SplashZone Review

When I was told about SplashZone at Gulliver’s Dinosaur and Farm Park, I must admit I thought ‘well here’s just another indoor water park’ but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The thing about SplashZone is that it has very obviously been designed and thought about by parents for parents.  I took my 20 month old nephew with me and dragged along my husband as well to see how we’d all cope with this new experience. My nephew loves water and I think that definitely helped but it’s a great way to introduce children to the concept of water without having to throw them in at the deep end, if you’ll pardon the pun!

The concept of SplashZone is basically to get all the fun of playing in water without actually having to go swimming, which is a novel way of getting wet and ‘splashing’ about. When you arrive you pay your entry fee, £5.75 per child and £2.50 per adult for a session which lasts two hours (very good value) and you are given a wristband to wear which my nephew took off as soon as I put it on him. Then you head off to the changing rooms.

Now at this point I should explain something. If your child or children are old enough then you as the responsible adult don’t actually have to get wet at all; you don’t even need to change out of the clothes you arrive in. The idea is there is no standing water, so it is completely safe for children to play in and around. Being 20 months old we figured that my nephew probably needed a bit of supervision, so while I stayed dry my husband bit the bullet and changed into his swimming trunks. Once we’d got my nephew changed into his swimming nappy and trunks, we headed out the main SplashZone area.

The best way to describe it is the most amazing, colourful array of sprays, slides, squirts, fountains and splashes you will ever see (and be able to run though without an official looking person in a uniform telling you to get out). My husband and nephew headed off to play and splash about, and I was able to sit comfortably on the sidelines, able to keep an eye on proceedings without ever getting wet. They both thoroughly enjoyed themselves, running through the water, trying to catch the water, jumping in the puddles and whizzing down the slides. There are different types of sprays and slides to explore depending on the age and the confidence of the children. My nephew stayed around the milder ones, but the older children who were also there were enjoying everything on offer. One of the best features for many of the older kids was the huge bucket high up in the air which filled from a pipe overhead. Once it was full, which you couldn’t actually tell as it was so high, the level of the water made the whole thing turned over and dumped all its water (which was a lot) on the platform below. The older children spent a great deal of time trying judge exactly when it would turn over and getting the full force of the huge splash right on the top of their little heads.

My nephew managed about 45 minutes before he looked a little tired and possibly a bit bored having tried everything on offer, but many of the older children who were there when we arrived looked like they could have still been there until it shut for night.

Now this is the beauty of the whole experience. Any parent who knows the feeling of coming out of a public swimming pool on your own with a tired, cold, grumpy and wet child who you now have to try and dry and change while you stand there dripping wet and very cold yourself, will appreciate the fact that as you don’t actually have to get wet in SplashZone. My wet nephew was handed to me in a towel, I dried him down and got him changed while my husband, got changed himself. Ten minutes and we were all done – simply wonderful.

We all headed off, after remembering to hand in our wrist bands, to have a well deserved drink and snack in the onsite café, and we even bought my nephew a small toy in the gift shop; well, 
that’s what aunties and uncles do don’t they!

Summary
We loved our SplashZone experience and will definitely be going back. For parents, guardians, grandparents, aunties, uncles, friends or family – this a great idea that allows you to either enjoy the fun with the children or sit back and watch them tire themselves out on their own or with siblings or friends. A fantastic idea for a good value after school treat, a weekend afternoon out or you can even have a birthday party there – as a child you can be sure to get very wet and as an adult you can be sure to have very tired children which can never be a bad thing!

Ratings:

Value for money: 9/10

Level of fun: 8/10

Parental experience: 9/10

To visit the official SplashZone website - CLICK HERE