Under the sea adventures (Weymouth Sealife Centre)

Member Name: abbadabbado

Product:	Weymouth Sealife Centre
Date:	05/09/08 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A filled day out

Disadvantages: Expensive without vouchers

I'm sure everyone has received a two for one voucher this summer for many British Attractions. We decided to use ours by going to the Weymouth Sea life Centre. It's situated almost on the sea front in Weymouth.
Getting there isn't difficult as it's well signposted, however there seems to be a big increase in traffic going through the centre of Weymouth in recent months, so prepare for delays if you're travelling there in peak periods.
There is a large car park attached to the Sea life centre, however this is a council run car park and charges apply. We paid £4.40 for four hours which we found was just enough time to go round the park and have lunch etc.

Admission prices are averagely priced compared to other days out. Adults are £15.95 and children over 3 years are £11.95. Using our BOGOF voucher, we got an adult free rather than the cheaper option of taking the child's price off as we were a family of three paying. I thought this was good; however the staff were doing the "hard sell" with guidebooks at £4 a pop.

The park is laid out in a big circle and you won't miss anything, with a leaflet guiding you to all the attractions, as well as a feeding times list if you want to see the animals being fed. Each attraction is numbered so if you start at number 1 you won't go wrong.
We found the biggest down point to the way some of the attractions were set out was the viewing room. If you had a pushchair, and our party had two, we couldn't all stop together to look at the animals, as there was literally walking room for two people. This was a bit off putting, however in the outside attractions it was a lot better.
Timing seeing the animals being fed, you will probably have to visit attractions in a different order to one to ten, as you'll miss feeding times. It's also a good idea to get to the attraction 15 minutes early to avoid the crowds that gather quite quickly. This is advisable especially if you have children and they want to see.

Weymouth Sea life Centre is home to a lot of animals including penguins, otters, and lots of different fish, sharks, turtles, seals, crabs, and a few creepy crawlies of the sea too.
They also host a large picnic area with a few rides and stall dotted around to get any last bits of money from you. We arrived at lunch time and managed to find a picnic table to eat on during the peak time, and there were plenty of bins around too. Just watch for the wasps.

It's advisable to take a picnic, as the prices in the main restaurant and the extra stalls serving hot dogs, ice creams etc can be quite high. From a £10 note we got 2 hot dogs and 3 ice creams. This is fine on a day out like it was, but I would be miffed at paying that normally.

The keepers give a brief talk when feeding the animals and sometimes let the public throw food in as well which is nice. We didn't get to do this but saw other people doing it. They all appear very professional and know what they are talking about.
At each area there are also briefs about each animal, including a bit of their history, how they came to be at the park, their names etc.

The keepers let themselves down when they kept trying to push adopting an animal at any opportunity they got. I appreciate they're trying to raise the funds for the upkeep of the park, but I felt it was a bit too much.

Weymouth has got a couple of really nice touches to the park to make it a good day out. In good weather you can make the most of the outside large paddling pool, and water fountain area. There are water jets all over a medium sized area for children to run through and get wet. If you've been to the park previously, on your next visit you'll definitely remember to take the kids swimming costumes if it's nice weather.

For kids they are given a scratch card with questions on. There are the standard questions dotted around the park, and if they get them all right at the end, when handing them in to the gift shop you will receive 10% off your purchase.
The gift shop itself though isn't very big and doesn't have anything too exciting to grab you (phew) unlike some other parks I have visited. The prices are of course over priced for what you get, but that's part of the day out.

In good weather you'll have a great day, but beware on rainy days as a lot of this park is outside, and it could go towards ruining the day.

Summary: A good day out