Woodlands Leisure Park Devon Review
Woodlands Leisure Park
Dartmouth, Devon
Reviewed by Sarah Hicks
We just returned from a fab family day out at Woodlands Leisure Park in Totnes, Dartmouth. We are exhausted! We’d planned out trip for quite a while but as the day became closer, we were a bit concerned as there was a weather warning in place for heavy rain the beginning part of the day. Rearranging wasn’t an option unfortunately, it was chucking it down when we arrived, but after being welcomed through the pay gates, we quickly managed to shelter from the rain in the large soft play warehouse. After shaking ourselves off the children were very quick to dump their shoes and coats and dash off and play in the multi-story maze of slides, ball pools, tubes, tunnels and ladders. It was quite busy, understandably – we are talking a rainy day in the middle of the school summer holiday here – but we still managed to find a table on the top floor – (there are 3 different seating levels within this space), which is called the Sea Monster Zone – This gave us the chance to have a quick cup of tea while the kids worked off some steam after being sat in the car for the journey and we waited for the rain to stop!! We were also able to eat our picnic lunch here, + good to know those bringing their own food are not banished to outdoor areas.
Right now comes the difficult bit – where do you start! Well we did the obviously thing, we back tracked towards the entrance and went on the Sea Dragon Swing Ship – it’s the sight that greets you from the car park and 2 of my children were keen to give it a go, Lily’s 8 and Sid is 6. Sid fell between the height restriction for which you needed an over 16 year old to go on with – step forward Mummy! Daddy is not keen on swing boats after a previous childhood experience! All good, although it is now Lily who also is not keen on swing boats – she decided she didn’t like it half way through the ride! Sid however loved it – can we go again mum, can we go again mum – and those 10 words pretty much sum up the rest of the day.
Next on the to do list was Cyclone Canyon Zone – lots of fun to be found here – as long as you don’t mind getting wet – well after all the effort of waiting for the rain to stop the natural thing to do is then get soaked through, I don’t want to spoil any of the rides for anyone, but I would say, start with the Orange Rapids ride – you’ll stay the driest on this one but it’s still a ride that will catch your breath! Another big favourite was the Tornado Toboggan Ride, still in the same area – this ride was shut when we first arrived due to the wet weather – but as soon as things dried up the queue started building in anticipation – we waited for things to get going and then joined the line – it was still quite long but moved quickly – so even my younger children Sonny and Stan – aged 4 managed to cope with waiting. On this particular ride all of our 4 children needed to be accompanied on the ride by an over 16 year old – we all stood in the queue together and the staff were more than happy to let my husband and I go round twice so that all 4 children got a turn without having to wait in line again.
We moved further on away from Cyclone Canyon and the children enjoyed rides on the Pedal Boats without having to queue, which was great. They enjoyed time in the Ninja Zone, which is another extensive outdoor play area – there are lots of these linking all the main areas of the park – in fact it was quite a challenge trying to move around the park because no sooner had we rounded up the children from one activity, they had run on, and were in the next play area! We spent a fair bit of time in the Arctic Zone, the children enjoyed using the Glider Rides – kind of a dry ski slope type of tobogganing, and also here was the Avalanche Ride, for riders over 140cm’s – this was one for Mum and Dad – both of whom nearly chickened out during the short waiting time – it’s quite scary being tipped over the edge of a vertical drop whilst sitting on a plastic sledge – but we survived and thoroughly enjoyed it!
As mentioned we had a brilliant day, we stayed until closing time but still didn’t get round to seeing everything – if you get opportunity take advantage of the 7 day stay and play wrist bands that you can purchase they allow you to turn your one day entrance fee into a 7 day pass, you could very easily spend all week here and you and your children would not get bored, they also have a camping site on which if you stay 2 nights entrance to the park is free. There are toilets dotted literally all over the park – we never had far to walk if one was needed, the only thing I would mention is the site naturally is spread over quite a hilly area, we had my mum with us who struggled a little with the walk up hill, which in places were quite steep. Also don’t worry about visiting on a rainy day – as mentioned, half the fun on the big rides is getting soaking wet and if you do want to avoid the rain, there is plenty of shelter around the site, with under cover seating areas and slides to keep little ones amused. Top tip – take a spare set of clothes!!
Definitely a 5 out of 5 from us, would love to go back soon!
Rating: 5/5 
Tickets cost £18.25 (adult/child), £13.30 (adventurer 92-110cm). Book online to save up to 20%.
For more information or to book tickets visit www.woodlandspark.com.
Woodlands Leisure Park, Blackawton, Totnes, South Devon, TQ9 7DQ | 01803 712598
