Wednesday 12 October 2016

A Great Family Day Out: Peppa Pig World

Our darling daughter Bridget, like most two year olds, is obsessed with Peppa Pig and so as a treat for her second birthday a couple of weeks back, we ventured to Paulton's Park, specifically to the Peppa Pig World section for a day of pig-filled fun and frolics.

We were journeying the following day to Cornwall for a week's holiday, and so broke our journey this way too - something I would recommend, if a) travelling with a toddler and b) travelling 5.5 months pregnant.

Paulton's Park is a huge park in Romsey, on the outskirts of Southampton - a sprawling mass of theme parks all rolled into one - as well as Peppa Pig World, there is the Critter Creek and The Lost Kingdom tons of fairground rides, a 4D cinema, adventure golf and even a water park, all included in the £30.00 ticket – it’s free for children under 1 metre) which really does pose good value. It also means if you have a family with children of varying ages, there is something for everyone.

Peppa Pig World was incredibly sweet and twee - everything you would expect in such a space. Several tame, toddler-aimed fairground rides, all of which Bridget absolutely delighted in. There was about a twenty-minute queue for most of these rides though as we visited on a Sunday, so if you are able to visit during the week instead, I'd recommend it. Toddlers' attention span lasts for about five minutes in such queues, cue lots of singing, games and coaxing to stay in said queues by yours truly. I would imagine in the heart of the summer the place gets even busier too.

Enjoying the day at Peppa Pig World

Driving a car at Peppa Pig World

We enjoyed the cars, train and balloon ride but the favourite ride by far was George’s Dinosaur Adventure Ride, which Bridget went on with Glen (Daddy) and it's hard to tell who enjoyed it more.

George's Dinosaur Adventure Ride

Peppa Pig World

Also within Peppa Pig World is an outdoor adventure park with climbing frames, bouncers, swings and slides, all of which were greatly appreciated by Bridget and were a good distraction between rides, or when queues were particularly bad. In addition a huge soft play area with dedicated areas for little tots provided an hour of fun for Bridget - as with most children her age, it's Ok to get her into these playing areas, getting her out was not as easy. This area gets very busy and I would suggest you bring socks with you (or pay the prices for Peppa Pig themed ones in the shop) and go in with your child at all times. After the recent, horrendous incident at Legoland, it goes without saying that supervised play is the order of the day.

There is the chance to pop into Peppa Pig's house and other attractions from the popular programme and the whole area is colourful and follows the theme from Peppa so if your child is a fan, there is something there they are sure to delight in.

Peppa Pig's house

As with all of these type of theme parks - there are costumes characters such as Peppa, George, Mummy & Daddy Pig as well as Suzie Sheep, Rebecca Rabbit et. all for your little one to meet and greet with and or have their photograph taken with. Bridget is rather hilariously petrified of said characters and has been since our visit to Hong Kong's Disneyland when she was only one so we refrained.

We had a little mooch around some of the animals within the zoo section too and had we got there earlier, and not been in a rush to get to Exeter for the evening, we could have spent several more hours at Paulton's Park enjoying the various attractions. For £30.00 each and having not had to pay for Bridget yet it really does offer great value and we'd return again in a heartbeat.

We are hopeful that Bridget might soon grow out of favour of Peppa Pig (this time last year it was The Furchester Hotel she adored) but with another baby due in the new year, it's likely we will have at least one more visit to Peppa Pig World in the not-so-distant future.

The theme park is open throughout October and then just weekends for the winter months of November and December.

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