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404nikkig
My boyfriend and I came here on Sunday after staying at the Alona hotel next door for a murder mystery night. I seen a deal voucher online for Amazonia and (even though some of the reviews on here made me doubt it would be worth it) we though we may as well give it a go as the voucher wasn't expensive and I must say it was a good way to kill a couple of hours. We payed an extra couple of pounds at the entrance as we decided we wanted to go to the handling session. We walked around and seen some amazing looking creatures and was very interesting. The size of the fish in the ponds are massive and trust me - they are not stupid! There's a dispenser where you pay 50p and get some fish food and as soon as the fish see anyone coming and looking in at them, they all start to accumulate (hundreds of them!) when they think they are going to get fed! Was amazing to watch! I was a bit nervous about the handling session as I am terrified of spiders. They don't tell you what they are going to bring out until you go into the session - they just tell you they will be bringing out 3 different creatures (starting with the cuter ones then getting creepier!). However, you don't have to hold them if you don't want to and can leave at any time. The first creature to come out was a gecko which was actually really cute and I held that. The second one was a snake which I was fine with, however, I was a little too nervous to hold it as I was a bit unsure. However, my boyfriend held it and I was fine standing next to him. However, the 3rd creature was (surprise surprise!) a tarantula! I didn't see it as I didn't stick around to see it - I went outside and waited on my boyfriend while he held it as I couldn't bare to even be in the same room as a tarantula when it was out its enclosure! Haha. They actually had to wear safety glasses as if it gets scared, a defense mechanism is to fire hairs off its back towards you. Anyways, after that, we went to the nocturnal area which was pretty cool then we had a nosy in the gift shop before leaving. We weren't really expecting too much of this place, however, we found it very enjoyable and we would return!
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11weegie
Excellent visit today, the insects snakes, small animals and birds, lots of fish in a natural setting was very good indeed. Worth a second trip.
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NostreborLa
I've just taken my toddler daughter to Amazonia and we had a great time. Firstly because of her age she was free so it only cost my entry fee to get in. For us this made it great value for money, and because we went on a weekday it wasn't busy. Like other reviews have said the area is quite small but there are a lot of different animals to see. We particularly enjoyed watching the various small monkeys jumping around, watching the snakes (including the big Burmese Python) and going into the nocturnal area. We went around twice, enjoying the atmosphere which was noisy and jungle-like. One of the keepers (Fiona) was cleaning out a snakes enclosure and took the time to explain lots of interesting facts to us. She then introduced us to the Macaws, which my daughter had been a bit scared of, and really put her at ease with them. Having enjoyed ourselves so far we paid an extra quid and had a handling session. We were the only ones doing it and it was brilliant. Fiona showed us a Royal Python, a Bearded Dragon and a hissing cockroach. My daughter was a little bit nervous, but very interested in seeing the animals up close. I had a cracking time holding the snake! All in all, we had a great time. I can understand how others might have felt it less good value, especially if they paid full price for a lot of kids who ran around it in 10 minutes, but for us it was a unique experience, very good value for money, and a great wee trip.
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cjruthven
I was looking for something to take grand children to for a day out. was very disappointed the visit was over in less than 30 minutes there was no butterflies or leaf cutter ants. The only good thing was the handling session which was good for the children. I will not visit again this was a waste of money and over priced for what you get. There is no ay they have 70 species of animal on show as clamped on web site. Facilities for leaning hands after visit are not sufficient next to no hot water and no sanitizer.
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Dawn977
We do like Amazonia but we find it expensive for what it is. It is not very big and there isnt that much to see. We were looking forwards to seeing the leaf cutter ants but they didnt have any as they had all died out. There were hardly any butterflies.We paid extra for the hands on experience which was worth the extra money. My son was allowed to hold a snake and a tarantula in this session.
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caribou48
This is a decent diversion if you are at M&D for other reasons.It is overpriced for what you are getting. We went on a groupon deal, and I am glad we did , because at full price it is not good value for money. It is pretty small and the whole adventure is over in about 20-30 mins . The animals and attractions are decent enough, but for what they are charging not worth it . Kinda like a bag of Space invaders, for 10p totally worth it ,increase that to £1.50 and you are having a laugh.
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comfybedplease
Thank you for sharing your views. If your visit was part of a booked school visit, we feel that our group prices are extremely good value, with the number of school booking reflecting this. For £4.20 per pupil this includes approximately an hour and a half with one of our keepers, consisting of a guided tour, an animal handling session and an Amazonia interactive session. Unfortunately the keepers do not have time to show groups every animal, so groups are then given as much free time as they want to spend within Amazonia. We have teacher resource packs on our website which often teachers will print off and bring with them so the pupils have educational activities to complete whilst visiting. Please visit the education page of our website for more details: http://www.discoveramazonia.co.uk/educationFrom previous feedback and the return bookings we get from schools, we feel we offer a great value for their visit. If the booking was made on the day this would have been £5.75, but would not have included a guided tour or handling session.During winter months we have fewer butterflies breeding due to the lower light levels, which is why you wouldn’t have seen many or any on this visit. We currently have 30 Atlas moth cocoons ready to pupate though, one of the largest moths in the world, which we hope will then breed within our gardens.Our leafcutter ant colony has recently died out and we are awaiting a new colony, hopefully arriving in January 2015. As these come over from Trinidad I am sure you can appreciate it is not a quick job to replace them!Thank you again for your views, we rely on feedback to improve our attraction.
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gemini_girl33
Thank you for passing on your kind comments. We would normally have butterflies flying around, but during winter months due to the lower light levels we don’t have as many. We are currently improving the gardens within Amazonia and incorporating host plants for caterpillars so that we can breed more species of South American butterflies and sustain the population. If you visit again within the next 12 months you should hopefully notice quite a few changes including the gardens, free ranging animals, a new colony of leaf cutter ants and many more butterflies! We hope you visit again soon!
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leekandpotato
Thank you for passing on your views. We feel that Amazonia is a small but good value attraction within M & D’s theme park, considering the prices of similar attractions within the area. For the size of Amazonia, we have quite a varied collection, including bats, several monkey species, fish, many reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and kinkajou, an animal not often seen in UK zoos. During winter months we have fewer butterflies due to the lower light levels so you may not have seen these on this visit. Each individual’s interest varies from one person to the next, so depending on interest really depends how long you would spend in Amazonia. Often the smaller creatures are harder to spot, as they would be in the rainforest, most of them camouflaging extremely well. This is what we aim for, as the environment should replicate their in-situ environment as best as possible. We have regular daily talks within Amazonia, where you can watch monkeys, bats and parrots being fed and learn more about them. We also have an interactive room, included in the ticket price, where families can go into a digital rainforest, learning more about the layers of the rainforest and play interactive games. This is hugely popular with families and school groups that use it.If your visit was on a Sunday, we would have also had our snake feeding tour at 3pm, where the public can watch our snakes getting their weekly feed. This is a new tour we introduced in the summer and again is extremely popular with our visitors.As we are a small attraction, the reason we stamp visitors hands when they enter is because we appreciate visitors won’t be spending hours at a time in Amazonia, but can come and go throughout the day and return for activities being held later on. We are currently developing the main area to include more interactive areas and more free ranging species.As for the rest of the park, which are different departments to Amazonia, the theme park does close over the winter months and staff are in preparation for the Winter Wonderland event put on over Christmas time. Apologies if maintenance vehicles were in your way and appeared to be abandoned, but as the main park closes, winter time is the best time to get certain jobs completed.Thank you again for leaving this review and so sorry to hear that what we offer does not meet your expectations.
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2LouiseW
We have visited Amazonia a few days, both with group on deals and without. It's not worth full price unfortunately. What they have is great, it just needs to be bigger and more interactive. They have a huge space within the theme park which could allow expansion. The attraction is well maintained and they have a fair variety of creatures to look at.They have introduced talks for some animals at certain times of the day which is good. Handling sessions are good if you can get in a quiet one. If it's busy on a weekend it's a bit packed. Gift shop is good, but as with all gift shops they are over priced. I would recommend the assistants on the desk provide you with an overview of the attraction when paying as I think they just assume you have been before. There was no fish food today when we went, this is the best part for me! I love to watch them. There was an inflatable slide outside today with amazonia written on it, but you had to pay extra for this? We avoided it.Overall it's good. X
