UK Safari Parks and Coasters

[Mushroom]

As a lot of you are aware, we have a lot of Safari Parks in the UK (where you drive round in your car and look at the animals). Not all of them have rides. Only ones that spring to mind are West Midlands Safari Park and Knowlsely. West Midlands has a fair few rides and coasters, Knowlsey has a few small attractions.

But then we have the likes of Woburn, Longleat & Whipsnade, huge places with no rides as such. But what coaster could be a perfect fit for parks like these? Or even at Knowlsey or West Midlands. I believe they could benefit from a small scale wooden coaster, bit like Heidi the ride at Plopsa, or even Oscar's Wild Taxi at Sesame Place. These are both fun family coasters, and could fit in perfectly for their demographic.

So what do you all think? Could they benefit by adding a small scale family coaster? Or are you thinking something different

 

[Gavin]

Honestly, the only things they would benefit from would be cheap, off-the-shelf s**te. There's no point spending a lot of money on rides when nobody goes there for that. Make a few extra quid off a captive audience with some crappy tat? Absolutely. Spend millions on a bespoke, high-quality ride? Not worth it. It wouldn't bring any extra people in and would take way too much time to recoup the investment.

 

[rob666]

What about a nice long family coaster through the animals, instead of a car ride.
That would get me back to Knowlsely.

 

[shaunthatkid]

i have been to knowlsely and went on that wacky worm type coaster they do need a new coaster probably a pinfari looper (zl42) or a Zyklon z47

 

[shaunthatkid]

What about a nice long family coaster through the animals, instead of a car ride.
That would get me back to Knowlsely.

a railway around the animals would do it for me!

 

[Lofty]

a railway around the animals would do it for me!

There is a train ride that goes through one of our collections, though. It Curren toy travels through the South American habitat where you travel beside Sitatunga, Tapir, Emu and Capybara (currently off-view).

At the end of the day, the rides really are second to the animals, and that will always be the case in Safari Parks, so there really is no need to build something huge, or something that costs millions of pounds just for it to not even have an effect on bringing people to the area. Both West Midlands and Knowsley suffer from being relatively close to some larger theme parks, which attract guests that want rides, not animals - so the rides are an added bonus and there to, in reality, increase dwell time within the attraction that in turns increases the SPH via food & beverage.

So yeah, as much as I'd love to have more rides and attractions at the park, it just isn't going to happen anytime soon, it's just not viable.

 

[Howie]

Giant RMC on a mountain, obvs.
It worked for Kolmarden. Goons from all over the world flocked to ride Wildfire. Some of them even stayed long enough to look at some animals too.
I think all zoos and safari parks should get one.

 

[Will]

WMSP had a Vekoma boomerang in the late eighties - it wasn't well received and was sent abroad after a few seasons. The majority of visitors to these attractions are families with young-ish children and therefore thrill rides aren't the order of the day, though I don't actually think West Midlands' ride line-up is that bad in the grand scheme of things.

Also, while I'm not one of these animal cruelty nuts, I'm never sure that an excessively loud attraction (which a boomerang certainly would have been) has a place that close to enclosures.