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Girls Day Out Show
by GuruOnAMountain
Having heard about this before but not being a very girly girl, I'd given it a wide berth. This year, though, my sister talked me into going with her so we headed off to the Glasgow SECC in April for a Girl's Day Out.
Tickets can be bought on arrival or in advance but booking tickets in advance entitles you to a free Goody Bag ... so is probably worth it. Tickets aren't cheap with a ticket coming in at £15 or £12 for a concession. Considering you are essentially paying to enter a trade show where people will try and get your money off you, then I think it is fairly pricey being asked that much just to get in the door.
We travelled in on the train and many other girls seemed to have the same idea as us as they all got off the train and crossed the bridge to the SECC. Inside, it was mildly chaotic. There was a desk where you could buy tickets; another desk where you could pick up pre-booked tickets and then entrance desks where people who already had tickets could go in. I could imagine that a lot of people with pre-booked tickets who hadn't got them posted out to their homes would have stood in the main queue only to be turned away and sent to the pre-booked tickets booth as the pre-booked tickets booth was tiny. It would also have been frustrating as after picking their tickets up here, they needed to join the main queue to get in, essentially having to queue twice. Luckilly, we'd got our tickets posted to us so just joined the queue. The queue was very long but moved fairly quickly. At the desk, you got given some leaflets and were told to collect your goody bag inside the hall.
Inside the hall it was set up like The Ideal Home Show or something similar with lots of vendors having their own stalls and a couple of main stages for performances. It would have been handy to have been giving a leaflet detailing what was on at each of the stages during the day so you could plan what you wanted to see but there didn't seem to be a leaflet anywhere (unless I missed it in all the chaos) although the main stage had a sign up with what was on beside it.
It was extremely busy, especially since each of the 'stalls' were small and if a few people stopped to try samples or look at goods, then this created a bit of a bottleneck for other people trying to get by. We did go on the Saturday, however, and I'm sure it was probably quieter on the Friday when a lot of people would have been at work.
The stalls were, as you might guess, aimed at 'girly' stuff, so there were a lot of make-up vendors, perfume sellers, clothes stalls and nail bars. There were a handful of more generic stalls such as sweet vendors, cake stalls, chocolate stalls and charity stalls. The prices, as you can imagine, were high for most things even though a lot of the vendors advertised that they were selling things at a discount (but believe that if you will)!
Our first stop was to collect our goody bag. It was a bit of a task to get to the back of the room where we'd to pick it up due to all the people milling about and then, of course, we'd to join yet another queue! Again, though, it moved quickly and we got our goody bags. They contained 3 No. 7 nail varnishes and an eye pencil. The nail varnishes were in quite unusual colours (one of the ones I received was a horrible muddy brown/grey colour) so I can imagine they were probably less popular colours that Boots was getting rid of on us.
We'd also been given free drinks vouchers for a glass of wine at a wine bar inside and a cocktail at another bar. I am tee-total but there were non-alcoholic options available, although I just let my sister have my drinks as well. They were both served in tiny cups so it was really just a shot of wine and a shot of a cocktail!!
We then decided to get lunch before starting to shop and found a jacket potato stand with seating. Surprisingly, the prices were very reasonable (I think around £3 on average for a potato with a filling). I'd expected the food in a place like this to be over the odds since people had nowhere else to go for food so that was a bonus that my wallet didn't have to suffer too much for lunch, at least!
Walking around the labyrinth of stalls was hard work with the amount of people that were there and the staff at the stalls were all trying to approach you to try their products and as you couldn't move away very quickly, you tended to get sucked into a hard sell! I'm pretty good at saying no in these situations but my sister is awful at it and ended up spending over £100 on things she didn't need! It was hard to look at anything you might be interested in because of the number of people and also because the sales people were too keen to try to talk to you, which I found off-putting.
We spent some time at the main stage to recouperate where we saw a fashion show of the new season looks and were told of the high street shops that we could get them from. As I'm not a girly girl, I wasn't hugely excited by this but it was OK. Virgin Active were also there doing demos of Zumba and Body Jam etc. and then we watched a poor Man Candy Waiter getting his armpits waxed for charity. There was also a game to be played at this point for a member of the audience to win a £50 voucher to spend at the show. My sister's friend was lucky enough to win the voucher but redeeming it was a bit of a drama! None of the stalls seemed to know anything about the voucher and, understandably, wanted to go find the show's organiser to confirm it was legit before they let us spend it but trying to find the organiser in a busy venue like that was no easy task. Eventually we managed to spend it at the Benefit counter but had to wait quite a while on a manager there to go verify that it was real.
The previously mentioned Man Candy Waiters were walking around with nothing but small aprons hiding their dignity and their pert bottoms on full display. This was probably the highlight of the show for me!
Would I go back? Possibly, although I think the entry fee is far too steep only to be fleeced inside even more! It was an entertaining day for even a non-girly girl like me but after a few hours there I was desperate to get out the crowds and get home for a relax! I imagine a more girly girl would love it there but make sure you have a full bank account before you go!!!
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Virgin Balloon Flights
by jewlsy
We were given the flights as a gift. We initially were given the weekday morning one, but as we live in London and work during the week and Sundays, the only time we can make is the Saturday pm one so we had to pay an extra £50. We have booked about 8 or 9 times over 2 years. It's incredibly difficult to get a booking and usually ... involves 2-3 weeks of constant monitoring of the website. The call centre staff are very varied, the worse I encounterd was a woman called Camilla. During a period of high stress where I had final degree exams, so couldn't think about the balloon ride, I called an politely asked for an extension, but Camilla was phenomenally rude to the point where she made me cry. She also told me that most people usually had to wait a number of years and at least 20 bookings before they actually go up and that I was lucky I was only on my 7th booking. To be honest at the moment it's a total pain but we feel obliged to continue trying to book as they were gifts. I'm sure if we do go it will be amazing, but it is a bit stressful trying to make sure that we'll get our booking in before the tickets expire and reading about peoples bad reviews on here makes me see that clearly Virgin will happily expire our tickets and charge us more if we do exceed to period. Shame I thought better of Virgin
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Mini and Maxi Moos Adventure Land (Edmonsdley, County Durham)
by juicy_lucy
Mini and Maxi Moos
We recently visited this attraction with Little Miss and our grandson. This review is written from the viewpoint of visiting during the Christmas holidays so obviously at a time when something like this would be busy.
--Location...--
The attraction is situated in Edmonsley, Durham in a ... very rural location. We found it quite easily with the help of the sat nav but without it, it would have been very tricky although as I often find, it was sign posted once we were practically there.
--The attraction...--
When we got the Mini and Maxi Moos, it was, as expected, busy but fortunately there is a large car park so we had no trouble parking.
Once inside, we paid at the desk which is located inside a large room with many trestle tables and chairs, and in here is also a serving area where visitors can buy drinks and food. The place was packed and made even more noise because inside this large and very cold room is a hard and bouncy and very high slide so children were whizzing around all over the place while the parents ate.
We went straight outside where there is a small open barn featuring a rope swing and a large sand pit, as well as an outdoor castle and some slides and swings. All the kind of thing children enjoy but these just looked a bit worn and tired, and the whole place was like a mud bath! Inside one of the barns were a couple of pigs and some hens and lots and lots of rabbits all in cages situated along one wall. The website advertises a miniature donkey from Texas, reindeer and birds of prey but we certainly saw none of these and even when we tried to get out of the muddy area and into the field, following the map we had been given, there seemed to be no way out.
What we had actually come here for was the ice skating so it was back into the main eating area, and into a further large barn, freezing cold but there was a small heater giving off some heat. Here we saw the "skating rink" which wasn't ice but those kind of tiles which you skate on, so it was very slippy. The children enjoyed this and the staff here were very helpful, helping with boots and even given young grandson a sliding penguin to help him balance on the ice.
There are also several high bouncy slides which the children insisted on trying out several times but these didn't leave me filled with faith in their safety. There was no member of staff supervising so no limit to the number or size of people on the slide, and the bottom of the slide ran straight into the walkway past the ice rink so to me they were an accident waiting to happen.
Also advertised is an animal show which is situated in a small corner right next to the ice rink and consisted of a man bringing on some pigs and talking about them. I didn't see more than this as I had begun to wonder why we were staying in the place.
At the back of the large barn with the skating rink, slides and animal talk is an indoor laser battlefield. I cant comment on this as we didn't even enter the place.
--Opening hours...--
The place is open 7 days a week, from 10am until 5pm. I think this is a bit unusual because places are usually open for longer hours during holidays and weekends.
--How much does it cost?...--
I think we paid around £10an adult so its not especially cheap and then if you factor in much needed hot drinks it's not a cheap day out.
**Contact...**
Address: Holmside Park Arena, Edmonsley, Co Durham. DH7 6EY
Telephone: 0191 3710466
E mail: minimoosfarm@btinternet.com
Website: http://www.minimoosfarm.co.uk/
--Verdict...--
When reading the website, although it's not the most sophisticated website, it appears that there are lots and lots of things to do at this place. There are indeed several activities but the place just didn't appeal to me. The place is quite unkempt, and needs a complete overhaul. I found all of the rabbits in cages quite upsetting and the animals in the small pens didn't look as though they were well cared for; usually when we go to farms, there are members of staff in the animal barns and the conditions in which the animals are kept are much better than this.
The inside barn with the skating and slides was again unmanned apart from the staff at the rink .
In short, I found the place very uninspiring and don't think we will be visiting again.
Thanks for reading
Daniela xx
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