*press trip
When faced with the rainiest of Summer’s days, what better way to spend an afternoon than touring Trafford’s SeaLife Centre. That’s if you can convince them to stop playing in puddles!
If you’re visiting with a preschool age child during the week, then you can enjoy a great special offer – £9 for an adult and a child under the age of five. Sadly the dreamy looking mermaid shows are only on at the weekend, so we missed those but we did see a mermaid!
Getting into the SeaLife centre was quite a laid back experience. The children looked at fish while we were advised about treasure hunts, places to sit and even a quiet room should we need it. After that we were funnelled into a green screen area where all but one of our children point blank refused to have their photo taken. Hilariously as she was wearing a green dress, Pip looked like she was just a floating head!
The experience starts with a mini talk and show about turtles. The man giving the talk was so engaging that he drew plenty of oohs and ahhs from us and the dark space calmed the children down just enough to prevent them from spontaneously combusting with excitement the moment the doors opened for us to continue.
The space is perfectly designed for children with lots of tunnels and hidey holes. There are huge bulging windows and plenty of buttons to press. Like this one!
Although they were given treasure hunt sheets which prompted them to look for items in each tank, the children were understandably too distracted by the incredible inhabitants. Firm favourites were Nemo’s teacher (sting rays), which made Dorothy smile from ear to ear.
But really anything they could spot whilst inside a tunnel made the tribe very happy indeed. Dorothy told me she was in a bubble under the sea.
Seahorses have always fascinated me. I struggled to pull myself away from their tank! The children described them as magical. Well they are aren’t they? Look at this little guy.
Bizarrely though, despite their eye for detail (they managed to spot a fish pooping), the kids didn’t bat an eyelid at this guy munching on a smaller guy 😬
SeaLife has a soft play area inside but we didn’t have much time or energy for that! There’s also a whole section of the centre that’s interactive with information about environmental issues, fossils and even an opportunity to (very gently) hold a starfish.
The whole centre was hot but they’d tried to improve the temperature with fans and most of the time, the space didn’t feel too congested. Nevertheless we were glad to see ice lollies for sale half way round.
We spent the morning in LegoLand and the afternoon at SeaLife and that was definitely the right way round for us. One adult and an under five can visit both attractions for £14 which I think is quite reasonable. But I would definitely recommend waiting until school starts again!
In a nutshell –
- Try not to carry large bags as there isn’t a huge amount of room
- There’s no cafe so consider when your child may get hungry
- Bring your own pen for the treasure hunt
- Dress for high temperatures, wear flat shoes and bring water
Love Rachel ❤️
Our group was given complimentary entry in return for my honest review.
