West Midland Safari Park Reviews 

Wouldn’t go again . Lot of queuing and bottle necks . Lots of giraffes zebra and rhino ( good ) lots of deer of various sizes ( mostly sitting down away from the road ) a few camels far away and little else visible . I’d recommend a zoo . Disappointing

It started with online tickets.

The tickets are not refundable.
The ticket dates cannot be changed.
The ticket Vehicle cannot be changed.

They do not respond to emails.
Their telephone lines are always busy, with a constant loop to press x to talk to y, with all mailboxes for voice messages being full.

The venue itself is in a massive decline. I have been here a number of times over the last 10 years and it seems to get worse every year. The "Safari" part of the West Midlands Safari park seems to be an after thought and customer support is non-existant.

Better off just going to one of the zoos as you will be able to see more animals.

Been to WMSP several times in the last 8 years as the kids enjoyed it, but we've witnessed it gradually go downhill while the price has gone up and up, Animals seem to get less every year and concentration seems around the lodges now so can't see half the animals as the enclosures have been designed to accommodate the lodges and forgot about the drive through experience! Last visit topped it off taking over an hour to get through the last small stretch of the giraffes whoever planned that bit needs their p45! Better off paying less and going to a local zoo for the day instead! If I wanted to be stuck in 2 hours+ of traffic I'd have a day out on the M6! 😬

We booked to stay at Cheetah Lodge on 11 May 2023 almost a year ago. Unfortunately about 10 days prior to our scheduled arrival date, a train strike was announced. Myself and guest both live over 100 miles away so taxi wasn't an option, neither of us drive. We would have been able to get a train to the park but had no way of getting back on the 12th as no train service at all on our lines so couldn't go unless strike was called off. We paid £490 and lost every penny due to not cancelling within 2 weeks of arrival date - which we were unable to do because we didn't know there was going to be industrial action and when announced whether it was still going ahead. They refused a refund as only issued under exceptional circumstances (I would have thought that not being able to get back home would count as exceptional circumstances!) However, they did ask if we wanted to rebook for another date (£150 amendment fee payable on top of any additional charge between original cost and new date) We were not prepared to rebook due to steep amendment fee plus prices have all increased in 2024. If wanted to book this time next year would have been just short of £1k! This was supposed to be a birthday treat for me as cheetahs are my favourite animal. To add insult to injury, just got an email from Safari Lodge bookings asking us how we enjoyed our stay!

Wish i could give 0 stars.

Day started out sat in three lanes out of five queing to be let in. Three cars come by in lane four and realise only three lanes in use and cut in behind us, nobody monitors the lanes or people jumping the que.

Secondly its literally like the m25 all the way round, took 2.5 hrs to get around and barely saw anything.

The grounds and surrounding is all poorly maintained, the roads have deep potholes and hills that kill clutches. Too many broken down cars blocking the route and not being moved.

Two lanes jammed cause people in both lanes want to stop for animals, common sense and logic says they should use one lane to stop and one lane to keep things moving. But nope!

Even when we DID manage to get to some animals, because of the ques behind us we were beeped at and told to keep moving and not feed the animals, which absolutely ruined everything we waited patiently for.

When i approached customer services at the end, the lady very swiftly handed me a card with an email address on before i even got to have my say about what u was complaining about, outright refused me to speak to anyone, no explanation to my questions, no empathy, just literally a quick way to palm me off.

Legally what they are doing here is criminal. If you're overcrowding a venue, HSE would love to know about it, and this isnt a threat, they will hear about this.

Absolutely avoid this place like the plague. Not worth the £80 odd we spent to sit stuffy in a car for 2.5hrs with no food or water.

Really do not like the way WMSP is going, used to be so very enjoyable. Used our passes regularly, completely priced us out of purchasing a pass this year, and so many exclusions! Forced us to try somewhere new.

Do not waste your time, literally sat in traffic for 3 hours in the middle of a field. No animals in sight they have these electric gates that make the traffic worse as you queue forever waiting for them to open, it is poorly managed over priced we paid £96 for 3 people and the experience was just a traffic jam and a couple of rhinos. Will never ever return and will be advising everyone I know not to waste their money.

Don't waste your money. It's basically a 3 hours traffic jam. Hardly any animals out. The ones that were out weren't interested in being fed, I paid £8 for 2 boxes and we didn't even get to see many animals. Let alone feed them. Total rip off! Cost us over £150 for 4!! Never again and I will tell everyone I know to avoid!!

We are frequent visitors of this local attraction and are big supporters of it and we're very happy to visit on the 50th anniversary as many many others were my wife is disabled and my son has autism so we are aware of the refreshment areas and attractions... but we were greeted with many closed areas so much so we passed a refreshment area and went a few yards to find a seat in an area where refreshments were closed and by the time I went back it was closed..if you are inviting people to celebrate your 50th the least to expect would to be properly open. Many areas under construction,went through lemur wood...no lemurs.... through bats...no bats...please do better..

Absolutely loved it , would highly recommend, staff very friendly and helpful, we went Easter Sunday done the fair and smaller animals first , no waiting on rides as was advised by one of the staff to do it that way round as the safari was really busy and worked brilliant , definitely will be returning going to look at the lodges as one day not long enough to do/see everything

Absolute chaos in every way - it was like sitting on The M25 for 3 hours, you would probably see more on the M25. The only animals we seen was rhino and giraffes. Total waste of money and a terrible experience all round.

A 50 year old disappointment. It's the desolate look of the place, plus a 2 hour clutch burn to see not much.
Brought an oversees visitor who said there is more to see back in her own country.
Why is this place open?

Visited the park on 08th April 23, what absolute chaos. It’s like sitting on a parked motorway in gridlock.
No order with people getting into the park with cars crossing each other and literally at a standstill in most parts. Poorly managed with too many cars allowed in at one time.
Lots of rhinos and deer but not much else.
If anyone ask me to visit again, it’s a big fat no! God help driving around in the heat of the summer and with small kids! Nightmare! Absolute chaos!

Booked to see bluey for meet and greet to start at 2pm we was there at 1.45pm only to be told that there was no need and greet and that they let them in early. Sh**e planning, not organised at all. Manager was useless as well as the staff. Will not be going again, I will warn others too

I am absolutely disgusted by the service. I’m absolutely horrified with the service. I booked three tickets for myself my husband and my three year old daughter for the 28th March. Unfortunately a family member passed away. I have emailed over 12 times and I’ve phoned over 40 times know one ever answers there phones or responds to anything. I finally got a response when I phoned. I had one lovely lady answer the phone and spoke to her manager they politely said they will give me a refund due to the circumstances. I waited 2 days and no emails to confirm the refund and no refund money. I have tired all day over 60 calls. And not one single person has answered me. I am going through enough stress dealing with a loss. I paid £120 for this visit. I’m just utterly disappointed and exhausted of chasing my money. And chasing for someone to answer their own phone.

If you want bad service and all around not a good time whilst you’re going through a passing. I wouldn’t attempt to book here.

I wish knowone has to go through what myself and my family have gone through.
Westmidland safari park you should be ashamed of yourselves. You won’t be anything without your customers. Your customers pay for your park to continue running and all the staffs wage. Continue treating customers the way I’ve been treated your park will lose many customers.

Safari tour, we were disappointed not to see cheetahs on our visit, if they were there they were not to be seen, our experience was not too bad but for over £100 it could have been much better... Our most important issue was although there are two roads around tour presumably an overtaking road for when your not interested in queuing to see something, good idea BUT it was not kept clear,, as we were about to leave enclosed gated area, we were queuing 30/45 mins not moving at all at intervals, we had got into overtaking lane as one of the nine year girls needed toilet desperately (we did take them to toilet before we went in) a younger child had to use empty bottle in car, the problem seemed to arise because now both lanes were being used for watching giraffes instead of staff monitoring situation and moving cars on in overtaking lane, the situation for our granddaughter became very distressing and most certainly need not have occurred and spoiled the experience. We do plan on taking the free return visit with children, hoping for a better experience. However I don't think we will pay £111 again for the experience.

WMSP is an absolute disgrace. They advertised this amazing Bluey experience which was basically a woman stood on stage tossing balloons at kids. We queued for over an hour to get into the site itself - horrendous organisation - then queued for over an hour to see bluey. Couldn’t get in to a meet and greet so a total waste of time. Everything is extortionately priced and we even had to queue at every stage around the safari despite leaving it until last.

I contacted customer services to express my disappointment at the bluey event and organisation of the day to be told that when you buy tickets the terms and conditions state that whatever happens on your day is what it is. They don’t offer any customer service beyond that, no refunds or anything.

So BE WARNED if you go here and have a terrible day - due to their mismanagement - you’ve already agreed in the T&Cs that they will not take responsibility for the quality of your day once they have your money!

Absolutely disgraceful. Such a shame as I had such fond memories of visiting as a child.

Where do I start?! I guess the same place we did, with 25 mins of queuing on the main road before we even entered the gates. And once we did finally turn off the road there was another 35 mins of queuing before we got to the kiosks, then another drive to park the car and a lengthy walk to get back down and in to the park. Once inside we then had another 15 minute queue to get our wristbands. Quite why you bother selling them online and then making people queue up with everyone else to collect them I’ll never know.

The queues for the rides themselves were actually not too bad, but the rides were all very dated. We visited in October last year and put the tiredness and dirtiness down to it being the end of the season, but given we visited in the first week you were open again thats clearly just how things are.

Several rides closed, more of the rides where you have to pay than anything else (all cash only with no card machines and no working change machine). The staff all seemed disinterested and like they’d rather be somewhere else.

More massive queues at anywhere selling food, and no free tables on which to eat it even if you did.

The main reason for our visit was the ‘Meet & Greet with Bluey’ but alas, more disappointment as the queues for that were over 45 mins long each time.

We kept an eye on the cars going through the safari park the whole time and it was ridiculous, barely moving and two lanes of traffic the entire time we were there, so in the end we left without even bothering.

For over £100 it was a VERY expensive day out which consisted mainly of queuing and sitting in the car. Even a free return trip won’t get us to bother going here again.

Before you book. Make sure you are not a minute late. Due to traffic lights we were set back by 3 nins and refused entry to the safari park. You do however get a return ticket so I was like ok we are not completely out of pocket (£140 booking) I asked if we could split our ticket as we are unable to come again together and on both occasions the company was unhelpful. They reply on here like they are willing to help but via email couldn't care less. Its a beautiful safari but they is no room for help should a incident occur.

After asking twice for help it's safe to say I'll not be spending any more money on this attraction

After visiting west midlands Safari with the kids, we noticed that many of the enclosures had no animals in (or at least none were visible). There were long ques and there isn't much interaction from any of the animals. The park / ride area was great for the kids however and was well maintained. You do get to return for free within 12 months which we will be using again, but a little more needs to be done on the Safari tour side of the park.