Snowcastles By The Sea! (Blackpool Sandcastle)

Member Name: Emma1973

Product:	Blackpool Sandcastle
Date:	22/08/05 (1617 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Undercover, teenagers will love it

Disadvantages: Cold water, foul toilets

On your visit to Blackpool, at the end of the Golden Mile, opposite the Pleasure Beach and on the seafront you may notice a peculiar pyramid building. Half is given over to the Grosvenor Casino, and the other half is The Sandcastle Water World.
Apparently the Sandcastle used to have parking next to it, it appears however that this has been appropriated by the Grosvenor Casino with warning signs of dire consequences if you do try to park there. There is plenty of public parking around though.

I had actually heard about this after doing a bit of research about tourist attractions in Blackpool. It promised to be one of Europe's largest undercover water parks, sub-tropical conditions, loads of water rides and would be a wonderful 85 degrees. And that was what sold it for me, I'm currently suffering a bout of rheumatoid arthritis and was assured that nice warm water and swimming would be perfect to relieve the aches and pains. So I was absolutely determined to go, so we did absolutely go on the last day of our holiday.

Walking in I was a little disappointed, there was a very nice, smart and clean café on the right, however on the other side was a pile of tables and chairs and obvious signs of building work. Although it wasn't too dangerous it did make the place look messy and slightly grubby.

Unfortunately that look continued as we waited in the queue, past the obligatory fruit machines and shop. It looked old and dated, the décor was a faded grey and the cashiers windows looked like they hadn't had a clean in months.

There are several prices available dependent on individuals or family tickets.

All Day and after 1.30pm
Single 16+ £9.00 £8.50
Single (6-15 Years) £7.50 £7.00
Single (2-5 Years) £6.00 £5.50 I
NFANTS UNDER 2 FREE FREE
SENIOR CITIZENS/DISABLED £6.75 £6.25
FAMILY of 3 SAVER TICKET Max 2 Adults £23.00* £21.00* *Additional Persons add £7.67 £7.00
FAMILY of 4 SAVER TICKET Max 2 Adults £29.50* £27.50* *Additional Persons add £7.38 £6.88
FAMILY of 5 SAVER TICKET Max 2 Adults £36.00* £34.00* *Additional Persons add £7.20 £6.80
FAMILY of 6 SAVER TICKET Max 2 Adults £42.50* £40.50* *Additional Persons add £7.08 £6.75

It is open everyday, but does seem to have a lot of different opening times dependent on the time of year, rather than list them all here I suggest you check out the website beforehand.
The two prices listed above are prices if you arrive before 1.30pm and then after.

My expectations of what the place was going to be like seemed to indicate that this was going to be good value for money.

Just in case you've forgotten anything swimming related there is a shop there selling swimming costumes, goggles and all manner of flotation devices. Amazingly it was a lot cheaper than I anticipated. Goggles started as £2.99 and the swimming costumes were no more than Asda or Tesco's prices. I, was of course, completely organised and only need to buy everyone goggles.
If you are not swimming then you have to walk through here to get to the poolside, no sneaking in though, theres a nice big security guard making sure you have your tickets before you get in!

At first glance the changing rooms seemed quite clean, but there were nowhere near enough changing rooms, there were approximately 25, very small, and no family cubicles, so there were bare bottoms sticking out from the curtains! (Dont you just hate it when you are getting changed and your wet bum sticks to the curtain?
There was quite a bit more changing areas outside the cubicle and as us ladies know we are usually quite happy to change in front of each other. At least we are when there aren't boys running about! I'm not talking little boys either, I'm talking up to 10yr olds wandering around the changing room. I understand Mum would be a little worried but I do think the mens changing room is more appropriate for that age group, but if Mothers are worried about it perhaps they could encourage their kids to have a little decorum and respect for others?

Then off for a wee and a shower before diving in. At least I was going to go to the changing room toilets but soon changed my mind. They stank of urine and faeces, imagine a really old public toilet, which the tramps sleep in and tend to urinate in the corners instead of the loos. Well that was what they smelly like, and they expected us to use them in bare feet? No way! Apparently, they check them hourly, not a chance, toilets don't smell like that after an hour. The poolside toilets were a huge improvement, although not perfect.
Still the showers should be more of a comfort, right? Wrong, they were red hot, hotter than would be recommended. I couldn't get under them and I'm just glad I didn't stick a small child under there.

Well the most important thing had to be the pools. I walked in there and the place did look really big, the roof is all glass and give the illusion of a big space.
There are 2 pools, both graduate from very shallow to deep. The slightly bigger pool had the 4 water rides attached to it. There was also a house type structure with spray guns and showers, intermittently it also poured huge amount of water onto a waiting crowd which admittedly was quite good fun!

There were plenty of life guards about, who didnt seem to do much, but perhaps we were all just behaving ourselves, it would have been nice if they could tell the children who delighted in splashing the smaller ones and snatching the floats off of them to behave.

Then came the biggest problem, 85 degrees, my backside! That water was cold! OK, not freezing but more of a slow progression in rather than a jump. Of course our body temperature does adapt, but eventually the cold water did my joints no good at all, I couldn't even swim because the resistance and the cold made it too painful for, so it had to be an early exit for myself.

The owners obviously intend you to be there a while as a large space is given over to several food and drink outlets. You can grab yourself a burger, jacket potato, panninis and more. I was aiming towards a nice jacket or panini, but rather predictably was dragged off to the Bongo Burger joint. I expected it to be expensive but I wasn't too shocked. It wasn't great value, all burger meals were more expensive than say, McDonalds and were definitely smaller, for example the drinks were half the size. It also took rather longer than necessary to get our food, OK, it was freshly cooked but nearly 20 minutes to get a spoonful of chilli on our burgers, was quite unacceptable. They did taste good though!
You have to note that your cant take your own food and drink in, but quite honestly I don't see how they can check up on this, and plenty of families did so.

Apparently there used to be a miniature golf course upstairs, but this has been taken away and has been replaced with more seating. Still no smoking in the entire building though!

It would be wrong to suggest I didn't enjoy myself, because initially I did. I loved seeing my son, who last year was scared to get water on his face jumping under and having fun. But it was far from what I expected, especially for £30. The whole place looked dated and run-down, it was colder than anticipated and there wasn't much room to actually swim. Not to mention the absolute pervert who thought it most amusing to entertain the contents of his swimming shorts with a section of small water jets in front of all the kids.
You really do need to keep a close eye on little ones as well as there isn't a separate pool for babies and toddlers, both pools graduate to a very deep end. One pool has a strong wave machine in it as well, which you do get warned about with the honking of a horn. Neither is there anything to stop them just wandering completely out of the pool, the building and onto the road outside!

In my honest opinion The Sandcastle is most suitable for those of the teenage variety! They have a DJ who plays all the chart hits, and a small are where they play games. For serious swimmers it's a no no as there is no real space to swim. Small children have to be watched like hawks and babies may quickly become cold.

With a lick of paint and some decorating, improvements in the toilets and the turning up of the heating this could make The Sandcastle the 'North West Tourist Attraction of 2004 that it purports to be.


P.S

Theres no sand!!

Summary: Advertised as one of Europes largest undercover waterparks, claims to be a tropical 85 degrees