A day out at 99 Wonderland Park

Have you ever wondered whether it was worth wandering around 99 Wonderland Park? I was intrigued by the name and given that the park is about a 10 minute drive from Batu Caves and only 15 minutes from my home I decided to go and find out whether my family would find this attraction wonder-bland or wonder-grand.

Armed with the fish, bird and animal food that we’d been handed at the ticket counter, we set off on our mission to explore the large lake and the attractions that it offered at various points along the way. The first stop on our tour of the Park was at Bird Island, followed by Snake House and the Hatchery Room. Having fed some fish, marveled at the Marmoset monkeys and photographed some feathered friends we moved on to the 12 Chinese Zodiac Zone.

The Zodiac Zone consists of a 200-metre stretch displaying 12 statues representing the animals in the Chinese zodiac with a brief description of each animal’s character traits and which years of birth each animal represents. This is followed shortly by the Golden Waterfall which together with the Sky Fountain and Two Colour Water Fountain which come later, I imagine are all more impressive when lit up at night.

But the highlight of our trip was our stop in the area that houses the Deer Yard, Ostrich Farm, Bird Square and Peacock House. Although slightly hesitant at first when the animals came bounding over at the sight of food, the kids enjoyed feeding the ostrich and found the deer, well, quite endearing. And observing the surrounding swans, flamingoes, parrots and pelicans was pretty pleasant too.

The neighbouring food court and mini race track weren’t open when we were there early on a Sunday morning, so we hopped on the free shuttle buggy and whizzed past that section passing the Magical Bridge and swan paddle boats and hopped off at the T-Rex Ring.

These dynamic dinosaurs were enough to impress an easily excited six year old, but not enough to prevent eye rolling and sighing from a nearly nine year old.

99 Wonderland Park is open from 9am – 11pm from Wednesday to Sunday. If you are MyKad holders it will cost you RM10 for adults and RM5 for kids between the ages of 4 and 12. You will need to add RM5 to the cost if you don’t have a MyKad and they didn’t accept our Ikad cards, but none the less I think the price is fair.

I feel it only right to warn you that you may get pestered into also paying extra for the train ride, lake cruise or a go on the paddle boat ducks or swans, which looked quite fun! However, if you do fancy swanning around the lake on the paddle boat this and some other attractions are not available between 2- 5pm.

When I described the range of things to do and see at 99 Wonderland Park to a friend she said it sounded like the owners had been on the online marketplace site Mudah and searched for ‘statues to put in a park’ and bought everything available. I thought that summed it up quite well. I can’t think of anywhere else in KL where you can see everything from dynamic dinosaurs to golden dolphin fountains!

But the true test of whether an attraction is a hit or miss with our family is whether we would want to go back. My hard to please 8-year-old gave the park an overall score of 66 out of 99 and wouldn’t rush back, but my animal loving 6-year-old gave it a big thumbs up. However, they both agreed that feeding the deer was a highlight of the visit.

Personally, I would pop back, as it is not far from our home. However if I lived far away or was just in town for a few days, it would not be high on my list of places to see. If I was to go again I would go later in the day, as I feel that is when you would see the park in its best light. This is when the fountains will be lit up together with all the other fairy lights and lanterns the Park possesses and when it would spring to life.

If you are curious to find out more visit their website or if you fancy taking a trip to 99 Wonderland Park yourself, you will find it at Jalan 1/3A, Pusat Bandar Utara, 68100, Kuala Lumpur.