How about Drayton Manor Park this half term?

It’s hard to believe we are just a few weeks away from Little Bean’s half-term. No sooner has she started school than her first holiday is hurtling towards us at full steam. It reminded me of some rides I saw at Drayton Manor Park when we visited for a pre-school treat at the end of the summer holidays.

Drayton Manor

We had never been to Drayton Manor before, but I had always heard good things about it and was surprised to learn that it wasn’t as far away as I thought. We set off at 8 am to attend a blogger’s event to celebrate the release of a new Thomas & Friends DVD and to enjoy the park (and Thomas Land) whilst we were there. We arrived around 10.30 am only to discover that Daddy had forgotten to put the wheels in for our new pushchair. I tweeted my delight at this discovery, and Twitter responded with welcome news: Drayton Manor Park hires out pushchairs for such mishaps.

There was a huge car park, and there looked to be plenty of overflow car parks, too, so there was no need to worry about getting there late and not being able to find a space.

Since we were attending the park as guests, we had already booked our tickets online. We were given a code, which we needed to pass on to the lady at the ticket desk, who confirmed our booking and gave us our tickets to allow us into the park. We asked her about hiring a pushchair, and it was just £6 to hire with a £10 refundable deposit. We were given a ticket to collect our pushchair and had to fill out a simple form before being given the pushchair. It wasn’t the most stylish of pushchairs and looked more like a luggage trolley from the airport, but it didn’t matter; it was clean and functional and saved carrying our bags and chasing Beanie Boy all day!

Drayton Manor

Thomas Land was on the left as we walked into the park, and I have to say, this is where we spent most of our day. When I first got there, I didn’t think it looked like there was much to it, but it was like a little maze with rides and amusements tucked in everywhere. The queues looked quite daunting, but most moved very quickly, generally having to wait no longer than 15-20 minutes.

Drayton Manor

Little Bean felt quite brave when she arrived and asked Daddy if they could go on the rollercoaster—not one to miss out on a rollercoaster. Hubby quickly joined the queue with an eager Little Bean. As they boarded the train, Little Bean gave me a big beaming smile, but as she came past me to begin the second loop, the smiles were gone, replaced with tears. Hubby said that although the ride wasn’t too bad, the last corner had a bit of a whip and frightened her. Perhaps keep this ride for the bravest children.

Drayton Manor

Choosing rides was easy as they all had height indicators to tell you who could go on them and whether or not they needed an adult to accompany them. Unfortunately, on a couple of the rides, only one adult could go on, or we had to ride as one adult and one child separately, which initially we felt was a shame, but at least it meant we could take photographs from the sidelines.

Drayton Manor

There are so many different eateries at Drayton Manor, and I think they have everyone’s tastes covered. We took the children to the Rainforest Cafe, which was cool, although Beanie Boy was a little nervous about the moving animals and hid his head on my knee throughout lunch! My only negative to this experience was the customer service from the young girls wasn’t the best, and it wasn’t even busy, so they had plenty of time to be courteous.

Drayton Manor

I didn’t realise there was a zoo, but I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of animals. Walking off our lunch and seeing the animals before returning to the rides was nice. The pace was much slower here and very relaxing; we particularly loved the Black Leopards, who were stunning.

Unfortunately, this was where Little Bean suffered a frightening accident, but until then, she and Beanie Boy were having a wild time and loved burning off a bit of energy. There were different climbing frames for various age groups, and it was big enough to cater to many children at once.

Drayton Manor

Again, I wasn’t expecting to find this hidden away at the back of the park, but Little Bean LOVED it! She ran from one dinosaur to the next, shouting, “Look, Mummy, another one.” Beanie Boy was a little more apprehensive, but he managed to make it all the way around without too much trauma.

Drayton Manor

Overall, we were impressed with Drayton Manor; obviously, we had been given free entry, but when I looked into the price, I was pleasantly surprised, especially when you consider just how much there is to do there. We didn’t even get to the rides of the older children and adults because we were too busy with the little ones. We will be coming back here repeatedly, and I highly recommend you do too!

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