It's Really Crealy! (Crealy Adventure Park)

Name: kingfisher111

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Product:	Crealy Adventure Park
Date:	02/09/07 (265 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great family fun

Disadvantages: cost for under three

Last week, I was in South Devon with my young family, and on one of our days we spent a very enjoyable time at Crealy Adventure Park, just outside Exeter. There are two Crealy parks altogether - the one we visited and another one in Cornwall, and I believe they are very similar in layout and attractions. For the sake of this review though, I will just restrict my comments to the Devon Site.

If you are interested in visiting Crealy then probably the first thing to do is to pay a visit to their website

www.crealy.co.uk

From here you can find directions, opening times, get prices and generally have a good look at the site to see if it is for you. There are even some virtual tours you can take of all the different areas that the park is divided in to.

HOW TO GET THERE
The site is very close to Junction 30 of the M5 just along the A3502 Sidmouth Road. This location really means that it's quite accessible from most places in Devon - definitely not too far to go for a good day out! Parking is also very good and if you get there early you won't have much of a walk to the entrance, which is handy with young children.

OPENING TIMES AND PRICING
In Summer (April to early November) the site is open from 10 until 6 seven days a week.. In winter it opens from Thursday through until Sunday but closes at five every day

They have quite a complicated pricing system varying from winter to low summer to high summer. We were visiting during the height of the season so we were paying at the most expensive time. One thing that quite dismayed me was that prices went on height, and if your child is over 92cm they pay the same price as an adult. As both of mine were this height they got no reductions at all! At first I thought this was really terrible, but on reflection, since the entry charge is only £10.95 it is much more reasonable compared to other theme parks. I think they have made the adult price more reasonable and nearer to the child's price rather than the other way around! You do get a slight reduction if you are in a party of six or more and also had we thought to book on line we could have saved one pound each! Anyway, having said that, we paid our money and then we were in!

ATTRACTIONS
There are many attractions around the site - certainly enough to entertain little ones for a whole day. I'll attempt to describe what we did and give you a bit of a tour around the park..

INDOOR ADVENTURE ZONE
This is a huge indoor play area with the usual opportunities to slide and climb. My four year old loved this, as did her nine year old cousin, but for my two year old (who don't forget was charged full price!) everything was a bit too high or steep so she ended sitting out with us as we had a cup of tea. There is a large cafe next to it so it was good to be able to sit and enjoy a cuppa while being able to keep an eye on the children!

ANIMALS
Next door there is a wonderful animal zone and I think this was probably the highlight for my two girls. There were lots of different small animals - pigs, lambs, ponies, guinea pigs, etc - to look at and learn about. There was also the opportunity for the girls to groom some ponies, although because they were so small this did need adult supervision. Throughout the day there ae lots of different little shows where children can meet the animals and even feed baby lambs their milk from bottles. My girls loved all this and probably would have spent all day in there. However, it was all enclosed, and for me it was slightly on the smelly side, so we encouraged them out into Farmland where they could see larger animals grazing out in the fields. There was also the possibility to ride on a pony but my two girls' courage deserted them at that time!

TIDAL WAVE LOG FLUME
Now, what self respecting theme park has not got one of these? Children have to be over 92cm to ride this and if they are under 1.25m they have to be with an adult. I went on with my elder daughter and it was great. There are two slopes to go down and splash - first a smaller one followed by a big splashy one at the end! We did get very wet, although this log flume was probably not on the same scale as some of the larger parks!

VICTORIAN CAROUSEL
Both my girls were very keen to ride on this and I think they were mesmorised by the music and the horses going up and down. There was something very old fashioned and gentle about it (although it did move quite fast) and I liked the fact that we were being entertained by something which was not all high thrills.

MAGICAL KINGDOM
Next we entered the Magical Kingdom. This is another huge indoor play area although this one seems more aimed at younger children. I was very pleased about this because my younger daughter was now in her element. There was another climbing/ sliding area, as well as some mini tractors to ride on, small go carts, a little merry go round and a couple of ball pools. There was definitely lots here to keep my girls entertained. I have to say that it was incredibly busy and very noisy, and as a parent you had to particularly vigilant against losing your child in the crowd. There was also the main food area here mainly selling burgers, nuggets, etc but with one or two slightly healthier options thrown in as well. I can't quite remember what we paid for our various lunches but including drinks I think it was less than £15 - it certainly didn't feel as extortionate as some places!

LITLELAND VILLAGE
Next was this really delightful little area filled with lots of mini houses which children can go in and out of. As my daughters love their playhouse at home, I knew they would love this. Again they could have happily played here much longer!

BUZZARD'S SWOOP SLIDE
Next to the little village was this bigger adventure playground, definitely aimed at older children. It mainly consists of three slides, each getting bigger and bigger. The main slide actually looked quite terifying to me! My youngest daughter really couldn't do much here but my four year old managed the first two slides and thoroughly loved them! It's another area where you really do need to keep an eye on your children though - both in case of accidents or o0f them wandering off.

LOCO COASTER
This was the final thing we went on, again only with my older daughter. Compared to other roller coasters this one is quite tame, but to me that was a good thing as I wasn't sure how my daughter was going to like it. The movement is very ricketty and bumpy, but it's one of those rides that once you have got off, you wish it could go on longer, but at the time you hated it! I'm sure that's how my daughter felt!

PRAIRIE TRAIN
We would have loved to have gone on this as it would have taken us for a tour all around the park. Unfortunately it only goes every hour. We had planned to go on the 2pm ride but arriving at the station at about a quarter too, we discovered it was entirely full which was a real shame.

OTHER ATTRACTIONS
There were a number of ather things which we did not do, either because of time or suitability. These included a summer soak zone, driving school, dino blasters and techno go carts to name but a few. I'm sure though that all of these would have been equally good.

QUEUES
Queues seem to be the curse of all theme parks and yes, we did have to queue her but luckily never for too long. I would say that the queues for the log flume and the carousel were about ten to fifteen minutes, whereas by far the worst, was the thirty minute wait for the roller coaster. I have to admit though that this was later in the day when probably the park was at its busiest. If we had thought about it we should have done this earlier.

OVERALL IMPRESSION
I think that Crealy Park has a very nice and friendly feel to it. Everywhere is clean, and even the toilets at the end of the day were not too bad. Now, there is the universal smoking ban which of course made the whole place that much cleaner.

I think my four year old had a totally brilliant day here. there was nothing she could not do and she did it all with such a wonderful smile on her face that I knew her entrance payment was money well spent. As for my two year old, I think she enjoyed herself in her own way but she was restricted. My one suggestion to Crealy would be to review their pricing policy and perhaps give a reduction to under threes. They may be tall enough to go on these rides, but they are still very young and not quite ready for the fear factor. Apart from that one small moan though, A lovely day was had by all!

Summary: A great family day out!