A Boiling Weekend in Blackpool

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Welcome to our action packed vlog, join us as we embark on a long Bank Holiday weekend in Blackpool; 6 adults, 4 children (3 of which under 3)

The Itinerary:

Day One  - Drive halfway to Blackpool after dinner, stay somewhere around Crewe area. 

Day Two - Drive to Pleasure Beach for 10am opening, meet the family 

Day Three - Gruffalo and Friends Playhouse, beach, seafront amusements

Day Four - Cheshire Oaks, then journey home

As soon as we arrive home from work Friday night, we dash to have some dinner before packing up the car to commence the mammoth journey from Essex to Blackpool. We have no hotel booked tonight - we're winging it, hoping our little one will snooze in the car and we can get as far north as possible.

The rest of my family took the journey on Friday morning so as we commenced our journey were already enjoying dinner on Blackpool seafront, we didn't have that luxury due to work and childcare so we decided to leave after dinner on Friday evening, hoping that F would sleep most of the way in the car and then take it in turns to drive. 

As all good plans go, this failed miserably when we got as far as Stoke and my other half who had been driving all day for work was shattered and our little one was wide awake and getting aggie to get out of the car. 

I was on the Premier Inn website trying desperately to find the closest most reasonably priced hotel for the night. We found one another 25 minutes drive from our location so I booked the last available room. My partner got his head straight down whilst I sat with F until he fell asleep next to his dad and I shuffled the single bed up to the King so I could catch him on me should he roll in the night. 

Saturday morning arrives, abruptly we are awoken by our little monkey jumping on the beds. We went and had some breakfast and headed off pretty sharpish so we could meet everyone else at 10am at Pleasure Beach. By this point we only had another 1 hour and 50 mins to drive. 

We arrived at Pleasure Beach and met the rest of our party. It was an expensive day out, thank god for Tesco Clubcard vouchers! We had enough to get ours free, there's so many rides for the littles that we had to pay for a standard child's ticket even for our 2 year olds. Not even a reduced rate ticket considering they couldn't go on a lot of the rides the 7 year old could. Something to consider if you actually have to pay for the tickets yourself.

We headed in, the kids were amazed by the fountains and all got soaked before we had even got anywhere near any rides. We had to drag them away, there was so much to do and if we'd not used vouchers would have cost way too much for them to play in fountains they can play in free down Southend seafront. 

Our first stop was a photo with Gromit - the kids had no clue who he even was. We then headed off to Nickelodeon land as this was where the majority of the small rides were. 

Spongebob's Splash Bash was the favourite among us adults. It was a roasting day so the freezing water was quite welcoming. As for the little ones they went on the Fairy Taxi's, Diego's rainforest rescue, Wonder pets big circus bounce, Bikini bottom bus tour. Check their website for the latest height restrictions; Nickelodeon Land - Blackpool Pleasure Beach

We took a little wonder around some of the bigger attractions splitting up so the adults got a chance to go on rides they wanted. The littles had naps in their buggies which gave us much needed time in the shade and an ice cream. 

We headed over to the Hub area overlooking Infusion as there was lots of little food outlets, meaning everyone could pick what they wanted to eat. There was also a little inside area we managed to bag some seats to get the kids out of the heat. 

We pottered around and went on a few more rides, leaving eventually at 5.30pm ish, with two giant Luigi's and several small soft toys in tow. 

We had booked the Premier Inn at Bispham, it had free overnight parking and a great pub with indoor play area and carvery right next door. It was ideal with a 10 minutes drive into Blackpool seafront. There was no aircon, but as seasoned Premier Inn staycators we always take a fan with us as an extra.

It's Sunday morning and we have the first session of the day booked at Gruffalo and Friends Clubhouse. This was the primary reason for our trip to Blackpool, we had done the seafront and Pleasure Beach as a couple but knew our little one would love the freshly opened Gruffalo attraction.

Warning - do not forget socks - it was so hot outside half of us didn't think twice about wearing flip flops. 

Entry was so simple, you show your QR code, they give you a coloured wristband and in you go, through the double doors to the left. There's picture's of all the great stories from Julia and Axel. You enter another set of double doors and are greeted with a little statue of the Highway Rat to your left and the Mouse to your right. 

On your left is a little counter with sandwiches (a welcome break from all the grease out on the seaside) and a pushchair park. To your right the journey begins with the Dark wood, and the Gruffalo and his wooden climbing frame. The little ones were excited to spot all the Gruffalo characters.

There's two soft play area's a Gruffalo one and a Zog one at the rear, both were really good - the slides were so fast and slippery. Next to Zog was the Snail and Whale ball pit, which is where our lot spent most of the 90 minutes session. 

There seemed to be plenty of seating around although once the following sessions commenced space was then limited. 

There is an area to the side where you sit on logs and dance with the Gruffalo, i've since seen other characters come out - we only saw the Gruffalo during our visit. There is also a little Room on the Broom area for Toddlers - nothing to write home about and actually a little underwhelming compared to the rest of the theming. The Gruffalo's child area wasn't open when we visited so I cant comment on that. 

The time whizzed by so fast, 90 minutes wasn't enough time and we had to drag the kids out of the ball pit. 

We headed by the seafront for some lunch, just a word of warning everything is greasy, I was so over this type of food by this point in the heat I wanted a nice salad or sandwich or something but had to walk to their run down high street to find something suitable. 

We finished the day off with a trip to the beach and arcades before retiring to the hotel and having dinner there for the evening. 

Now Monday morning, we popped to the Peter Rabbit experience, as it was cheap to buy tickets for two Merlin attractions this was the second attraction we picked. Honestly not worth the couple of pounds we paid. There's not much in there at all and we were in and out in 30 minutes. As you go inside there is a few photo opportunities and interactive features such as a pond projected onto the floor, some drums and also you can collect some stamps in all the different areas. As you move through you visit Mr McGregor's Garden which is in the form of a climbing frame and slide with tunnel. The burrow where you have some buttons in books a little cooking area where you matched the ingredients and that was pretty much it. Then you get called in to meet Peter Rabbit, have a photo and out you go. It was all very quick and empty in there. The Gruffalo experience made this one so superfluous. 

All in all, a fantastic weekend and would highly recommend a visit.