tickets amount.

I do disagree that they are spending all money on prioritising the lodges and yes these are extremely popular although very expensive. I can see investment in other areas of the park. We visited the playground by the river and they had created a new fire place with large wooden logs to sit on which wasn’t there when we last visited. Whilst some things are very old and so do need replacing the main focus is the animal experience side of it . Whilst I think they should take pride in every area including the rides I do understand the reasoning.

I think they need someone similar to Victoria to overhaul the whole experience for safari. It may also be a case of waiting for contractor dates to commence as a lot of places will clear land and leave it untouched until they are able to book contractors to come in.

I agree with all areas of your comment though. It sounds like you visited on a poor operations day. Hopefully your able to visit on a day where everything is working.
 
I think so, the last few times we went on the rapids you got a soaking more from the leaks than the ride itself.

I think this new ride will be better for the park, it’s got on ride photos and you exit through a small shop, so clearly they are hoping it pulls in a crowd.

It’s not just sit and go like the one at Chessington, you have a pedal and can steer slightly around the track. It’s a decent size layout and has a few effects.
 
Wilko said:
I think so, the last few times we went on the rapids you got a soaking more from the leaks than the ride itself.
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A few years ago I thought the leaks were a part of the ride... recently I found out that they were in fact not and just from where it had aged.
 
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