West Midland Safari and Leisure Park Reviews 157

We’ve been a few times and it has always been a lovely day out- but now, less animals to see and it was utterly disappointing. The drive-in safari had noticeable scarce animals, the vibe of the entire park was just sad and the staff were not enthusiastic at all. We’ve always looked forward to visiting, but after today, we won’t be coming back. We miss the times of being able to drive to the safari anytime and return anytime for a second change to see animals. The lions have significantly dwindled down, even the camels. They used to be plenty! It was just a sad experience altogether. And the new rule of changed safari entry times to 1230 is quite unreasonable. 🥲

I'd give them zero if I could!! This is just a concise version of a few weeks of complaining. I booked a lion lodge on the first night they opened last July for my fathers birthday and had a fantastic time, except for the food in the lodges and the length of time it takes to get round the safari drive, but still left a fantastic review. How misguided was I! This place is fine as long as nothing goes wrong. We have been coming to the safari park since it opened, at least 2 or 3 times a year but that has all been brought to a severe halt. I'd even left a lot of money in my will for them and have now removed the donation, that's how annoyed I am. I booked a lion lodge again last Xmas for this July as a treat for Dad's birthday. As soon as I booked it I emailed the park to request the same lodge as last year and got an abrupt reply saying that we couldn't request a lodge as they are automatically allocated by a computer on the day of arrival. I tried to call to speak to someone about it but that's impossible. Everything is done by email so they can hide behind a screen. The emails were pinging back and forward. I asked if I could speak to someone to complain, no you can't. I asked if they could pass my request onto a manager and got a reply from the same person saying nothing could be done. So, in my head, I'm already not looking forward to our visit in July. Fast forward to 9 weeks and 5 days before our arrival and I have to cancel our trip due to my Dad needing 24hr care. Guess what!! I was 2 days short of the 10 weeks cancellation notice and have only been given 50% refund instead of 90%. The night cost £830 and instead of receiving £747 they refunded £415 which means I have lost £332. Yet again, emails backwards and forwards but all they say is "you signed the T&C's when you made the booking so tough etc etc". I understand that if the lodge isn't re-sold they would be out of pocket but less than a week later I received a generic sales email about the lodges and checked our date and found they have already re-sold the lodge. So, yet another email was sent to them asking for the balance to be repaid to me as they have now made at least £1162 for the night and a week later have received a reply saying "Thank you for getting back in touch. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer any further refunds on this occasion. The T&C's for our refund policy is clear. We can see that your 50% refund was actioned as agreed and accepted and we now consider this matter closed. We apologise for any disappointment caused". I didn't agree and accept the 50% refund, it certainly wasn't for the want of trying to get 90%. This place is farcical. There is zero customer care. There's nowhere to complain to which is disgusting in this day and age. If you want to stay at anywhere with animals, I can highly recommend the Big Cat Sanctuary in Kent. You get SO much more for your money, and they employ absolutely fantastic people.

We booked to stay in one of the lodges 2 days ago. This was a special celebration for our 3 year old daughter to enjoy. However unexpectedly, my husband who works in the military was contacted and told he would be deployed overseas by the date of our visit. I phoned safari lodges and asked if we could move our date to one when my husband would be in the country, they said they would accommodate this but would charge £100 admin fee. I asked if we could have a refund and they said it was an outright no. We were told that we needed to give 6 weeks notice for a refund, we only booked 2 weeks in advance so it's impossible to give them 6 weeks notice. I find it totally deplorable that they can treat serving personal who are going away to defend our country in such a way. The member of staff I spoke to was extremely unhelpful and rude. A £100 admin fee is ludicrous for changing a calander date. This organising seems utterly disrespectful and money grabbing. Would not recommend

Visited at least once a year for many years as always been a lovely day out. Went this week. And how it has changed. The theme park and walk through was good. However the safari....terrible. not only spent the 2hoyrs in traffic even though you now have to book a time slot. But can no longer feed most of the animals. Previously could feel giraffes zebras and camels. This is no longer allowed. We purchased 3 boxes of food but used 2 handfuls on the deers. That only animal can feed. Also zebras and giraffes were shut away so didn't even come near the vehicles. So disappointed and will never return again. It's an expensive day out for not seeing the animals.

Having visited many times over the years with our children and now grandchildren it was the first time we booked a time slot with the new booking system. I know today was the bank holiday weekend but by booking a time slot I thought it would stop everyone turning up at the same time, how wrong was I, an hour and a half in we hadnt even gone half way round and had to divert back to the exit as the grandchildren needed the toilet, total carnage never again!!!!!

I visited with my 4 children aged between 6-12. I couldn't pre book due to wanting to use my club card vouchers to pay which I was slightly concerned about but when I arrived a few minutes before 10am I headed straight for the ticket office and had no more than a 5 minute wait to get our tickets. The man on the counter was very polite and helpful, he booked us in for the next drive through slot available which was between 10:30 & 11am which was perfect as just enough time to pop to the toilets which are situated in the car park and are really well maintained. You can buy animal food and feed some of the animals which my children loved. All the animals seem to be well cared for and The lemurs have an amazing enclosure. The ride wrist bands were £12 each which I think was a very reasonable price for the amount of rides available. We didn't have to cue for anymore than a couple of minutes to get on to any rides either. The shops were expensive but no more so than any other tourist attraction. We would definitely visit again and would recommend to others.

I was visiting from Cornwall with my elderly grandad and experienced extreme rudeness from a woman in the car park directing traffic. I did not get her name but she had blonde hair and was wearing gold chains, stood near the ticket office entrance. The theme park at the safari had been reccomended to us and we were unsure whether this is seperate to the safari. I couldn't reach anybody on the phone so we decided to visit to ask. On arrival, we stopped next to an employee who's name I did not get but she was directing traffic in the car park. She had blonde hair and was wearing lots of gold Jewelery around her neck. My elderly grandad proceeded to ask her the question about the theme park and she told us 'if you want a theme park you go to Alton towers' and told us to leave. She would not allow my grandad to finish asking his question about where we could buy tickets for the safari, she was talking over him telling him he needed to drive away and pointing to the exit if he only wanted to go to the theme park. There was no traffic behind us and we were just making a quick and polite enquiry. I can honestly say that I have never witnessed customer service as poor as that before, let alone towards an elderly man trying to arrange a fun day out for his great grandson. The woman was arrogant, rude and condescending. I would never visit West Midlands safari and would encourage anybody considering it to think again!

Disappointing visit. Refuse to acknowledge the need for carers because i’ve not got a nimbus card (which people can buy) and more formal proof could be offered. Ended up paying 3 adults & get 1 free despite current offer is buy one get one free so i’m feeling robbed 2 different ways.
It was busy and whilst i know you can’t guarantee seeing animals i didn’t expect to get close to some them the rangers come driving up a what felt like speed to get them move. On entry there was a sign saying don’t feed the giraffes but when we got to zebra ranger started shouting don’t feed the zebras.
Went to the viewing point to see the Tigers, not long after the tiger came out another park keep came up saying the area closed at 4pm (not signposted)
All in all it feels like the keepers/rangers have managed to ruin a day and before anyone says nobody or animal were at risk needing their intervention.
Expensive disappointment.

Wonder if they care enough to respond to the feedback!

I have called for over an hour, emailed and also used their contact forms to make a booking change for their Festive Ice Rink but nobody has responded to me.

They seem happy to take your money, but then show very little/no customer care.

Booked online on the 26th for the 27th, money was taken from my account but no tickets receivedspent the entire morning calling them but no one would answer sent them an email but they replied saying no tickets found. But money had been taken from my bank. Travelled all the way from London with my children who were left disappointed. Others have had similar issues if u check trip adviser etc. Avoid at all cost staff r very in professional and unhelpful. I have had to contact my bank to get a refund

I’m writing this as we are sitting in a car in a line of traffic and I clearly have too much time on my hands to do this. Do not visit here unless you want to be stuck in traffic with young children. Both my kids have got so fed up of looking at green grass and the lack of animals unless it’s a deer of some sort! This was a birthday treat for my 2 year old and we’ve wasted his day completely. The staff are rude we finally seen a lion in the distance after waiting an hour and as I stopped to show my son the staff in the jeep shouted at me to keep moving!! This place is a money pit they have no consideration for paying customers and they are all about the money. We booked a paw patrol meet and greet but because we got stuck in the chaos we missed that too!! Absolutely ruined my sons birthday and left him bored and my elder soon upset that he didn’t see many animals. Close this place down and put the very few animals they have in a nicer place where they will be looked after. We’ve been coming here for many years and I can honestly say this will be the last time I will spend my hard earned money in a dump like this. Staff need to get some training. Thanks for completely spoiling out valuable time

Extremely Dissapointed, went on the website to see what time the park shut (4) so we arrive for 1 expecting a nice day at the safari park to be told that the safari now shuts at 12:30!!! So it’s open for 2 hours on a weekday. We had traveled an hour and a half to get here. On a weekend it shuts at 2:30 which I also this is bad! You’re paying for a ticket so you should have the oppurtunity all day as I know a lot of people like to go round once, walk round and then go back round again. If this wasn’t bad enough, we paid for a ticket £22 each as we had made the effort to come, we take a walk through the bit you can walk round and get to the African village at 2:45 as we were looking round everytning, we think ‘oh we will grab a drink, have a rest then spend the last hour walking round the African village’, there was no signs up or nothing. So we get a drink and arrive back at 3:04 to find a sign saying it’s shut and it shuts at 3!!!! Why say that park is open until 4 if everything shuts before then! We barely got to see any animals at all. There wasn’t enough staff to run all the rides either so we had to wait whilst the staff ran around between rides. I felt sorry for them as they were absolutely lovely! I’d give this zero stars if it wasn’t for the staff. I have been here many times and always loved the safari park but will sadly not go back, would recommend everyone to go to Knowsley safari park instead if you can, so much better, can go round all day. Sadly West Midlands safari park seem to just be money grabbing now with no care to customers. I would avoid. We won’t be coming back. £88 spent just on entrance and we got to see pretty much nothing, not to mention the drinks and gift shops are ridiculous prices!! Also you pay for the rides and most of them are shut! AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Tried to book my "free" return visit, to find out that I cannot use my free carer ticket for my husband without proving to some unknown company called "Nimbus" that I am disabled! Firstly I showed proof of my benefit allowance to WMSP in May, so why should I have to this again? Secondly I am not giving all my personal details to an unknown company, so that they can decide if they think I am sufficiently disabled enough to qualify for a free carer ticket! It's humiliating enough to have a need a carer as an adult, and isn't something I'd make-up to save a few quid! Utterly, utterly disgusted with their money- grabbing tactics.
After visiting since the 1980s we will never go back.
I also believe this is illegal, and breach of contract - changing the terms of an offer after payment has been made.
Firstly they introduced a "timed" drive round (when often sick and disabled people cannot make an exact time, depending on how they feel on any given day) and then they instituted only 1 drive round per ticket, and as I can't walk round all the other areas, the drive was the only bit I enjoyed, and we usually went round twice.
Now they won't let me take my husband as a carer, without proving to some unknown organization that I need him with me.
"Ableist" doesn't begin to cover their disgusting attitude.

I emailed 3 times and eventually got a phone call I had asked to buy a sloth but they didn’t have any the on line shop this was for a birthday surprise I purchased it over the phone on Saturday 2/09/2023 needed it for the Friday 8/09/2023 today is the 12/09/2023 still not received it cost nearly £45 with postage I have emailed asking for tracking no response. Can’t get anyone to answer the phone Never again

After many years of regular attendance this will be our last. The new system is ridiculous. You can’t enter the safari park after 12.30 so this means that all visitors for the day are going round in the first two and a half hours. Then they all park up and go on the rides for the afternoon. Before if you went with autistic children you could go on the rides first while it was still quiet then as it got busy, leave that area and do the drive through while there was less traffic. They used to even recommend you did the safari later for a better experience. We didn’t get to do the safari at all as by the time we had looked around the small animals and gone on a few rides the safari was shut! I really cannot understand this change but it’s definitely not for the benefit of customers

They are not inclusive!!!! Nor helpful!! If your child has a disability think again about going to wmsp! My son has a disability and has a wmsp showing his disability and that he needs two carers. The only place we can take him to in wmsp is the safari. We got to the entrance and a lad told us we need to turn around and get the tickets from the booth at the entrance to park. (We have not done this before) I explained that this will cause huge anxieties but lad said, don’t care it’s the rules! We turned around and yes it did cause huge anxieties which caused harm to my PAs … thanks for that!!!!! We returned to the entrance of the safari whilst my son was in complete state of mind to where the staff didn’t even bloody look at the dam tickets!!! Fuming 😡. We can now never go back!

Not worth the journey, we drove for almost 3 hours to get there to then stop start crawl around the safari park for over 2 hours to see a handful of deer, sheep and rhino's. Too many cars crammed in at one time to maximise their profit.
Glad we didn't bother paying for the rides, they looked tired and dated very 90's.
WMSP know how to squeeze every penny they can out visitors with plenty of shops all around the park selling cheap rubbish at high prices.
Even the walk around was a disappointment, hard to find the animals only ones we actually saw were the hippos. Lemur wood was pointless we could have walked around our local wood for the amount of animals we saw. That being zero. Meerkats were cute but the enclosure looked small and tired.
Poorly run, clearly interested in making money and not the happiness of their animals or visitors.

Visiting the safari park is more like visiting a farm, extremely disappointing, unless you can afford a lodge you can’t see the animals you are really going to see, there a lot of sheep, deer, goats?, 4 camels, 3 wild dogs, 1 elephant, lions, you are sold food but can’t feed hardly any of the animals, the warders were constantly moving on the animals I’m assuming because of the new time slots, I definitely won’t be renewing my annual pass, I heard other people voicing the same concerns as me and my family, eventually greed for money will destroy what was a amazing experience for people who can’t afford safari’s in Africa, which is probably a similar price to a lodge in the west midland safari? park,

Changes to entrance fees and nothing in return for much higher prices!
Additional cost for wrist bands.
No student discounts.
Coke £4.50!...Told it was a free re-fillable anywhere on site. Afterwards told this was not the case...dishonest and wrong.
No extra rides or activities, yet higher prices to access!?
£6 to hook 3 duckies....come on!
Portion sizes reduced in Dino restaurant. All disposable packaging. No air conditioning but food still tastes OK.

Could hear so many families unhappy with the prices. It's hard enough to survive during the summer holidays. Please WMSP help don't hinder families and all children from enjoying such venues.

The animals/safari was fine, nothing too crazy, I did set my expectations too high I think.
The added on prices for everything, like the fair? You would think that would be included in the extortionate pricing, but no! Not forgetting all the other activities, That's extra money, the food and drink is too expensive aslo, £4.50 for a diet coke? 4 hotdogs and chips, £38.80. It's just extortion at the end of the day! I ended up telling them that it's too expensive and cancelled my orders.
For a day out for the children, it's far too much money.
I certainly won't be going again.