Bluewater Winterland Review
- Suzy King
- Jan 2
- 3 min read
I wanted to take my niece (5) and nephew (8) to "Winterland" as I think they are too small to take them up to Winter Wonderland in London at the moment. I have been up there before and seen people with babies and kids that are smaller but it's super crowded and I'm just not comfortable going up with them just yet.
Winterland didn't really have the same feel as Winter Wonderland, it's loads smaller for starters and it was more of a fun fair with a slight Christmas theme. The only faults I could find with it was that some of the plastic statues that were dotted around were broken but left out on display, the toilets were port-a-loos that smelled foul and it was £3.50 for a can of soft drink.
The ticket price was great, £24 for a family (2 adults and 2 kids) and a ride on the observation wheel, then it was £20 to get 25 ride tokens. I wish I had known how many tokens it was for each of the rides as I would have pre-ordered a lot more tokens, but this was my own fault for not looking at the website properly because it was all on there.
With the 2 kids, 25 tokens didn’t last long, especially when the rides that they really wanted to go on were 3 or 4 tokens each. Some of them, my niece was too small and my nephew wasn’t big enough to take her so I had to go on with her. Those rides were 3 or 4 tokens each person so we soon ran out and I needed to buy more. You can buy more tokens from the machine or the booth but it is £10 for 10 or £20 for 20, making the £20 for 25 really worth it but you have to book those at least a day in advance. The lesson here is to pre-book lots of tokens!
There was plenty of rides that were 2 tokens each, they were the rides for little kids like me niece so those weren’t too bad and it didn’t mean that she missed out on loads of rides. They didn't like all the rides they went on but to be fair, when does a kid like every ride at the fair? The ones they did like made it all worth it seeing their happy faces and hearing them laughing.
The observation wheel was really good, we went round 3 times and because we got there when it opened and there was hardly anyone else there, we were the only ones on the wheel. It went round 3 times non-stop, which my niece wasn't happy about, I don't think she has been up that high before. I felt very secure in the pod and although it looks really tall, it’s not that bad once you get to the top.
The food stalls looked ok but they were a bit on the pricy side. So when the kids got hungry, we were lucky that it was the same time that the tokens ran out so that we could go into Bluewater to get something to eat.
I must say though, all the staff were brilliant. They were super friendly and helpful with the kids. When I didn’t go on the ride with the kids, the staff were great at helping them into their seats and showing me they were strapped in safely.
We were walking back to the car at about 4pm and the line was about 50 people long with more adding to it, when we arrived at 12pm when it opened, there was only about 20 of us. More people did arrive but it wasn't packed.
I don't know if I will take the kids again next year, I might take them to the one in London so they can experience a proper Winter Wonderland.
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