The Doctor Who Experience - Cardiff

Now I am not a huge Doctor Who fan but everybody else in our house LOVES it. Especially my 6 year old who is a bit of a doctor who geek. When the doctor who experience opened in Cardiff last year, I knew it was a trip I wanted us to make!

The drive to Cardiff is Long! It took 8 hours to get there. We stayed in the premier inn South Cardiff which was a bargain at £29 per room (bought in the sale). The hotel had free parking and was only £5 in a taxi (or a 30 minute walk) to the city centre which made its location ideal as city centre parking can be expensive and a nightmare!

We pre-booked our tickets on-line and they cost £13 per adult and £9 per child. Under 5's were free so for us, this was very good value for money! The experience is signposted throughout Cardiff bay and the kids loved finding the way by following special dalek signposts.

Tours set off every 20 minutes. We arrived a little early for our allocatwd time slot. There are a few displays in reception and a machine where you can make your own doctor who penny which kept us amused while we were waiting.

The first part of the tour lasts about 20 minutes and is a fully interactive experience. First of all we watched a short doctor who film under the watchful eye of a dalek hiding in the shadow in the corner of the room! We all kept an eye on him! Then the screen we were watching magically opened up and we entered an old museum. Suddenly, the doctor himself appeared on a tv screen in the room and started talking to us and then the tardis magically appeared in the room from nowhere! The doctor told us to quickly make our way into the tardis! I've got to say, it was all very realistic and the kids were thrilled and absolutely loved it!

The doctor again appeared on the screen inside the tardis and everybody was instructed to take a control of a certain part of the tardis (we were diagnostics). As a team we then 'flew' the tardis which involved lots of sound effects, flashing lights and moving floors. Kids were in their element!

However, something went wrong and the tardis landed in a dalek spaceship! We were chased from the tardis by real daleks and ended up in their control room. Pretty quickly we were surrounded by daleks and we got pretty close to being exterminated (this part might be a little scary for very small children but my 2 year old and 4 year old managed it well). Fortunately, the doctor himself came to our rescue and we escaped by running theough a corridor full of weeping angels in which we were warned not to blink!

Our interactive experience ended with a 4D film featuring enemies of the doctor and I've got to say I jumped a few times! The interactive part of the museum was absolutely fantastic. Everything was realistic and my children believed everything was happening to them. 

The second part of the doctor who experience is a more traditional museum full of real props that are actually used on set. I've been dragged to a few doctor who exhibitions in my time and this is hands down the best collection I have seen. You can get pretty close as well. They do ask you not to touch though as the props are still in use! In fact David Tennant had paid the museum a visit just a few weeks before to film a few scenes with the tardis.

There are some nice interactive parts of the exhibit to keep the children entertained - we had a few photo's taken using props (£15 for 2 pictures), we all had a turn of standing inside a real dalek and controlling it ourselves and used a dalek and cyberman voice changer to record out own voices.

As usual, you have to exit through the gift shop! There was a large selection of memeobilia on sale and something for everyone. Some things were over priced (£50 for a doctor who scarf!!) however some things were reasonable we settled for a doctor who mug, DVD, doctor who bag and 2 talking daleks which came to just over £30 and are a nice memory of our trip.

So......if you have a doctor who fan in your family I would whole-heatedly recommend a visit to the doctor who museum in Cardiff. Even a fair weather fan like myself would enjoy it. I only wish we could have stayed in Cardiff a little longer as it was a beautiful city and there was a lot on offer for a family to enjoy.

Longleat - the attractions

Our trip to Longleat Safari Park was simply amazing. We crammed so much in!

Now at £95 for a family of 4 (plus one free under 3), Longleat is certainly not the cheapest of attractions. It is still cheaper than most UK theme parks though, and I think it's a lot better value. Mainly due to the no queuing!

We arrived just before opening time at 10am as wanted to make the most of our day. We didn't have any real plan of action, apart from leaving the safari until the end. First of all we stumbled across the Jungle Kingdom which was full of many weird and wonderful small animals. The highlight for us was the meerkat walk through and my daughter squealed with delight as meerkats were running around her feet. I have never seen her so excited! The thing that impressed me most about Longleat was how close you can get to the animals and how interactive they were.

Next up was the monkey temple, and again the tiny marmosets were allowed to run free around you in the enclosure. We were able to get really close. The Lorikeets were also here and we were able to purchase a small tub of nectar for £1 to feed them. The kids loved this, at one point my son had 5 birds on him!

The first jungle express train left the station at 11am so we dashed to collect it. This is a lovely little steam train that takes you past the lake containing sealions and pelicans and you can also catch a glimpse of the gorilla's from the train if you are lucky (we were!) The train only took 15 minutes but my 2 year old especially enjoyed it.

From the train we decided to take the jungle cruise. There was only a 10minute wait for the next boat which is the longest we'd waited all day. We posed for the obligatory photos (which at £15 we did not buy!) and were entertained by the ducks and a turkey while we waited! The cruise was lovely. First it passes the hippo's and then takes you to Gorilla island to see the Gorilla's but the highlight for us was the sealions. You can purchase a cup of fish for £1 and feed the sealions from the side of the boat. They were so funny and entertaining and my children loved how they would jump and splash us. This was definitely a highlight for us. We had a guide for the cruise who provided us with fun and interesting facts and also encouraged questions from the children which was nice.

Next, my 6 year old dragged us to the bat cave. I was a bit scared of going in here but put on a brave face for my daughter who was also a bit worried! I did not need to worry though. Apart from the 2 bats that flew a bit too close to our faces as we walked in, the bat cave was actually fine and they were really interesting to watch hanging upside down from the ropes. They were bigger in real life than I expected! We had a giggle at the sign at the exit stating 'check yourself for bats'

We needed to calm down after the bat experience so decided to have lunch in the orangery restaurant. The setting was beautiful - think palm trees and floor to ceiling windows looking out onto manicured lawns. We certainly paid for he view though - £35 for 3Xkids sandwiches, Pom bears and juice. 2xadult sandwiches and hot drinks! Than works out at £7 a head! We did expect it to be expensive though and you can take a picnic if you like.

After lunch we found ourselves wandering the animal adventure zone - which is a bit like a petting farm with animals and guinea pigs you can stroke. There was also a wonderful butterfly house in this area which was home to thousands of beautiful butterflies. They also had the cocoons of various sizes on display. This place was amazing and a photographers dream. They also had some leaf cutting ants on display and you could use magnifying glasses to see the ants up close. You exit the butterfly house into the animal handling zone, where you can stroke more exotic animals such as iguanas.

We were now ready to attempt the maze! It is advertised as the biggest maze in the UK and I think I underestimated how hard it was going to be! The kids really enjoyed it and were in fits of giggles when we kept passing the same landmarks over and over again but I was getting frustrated at just going around in circles for what seemed like forever! Luckily, a kind man pointed us in the right direction and after about 30mins we found a quick exit. Phew!

We headed straight for the deer valley where you could buy deer food for £1 (you guessed it) and hand feed the deers. The deers that are kept at Longleat are actually extinct in the wild which is sad.

The kids were dying to try out the adventure castle and the sun was shining so we headed here for half an hour so they could let off steam. It is basically an adventure playground but on a huge scale. There was a lot to do from climbing rope walls, zooming on a zip wire to playing in the water zone. This area could be an attraction in itself! There is even a coffee kiosk and plenty of benches for mum and dad to enjoy a much needed break.

As we were heading towards our car ready for the safari, we had to do the obligatory gift shop visit! The kids had some spending money from their grandma and were itching to spend it. In the end we purchased a snake soft toy, a gorilla soft toy, a giraffe and tiger beany baby, 2 animal 'slap' bracelets, 3 pairs of binoculars, 2 fridge magnets, 2 animal noise makers, 3 postcards, a mood ring and a car sticker for £50 which wasn't bad.

There were quite a bit of the Longleat attractions we didn't explore - either because we didn't feel they were appropriate or we didn't have time. These included the simulator, hunters in the sky show, parrot show, Longleat house and the small fairground.

All in all though we had a fantastic 5 hours exploring this part of the adventure park. No queuing, a surprise around every corner and lots of interaction made it worth the ticket price for these attractions alone. Longleat was the best family attraction I have ever visited!

Family weekend away - peppa pig world

Everybody who has a pre-schooler will be well acquainted with peppa pig. In summer 2011 I had 3 pre- schoolers who all adored peppa pig! We decided the loooong trip to peppa pig world at Paulton's park near Southampton would be worth it. At this time, my children wed aged 4, 2 and 9 months and it seemed to be the perfect time to go.

Newcastle to Southampton is a very long drive! We broke the journey up by staying at the De Vere Village hotel in Swindon and in all honesty the journey was not too bad.

If booked in advance, a ticket for a family of 4 costs £86 and under 1's are admitted free of charge. Your admission includes access to the whole of Paulton's park, zoo and of course peppa pig world.

Near the entrance, there are large lockers available to hire which were perfect for us as we still had quite a lot of baby equipment to carry around in those days and we had packed a picnic to try and keep costs down. Everybody parked their buggys outside the ride queues and there didn't seem to be any problems.

Peppa pig world is AMAZING! The whole park is themed so as well as the obvious rides such as the balloon ride and helicopter ride there are lots of other parts to enjoy - mr potato's playground was a great way to let off steam, you can jump in muddy puddles (change of clothes a good idea!), 'recycle' in the indoor softplay centre and stop for an ice-cream in Miss. rabbit's ice- cream parlour. There are also various places to stop for photo's in various peppa themed buildings such as the school and peppa's house - they can be taken professionally and you are allowed to take your own.

The ride's are very family friendly with grown up's being allowed on them all and accompanied baby's on most. That means that nobody is left out. We went on a bank holiday weekend and at the most queued for 30 minutes per ride. Our favourite rides were the balloon ride and grandpa's little train.

Your day is broken up with meet and greet's from peppa and George who pop onto a stages area at various points for a sing song and to wave hello throughout the day.

We spent most of the day at peppa pig world but on our way home had a few rides on the carousel in Paulton's park and had a quick look around the zoo.

No trip to a theme park is complete without a trip to the gift shop. I have honestly never seen so much themed toys in one place! Although a few pounds more expensive than amazon, it was great letting the children pick a few toys with their spending money (and they still get played with almost 2 years on)

If you have children under 4, a trip to peppa pig world will delight them! I would definitely recommend a visit.