Our thoughts on Roarr! Dinosaur Adventure.
On the day of my sons birthday he decided he wanted to go to the dinosaur park, so we packed up a picnic and off we went. It has been a few years since we last visited, maybe 5 or 6? Anyway it used to be called Dinosaur Adventure and we used to go at least twice a year until harvey started school and i have visited several times a youngster too.
Alot has changed and also alot doesn't seem to have been touched..
What really lets the park down for me is that there is alot of the original dinosaurs and displays still active in the park, playing a major part of the trail and really are the main dinosaur park but none of them seem to have had any maintenance since the park opened with peeling paint on most of the dinosaurs, parts of them broken and missing teeth or nails, dinos covered in green algae where they have never been cleaned, fake tar pits and ponds covered in more green algae, missing paint and covered in leaves, displays that should be eggs in nests that just look like concrete balls surrounded with rotten twigs that look nothing like a nest. What I remember was a pair of boots sticking out of the tar pit is now just 2 concrete nubs. Behind all the fenced attractions there was litter, the first bit we found as we arrived 30 minutes after opening was a slush cup with a mouse trapped in that we promptly jumped over the fence to release it and then disposed of the cup in a bin no more than 10 feet away. We carried on collecting and disposing of litter throughout our day, even my son said how disgusting people are for dropping it.
Despite the negatives on the day we had a good time and celebrated Harvey's birthday at the park the best we could by doing everything he wanted to do. But would we go back? Unfortunately not any time soon as I believe the price we paid to get in doesn't reflect what is in the park. Although Roarr! Dinosaur adventure have spent lots on rebranding and upgrading the park, I believe they haven't focused enough on what makes it a dinosaur park and have only tried to maximise their profits from one time visitors. If it was cheaper for us to get in we would be frequent visitors so long as the original dinosaurs were maintained and they hired some litter pickers to patrol the park.
Alot has changed and also alot doesn't seem to have been touched..
There are many new attractions including a soft play named Dinomite with a wooden outdoor play area and a cafe that serves hot and cold food and drinks but this whole section seems to get very crowded and you are not allowed to eat your cgown food in here. There is a splash pad named Dippys Splash Zone that to be honest was the highlight of my sons day as he loved the massive bucket that fills with water and tips onto you creating a huge splash!
Some of the attractions have moved place such as the younger kids play area is now the splash pad, and has been moved into the original wooden play area. Most of the 'secret garden' has had a reshuffle mostly to make way for a fish and chip shop, why a fish and chip shop was needed or has anything to do with dinosaurs, i dont know, but its there, it looks nice but definitely out of place in my opinion, we would never choose to eat there due to the fact all food on site is very costly especially wheñ added onto park entrance so we always pack a picnic and have fun watching the peacock strut his stuff hoping that we drop something's tasty.
What really lets the park down for me is that there is alot of the original dinosaurs and displays still active in the park, playing a major part of the trail and really are the main dinosaur park but none of them seem to have had any maintenance since the park opened with peeling paint on most of the dinosaurs, parts of them broken and missing teeth or nails, dinos covered in green algae where they have never been cleaned, fake tar pits and ponds covered in more green algae, missing paint and covered in leaves, displays that should be eggs in nests that just look like concrete balls surrounded with rotten twigs that look nothing like a nest. What I remember was a pair of boots sticking out of the tar pit is now just 2 concrete nubs. Behind all the fenced attractions there was litter, the first bit we found as we arrived 30 minutes after opening was a slush cup with a mouse trapped in that we promptly jumped over the fence to release it and then disposed of the cup in a bin no more than 10 feet away. We carried on collecting and disposing of litter throughout our day, even my son said how disgusting people are for dropping it.
Despite the negatives on the day we had a good time and celebrated Harvey's birthday at the park the best we could by doing everything he wanted to do. But would we go back? Unfortunately not any time soon as I believe the price we paid to get in doesn't reflect what is in the park. Although Roarr! Dinosaur adventure have spent lots on rebranding and upgrading the park, I believe they haven't focused enough on what makes it a dinosaur park and have only tried to maximise their profits from one time visitors. If it was cheaper for us to get in we would be frequent visitors so long as the original dinosaurs were maintained and they hired some litter pickers to patrol the park.
