Had a brilliant day at WMSP yesterday, it was our first visit since 2017.
I can see why they’re introducing time slots for the safari, it gets very busy. We arrived for opening at 9.30 and seemed to beat the worst of it, but people were constantly being told by staff in 4x4s to move along to ease congestion, particularly near the beginning of the safari which is understandable as people had barely entered it and were stopping to feed animals which was causing delays getting people in. I also witnessed cars being told to move on near the giraffe section when we were in the on foot viewing area later in the day, so yeah it definitely seems like they need to do something to manage it and improve guest experience rather than having to have staff rushing people along. Hopefully it turns out to be a success.
Most of the animals were visible in some capacity, the best view was of the lions, most of whom were sat basking on the large rock in their enclosure, which gave some great views of them. Unfortunately the giraffes, which are one of my kids favourite animals weren’t out on the safari when we went round but we got to see them from the viewing area later on so not all bad. Cheetah’s weren’t available either but that was well sign posted before entering the safari.
On to the park itself. The dinosaur walk is in a bit of a sorry state. Barely any of the animatronics move anymore and some had holes, pretty sure I noticed a wasps nest taking up residence in one of the holes. Poor dino. Some of the info boards had some props missing. The area needs some tlc. Seeing the real fossils is super cool, but again some of the display cabinets need a bit of a refresh.
Saw the sea lion show and thoroughly enjoyed it. The lorikeet house is great too, they go nuts for those little pots of nectar (£1.50 a pop).
The theme park section hasn’t really changed much since our last visit but was clean and well presented in most areas. We got to this section at around 2pm and queues weren’t too bad.
Venom is pretty decent as far as drop towers go. Black Fly isn’t what it once was, doesn’t seem to get much height anymore but the spinning is forceful. I had 2 rides in a row and felt a bit sick afterwards.
Rhino coaster is rough but I suppose that fits the theme and I kind of expected it with it being an old school Vekoma. I enjoyed the ride and found the helix’s to be nice and forceful. However that brake at the end is unreasonably harsh, I somehow, despite being a short arse, smashed both my knees off the carriage when it stopped, really hurt. The ride op warns you about it before sending the train and tells you to brace which I did, obviously not enough!
Monkey Mayhem is fun enough, nice pop of airtime near the end of the layout. It seemed like they were only sending one train round at a time, which made for a bit of a long wait. Didn’t ride the mini apple. A new, more modern coaster in the park wouldn’t go amiss but I get that the theme park isn’t the main focus for WMSP and what they do have is perfectly adequate for the target audience even if they are aging a bit now.
Both water rides are good fun for what they are, got pretty wet on both the rapids and the flume. Did a few of the flats including the pirate ship, chair swing and the disc o. Operations ok but not amazing, given the mostly short queues it didn’t matter too much. My partner and youngest child did the ghost train and said it was rubbish, kind of expected that.
There are plenty of food outlets and gift shops dotted around. Only a couple of food/drink outlets were closed but all the main ones were open, we brought our own food so didn’t sample what was on offer. Gift shop prices weren’t too bad, I got a 50th year branded fridge magnet for £2.99 which I thought was very reasonable. There were more expensive magnets but I wanted a 50th year one with a lion on it.
All staff we came across were friendly and enthusiastic.
Didn’t mean to go on for this long but overall an enjoyable day was had. Won’t be leaving it so long between visits next time. We are considering getting platinum passes for Drayton Manor/WMSP in the future, which includes entry to both parks.
