A rainy day - Lego Discovery Manchester

As I mentioned in my previous post, A rainy day- Sealife Manchester, we had heard some pretty bad reviews about the Manchester Lego Discovery Centre.  However, before going I had done my research into what to expect and, as Lego fans, we decided that no matter what we would probably have a great time.

The Lego Discovery Centre is just a few steps away from the Sea Life centre, so we decided to go straight away.  When we got there at around 1.30 pm there was no queue.

We scanned in and asked if we would like an activity pack costing £4. For this you got a Lego Lanyard, 2 pop badges and an activity book.  Titch was less interested in the book, which actually we thought was pretty good, and just wanted it for the lanyard and the pops.

As with the Sea life, at the start of the Lego tour, there is a photo opportunity. Once again we declined and the staff we extremely pleasant and we passed through.  Often people feel compelled to have their photo taken, but if you do not ant yours and you are not intending on buying them the best policy is to be polite and decline.
Once through we you then go onto a short 5 minute factory tour. One thing to remember here is that it is aimed at kids, so yes it is a bit cheesy, but the kids do a get a lego piece at the end.

Once your factory tour is over you are inside the main centre where you will find Miniland. Now although Miniland is not that big we were impressed by the sculptures that we had not seen before such as Blackpool Tower and, of course, for us thrill seekers a boring Oblivion.  Titch even did the voice over.

We then enter into the Lego centre were there was lots to do including, building with Lego, of course, a 4D cinema, stop motion movies, climbing wall, soft play, rides, a cafe and a workshop.

As we were aiming to leave around 4 pm to go and eat we decided not to do everything today.  Titch , and the Husband,  choose to make a movie, watch the 4D show, build with Lego and complete the climbing wall.

We all had 2 hours of fun, making models, testing our cars on the ramps, creating a space movie.
Titch even got to meet a character just before we left.
There was so much that we could have done that we could have stayed at least another 2 hours, but then again WE LOVE LEGO.


If you and your children love Lego as much a we do then it is definitely worth it, if your child is not particularly interested in making models then it probably is not the place for you.

We will definitely be going again on another rainy day - which I am sure we will get plenty of.

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A rainy day - Sea Life Centre Manchester

With the weather predictions of rain for most of the country today, we decided that we would get out our Merlin Passes and head for something indoors. We had already been to the Sealife Centre in Blackpool and really enjoyed it so we thought we would try the Sealife in Manchester, and because we all love Lego in our house we would partner it up with a visit to the Lego Discovery Centre next door.

Before going the Husband and I had read and heard some not great reviews about both places, but we are pretty open minded and normally end up liking places others don't so thought we may as well give them a try.  Maybe if we had to pay out right to go to them we would have been put off by these reviews and not gone.  However, we are glad that we did.

We arrived at the Sealife Centre around 12 pm and queued up in the queue for annual pass holders and pre booked tickets.  The queue was not too long and we were in about 5 minutes later.  A queue then formed for photographs that most Merlin attractions do at the beginning and during the tour.  As we did not want a photograph taken, we politely said no and the staff had no problems with this.
After a wait of around 4 minutes we were ushered into a room called Turtle Bay where there was a short talk on Sea turtles.

After the talk we then entered into the main viewing areas. The initial part was crowed and queues to look into tanks formed, but as we began to walk further around these queues dispersed, and, although it was quite busy, it did not feel overcrowded or cramped.
There was an array of tanks offering information on different  under water creatures, and at times there were dive stations where children could answer questions and collect stamps - which at the end would result in a prize of a pop badge.

After viewing some of the large tanks and spending a considerable amount of time watching the Stingrays, we came across a small lego area where you could make a model sea creature or , like we did, create a small tile to complete a mosaic that Sealife Manchester are currently making.  There re also some large lego pieces in different tanks as currently there is a competition to find them all and at the end you receive a Lego Minifigure Diver - the Husband was very keen to do this and claimed the Minifigure for himself.

Unlike Blackpool Sealife centre, Manchester also provide a small indoor play area.  Titch enjoyed a 10 minute play in here to burn of a bit of energy.
There were also interactive games showing the skeleton of different sea life creatures that we had not experienced before.



Titch also enjoyed touching a star fish and fire shrimps. However, he was disappointed that there was no pop badge for this like there was in Blackpool.

In total we spent around 1.5 hours inside the Sea life Centre. Because we are Merlin Pass holders I can not say whether I felt like it was value for money. However, what I would say is that it is worth booking in advance online and if you are also interested in going to Lego Discovery too then I would purchase the Combi ticket.

If you and your children enjoy looking at Sea life and spend time reading the information, talking to staff, taking part in the challenges and listening to the talks you could easily spent a couple of hours here, and it is definitely worth the visit.

Clip n' Climb

So the holidays are here and now we have the challenge of filling 6 weeks with of activities to keep Titch entertained.  One of the main things that we have to consider having a child with ADHD is giving him opportunity to get out all his energy.  We often go to parks or areas where he can run around.  Titch particularly enjoys physical activities and loves climbing, jumping, spinning and hanging upside down - like most kids.

Recently there has been an increase in our local area of play centres, climbing walls and trampolining parks, so we decided to take Titch and two of his friends to a local climbing centre called Clip n' Climb.

Cost: £12 each for 60 minute session and an extra £2.50 if you want to do the vertical slide.

You need to arrive 15 minutes before your visit and the children are given a safety talk before they then enter the climbing arena.  Parents are allowed to join their children in the arena as long as they also attend the safety talk.  If you do not wish to go into the arena there is a small cafe up stairs where you can watch the children climb.

On arrival we were impressed with the variety of walls that they had on offer, and some looked pretty challenging.  As Titch and his friends are older enough we did not go on the safety talk and inside watched from the viewing gallery.

For the whole 60 minutes the children are freely allowed to climb using the safety harnesses that they were shown to use. There were plenty of staff members around to help children who were struggling and support those who were less confident.  One of Titch's friends went a little too high for her liking and couldn't get down. One staff member climbed up to her and with some encouragement she came down safely.  This then encouraged her to try it again and this time she came down all on her own.

Although half way through the 60 minutes another group joined the arena, it did not feel full or over crowded,and the children only had short waits between climbs. Additional staff were also added to the arena at this point so that there was a good ratio of staff to children.

Clip 'n climb was definitely worth the money for the hour that they children spent there. They came out exhausted and ready for some lunch and couldn't stop talking about it all the way home.  Not only did it give them their daily exercise but it also helped develop their confidence.

Trip to London: Day Three Hampton Court Palce

Day Three: Our last day and the day we were to come home.  Being the 'travelling day' we decided on a quieter, less thrill seeker day and decided to visit Hampton Court Palace - a place that I have always wanted to visit.  The night before we looked on line to book tickets and purchased the years Palace pass for a family as it was only £40 more than a day pass, and we knew we would use the pass later in the year when we visit London in August.

We we arrive we collected our annual passes and then headed straight for the maze which Titch was desperate to do.

On the way to the maze you walk through the rose gardens and these are stunning. It did help that it was such a glorious day, but I could have spent ages walked around just taking pictures of the roses.

The maze was great fun, and we all enjoyed getting lost and then eventually succeeding in finding the centre. We then had to find our way out, to which Titch asked if we could use Sat Nav - not sure it would work!

We then headed inside to explore the Palace and the rooms. There was so much to see and do. Titch even got to turn the roast beef that was cooking on the open fire. The smell was amazing.  There were staff all around dressed up, in character, who you could talk to and ask questions.

The grounds at the back of the palace were amazing. We had brought ourselves a picnic and sat under the trees just admiring the view whilst we ate.

We only managed to spend around 3 hours here, but could have easily spend double that, so hopefully we will get to go again.

We have so many beautiful places in this country and luckily when the weather is good as it has been these places just come to life.  

Paradise Island - Mini Golf

So today was a bit of a miserable wet and windy day.  we had originally planned on going to the National Space Centre in Leicester ,but as we made our way onto the A50 we soon realised that the 1.5hr journey was going to take at least 3 hours due to an accident. Not wanting to sit in the traffic with a hungry teenager we decided to head to Derby Intu centre for Lunch and a round of Mini Golf.


We expected it to be busier with it being a rainy day but after lunch we headed over to the indoor mini gold - Paradise Island.  There were two course that you could choose from: Shark Bay or Mermaid Rock. Prices were reasonable at £8.50 per adult and £6.50 per child. If you chose to play on both courses it worked out cheaper, but knowing our son one course would be enough.

We decided to complete the Mermaid Rock course. The course was well laid out and well designed,  We didn't feel any need to rush, but I suppose if it was busier this might have felt different.  There are 18 hole to complete - some easy and some not so easy.  In all we spent around 1hour in there and we all had a bit of fun.

Our review:
A great indoor activity for a rainy day with friends and family.  It is well designed and well laid out.  There was no pressure to buy extra games from staff and they were extremely helpful.