Attraction Reviews

Think Tank, Birmingham

2009-08-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

Date of Visit:
Sunday, 30th August 2009

Tickets:
I paid for the tickets on the door as could not find any sites offering cheaper tickets or any offers. The cost was £9 for an adult and £7.15 for a child.

What was there?:
My review probably is not gong to be the best as you will probably note from other reviews I am not much a fan of museums (except for Natural History Museum). I prefer a little emore excitement, but I will give you an overview of what was there.

The reason why we went is to see the 'BBC Walking with Dinosaurs' exhibition and was disapointed straight away as there was very little there, just a room with a few animatronics models and some fab fossils.

On the ground floor pretty standard with old locomotives, a plane, old fashioned factory machines, etc. The 1st floor has good discovery areas about the human body, animals, how music is created, ecology, waste, etc. There is one great part for the younger kids, which is the water works area, a large water play area with boats water wheels and more.We went and listened to a story about Lilo the dinosaur which is suitable for kids 5 or under.

In the afternoon there was a session for the kids where you can touch some sea creatures brought over from the sea life centre, we were not here for this time as we went over to Sealife centre afterwards so had a better view!

We did not go into the planetarim which we probably should have or see the 4D movie.

As I said this is a not a very positive review - sorry Think Tank.

Food:
There is a cafe inside serving sandwiches, pastries and coffee etc. with pretty normal prices. There are picnic areas inside and you are encouraged to bring your own. Just outside the entrance is another cafe serving more food and has a Costa Coffee.

Facilities:
There is a packed giftshop with loads of goodies and a pic and pix stand.

Plenty baby changing rooms and toilet facilities.

There are lifts to all floors and from what I could see is very accessible for pushchairs and wheel chairs with wide corridoors. None of the areas were small with tight corners so easy to manouver around.

Our opinions:
Sams - A bit rubbish, except for the waterworks where I got really wet! Debs - Not my cup of tea, it was ok.

Photo's:

Video's:
None

Legoland, Windsor

2009-08-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

Type of Attraction:                         Theme Park
Date of Visit:                                      13th August 2009

Cost of tickets
We booked online with lastminute.com at 40% cheaper than gate price. We paid £60.50 for 2 adults and 1 child. The only difference to paying on the door was we had to specify the day we were going. Oh and you cannot use the ticket to upgrade to an annual pass but I would not do this in the park anyway as you can get annual passes online or with some voucher much cheaper.

What was there?
What wasn't there it was an amazing day! We visited here two years ago and were very dissapointed but since then the park has been refurbished and has had new villages added too. We arrived at 10:30am and parked in VIP parking just outside the entrance at a cost of £5 per or you can park for free in the main carpark. If you want VIP you will need to be there early. We had to get in a 15 minute queue to have our pre-booked tickets checked. The other queues were longer if you were paying at the gate. Bear in mind this was a school holiday day so may be different at other times of the year.

We went to get on our first ride and saw the hour and a half queue and quickly went to get a Q-BOT. Q-BOT is similar to a fast-pass but better, with fast-pass you have to go to the ride put in your ticket and are given a fast-pass ticket for a certain time. The Q-BOT is a handheld device on a keychain and you scroll through a list of rides and it tells you when you can go on each of them without having to go near the ride - this definatley saves the soles of your feet. Once you pick a ride and 'book' it is locked until you go on the ride and it is cleared by an attendant or cancelled by you so you are in a 'virtual queue'. It costs £10 per person and you can have up to 6 people on each device. If you have an annual pass you get 25% off after 3pm so only costs £7.50 per person. Well worth the money though.

There are more rides than last time, based on height Sam is 120cm's so could get on most rides but needed to be accompanied by an adult. We went on 'The Dragon' which was great but very short. Laser raider was as expected a ride though dark rooms with targets to shoot, it's the same as the Men in black ride in Universal Florida or Buzz Lightyear ride in Disneyland Paris, this kind of ride is always a hit with the boys! The water rides have big drops and I did scream alot and Sam looked terrified on one of the photos (photos are £6 each). There are too many rides for me to tell you about but I will vouch for the fact they are all great for all the family. If you have kids 5 or under there are loads of rides for them too, check out the parks website for a list of them all. The pirate show was a crowd pleaser and was a Cinderella show for the little ones.

There is a 4D IMAX style cinema called the imagination Theatre. We saw Spellbreaker which we al thought was fantastic. There are a few surprises in there so watch out. Sam was petrified when we went last time (he would have been 3)because of the effects but loved it this time (now he is 6).

Waterworks is fun for kids on a hot day. It was scorching when we were there and I had packed a pair of swim shorts for Sam and a hand towel (much lighter than carrying a big heavy towel) to dry him off. It is not a pool just a playground with fountains, waterfalls and water cannons. Beware, I was taking a photo in a dry area and then a fountain shot up behind me and I got wet!

At the end of the day we got on the Hill Train to avoid the walk back as we were ready to drop. We did actually go on this a few times and never queued as is very frequent. The park was open until 8pm that night but by half five we were shattered.

Beware of the fair style games in a street aside the pirate show, it is easy to win after a few goes and we ended up walking around with a great big 5 foot green banana the rest of the day!

We could have easily spent 2 days there. You can book a legoland holiday where the tickets and hotel are included and the prices are very reasonable via lastminute.com.

Food:
Restaurants of every kind and minimal queues. Prices are typical for theme parks we had foot long hot dogs which were around £3.75 each and the bottles of drinks are £1.60. A burger and chips was around £5.95. I suggest taking picnic food, there are many areas set up for this. There are lockers near the watersplash area where you could leave your bag if you did not want to carry it around. The lockers are slim so a backpack better than a coolbag.

Facilities:
Giftshops galore!!! But lego is normal RRP you can get it much cheaper online!!! Loads of toilets and baby changing facilities all very clean and accessible with wheelchairs and puchchairs.

Our opinion:
Sams - Amazingly fantastic!

Debs - Wanted to go back next day, one of the best days out in England all year!

Photos:

Yorvik Viking Centre, York

2009-03-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

Type of Attraction: Historical
Date of Visit: 14th March 2009

What was there?
What a waste of a morning! We arrived at around 10:30am and queued outside for only about ten minutes and then got to the admissions till. It cost £8.50 for me and £6.00 for Sam (we opted for gift aid so received a 12 month pass to come back for free). We walked down some stairs (a lift is available) and waited about ten more minutes for the door to a room open which was the 'time capsule'. In there we watched a screen with a man and a woman on change hairstyles and clothes until they reached 'viking age' (about 3 minutes).

We got in another short queue and then in a carriage which took us around a model village with a few model people moving their limbs and one who was sat on the loo pulling some lovely straining faces, oh and the village smelled bad apparently to make it authentic. The ride lasted no longer than ten minutes. We got out walked through a corrridor and a room with recovered artifacts and a woman who can make a penny for you (at a cost of £1.50). That was it, apart from the gift shop at the end!

I don't think we will be using our 12 month free pass!

Food:
No need for food onsite as in York City centre surrounded by cafes and restaurants.

Facilities:
A gift shop.

Our opinion:
Sams - Rubbish

Debs - Would rather have spent the £14.50 on a chinese takeaway!

Photos:
No photos to show you as there was nothing worth taking pictures of.

Aquatica, Orlando, Florida

2009-02-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

Type of Attraction:                           Water Park
Date of Visit:                                      13th February 2009
Address:                                             Aquatica, 5800 Water Play Way, Orlando, FL32821
Website:                                             Click Here
Tickets:                                              Click Here

What a great day out! I am not really keen on water parks but it was fantastic, nothing like other water parks. There is something to suit everyone here and it was so much fun. The park is separated into many sections suitable for all ages. As it is a Seaworld park there is sealife scattered around the park, tropical fish aquariums, a couple of dolphins and a few small exibit tanks with starfish and urchins, but I expected a to see more than there was.

We played on the lovely white sandy beach, swam in the Big Surf Shores (simulated wave sea). Sam loved the Roa's rapids where we spent about two hours going round and round about 35 times in total (I would have preferred fewer!). The Roa rapids can be a little rough in places but there were some very small children loving every minute. If your little ones don't like water splashing in their faces then this is probably not the best ride to go on.

Kata's Kookaburra Cove is for younger children up to about age 6 where there are very tame slides and water chutes, water cannons, fountains to play under and boats to climb on. The deepest water in this area is less than half a meter deep so perfect if your kids cannot swim.

Walkabout Waters is for any age toddlers to adults. It is a 60 foot fortress covering 15,000 square feet. Throughout the fortress it has fountains, slides, water cannons, interactive tools and is great for kids to run a riot. If you have small children under 8 probably best to accompany them all the time it is huge and very easy to get lost in. I guess this depends on the confidence of your child though; Sam is a confident boy but panics if he cannot see me in very busy places.

Sam had to wear a life vest all day. For safety all kids under the height of 48 inches must wear those at all times and these cannot be substituted for arm bands. Much older kids wore them as well, even adults, I wore a life vest whilst going around the Roa Rapids as it was much more fun floating around rather than swimming and fighting the current.

I would not recommend going if you are just one parent with a baby and a younger child as the baby will make the day very restricting. You need to be hands on with youngsters here and cannot be if you have a baby with you too.

You can buy all you need for the day in the shops onsite, swimwear, buckets and spades, swim nappies, sunscreen, goggles, wetsuits etc. As expected it was all quite expensive though, so take all you can with you.

There are quite a few restaurants and snack bars dotted around. The price of food is similar to all the parks in Orlando, approx $8 for burger and chips and $3 for a soft drink.

Towels were $4 to hire (you can use your own) and lockers $10 for a small locker and $12 for a large locker, you get $5 back when you return the locker key.

On entry our bags were searched for glass bottles for obvious reasons. They also take away any sandwiches as you are only allowed to eat food bought in the park. We had our sandwiches hidden at the bottom of my backpack in a universal studios carrier bag so they were left undiscovered! You are allowed to take snacks in such as crisps etc. and small plastic bottles of drinks.

I would recommend this park to anyone. We are planning to go back next week before we come home.