Even if your
child isn’t into dinosaurs, they’d still have a good time. There’s obviously
the farm section, an insect area and even a reptile house. Indoor and outdoor
play areas, sandpits, and eateries as well as the gift shop.
Let me start by
saying, if like us, you’ve not been before – it’s difficult to find, both the
car park and the entrance. Neither are particularly well-signposted. Unlike the theme park which has a huge sign, gates and you can see the attractions, we got
lost. Top tip: don’t drive onto the camp site and if you’ve reached the Warbler
on the Wharf pub, you’ve gone too far!
Anyway, once we
were in, we had a great time – and even better, the sun was shining!
The Rides
There are
plenty of photo opps throughout the park, the first of which was at the
entrance with the giant, coloured wings. I think we saw something very similar
at Mead Open Farm last summer for their spectacular event, but we just had to
stop and pose before checking out the rides.
We went
straight to the ride-on dinos, which Alfie loved. It’s a small circuit, but he
loved going faster than the other children and overtaking them. Helmets are provided
for safety, but annoyingly, I had to walk around with Alfie during the whole
ride. I’d have understood it if he was 3, or little. We actually had a couple
of goes on this ride.
Next, we went
to the riverboat. It’s petrol-powered so was quite pungent, especially as we
were sat behind the driver. But the ride itself was serene. As we meandered
around the lazy river, there were plenty of figures to spot. I’d read reviews
of the water being really dirty and swampy… I didn’t think it was that bad!
And then it was
time to take to skies, as we went higher than the trees and reached the clouds
on the Observation Tower. Although it looked high from ground level and Alfie
said it looked scary, it really wasn’t, and he had a great time. The ride rotates
slowly, so we didn’t feel dizzy, and it wasn’t anything like those vertical drop
rides.
Rest of the Day
We explored the
rest of the area named The Lost World of Living Dinosaurs – walking across the
treetop trail and stopping to look at all the boxes which contained questions, facts,
and touchy-feely games.
We walked through
the Living Dinosaur trail and saw all the dinosaurs, before reaching the small
play area. There were a couple of rockers and climbing-slide set. It was
difficult prising the kids from the playground, but lunch definitely called!
We ate at the
Raptor Restaurant, ordering some food and drinks and grabbing a table outside,
with a parasol. Alfie requested pepperoni pizza, which was massive – so we
shared that with a portion of fries. That, and three drinks came to less than
£20, which I thought was reasonable – although we went back for more bottles of
water and ice cream! The food was decent too – the menu wasn’t the biggest, but
there were burgers and hotdogs too, as well as sandwiches and sausage rolls…
and plenty of snacks, including cookies and crisps.
After Lunch
There was
enough time to walk through the farm park. We saw goats, sheep and their lambs,
smaller animals like guinea pigs and birds. Alfie then wanted to play some more
and in the Insect World, there were some really lovely wooden play areas. The beehive
was like a climbing wall that you could walk across. Further along were some
wooden planks and monkey bars. There were also some giant bugs, mostly made
from metal. He didn’t like those so much and he really disliked the Reptile
House – saying the big spiders were too scary! We had to hot-foot it to the
cinema screening, where a film about dinosaurs was being shown.
Despite being a
beautiful day, the soft play called. It’s quite small and I personally found it
claustrophobic but the kids had fun. You don’t really need to spend too much
time there – and I managed to persuade Alfie out with the promise of a tractor
ride, another turn on the dinos and the gift shop on the way home!
For children of
a similar age, it’s so much fun. The park opens at 11 and we arrived just after
that, staying for 4 hours – plenty of time to see everything. In areas, it did
look a bit tired – like the soft play, which looked in need of love, and some
of the sandpits looked a bit grotty (but these can easily be avoided). We would
go back again, and as much as Alfie would love another pizza, I’d probably take
a picnic to buy slushies and snacks instead!
Love, Lucy xx
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Love, Lucy xx