Wednesday 14 June 2017

Our Day At Paultons Park



Last week, we went along for a day out at Paultons Park - a theme park just outside of Southampton which is probably best known for being home to "Peppa Pig World".

We have visited Paultons Park twice before, but not in the last couple of years - infact the last time we visited I was heavily pregnant with Noah. We'd always enjoyed our days there in the past but I was keen to see how things had changed, and excited to see what Noah and Sailor would make of it all.

We decided to stay in Southampton the night before our visit to make the most of it, as its around a 3 hour drive from where we live - we stayed in a Travelodge which was about a 20 minute drive away, it wasn't the nicest Travelodge I've ever stayed in to be honest but it did the job.

We arrived at Paultons Park at around 10.30 am, and collected our tickets at the entrance - the staff on the gates were friendly and helpful as always, and I was pleased to see that they have introduced additional security measures since our last visit with bag checks before entering. It didn't hold us up at all, it took literally moments but definitely helps visitors to feel safer.

It was a bit of a rainy day unfortunately, and there were showers on and off throughout the day but we found there was always somewhere to take shelter so it didn't spoil our day at all - the staff were also great at drying off the seats on the rides too so you never suffered a soggy bum! Which was very much appreciated!

We started our day off with a walk through the central section of Paultons, and stopped off at the Viking ship rides and Carousel first, before heading to Peppa Pig World



Noah was absolutely delighted at the sight of the Peppa section, and squealed "Grandpa Pig!!" as he dashed towards it - it is a really lovely section for little ones with lovely bright colours, and the Peppa music playing throughout. There is so much to do just in this section alone too.





There are several rides to choose from (our favourites are Daddy Pigs Car Ride and the Hot Air Balloon Ride), a lovely park area, gift shop, food stalls, and a fab indoor soft play area with indoor cafe too - we had lunch here and it was pretty good, with lots of choice and a good picnic deal for children - we spent around £30 on lunch for all of us which I think is reasonable enough for a theme park.




Tyne, at 4, is starting to find the rides in Peppa Pig World a little too safe and was keen to head out to the new Lost Kingdom section of the park to try more thrill rides but he still enjoyed the hours we spent at Peppa Pig World and was just as delighted as ever to get to meet Peppa and George!

At around 2pm, we headed to the Lost Kingdom - expecting to be faced with lots of queues as this is where the bigger rides are but much to our delight the queues were non existent!

The Lost Kingdom area is really well themed, with animatronic dinosaurs dotted about which the kids loved - there was a great park area here too (and a splash pad, but it was a bit too wet for this unfortunately) and a good mix of rides.





We spotted a show going on as we walked in, a real live dinosaur was being introduced to the crowds! Tyne loved watching this and getting to stroke the "Baby T Rex".

Tyne braved the Velociraptor roller coaster with his Dad and the Flight Of The Pterosaur one too, infact he loved them so much he rode each of them 3 times in a row - because it was so quiet he didn't even need to get off as there was no queue, so they simply rode again and again!



We passed one of the Carnival Games stalls and the boys spotted some cuddly dinosaurs, I usually refuse these games as I am rubbish at everything but this one was Hook A Duck so I let them have a go as they could do it themselves - they loved it and were absolutely delighted with their dinosaur prizes!





We had such a brilliant day at Paultons Park - it offers something for the whole family, is very well kept and looked after, and we think its prices are sensible too when compared with some of the other theme parks around - Paultons Park never fails to provide a great family day out and we will absolutely be back again!

Things Not To Miss

*Flight Of The Pterosaur for adventurers aged 4 and over - even Daddy said this was one of the best rollercoasters he's been on!

*The Victorian Carousel - a lovely old fashioned carousel, so pretty and a nice one for the whole family to do together

*Alive dinosaur show in Lost Kingdom

*Meeting Peppa & George outside the school house in Peppa Pig World (Top Tip: The queue around noon was massive so we came back at around 2.30 and walked straight to the front!)

Where To Go If It Rains

There's a soft play centre in Peppa Pig World which has a good under 4's section, as well as lots of the older kids too and a nice little cafe for Mum & Dad to take 5 in too!

Great Rides For Families Of Five

We often struggle to find rides that all of us can do as a family, so I thought I'd share the ones I found.

Hot Air Balloon Ride
Grandpa Pigs Train
Daddy Pigs Car Ride can also be done with 2 children, 2 adults and a baby



To find out more or plan your visit, please go to www.paultonspark.co.uk
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Thursday 1 June 2017

Diggerland: Our Honest Thoughts



A few weeks ago, we were invited along to Diggerland for a fun filled family day out.

In case you're unfamiliar with the Diggerland parks, they are a theme park focused completely around - you guessed it! - diggers!

They have parks in Kent, Durham and Yorkshire as well as one just down the road from us near Cullumpton in Devon.

With 3 little boys who are all somewhat digger obsessed, we were excited for what the day would bring - we had visited Diggerland once before a couple of summers ago but Tyne was too little for most of the attractions at the time.

This time though, he was tall enough for the vast majority of them (although had to be accompanied) and so we set off to explore exactly what Diggerland had to offer.

Now, if you're anything like me you're probably thinking "How much can there be to do with a digger?!" - well the answer is, quite a lot actually! It is quite amazing how creative the Diggerland team have been at coming up with weird and wonderful ways to use diggers and construction machines as family entertainment.

There are high adrenaline thrill seeker rides such as Spin Dizzy which literally spins its passengers around in a circle at top speed (and really is not the faint of heart, Jon was pretty queasy after riding this but our 4 year old was screaming for more and wanted to go again!!) - and the jaw-dropping Sky Shuttle which takes passengers up 50 feet in the air! I, being terrified of heights, was too much of a whimp to ride this but Jon, Tyne & Noah all went up and reported that the views across Devon were spectacular!





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