This is my story as I stumble my way through family life

With one toddler and another new arrival on the way, this blog shares with you some of the things I see and think and also hopefully gives newer dads and dads to be some ideas based on what I did (or often, did not...) learn

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Paultons Park (& Peppa Pig World)- some tips!

Our Easter break this year is a bit of a stay-cation and for one of our day out we promised Ollie a trip to the new Peppa Pig World at Paultons Park near Southampton and not too far at all from us.
Against my better judgement, we decided today was the day to visit, or rather Ol did (I thought next week might be calmer as a lot of the schools would be back but how do you tell a two year old?).

Unsurprisingly the combination of school holidays and fabulous weather meant it was seriously busy so here are a couple of quick tips for anyone thinking of visiting:

1. If you are coming from the west then leave the M27 at junction one and follow the road parallel to the motorway. Doing so will bring you to Paultons nearly as soon as leaving at J2 but crucially, you are avoiding the rest of the world who use J2 and then queue before having to turn across traffic to access the park. You howeve will avoid these and also jus turn left straight into the park (it might even be worth doing this and doubling back if coming from the east)

2. Buy your tickets on line beforehand (you can do so even on the day you want to visit). Not only do you save a couple of quid each but you ge to jump some serious queues as you have to buy a ticket before going to the gate: we wandered past the hordes of impatient kids and harrassed parents (not the way you want to start the day) and sauntered in having paid less than they were about to!

3. Do not make Peppa Pig world your first port of call. As it is new everyone does that and as a result it is rammed in the morning- go in the afternoon and it is much calmer and far more fun. There are loads of other things to keep the kids occupied in the morning in the rest of the park.

It was a good day out all said. Ollie loved it and Joh hardly slept as he had loads to see. The down side is that they don't accept Tesco Clubcard vouchers and apparently never do offers. Considering the times we live in this is a shame: Ol got in free today as he is under one metre tall but it won be long before he is not and two parents and two kids are looking at £80 before you even start on food and visits to shops etc. Whether this reticence to discount is because they don't need to with the new attraction will remain to be seen but a bit of help to parents wouldn't go amiss.