Tag: days out in London

SEA LIFE Aquarium London

Birthday Gifts, Children, Days Out, Family Life, Gifts for children, Summer

Disclaimer – We have received this item for free or on a loan basis for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

When it comes to summer holidays, the weather is always better the week before children break up from school, making it difficult to book things to do! The SEA LIFE Aquarium London is the safest bet yet for planning as it’s completely indoors and therefore weatherproof!

Located on the South Bank, in the old County Hall building and next to The London Eye (giant ferris wheel) there is plenty to do in the area.  Book tickets to SEA LIFE Aquarium online and you can reserve your entrance time and plan your day ahead, including transport.

The SEA LIFE Aquarium starts with the Atlantic section. There are more than 10 sections throughout the aquarium including Antarctica and Rainforests, acting as a tour around the world via aquatic life.  The aquarium follows a path where you meet fish and sea creatures in different tanks with informative digital displays that tell you the fish contained within the tank as well as information about their habitat and how endangered they are. There are all sorts of fish, star fish, lobsters and other animals to look at which the children found fascinating and there was certainly something for everybody. You can read as much or as little about the species as you like, or just watch them swim around. Photos are also possible.

As you travel round more tanks, you come to the main attraction of the underwater exhibition – a huge tank containing sharks, turtles and stingray!  There are ample windows around the tank and seating points for small children as well as adults to be able to sit and watch, or in the case of most children, to sit and point at the animals. The sharks are seriously impressive due to their size and their elegance but the turtles are huge, and look just like Crush in Finding Nemo! The stingray and turtles swim around and come up to the glass to ‘greet’ onlookers which makes for some fabulous photos. Some of the sharks swim too, but there are a couple of basking sharks at the bottom of the tank which you can see up close.

Walking around the rest of the exhibitions, there’s an area with Ben Fogel talking about the habitats of the rainforest, an area of rockpools where you can touch shark eggs and star fish and learn about their lifecycles from a member of staff. We loved hearing about how the turtles in the main display were rescued from a turtle farm and brought to London and got to see a real turtle shell, its skeleton and be able to touch it.

The displays are interspersed with different types of interactions, professional photos, a virtual reality lab and activities for children of all ages. We saw babies being carried forward facing so that they could look into the tanks and toddlers being able to watch the motion of the fish for what must have seemed like hours to them!

For both adults and children, the best display has to be the penguins. A large pool with an equally large area of hardstanding behind big glass walls houses the penguin colony who were entertaining and inquisitive. They didn’t seem to mind the number of people watching them and seemed genuinely nosy and came face-to-face with the public with no fear. We watched for ages as they did dove into the pool, swam for fun, swam for hunting and then hopped out of the water onto the ground. There’s ice being churned out all the time to keep them cool and the viewing window (a globe above ground where children can stand and watch them) was especially good fun. The children loved the antics of the penguins and how close they could get to them and we loved watching them. I could sit there for hours! 

Before finishing, you go through a sea of jellyfish too, which were magical and fascinated the smaller children with their illuminous properties. The SEA LIFE Aquarium finished with a huge gift shop selling all sorts of soft toys, mugs and keyrings as well as more for the grown-ups. You can purchase the photos at this stage too before walking out to South Bank where you are right next to the London Eye and Shrek’s Adventure.

It took us about 2 hours to walk round the whole exhibition with stopping to see the fish in each display, taking photos and roughly reading the information boards. By the end of the day, we were buzzing from all the sights and sounds of the aquarium and being able to see animals and fish we would never usually get to see in London. It’s a fabulous day out!

Tickets available online at: https://www.visitsealife.com/london/

A Scaretastic Time at The London Dungeon

Birthday Gifts, Children, Days Out, Family Life, Halloween, Summer, Theatre

Disclaimer – We received entry to this attraction free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Housed on the South Bank in the shadow of the London Eye, The London Dungeon is a walk-through attraction of some of London’s darker historical moments. Very easy to get to – a tube ride to Westminster and walk across the bridge, taking photos of the London Eye and the Big Ben on the way.

At the entrance you are greeted by ‘decorated’ staff who guide you in, depending on your ticket. There is an opportunity for a nice selfie here, on a throne with a portrait of the King. A few security checks, a bag search then into three staged photo selling areas. The staff here weren’t part of the attraction and are very matter of fact – stand her, hold this etc, so don’t let this put you off the rest of the attraction.

However, then the ‘fun’ began. A jester gave us a few rules – don’t touch, we won’t touch you and it’s dark with light effects. Then we met a Royalist in the intro to the ‘Rotten Royals’, where we learnt about King Charles I and how we were to help rescue him from execution! This part of the Dungeon was quite historical and involved an executioner and a torturer and some wanted (or not!) interaction from the attendees. Then we went into Plague London, Mrs Lovett’s Pie shop, met a helper of Sweeny Todd and finished with Whitechapel and Jack the Ripper. Our final visit was to a judge who sentenced us all to death. Unfortunately, we weren’t hanged as the finale of a ‘death drop’ was closed due to maintenance. Slightly disappointing as it felt the tour had led to this scary ending. Instead we just got herded into the photo room.

Was it truly scary? I think this depends on whether you have experienced these tours with actors before and possibly your age. And whether you like ‘taking part’? We overheard one young girl gleefully talk about her dad being chosen as a prisoner and torture victim. Most of it is in the dark with well-timed light effects and ‘bits’ that move and water that sprayed you in lieu of blood. Very young children wouldn’t like it at all, but teens and family groups would enjoy the interactive nature of it. Rather than read or listen to information, you are addressed by actors who play the parts – an executioner, Mrs Lovett, a Jack the Ripper victim. This is good and entertaining and they try to get you involved and certainly ham it up for all it’s worth. We particularly liked the witch in Newgate prison – very creepy and in the dark with strobe lighting. I was impressed how they could move around in pitch black and jump out in front of the unexpected (me!).

You walk through in about an hour so have to be prepared to be on your feet although there were three rooms where you sat for a while. The tour is in groups so you move from area to area – no time for looking at the set dressing along the way, which would have been nice. And if English isn’t your first language you may have difficulty following all that is said – there were some ripe Cockney accents flying about.

At the very end there is a tavern, with a self playing piano and skeleton. The prices for drinks weren’t at all bad, so this could be a quiet stop for refreshments before exiting.

Tickets are £35 per adult, £29 for children, which although a little steep they do multi-attraction tickets which includes the London Eye, for example, and these work out at much better value, especially for anyone in London for a couple of days. If you are visiting London’s sites I would buy the multi ticket and do the London Dungeon as part of this.

https://www.thedungeons.com/london/