The last time I came here I was a child - I absolutely loved it and after purchasing a Key 103 deal where the full price for a family of 4 was £26 it seemed the perfect Good Friday day out. On arrival we were greeted by a lovely young man, well mannered, helpful and polite (always a good start). We purchased two (best not to start a riot first thing in the morning) guide books at £2 each... a bargain for full colour informative animal books!
And so we started (after a toilet pit stop) our Safari drive!
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| view across the park |
We witnessed an animal being taken on the back of a pick up to safety covered in a blanket. I like that my children saw that and that they realised that the staff were trying to help him, it provoked a good conversation between a 4yr old and 7yr old about the need to help animals and that maybe it had died (although I really hope it hasn't and was just tranquilised) but that's what nature is.
At the end near the car park there's a good selection of fair ground rides for the children at £5 a wristband, face painting which was around £4.50 per child for just basic face painting - which was incidentally fabulous, or you could get packages which included ears and tails for more money.
There is an eating area called 'Oasis' which is new for 2013, it seemed to have a good selection of food and was very busy so must be decent.
We went to the sealion show for our first stop, this is included in the price and the sealions are such show offs, I was worried they wouldn't like it but my goodness, it's very evident they are loving it!
Our next stop took us to the bat area, I don't like flying creatures so the children were promptly taken by my other half, they came out full of chatter and excitement so I'm presuming that was a success!
The giraffes and elephants were our next visit..waw these are amazing and so close... all the animals were clean and well looked after and their food was obviously given them to be a challenge as it would in the wild.
Our penultimate stop was for an ice cream for the kiddys' and warming hot chocolate for grown ups as it was freezing!
And then the obligatory trip to the gift shop. Fabulous gift shop, absolutely full to jam packed with all kinds of animal paraphernalia, some of it for adults too which in itself is rare..prices from 50p.
In summary our day at Knowsley safari park was fab, even with snow on the ground at Easter it didn't dampen ours or anyone else's spirits. It was still as I remembered it as a child but there was far less to do 20 years ago! The animals are amazing and the way they just literally wander where they want too without bothering about your car or holding you up ten minutes whilst they wait in the middle of the road for their lunch is really quite liberating and isn't something children can experience very much in the UK.
The staff were plentiful and you could tell really cared for the animal and I would definitely come again, if you are contemplating a day out it is definitely one to try.
Thank you for reading and I hope you find this review helpful. If you would like to know anything else please ask.
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