If you are looking for a great soft play in the South West then Ocean Adventurers in Cheddar is one of our absolute favourites. So when we heard they had opened a new site with a Space theme we were itching to try it out….
Space Adventurers is located in Taunton not far from the M5 exit. Admittedly is was a long drive for us from Bristol (about an hour and a half) but we had high hopes considering how good we found the original venue and are always keen to try new places.
Myself and a friend visited with our 3 year olds and being big fans of Ocean Adventurers which caters so well for their age group, we really really really wanted to love this one just as much. Although there are many brilliant features to this soft play, for the girls at this age sadly we were left a little disappointed....However, I think this is down the specific age that they currently are, and if they were were in either of the older or younger categories I think we would have felt quite differently as the provision (for the older children in particular) is excellent. The main issue we had was with the layout and safety of the role play zone, the details of which I will explain further below.
WHAT’S ON OFFER?
As with Ocean Adventurers they have a range of different areas designed for specific ages which is particularly good if you need to accommodate children across the age range as there is something for everyone.
Junior Zone (5-12 years)
The star of the show has to be the impressive Junior soft play unit with a large multi-lane slide at its centre. Beneath it there is a football court which I know will be greatly appreciated by the older children and was very popular during our visit. These areas will undoubtedly keep them entertained for a long while!
Toddler Zone
There is also a smaller toddler soft play zone which has similar multiple levels, plastic bricks for building and a cool suction station that the kids can push a ball into and watch it fly along the clear tube. There was a small trampet which could have been a really nice touch but unfortunately it wasn’t very bouncy so the girls weren’t able to make use of it. It is nice that they are have a dedicated space for toddlers but novelty of this area did seem to wear thin quite quickly as they preferred to spend more time with the role play equipment located in a different zone.
Baby Sensory Zone
Tucked inside a separate room there is a space themed sensory area with low lighting and illuminated by various different pieces of equipment for babies to explore. The space inspired decor adds a well considered touch to this area.
Role Play Zone
With its neon, glow-in-the-dark decor and maze effect, this area looks particularly impressive at first glance. There are a selection of costumes available for the little people to try out including Space Suits which was a great little detail.
Sadly it wasn’t practical for the little ones to play in comparison to a standard role play ‘village’ setting, as it was clearly designed as a laser tag playground with the role play stations dotted around in various alcoves and awkardly along the pathways. Understandably this is the perfect place for the older kids to run around, play chase or a game of hide and seek, but this meant they were constantly charging past the little ones who were trying to play, repeatedly nearly knocking them over. On one occasion one group of boys were running past with sticks that they had found amongst the accessories which was extremely dangerous. There were hard pillars (without any padding) prominently placed next to a play tent which if your little likes to jump and roll about inside you can understand that this would not be ideal, as well as having electrical wires accessible in this space. Moreover, the accessories were constantly being knocked off and scattered around the slopes which posed a serious risk of slipping, which is exactly what happened to my daughter. I have fed this back to the Directors and the staff member I spoke to helped removed the stick and tidied up the slopes, but unfortunately the poor design of this area is not something that can be easily resolved which is a huge shame, maybe with future planning the role play accessories can be relocated in a separate space.
Access & Parking
There is extremely limited parking so if you’re planning to go make sure you leave plenty of time ahead of your slot to find a suitable space, I had to drive round and round several times before I found somewhere to park and consequently missed a significant amount of the session because of it, which really didn’t help the situation. Although I must say that I had an exceptional greeting when I finally signed in, with the layout and all relevant information being explained.
Food & Drink
I was pleased to see that they offered the same newly revamped menu with lots of freshly prepared ingredients that we’ve seen at Ocean Adventurers which include Subs and freshly baked pizzas, with Vegetarian and Vegan options available.
For us, unfortunately it wasn’t worth the journey as Ocean Adventurers is much closer and is a lot safer for the girls to play independently, which is something that is really important for them at this stage. I haven’t had any formal response from the Directors which is a real shame as I have held off in posting this article so that I would be able to take any response into account, but since it’s been several weeks I think this is unlikely which is disappointing. Neverthrless, I really hope they are able to rethink the role play set up as this would make all the difference for their age bracket. However, for the local area I think this will be a very welcomed addition and I can imagine that the majority of visitors will find it highly impressive, and I can appreciate that it is absolutely brilliant for the 5-12 age group.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, I really hope it has been helpful but if you have any further questions please feel free to ask. You can send me a message via facebook or Instagram using @butterflyandbeeteam to contact and follow us for more honest reviews and helpful top tips.
Hannah x
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