Last week we made the short trip to one of our local theme parks, Twinlakes. It was the Easter holidays and I knew the boys would just love the excitement and adrenaline on offer there. Being ten and almost eight I feel that Twinlakes has enough on offer to keep them occupied and with the weather really temperamental at the moment, I knew there was options in case the heavens decided to open. I also think it's worth mentioning that I noticed a lot of families of wide age groups, ranging from young babies (0-2) up to teenagers having an absolute blast, that really highlights just how much there is on offer there for everyone. I'm generally of the view there aren't many places you can take a two year old and an eleven year old and they both have fun, but Twinlakes would definitely be one of those places.
As I mentioned above, on our day of visit the weather was very April so easily changeable, however this meant the park was absolutely deserted. I'd actually saw a friend post the day before she had visited with her children and they walked onto every single ride with no queuing, I wasn't expecting the same kind of luck but much to my surprise we had the exact same experience. It truly felt as though when we were outside we had the park to ourselves. First impressions were that the car park was great, really close to the park & super accessible, the gate process was great too, a quick scan of our barcode (I'd bought the tickets online) and we were in - again no queuing at all, despite it being bang on opening time, I put this down to super efficient staff. I could see they had their Easter extravaganza still running, but we didn't opt into this as Easter had passed and my two are a bit older now, though it looked and sounded fantastic. I believe Twinlakes do like to do something similar around Halloween and Christmas too.
As we headed into the park with our park map given to us, the boys were straight away planning on what they wanted to do. As luck would have it, it began to rain slightly so we opted to have a mooch round the animals, which is largely under cover, something none of us knew were there until we arrived. The boys had a stroke and a good nosey, they enjoyed reading about each of the animals, as well as looking at all their names. They had a wide variety from Pigs and Sheep to Meercats and baby chicks - so lovely to see. As the rain let up we headed on outside to explore some of the rides, the first one we came across was the Sky Rider, now little did I know until this point is that my eldest isn't much of a thrill seeker, however Pip was right up there running round to go on. There was only two people on the ride and it was about to go but the worker saw him on his way and kindly waited for him which I thought was great - and off he went. Out the front of each ride before you queue are the height measurements, really handy so you know beforehand if your little one is tall enough, it ensures there's no tears at the front of a line if you're turned away and also you're not wasting your time queueing for a ride that they wont be tall enough for. Luckily my two were peak height for everything they wanted so that was fantastic.
Next up we headed across to the pirate ship, one we all went on together and because of the quietness of the park we got the best seats at the back. I had a backpack with me as we'd brought snacks and extra layers but the lovely ride staff were happy to pop it in their cabin whilst we rode, which again I thought was lovely. Across from us was the mini coaster, both boys rode this one and really enjoyed it, again it wasn't too much and suited my eldests nerves really well. Behind this area of the park was the dragon zone, we had a little nosy but it was closed off as it's the water park part of Twinlakes, I do have to say though it looked fantastic and definitely somewhere we will enjoy when we pop back in warmer months. Pip tried to say he'd still go in even in the cold - I think not ha!
We followed round the back of the park and ended up in the zone called Action USA, it has a little town area of role play houses which the boys loved playing in, it reminded me of the Shotgun City in Sundown Adventureland. Before we headed across the path to the large outdoor playgrounds and when I say large, I mean large. The boys spent a fair while here, they had it all to themselves and ran off playing tag, hide and seek etc. There were lots of picnic benches around so a perfect place to set up camp in warmer weather and just further back near the role play houses I noticed an area of sheltered picnic benches / seating - great if you want some shade in the heat or rain. Of course dotted about are little kiosks were you can pick up snacks, drinks or ice creams etc. Around this area there were go kart esque tracks and little boating lakes too, both lots of fun!
After the boys had worn themselves out on the park, we headed over to the Excalibur adventure area of the park, this area was as you can imagine medieval themed. The boys enjoyed the knights ride and again had it completely to themselves, the staff even asked them if they wanted to go round again to which of course they said yes. I will say this is something I found lovely at the park, all the staff were great and even despite the dreary, windy weather, they were in top spirits. We avoided the teacups in the section as neither of mine are fans of them, much like myself - I can handle your biggest rollercoaster but put me on a teacup and I will most definitely vomit. There was another large park in this area with one of the biggest slides I've ever seen - you grab a matt and head on up, I think there was five lanes side by side so perfect if like my two, everything is a race.
Then as the weather took a turn again we decided to round off our day inside. There was two big indoor play areas that we saw, with one being suited more to under 5's, we headed past that and into the bigger one at the Labyrinth zone. The boys eyes couldn't have been wider as we entered and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't busy at all, there was plenty of seating and it was really clean inside. I will add that it didn't have that distinct soft play smell either, that I know a lot of parents will relate too and that is a huge bonus, especially if you're wanting to spend a fair bit of time in there. I set up camp with snacks and off the boys went. There were also indoor rides in these areas but my two were much more interested in running around the multi level soft play, I actually think they'd have stayed there all night if I let them. We grabbed a bit of food in here too, again no queue, fast service and actually decent food for a good price, it's really easy for places to hike up their food and snack costs but I didn't feel like wheelgate had done that which was great. I did see lots of families had brought their own picnics and were enjoying them inside which is welcomed too.
All in all we spent a good five hours at Twinlakes and managed to do every single ride the boys wanted, multiple times. I'm sure in the summer months we'd spend even longer as we'd head over to the water ride and play area. I really can't complain at a mere £12 each for a ticket during the Easter holidays, it felt like a bargain day out - we'll definitely be back again.
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