Review - Peppa Pig World at Paultons Park, Hants

We were extremely lucky to be invited to the VIP and Press preview day at Peppa Pig World at Paultons Park in Hampshire last weekend. 

The excitement was very hard to control in the children as we made the 2 hour journey to Paultons park from home (yes, dedication on our part).  Not only were our three year old girls (twins) excited our 7 year old boy was as well.  Not a stalwart fan of Peppa Pig but JJ probably had the most fun out of them all in the end.  We all enjoyed the day and have vowed to return again in the summer.  Our family would most certainly recommend Peppa Pig World.

Peppa Pig World is the first Peppa Pig themed park of its kind and a real coup for Paultons Park.  You can tell that a lot of thought has gone into the building of this themed area and visually it is stunning from the first beautiful Murial as you enter the area to all the characters and static displays as well as the stunning rides.  The area is very well planned and spaced and the landscaping is just perfect.

Peppa Pig World boasts 7 great new rides, these range in excitement and age appeal from Grandpa Pig's Little Train which is serene and subdued to the Windy Castle ride which takes you right up in the air and allows you to spin the disc in your carriage and go for a whirl.  This one was a surprise for Mummy when we first went up in the air!  I am not the type to go on funfair rides and was lulled by the Peppa Pig theming into thinking that this ride might be very slow but not so, it excited my 7 year old thrill seeker.

We felt the mix of the 7 rides was just perfect.  The park is aimed at children up to about 8 years of age and there is truly something there for everyone.  Miss M's favourite was Grandpa Pig's Boat Trip which saw her captaining a small boat.  Miss E adored the fun of steering Daddy Pig's Car Ride and JJ enjoyed Peppa's Big Balloon Ride. You know the thing I always associate with theme parks and rides is the queues and this really puts me off, but the good news is that on a day that appeared pretty busy we were able to get on every ride with less than a 15 minute wait.  Some had no wait at all and the kids were able to enjoy three rides, one after the other.

All of the children loved George's Spaceship Play Zone, which to you and me is a soft play area.  Fun wavy slides (which Mummy also got to go on), a mock flame in a hot air balloon and an area where you can hoover up the balls to fly up to the hot air balloon which releases them when it is ful,l all made for brilliant fun for the kids.

As well as the rides, soft play area and static exhibitions there was also Mr Potato's Playground and the kids thoroughly loved this. Astro turf made for a nice clean play and the big wide slides and variety of play equipment meant that even when the park was packed full with children there was no queueing or hanging around.  We did not join in as being March the weather was not that nice but there is a lovely little splash area known as Muddy Puddles.  Some of the children stripped off into undies and nappies and enjoyed this fun.

For a beautiful memory of the day you can have a photo done either on one of the rides (Daddy Pig's Car Ride of George's Dinosaur Adventure) or visit Peppa Magic Photo studio or Madam Gazelle's School House.  At Madam Gazelle's you can pose with life size characters and at Peppa's Magic Studio you can choose a background and they take a photo of you in front of  green screen and super impose you in with Peppa and her chums.  They cost £7.00 for one photo, keyring or magnet and £10 for 2.

With regard to utilities in the Peppa Pig World I was very pleased with the toilets.  They were spacious and even the cubicles were able to fit three of us at one time.  The toilets all had special seats for both big and little bottoms.  There was plenty of changing space too. My only comment would be that it would have been nice to have paper towels as pre-schoolers very often hate the noise that comes with the new powerful hand dryers.  Daddy Pig's Big Tummy Cafe had a good range of sandwiches, cakes, snacks and drinks.  I was really pleased with the ice cream range, it was so refreshing to find a lolly available for 70p and even the cornetto style cone was just £1.20.  As for the shop, well you can not fault it.  Peppa Pig paradise is how I might describe it, everything you might want with Peppa on is there.  Loads of temptation for the kids and luckily the shop includes things like comics which start at £1.99.

We had such a lovely time in Peppa Pig World that we managed to spend the majority of our time in there.  We did venture in the rest of Paultons park for about an hour at the end  and all the children seemed most enthralled with the play park areas.  We came across another 2 of them and they were great:  there was sand and pulley systems, a train, a tree house, very large climbing frames and slides.  Loads of apparatus all clearly marked with the appropriate ages.

Entry to the park costs £56.00 for a family of three and if we wish to go again in the future it will cost £92.50 for the five of us.  Children under 1 metre tall are free, so this is good if you have young ones (or short ones!)  

Our family rating:   5/5  We had superb fun!

Hope you enjoy your trip!

This is a review post, all the opinions expressed here are my own.  I was not instructed what to write and I remain honest. My family received free entry to Paultons Park for the purposes of this review, the children also received a small gift bag upon leaving.