| Product: |
Sundown Adventureland |
| Date: |
28.05.08 (430 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Family orientated fun day out
Disadvantages: Catering facilities
Sundown Adventureland is a childrens theme park in Nottinghamshire. Its about 30 minutes down the road from where I live in Doncaster. It used to be known as Pets Corner and although I can't remember, I believe I went on a school trip as a kid. A friend of mine told me about how she used to take her daughter there every Christmas to see Santa and how its a great place for the kids. I put it to the back of my mind until I found myself with kids and in need of somewhere to take them on a Bank Holiday Monday.
Since that first visit we have returned to the park a further 3 times and although I could walk round with my eyes shut the kids still find it great every time.
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So what is so great about this place?
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Well to start with it has been designed particularly to cater for children up to the age of 10 only. Under 18s are not allowed entrance without a responsible adult and this strikes you as soon as you enter. Almost everyone in the park is a parent with kids and there are buggies everywhere! Because of this policy I have never encountered any rowdy behaviour, bad language or trouble at the park. Secondly it is great fun. There are lots of areas and themes running through the park and its great for the children to explore.
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What is the park like?
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After you part with your hard earned cash and enter the park you enter the Market Square. Included within this area are some singing pigs, market stalls and the musical pet shop. The pet shop has lots of animatronic pets singing songs. There are a lot of areas like this within the park. You have to press a button to set off the 'show' in each section. They are usually songs, or rhymes or animal noises. This is also where the Santas Sleigh Ride, Mouses Tales and the gift shop are situated. On our first visit the Market Square caused a bit of upset as my son used to have a pathological fear of talking and moving animals. There is a great big bear in the square singing and playing tunes on his guitar. It took me and my mum about 20 minutes to persuade my youngster that it was not real, wasn't going to eat him and that we were at a fun park!! Eventually he calmed down with a little help from the Fort Apache play area. This is next to the Market Square and is an area which is surrounded by a fort type wall and is filled with climbing frames and slides. It gives the children the impression they are in a fort, but with the simple theme of play, play and more play!
By the end of the day my son had conquered his fear of moving talking animated animals etc (he didn't have much choice as they are everywhere!) so that alone made it a worthwhile trip!
The next area of the park is Shotgun City. This is set out as it suggests, a wildwest theme. There are again buttons to press in the county jail, saloon etc. This area also has an indoor play zone. The type you usually find in pubs and play centres with foam frames etc. We have only been in here once as its usually too nice weather to stay inside. It has recently been changed to a rodeo corral play area so it may have changed completely! It states on the leaflet that we have that there are some height restrictions in the play area. Through the middle of the city are horses and carts for children to sit on and have photos as well as wanted posters to poke their heads through. At the end of this section is the Rocky Mountain Railroad. This is a simple ride featuring a train on a track with indians and cowboys shooting at you as you go round.
Lollipoppet Castle can be reached over a small bridge and has lots of sweet related activities to enjoy. There are various doors to go through and then come out further round the other side of the castle. There is also a real sweet shop in this area but it doesn't seem to be open very often. Im not complaining at that though! If you come out the other side of the castle you come to the picnic area. There are some outside climbing frames etc on the grass as well as some picnic benches. We usually take a picnic with us and enjoy it in this area.
Toytown is a small village made up of lots of different shops and services. There is a fire station, garage, dentists, music shop, post office and some others that I can't think of. Inside each building there are usually two levels so the children can climb the stairs. Also lots of themed buttons and gimmicks. for example in the garage you can sit in a car or look in the bonnet. Sunny Down Farm is nearby and is a series of animal pens with animated farm animals. There are cows, hens and a donkey. On each wall there is a question and a choice of answers. Depending on whether you answer wrong or right the animals speak a response.
There are two rides in this part of the park, the Robin Hood Ride and the Tractor Ride. The first is a long carriage with horses at the front. It takes you though scenes of Robin Hood and his Merry Men as well as the Sheriff of Nottingham. The tractor ride has individual tractors that seat up to two adults and two children. The children get to 'drive' the tractor around the track. Around the corner is Storybook Village. This is a small village of houses. Each house tells the story of a famous fairy tale. Examples include Rumpelstiltskin and Jack and the Beanstalk. My son (and his dad) both like the wishing well outside the Snow White House. If you shout down it you get an echo back. You can imagine the fun they have trying to outdo each other with daft things to shout down!
Behind the Storybook Village is another outdoor park area. This is more traditional and has everything you would expect to find in a park, swings, slides, roundabouts and climbing frames. Next door is Captain Sandys Play Cove. This is basically a large sand pit. It has a house and a slide in the middle but the sand is the main attraction. We do try to skirt past this area if we can, I know its mean but who wants sand in their car! There is an ice cream kiosk nearby and this usually works well as a bribe! With ice creams purchased we tend to guide the children away from the sand and towards the Pirate Adventure area in the middle of the park. This houses the Boozy Barrel Boat Ride which is a tame version of the water rapids that you find at the likes of Alton Towers. For those water ride novices, it involves a round boat in which seats are placed around the edge. You float along the small water channel trying to avoid the jets of water that are being fired at you as you go around. On our latest visit I got the majority of the blasts, but I soon dried off in the sun! The rest of the Pirate Adventure includes a pirate ship with a rope bridge to walk across and continuing the pirate theme into the Smugglers Cove. This is another set of buildings that the children can enter and climb within. They are all joined together, so as they disappear in one building, they reappear at the otherside of the cove. It also has a couple of tube slides and sharks and dolphins to ride on.
Back near the entrance to the park is another play area called Noahs Ark. This is designed for the under fives and has lots of animal themed swings, slides and roundabouts. This is next to Nursery Rhyme Land and I think we looked at this on our frst visit and found it a bit dull so I can't really go into much detail. There is also another Picnic Area near here and some Go Carts.
On our latest visit we did see a new attraction being built called Monkey Mischief. According to the map it will open in the summer.
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And whats not so good about the park?
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The food, or lack of it. As I mentioned earlier we usually take a picnic with us. This is beacuse we discovered on our first visit that the catering wasn't up to much. In the Shotgun City area there are two places to eat. Next to the indoor play area and then a small cafe building on the end of the block. The only food on offer seems to be fast food eg burgers, chips, hot dogs etc. They did also have chocolate and crisps as well as hot and cold drinks. After sampling the chips and not being impressed for the price we decided not to buy food there again. There is another cafe near the Noahs Ark play area but we haven't sampled the food here.
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Christmas Festivity Weekends
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From the middle of November up until Christmas each year the park holds its Christmas Festivities Weekends. The park is open as normal but with the additional treat of getting to visit Santa in his house. As it starts to get dark the park comes alive with twinkly lights and is a real Christmas treat for the children. The park does get very busy at these times and the queue for Santa is very long. If you can talk the children into it they can get their Christmas gift from Mother Christmas or the Snow Queen instead as their queues are much shorter. The gifts are are what you would expect, my toddler received a teddy bear and the 6 year old got a light up yo yo with interactive cd rom.
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Opening times and prices
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The park is open every day from around the 2nd week in February right through to Christmas Eve. It opens at 10am everyday with closing times ranging from 4pm - 6pm most of the year. In December it opens until 7pm except Christams Eve when it closes for the holidays at 4pm
Under 2s can enter the park for free and everyone else pays £8.50. There is a concession for groups of 20 or more reducing the price to £7 each. This must be booked in advance and paid together on arrival. During the Christmas activities a small charge of £2 is made for under 2s if they wish to visit Santa and receive a gift.
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Facilities
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There are three sets of toilet blocks, two of which have baby changing facilities and disabled toilets. There is also a first aid point and a public telephone. Parking is free of charge in their ample car park right next to the entrance.
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Address and Contact details
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Directions: 6 miles from the A1 Markham Moor and signposted 3 miles from Dunham on the A57.
Sundown Adventureland
Treswell Road
Rampton
Near Retford
Nottinghamshire
DN22 0HX
Tel 01777 248274
www.sundownadventureland.co.uk
Proprietor: Mrs A B Rhodes
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Do I recommend a day out?
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I would highly recommend this park. Our children have thoroughly enjoyed it on every visit. They never get bored and we usually have to drag them home kicking and screaming because they want more. My toddler is just 18 months and on his last visit he really started to join in the fun. He could go on all of the rides and so we could really enjoy the fun as a family. Every one abandons buggys outside of each ride area and we have never had anything stolen. The lack of teenagers creates for a family orientated and relaxed atmosphere. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against teenagers, but this is not the time or the place. I would recommend taking a picnic and plenty of drinks with you. We usually have a cool bag with us. Keep the sun tan lotion nearby expecially in the summer as a lot of the activities are outside.
From an adult perspective the park is very repetitive. Most of the rides are very basic, with no bumps and jumps. This is intentional of course to cater for the very young. There is a very strong imagination and play theme running through the whole of the park and a lot of areas have similarities to each other. I think this helps the children to relax as they find the ideas familiar and so they are at ease with what they can do. The park is recommended up to age 10 but I would suggest that interest in the majority of the park may start to drop off a little bit younger than this.
The park is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and if you would like any further information then visit their website. This is a fairly simple site but has all the details regarding opening and has lots of photos of the different areas of the park.
Summary: Family orientated fun day out thats great for all seasons
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