WOW! What a fantastic family day out we had at Paultons Park!
Our family consists of me Hayley 29, my husband 32 and son Jayden who is 2 yrs old.
Before visiting the Park I checked out the Paultons Park website which, amazing as it is - and very informative, doesn’t do the park justice. It was way better than we had imagined. However the site was very useful and informative, giving details of rides, height restrictions, prices, and anything else you need to know.
Paultons Park is in the New Forest in Hampshire. We stayed at a Caravan site nearby and found the Park very easily. It is well signposted and was also found by our SatNav with no problems.
Car Parking appeared ample and surprisingly it seemed to be quite busy even on a weekday during school term. It is flat and with easy access. Queues to enter were small and before we knew it we were entering the Park.
We were immediately impressed with the area we were greeted by, which houses the fabulous floating globe. Here we took some time to look at the park map and plan our day. We decided to start over to the left and work our way around.
We started out on some of the smaller rides as this was our son Jayden’s first time at a Theme Park and we didn’t know how he would react. Even though he is only 2, he is tall so he just met the 1 metre requirement for most rides, most of which one of us accompanied him on. He smiled from start to finish and had a whale of a time. Even though on some he was initially a little scared, before long he was squealing with pleasure (one or two of these rides I even found a little stomach-churning but perhaps my son is more of a daredevil than me). In fact some of the rides I had to prise him off as he was crying to stay on. Unfortunately he was a little short of the limit for the water ride so didn’t get to try that one.
Next stop was at the Water Kingdom. Thankfully we had a lovely sunny day so it was warm enough for bathing suits and getting wet. We sat under the sun umbrella-covered benches to eat our lunch while our son went into the water area to play. It is totally safe with a soft flooring and fenced off so the children can’t run off and it is visible from all areas. This looked like so much fun and our son had a ball playing with the various water features. Unfortunately, while remembering to take his Swimsuit I forgot a towel, but right outside the Water Kingdom area was a kart selling all sorts of water-associated items including towels of various prices and sizes, so I purchased a cheap mini-beach towel to dry him off. After a while it was time for him to have some lunch and us to move off so we had to drag him away. The only down-side I would say with this area is that it wouldn’t be suitable in colder weather because it is open-air, but on a good day any child would have lots of fun here and it’s a fabulous addition to the attractions.
From there we continued our way around the park, walking through the Land of the Dinosaurs which is designed to spark the imagination. There are large figures of dinosaurs with different sound effects as you walk through the forest. Then on to some of the many bird aviaries/enclosures which are located around the park, with some very gorgeous birds to look at and very impressive enclosures which I noted were very clean and well-kept. Every bird looked content and happy in its environment which, as animal lovers ourselves, was a pleasure to see. We walked past a beautiful walled area with a large Koi fish pond in the middle which was planted with an array of brightly coloured flowers that really brightened up the Park. While walking along this area I really got the feeling of walking around the grounds of some grand mansion-house rather than just visiting somewhere only offering rides. This I was particularly impressed with and it made our visit more interesting.
After sampling a few more rides including the larger roller-coaster - which both my husband and I tried out with our son and got a lovely photograph from the booth afterwards - and visiting The Magic Forest (where we didn’t stay long as our son was a bit scared), we stopped to use the restrooms. Unfortunately some untidy visitors had left them in a bit of a state with toilet roll everywhere, but I noted that as I was leaving a member of staff popped their head round to survey the mess, so I can only assume they would have then arranged for it to be cleaned. I found it refreshing to see that the toilets themselves cater for younger visitors with seats that converted into smaller ones for little bots. There was also a nappy-change area. We then popped in to the coffee shop for a rest where we were served by friendly staff and greeted with a clean and fresh environment. We both had a Latte which was averagely priced and tasted good after our busy morning.
Our afternoon started with a visit to the Penguins, which we decided to come back to later on to see the feeding display. Then a walk around more aviaries and animal enclosures, the Meerkats were particularly amusing and I took many lovely and interesting shots on my camera of them going about their business. I noticed that the enclosures had been designed so that even the smallest of visitors could see inside without any assistance. From there we went back to the Penguins to watch them being fed, and I was surprised to find that there was a very informative, entertaining and comical talk from their keeper showing lots of interaction with the Penguins. I managed to capture the majority of this on our video camera so it’s made for a lovely souvenir of our day!
We finished off with a visit to the two larger rides designed for older children/adults which hubby and I took turns on trying out and they were really fun. One in particular, the Edge, was something I had never seen before and was great for any thrill-seeker. Finally we paid a visit to the two souvenir shops just as the rain started to arrive.
In all we had a brilliant day out and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We were impressed by the number of rides, things to see, and some of the little touches and activities that made it different to other places we have visited in the past. There are buggy-type-karts available for use if you have forgotten to take your buggy along. These are suitable for very small children right up to older children who may just be needing a rest off their feet. I noted that the cleanliness of the park was second to none, and I didn’t spot a scrap of rubbish on the floor all day. The only downside I can envisage would be that some children may be disappointed at not being able to try out some of the rides because they are too short, and this could be difficult for perhaps a single parent taking numerous children along to the park where they may have the dilemma of needing to accompany a child onto a ride while having another that is too small to go on. For this reason I would recommend that two adults minimum go along for the day out. Visitors will also find it useful to know that there are lockers located at the entrance/exit of the park. Unfortunately we didn’t notice these until we were leaving. They could come in very useful.
I would definitely recommend Paultons Park to families due to the high number of rides suitable for children, and there is something to please everyone. We agreed that this park is more suited to families as there probably wouldn’t be enough to entertain groups of teenagers/adults. I think that the prices charged are reasonable, and you can easily spend an entire day having lots of fun here. I’m sure this Park will not disappoint!!
Something all parents should be aware of is that there is a small train that gives rides around the park rail-line. There was a point near the Pirate Ship where the pathway ran through two hedges then branched out left and right. Our son ran off slightly ahead of us and turned right, we were closely in tow, and I got a bit of a fright when I realised he was running straight for the open rail-line which crosses the pathway and the train was approaching. Thankfully we were closely enough behind to grab hold of him before he got to it, however I would like parents to be aware as some older children like to run ahead and may not realise the rail-line is there. Basically for safety reasons keep the children close to you where you can see them, and advise older children to be aware of this and look out for the signs indicating where it runs through.
review by
Hayley Samuel (one of our registered members) and family
August 2009
1. Paultons Park is a family theme park in Hampshire offering over 50 different family rides and attractions. Set in 140 acres of parkland, Paultons lies on the edge of The New Forest, near Southampton.
2. Attractions include: EDGE, the first ride of its type in the UK which swoops and spins through the air reaching a height of 15 metres on a giant disc that travels along a 90-metre track with a ‘camelback’ hill and Water Kingdom, an 8,500 square foot kids’ splash park featuring more than 20 different ways of getting wet including water jets, giant tipping buckets, sprays, fountains, and super soakers.
3. Day tickets cost £17.50 per person or £14.50 for senior citizens. Family tickets start from £50 for a family of three. Entry is free for children under 1 metre. Savings of 50p per person can be made when tickets are booked online.
5. Paultons Park is open daily from 10am mid-March to the end of September, on selected days and weekends in October and on weekends in November and December. A full opening times calendar is available on paultonspark.co.uk.
6. Paultons is just off Exit 2 of the M27, close to the edge of The New Forest and is two and a half hour’s drive or under from Bournemouth, Newbury, Oxford, Reading, London, Swindon, Bristol and Kent.
For more information on visiting Paultons Park and to book tickets online visit www.paultonspark.co.uk |
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