London: Sealife Centre

We have already visited two of Merlin's Sealife centres at Blackpool and Manchester and thought that both of these were great, but then again we all love anything to do with sea life and never get bored of seeing the same things over and over.  Knowing how good the other Sea life have been, we decided to pre book our time slot for the Sea life Centre when doing the London eye with it being in the same area.

Our time slot was fro 5.15pm and we got there at around 5.00pm. There were no queues so we went straight in.  Like all other Merlin Sea life centres there are photograph opportunities all the way around.  You can skip these and all the staff are extremely pleasant when you say that you don't want your photo taken.

One thing that we did love at the start of the London sealife centre was the glass floor that was above the Shark tank.  We thought that this was a great way to start the tour. In the other sea life centres there have been booklets that the children get to collect stamps as they go around. If this was available there we didn't see it, but this time as a treat we did treat Titch to the Ranger Pack at a cost of £4.  This kept him busy on the way around and searching for facts. He particularly enjoyed using the magnifying glass to look closer at the animal.  For Titch this added to his experience as rather than just walking pass each exhibition he was keen to look closer.

Although it was busy, it was much calmer than our previous trip to Madame Tussauds. The only queue that we encountered was when going through the tunnel.

As with the other Sealife centres, there was plenty to see.  Now maybe because of the time we went, we did not see or hear of any talks that normally occur in sea life centres, in actual fact there was not many staff around.  This did not ruin the experience as we read all of the information that we wanted too.

Titch enjoys anything interactive so enjoyed playing the Jelly fish game which is something that is not at the other Sealife Centres.

We also enjoyed seeing the penguins, although most were asleep.  

In total we spent around 1.5 hours in there which is about the average time we have spent in any Sealife Centre.  As Merlin pass holders it is obviously worth going too, but if I was a paying customer I am not sure if it would be worth the money unless we had some sort of discount or deal - which they do for the London Merlin Attractions (5 attractions for £55) 

London: The London Eye River Cruise

Before going to London we had read on the Merlin Pass holder Facebook group about the London Eye River Cruise.  As pass holders you get 50% discount - which is pretty good.  We booked the River Cruise that afternoon and were given the 6:45pm cruise slot.  If you want an earlier time then I would definitely recommend that you head down the the South Bank Pier in the morning.

We arrived on the Pier at 6.30pm, to a queue that was already extremely long, and most must have been queuing up since 6pm. As there was already quite a considerable number of people in front, we knew that we weren't going to get a seat up on top deck - this did disappoint Titch but we assured him that we would still get a good view from below. So if you definitely want to be up top I would recommend getting there 30-45 minutes before your departure time.

The cruise lasted 45 minutes going from Westminster down to the The Tower of London and back.  And although we had been to London many times before, and knew about some of the monuments that the guide told us about, we also learned some new things too. You also get to see these monuments from a different perspective on the Thames. Being downstairs did not ruin the experience. We still got to see the sights and took some great photos.

I would though recommend sitting on the left downstairs,  as when you get to Tower bridge the boat turns left which gives you a good view of Tower Bridge (see photo), where as if you were on the right you would not have been able to see this.

We paid just over £16 for 2 adults and a child and think that it is definitely worth the money for something different to do in London.

London: The London Eye and Southbank

Having been London many times before, we have also been on the London Eye Many times too, during the day and in the evening, but never as a Merlin Pass holder until today.

The Southbank area was extremely busy when we arrived at 1.30pm.  Following the advice of other Merlin Pass holders we had pre-booked all of our London Merlin attractions before hand.  We could have waited until we had got there, but there is no guarantee that you will be able to go on at the time you want.

When we arrived, before we got onto the London Eye, we wanted to book the London Eye River Cruise as recommended by others.  To book you have to walk pass the London Eye to the pier. There was a queue but it moved quite quickly.  We did want to do the cruise in-between the times we had booked for the Eye and London Sealife, but the next available time was not until 6:45pm so we booked this instead.

As with Madame Tussauds, we found that staff were unsure where we had to queue up if we had Merlin Passes and Pre booked times, as one gentleman told us that we needed to go inside to collect tickets.  This is not the cases, you simply go to the fast track queue show your pre-booked tickets and Merlin cards and you enter the queue.  Our time slot was booked for 2.30pm but we decided to go over at 2.15pm and they were happy to let us in as the normal and fast track queue do merge.  I would definitely recommend pre booking, as it was extremely busy and the queue to book time slots was long.
Titch loved the London Eye once again, and it is something that none of us get bored of each time we try to spot things that we hadn't before.

After getting off the London Eye, we had a couple of hours until we needed to be at the Sealife Centre.  We decided not to do Shrek as it was heaving nor the Dungeons, I am a wimp, so instead we walked down the Thames enjoying the street entertainment, had some lunch and then Titch played on the climbing area behind the London Eye.  And of course a cheeky Ice-cream to cool us down.  😉

Titch loved watch the street entertainment and then further down under the South Bank Centre the skateboarders at the skate park- free entertainment to kill some time between Merlin attractions.

London: Madame Tussauds

Having already visited MT in Blackpool, we were hoping that MT London was going to be better, and it didn't disappoint.

We had pre-booked our tickets the day before as were wanted to get there at around 10.00am for our first attraction of the day.  We arrived in Marylebone from Baker Street tube station a little early at 9.30am, but hoped we would be able to queue to go in as already the queues were building up outside.  Although the staff outside were very helpful we found that they all did not know where we needed to queue up.  Initially we were told to queue up at door 2, another gentlemen told us we needed to collect our pre booked tickets,  finally when in the queue for tickets we asked another girl who said that we didn't need to queue up instead we needed to go through fast track.  Once we got to fast track we were straight through - no queues at all.

Once inside, we realised how busy it was. You could hardly move in the first room.  There was lots of pushing for photos, for many of the Wax figures people tried to make queues but others pushed in.  There was one organised queue for pictures with Harry and Megan which was quite long.

After the initial room the queue, pushing and chaos did seem to reduce.  There was the odd family of 10 who thought they were above the rest still... patience was definitely required.

Having already seen the Wax figures at Blackpool, we did feel that the ones at London were better. They looked more realistic and the variety was good too. 

We all also enjoyed the extras in London: the Cab ride and the 4D cinema. 

The cab ride was a great way to learn more about the history of London and was a welcomed rested from the crowds, as was the 4D experience. 

At the end there is a shop where you can collect your pop badges if you are collecting them.  We did buy pin badges so not sure if you have to buy something to get them though.  

Although it was busier and crazier than the Blackpool MT, I think we all prefer the London one.  There was so much to see and do that all of us were kept entertained throughout the whole experience.  In all we spent about 2.5 hours here but I would say that you could spend more or less depending on how many figure you want to see. 

If I could given any advice, it would be: 

1) Pre book your time slot if you are a Merlin pass Holder 

2) Buy your drinks from inside (2 bottles for £3) rather than from the stall outside (£2 per bottle) 

3) Make sure you are patient 

4) Use Tube at Baker Street - right next door 

5) Do not go in the holidays if you are easily annoyed by rude people 😂 (like me) 

Thorpe Park Lates - Why it was worth it

As previously mentioned Titch, the Husband and I had previously visited Thorpe Park in May. This time, however, we visited in the late evening and stayed on for Love Island Lates.

We travelled down from Stoke -on -Trent earlier that day as we Thorpe Park was one of the many things that we had planned to do in London over our 4 night stay. Reminder to all Merlin Passholders - MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER YOUR PASSES. Yes we forgot ours and it wasn't until we had drove along the M6 toll and were on the M42 when we realised.  Luckily we had left early so we headed back along the M6 to fetch them. A lesson was definitely learnt.

We arrived at Thorpe Park around 4.30 and ,as it had been raining that morning, the park was relatively quiet, with the queues for most of the Thrill rides around 5 - 20 minutes, except for Colossus which was over an hour! 

We headed for Swarm first with it being the ride furthest away from the rest and with the queue time at 5 minutes. As we hadn't been since May,  I had completely forgotten what it was like. The ride feels much slower than other Thrill rides especially compared to The Smiler at Alton Towers, but it is so smooth and I think the slowness of the rides adds to the Thrill as each turn and loop is experienced in what feels like slow motion rather than at great speed.  Titch wanted to do Swarm again later  as we left. And I have to say riding swarm in the dark was definitely an experience - we also got to ride it 3 times in the space of 10 minutes as there was no queue.  For the final ride of the night we switched sides and went over the bridge; Titch was sat on the inside and I was sat on the outside and we were in the 2nd row - never again will I ride in that seat. Now I am normally fine on most rides , except spinning ones, but that seat with the first turn from the top made me ever so queasy and I screamed the whole way around. Titch and the Husband thought that this was hilarious.

After Swarm we made our way around to the main area of the park. This is the one thing that we really like about Thorpe park - everything is so close, so the walk between rides is shorter meaning you can, in theory, get onto more rides.  We headed to Stealth - one of our favourite rides - and queued for about 5 minutes.  As we love it  so much we decided to go back on it later at around 8.30 just before dusk and the view was spectacular - if you can keep your eyes open.  Making our way anti -clock wise around the park we noticed that the other Thrill rides such as Nemesis, Saw etc were over 30 minutes waiting time so we headed for Rush and Vortex before heading to Pizza Pasta for tea.  

Now having ate here on our last visit to Thorpe park we knew what to expect. This time as it was after 5pm, Titch was free and the Husband and I were £10 each - which we thought was a great deal.  Inside it was clear that the staff were trying their best to keep it clean and tidy; however, it did feel particularly dirty at that time of night. The pizzas were good and there was still plenty of choice with fresh ones coming out still every few minutes or so.  

Luckily after tea the queue time for Colossus had reduce from 70 minutes to 10 minutes, so we headed straight there. Now being a plus size lady, I am always nervous before getting onto rides, as I had to do the walk of shame once and it was awful.  Having read about Colossus before this was the one ride that I was most nervous about my weight. Unfortunately there were loads of teenagers messing around by the tester seat so I decided to just get in the queue and give it a go.   Unfortunately, the belt just would not click, so yes I had to do the walk of shame.  But this time, I did not cry, instead I held my head up and just shook it off.  To cheer me up we then decided to go onto Nemesis - no queueing required.  

If it hadn't have been advertised as Love Island Lates I would not have known that it opening to till 10 had anything to do with Love Island.  We did walk pass the beach area where there was music playing but there was only a few people on it.  Other than not there was no other indication that it had anything to do with Love Island. 

We all thoroughly enjoyed our evening at Thorpe Park. It was quiet, we got on all the rides we wanted to multiple times and got to ride Swarm in the dark - a great evening had for our first night in London.  We only wish that Alton Towers would do more late nights in the Summer too. 

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.

Trip to London: Day Two Thorpe Park

Day Two and Thorpe Park were on the cards. This is the one that Titch and the Husband had been looking forward the most. As it was somewhere that we may not go to again this year we decide to treat ourselves to fastback passes as we knew that the queues had been long all week and wanted to make the most of the day that we had.

Thorpe Park and having the fast passes did not disappoint us at all. We loved it! The first thing that we noticed was that everything was so close together. this meant that the walk between rides did not take off riding time. Using the fast track passes we managed to complete most of the big rides (apart from the water ones and swarm) and a few smaller rides before Lunch.

Now we are all thrill ride lovers and this is definitely a thrill ride lovers dream.  Each ride was different and exhilarating in its own way.

The only ride that we were all disappointed in was Derren Brown's Ghost Train. We had read so many great things about it and the ride just did not live up to the hype. Luckily with the fast track we only waited 10 minutes but some people had been in the queue for over 1.5 hours.

For lunch we ate a Pasta, Pizza Buffet and found this reasonably priced. The food was warm and tasty and the restaurant was as clean as it could bee seen as the tables were all full.  For a theme park place to eat it was okay.

In the afternoon we spent the time re doing the rides we enjoyed the most (Nemesis Inferno for me) and riding the ones we hadn't done - leaving the water rides till last, and we are glad that we did. After being drenched on Tidal Wave, we then spent an hour on the beach whilst Titch played in the Water and on the slides.

We all loved Thorpe Park and would recommend it if you are a thrill seeker like us.

Trip to London: Day One Chessington

London... we love this place and have been so many times in the past few years. This time we planned to visit the theme parks for a short break away so decided to stay on the outskirts of London. We booked 3 nights in a Premier inn in Sudbury and it was perfect for the places that we wanted to visit.  

Day One: 

Chessington World of Adventure. We had heard that the parking could be a bit of a nightmare so we chose to book premium parking for £10 the night before. This meant that we were not too far from the entrance and were parked on tarmac rather than in a field.  We arrive a little too early at 9.00 but they opened the gates around 9.45 ready for the rides to open at 10.  

Never being Chessington before we were a little disorientated at first and found it difficult to find where we wanted to go to but we soon got to grips with the map and found our way to Vampire. the queue was a little longer that advertised but we expected a wait.  Vampire was a greta start to the day, a little rickety but overall a great ride.  

The boys then headed to the pirate ship.  And OMG I am so glad I did not go on it with them.  It was brutal. Even the Husband looked a bit green after. 

We then spent the rest of the morning on other rides such as the dogems,  Cobra ( which is now our favourite Chessington ride) before heading of to the Smoke House for lunch. This is when things went down bank. We order our food, which looked amazing, and was just about to pay when all the power went down.  It wasn't anyones fault and there was nothing they could do but the power was out in the whole park.  The staff were attentive and helpful bring out water to customers all over the park, but they could not give an estimated time when the rides would be up and running.  Instead of leaving like most customers we decided to stay on and visit the animals, including the sealife.  And by the time we had done this some rides were back up and running, and the park was empty. 

We love Chessington and hopefully will return again for another day trip out - it's just a bit too far in one day for the Husband to drive to, but I maybe able to convince him.  

A Blackpool Day trip

Blackpool, some people love it and some people hate it.  And I totally understand why. There are some run down parts which are not appealing to the eye and there is definitely a stigma attached too.  Despite this Blackpool is a traditional British Holiday resort and it is easy to see why so many of us flock here each year. Ice creams, Candy-floss, the beach, Fish and chips, arcades, rides, donkeys - what more could you ask for!

The husband and I hadn't been Blackpool since we were kids ,but thought that we would take full advantage of our Merlin Passes and head to Blackpool for the day.  And just like we use to do when we were kids, the first one to spot the Tower won. 

We arrived in Blackpool at around 9.50am and decided to park behind the Coral Island Amusements for the day costing us £12 for 12 hours which we though was reasonable seen as it was a pretty good location.  

With our Merlin passes it entitled us to free entry to the Dungeons, Blackpool Tower, Blackpool Circus, Jungle Jims, Blackpool Ballroom, Sealife Centre and Madame Tussauds.  Not wanting to cram too much into one day we decided to leave the dungeons, Jungle Jims and the Ballroom for another time.  

We had read online that it was essential to book the circus in the morning so we headed there straight away for opening at 10.00am. We booked our tickets for the 4.00pm show and upgraded to front row seats which included pop corn and a drink.  

We then decided to explore the other sites.  

Our first stop was Madame Tussauds and there were no queues on entry - even inside was pretty quite. We took our time explore the wax figures, reading about the different stars. Titch loved having his photograph taken with different Wax figures especially some of his favourite Marvel characters.  We had a drink in the Rovers half way around and then continued through to the end. I would say we spent about 1.5hours inside but could have spent longer in some parts. As it was pretty quite we managed to get photos with many different wax figures and take part in some of the interactive games. The only downside to Madame Tussauds is the photographs. Now whilst they maybe a great souvenir it can become expensive if you choose to buy them seen as we were stoped at least 5 times throughout the tour.  My advice would be that if you don't intend to buy them then be polite and say no thank you when they ask you to have them done. 

After visiting Madame Tussauds we moved next door to the Sea life centre, and I have to say that we were all really impressed by it. We spent just over an hour in here but missed some of the talks as it was lunch and we were all getting hungry.  the saline centre was spacious and had lots of interactive sections including Touching a Starfish.  Titch and his friend enjoyed stamping their books and receiving pop badges at the end.  The staff inside were friendly and informative and did not mind spending a few minute or so answering our questions.  This is definitely a place that we would revisit.  

For lunch we decided against taking a picnic and inside set our sights on chips from the promenade.

Lunch cost around £10 for 4 meals and 4 drinks - which we thought was reasonable considering we were on the fronts.

I had to order the chips in a bucket and this is how they came, in their own little bucket with a spade.

After lunch we still had some time to spare before the circus so we decided to go up Blackpool Tower, which made me slightly nervous.  Before you go up there is a 4d experience that we thoughts was great and then you are escorted to the lifts that take you up to the top.  These made me a little nervous but the view going up was spectacular.

At the top there is an inside viewing platform with a glass floor. Titch and the Husband were straight onto it; I, however was a little more scared and it took em awhile to step on- it was a long way down.

You then had the option to climb up more steps on the outside.  I did manage another two floors but did not go to the top.


Although a little scared at first, I really enjoyed the experience and would probably now do it again.

By the time that we had come down it was time to head to the circus. I was unsure what to expect so did not have any pre thoughts on how good it was going to be. But honestly it was Fab! We laughed and clapped along like we were kids again.  We were having such a good time that I even forget to take any photos - it only means we need to go again. The circus was a great way to end the day and our time in Blackpool.

Would we go again..? definitely! We all had such a good day and made lots of memories - including an incident with a Seagull stealing a donut out of Titch's friend's hand!

Warwick Castle - In the Summer

As mentioned previously in our first post about being Merlin pass holder we decided to head back to Warwick Castle in the Summer hopefully getting more opportunity to explore the grounds of the castle.  Each year, during the summer months, Warwick bring back their live show ' War of the Roses' and being Merlin pass holders we were luck to acquire tickets for the preview show.

So we headed off the Warwick castle.  Knowing that we would be spending most of the day there we left a little later than normal, so when we arrived we had to park on the over flow car park which is about 20 minutes walk from the Castle.

Warwick castle has lots to offer including The dungeons, The Princess Tower, The Castle itself,  A maze, Archery (payable), Knights school and then the Bird show, the Bowman and the trebuchet.  The shows are allocated times throughout the day with most having at least 2 slots.

This time we were keen to watch both Birds shows, as they use different birds, the War of the roses and the trebuchet - as we had not seen this last time.

We queued up for the War of the Roses show and shortly were escorted towards the Jousting Arena where we had to choose red or white ( York or Lancaster).

We chose to support the Red and took our places in the Arena. From the start through to the end it was amazing.  The performance was truly memorable. Titch didn't move or speak for the whole show which is an achievement and must have meant that he was enjoying it.  The actors tell the tale of the War of the Roses with gusto and the audience were encouraged to be involved - especially with the booing!

The show was full of action, heroes and villains and was a great way to learn a bit of history.

After a walk around the gardens taking a few snaps we sat on the grass in the sun and watched The Might Trebuchet.  A great way to end the day.

Once again this visit to Warwick castle did not disappoint us. And, although we have now been twice, we will definitely be going again.

Legoland - Star Wars Weekend

The boys in my house are avid Star Wars fans, and being Merlin Passholders when we saw the Star Wars weekend at Legoland advertise we thought why not.

Prior to going I had done my research on the Merlin Passholders Facebook page so knew what to expect.  We arrived early around 9 after a 2.5hr drive.  The rides themselves do not open until 10, so we knew we had a bit of a wait.  Miniland, however, is open from 930 so we took this opportunity to explore a bit of Mainland on the way to queue to get into the ride part of the park.  

Being a Star Wars themed weekend we expected it to be busy but not this busy.  finally at 10 the gates opened and people stampeded their way through the crowds to join the queues for the rides they wanted.  

We decided to head over the Lego Ninjago ride as this is the one that we had heard good reviews about.  Although the queue time said 20 minutes, which we thought was good, it took are 50 minutes from the start of the queue until we got to go on the ride.  The ride is not what I imagined.  It is a 4D experience ride.  The husband, Titch and Titch's friend all loved it.  For me, it was ok but I would not queue up for it again in a hurry.  

After here we decided to head to other rides with relative short queue times - less than 1 hour: Spinning Spiders, Dragons Apprentice, Vikings River Splash and Destiny's Bounty.  By the time we had done all of these it was around 2 and we were all ready for our picnic lunch so we headed over to the Duplo Valley and found some grass to sit and eat on.  Whilst we ate we checked the ride times for the afternoon and the kids weren't too fussed about going on them as the queues were long and it was an extremely hot day, so instead they voted to play in the Splash Area as luckily we had brought swimwear with us.  

I have to say I think this was the best part of the whole day.  They were in there for two hours in freezing cold water but had a thoroughly good time.  After getting dry the kids then wanted to look more around Miniland and look in the shops which suited us fine.  

Considering it was a Star Wars weekend we didn't do many Star Wars themed activities except watch the parade which was great for Titch and he got to have his photograph taken with many characters from the films.  

For our first visit to Legoland we all had a great time in some way.  The only downside to the whole day is the complete lack of refreshment stalls.  Most were closed and in the ones that were open the queues were 20 minutes long and the staff were extremely rude and unhelpful.  I don't think this will put us off going again but maybe we will take a few extra drinks next time.  

Our Merlin Adventures begin... Warwick in Winter

Being extremely eager to start our Merlin adventures we decided that the first place we would visit would be Warwick Castle.  I had seen it advertise on TV the previous year and was quite excited to final have the opportunity to visit.  So we packed up a lunch and drove down to Warwickshire.  

As soon as we arrived we realised how cold  and windy it was going to be, but decided as always just make the most of the day out.  From the start I was mesmerised by the castle.  It is so beautiful even on a winters day.  

As we had Premium Passes we were also entitled to go into the Dungeons for free.  I was a little apprehensive as I had read that the actors like to get you involved and being a tad shy this did worry me.  However, there was nothing to worry about. The actors were brilliant. the were engaging and not too pushy. Titch loves gory and horror so this was right up his street; however, I can understand why some children would be scared inside there.  

Inside the castle itself there is plenty to see and learn about. Titch loves learning about the Tudors so was happy to see and read about Henry VIII and his wife.  We also spent time in the towers learning about the History of the castle and the grounds.  Considering it was a cold day, the castle was bust with visitors, but this did not spoil the experience as it is so vast that it never feels too busy.  

As it was Winter some activities were not on but the shows for the Birds of prey and the Bowman luckily were.  

The Birds of Prey show was fab.  The falconer was informative and engaging.  He explained as much as he could about each bird that he brought out and they were all truly spectacular.  

There is also a Horrible Histories Maze to complete and you can join the Knight school to learn how to use a sword. 

It was cold and windy, but a fab day we did have... we can't wait to come back though when it is a bit warmer.