I ACHE WHERE I REALLY SHOULDN'T (Sundown Adventureland)

Member Name: indigojade

Product:	Sundown Adventureland
Date:	21/08/02 (2547 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great for little children, inexpensive

Disadvantages: lots and lots of walking for parents, not good in rainy weather

Sundown Adventure Land

LOCATION

Set in the unusual position between a power station and a high security mental hospital is a little piece of magical England that is Sundown. Located in Rampton near Retford, north Nottinghamshire.


OPENING TIMES

The Adventure Park is open from April to the first week in September 10am to 5pm, from September to December the park is open, but with shortened opening times - they do have Christmas specials where you can meet Santa. The park is closed through January, reopening the second week of February.


ENTRANCE FEE

No children under the age of 18 are allowed in the park unless accompanied by an adult. Prices for 2002 are £5.50 for adults and children alike, with under 2's going free. There are discounted prices for coach parties of 20 or more - you only pay £4.75. Going in a coach party has the added advantage of you not having to queue for an hour or more, to pay your entry fee! Once you have paid your entry fee, you are given a pamphlet with a map of the park on, easy to follow and essential if you want to go on everything there!


PARKING

The parking is mainly on hard standing, with some overspill in a fairly flat field just off the main car park. The road leading into Sundown is a very narrow one, and turning out of the car park proved problematic for some of the coaches. On the whole the parking was adequate, although there were no specific parking 'bays' so some people managed to take up more than their fair share of parking space.



Once you have paid your entrance fee you walk through a tree lined bower into the park - you are able to get 'pass outs' in the form of a stamp on your hand. This is handy as you don't have to lug your picnic around the park all day and can just pop back to your car at lunchtime.

STORY BOOK VILLAGE

This is a fantastic place, with little houses I mean children
sized houses devoted to various children stories such as Jack and the bean stalk, Rumplestiltskin, Snow White, The three little pigs. Not only can the children go in the houses, they can TOUCH EVERYTHING! There are buttons to press that make sounds, you can hear the Seven Dwarf's sneezing, yawning and laughing, or they can play the Three Little Pigs piano - fantastic, even though James does want to swap our piano for theirs - somehow I think we lose out on that one!

THE MOUSE TALES

A magical adventure for children of younger ages - you walk through a darkened building to see magical scenes through Perspex windows of mice at play, at dinner, sledding and snowballing. This journey leads you onto Santa's sleigh ride - an excellent idea as whist you are queuing to ride, the children have something to look at to entertain them so the wait doesn't seem so long. My only complaint in the mouse tales section is the cut out areas in the walls that allow children to climb steps and climb through. Although perhaps a good idea when it was first done, with children going missing on an almost daily basis - anything that encourages children to sneak off from their parents is a bad idea. We witnessed the absolute panic of one couple whose 2-year-old had snuk through a mouse hole to the other side of the wall; the little girl thought it a great game - the parents - well you can imagine!

SANTAS SLEIGH RIDE

This is a lovely albeit out of season ride. You enter into the ride from the above mouse tales, to be greeted by a sparkling Christmas tree and yes a real christmassy smell! There are fairy lights and mock snow and it looks all so Victorian. The carts are modeled on sleighs, with children sitting in the front and parents in the back - safety bars are lowered over your knees. As you travel through the ride, you see all manner of animals from badgers to reindeer, gearing up for Christmas, there even a lifesize Mrs. Santa knitting beside
the fire. To cap it all we SAW SANTA!! Yes we really really did - James was most upset as he said he should have brought his letter to save on the stamp - he says we can go back tomorrow to deliver it! During the Christmas period, you can pay £1.50 to receive a present from Santa himself.


MARKET SQUARE

A collection of life size animals greet you and you know they are surprisingly realistic until you are up close, here again are buttons at child level to press, to make the animals talk or sing

ANIMATED FARM

Sundown doesn't have any real animals anymore, but you know I think our tribe enjoyed this more. Once again the animals are life sized and all contained in their own pens. There are buttons to press and you may be asked a question - such as what does daisy the cow eat and a selection of 4 answers - woe betide if you get it wrong though!

TRACTOR RIDE

This was a huge hit with all the kids even the eldest at 9 years! As you are taken around the track - in a tractor no less, children in the front of course - you see a variety of things you would perhaps see in the countryside - scarecrows and their cheeky crows sitting on the fence, tractors bailing hay, cows, sheep and lambs. It isn't a thrill seekers ride, but it is lovely none the less. The whole ride took about 5 minutes, with music following you wherever you went, from the cunningly disguised speakers on the ground. You wouldn?t believe that this ride actually cost £1 million to build, as it is so simple, it still went down a storm with all the kids on it!

ROCKY MOUNTAIN RAILROAD

This caused great amounts of fun for all, not only was it a train ride, but you had to keep an eye out for the life sized bandits popping up everywhere! Great fun which caused many a tear from the younger ones as they didn't want to get off!

BOOZY BARRELS BOATS

I think James was a little disappointed with this ride, as he didn'
t get soaking wet!! Having said that this was a lovely ride really, you sit in half-barrel style boats - really? Which are really easy to get in and out of I might add. As you float around the track life size pirates are waiting to squirt you with water! The areas around the track are really well kept too, no nasty surprises in the shape of stinging nettles or brambles to scratch you on the way round! The best thing after the ride, is the extremely friendly and helpful staff who will take your children out of the barrel and assist you as well.

CAPTAIN SANDY?S PLAYCOVE

Oh its like being at the seaside and after an hour or so you will begin to think you are. This is the largest sandpit I have ever seen. Not only is there masses and masses of beautiful white sand to play with, but also things to climb in, on, over and under - a children's dream!


THE INDOOR JUNGLE

This is situated in the same building as the café, where parents can take the weight off their feet and let the children run riot in a soft play area. There are things to climb up, roll down, slide down, and jump on off or into, all based on the jungle theme. There is a staff member ensuring that only small people can get in - our 9-year-old was fine and he is quite tall for his age. I think the size guide is so us parents can't get in on the fun to be honest. We had to shout the kids back regularly as it was extremely hot in there, even with the doors open. I would recommend you take your children a pair of socks to wear in this area, as many had bare feet having worn sandals - not that I am paranoid, but veruccas and athletes foot are not pleasant!

LOLLIPOPPET CASTLE

This was the place I HAD to go into - as you travel around the castle, watch your heads! You are confronted with every possible confection in larger than life form - they look so realistic, it was tempting to reach out and grab!

FORT APPACHE

This was a superb ar
ea for the children to let off some steam before leaving Sundown - a truly fabulous fort of epic proportions. There really is something for everyone here. Their facilities were excellently constructed and maintained, with plentiful bark chippings everywhere! James decided to fall from the top of some steps - pretending to be Spiderman and although landing with a 'whooomp' was completely unhurt - despite the drop being just under 6feet. He did get up and try it again, but after a heated debate, he decided against it!


FOOD

The food at Sundown is, as you would expect at one of these parks, sausages, chips, nuggets etc - the only thing that really amazed me was the price - a children meal was £1.20 for an absolute plateful! Drinks were similarly reasonably priced 60p for a carton of Ribena, or a can of fizzy. Looking around at the amount of cartons/cans being consumed no one minded the prices. We did take our own food and found ample places for eating despite the park being very busy. The restaurants were very well maintained, with staff clearing tables and disinfecting them almost as soon as they were vacated. Perhaps the only downfall was the use of plastic cutlery, which appeared to keep breaking, especially when used by the children.


TOILETS

This is perhaps my main complaint about Sundown - on the whole site we only found two toilet blocks not counting the toilets in the restaurant area. Although these toilets really were spotless, with plenty of soap, towels and toilet roll and clean dry floors and no cracked seats. I would have thought that more would be better especially as the toilets are quite far apart - you know what kids are like, when they gotta go they gotta go!. Having said that, there was very little queuing for the toilets and their stocks of paper was consistent throughout the day. All toilets were suitable for disabled users and baby changing facilities were available at all.


FIRST AI
D

Although I always carry a first aid kit that any hospital would be proud off, I always look out for the first aid post on arrival at a park, you just never know. At Sundown they have not one, but TWO first aid rooms, staffed at all times.


LOST CHILDREN

There are always some children, that despite the best efforts of the parents to keep an eye on them who will escape!

GIFT SHOPS

As with all days out children want a reminder of where they have been - the gift shop was extremely well stocked and laid out, with almost every kind of toy you could imagine. There really was something for everyone's pocket. I found things in the gift shop were quite cheap in comparison to other adventure type parks we have visited, another piece of good news for your pocket.

STAFF

Talk about saving the best 'til last - well not really but Sundown should be really proud of all their staff! They were all fantastic, they had a good mix of older and younger staff, all clearly identifiable with their red tops, casual but smart at the same time. Their attitudes were fantastic; they made jokes with the children and parents alike, and were not above helping distressed children on or off rides. At all times the staff were efficient and courteous and caring, appearing to really enjoy their work. This attitude really inspired confidence from the parents that their little treasures were in good hands. The staff were plentiful, and always available to approach and ask questions of. There were quite a few staff 'wandering' around the park, sometimes speaking to 'unhappy' children and I did wonder whether this was a 'lost child patrol' - which if is was is a fantastic idea.




To say we had a fantastic visit to Sundown is putting it mildly - we arrived at 10am and didn't leave until 4pm and didn't feel that we had had enough of the place. James most certainly didn't want
to come away, wanting one last visit to the fire station to ride the fire truck and ring the bell! Although once on the coach it was a full time job keeping him awake!

It is a great day out for kids, everything there is for them to sit on, stand on, ride on, touch, smell, taste and play with - not many places like that around! There is little queuing time, even though the park was very busy - we started off at the far end of the park - thus avoiding most of the queues. Even when you do have to queue they do move very quickly indeed, and there are interesting things to look at and talk about with your children as you pass along the queue. When queuing for the tractor ride, we passed through a farmer's house and kitchen, with all the accoutrements of farming life set out before us.

The food was excellent so I am told, although not huge variety in menu, the portions were enormous and the prices very cheap indeed. So no need to take a picnic with you. The drinks were in plentiful supply also, not only were they sold in the food outlets but they also had carton and fizzy drink machines around the site, reducing queuing times once again. The only things I would suggest you take with you on a visit to Sundown, are your children, yourselves, some suncream and a hat and a few plasters and of course your camera. We went on a reasonably sunny day and as there are few shady places sunscreen and hats are a must for children. It would be inadvisable to go to Sundown on a rainy day as the majority of the attractions are outside, so you really wouldn?t get your value for money.

I only wish that sundown was nearer, as I have the feeling we would be there on a weekly basis - it really is good value for money, and somewhere I think we will be visiting again!

Summary: