Reviewed by Sandip Stapleton
My family and I, children aged 4 and 7, went to Twinlakes in the summer holidays. We live pretty much halfway in-between Twinlakes, which is in Melton Mowbray, and its sister site Wheelgate, which is in Nottingham. We have been to Wheelgate a number of times so we really looking forward to seeing what Twinlakes had to offer.
We went on a very sunny, dry 22°C day which led us to believe that the park would be very busy and guessed would be horrendous, but to our surprise, we pulled into the car park at 10.30am, half an hour after it had opened and there weren’t as many cars as we had been expecting. Given it has rained horribly for the past few days we were expected today, a nice dry sunny day, for there to be rows of cars already parked up.
We had heard in the local news that during the big heatwave last week, there were numerous reports that children had become ill and that the Au Guang Dragon Zone, the water park zone, was possibly the cause of it (this is still being investigated). So we weren’t surprised to see notices as we got to the ticket kiosk that the water park was closed as a precaution. The kids were gutted about that as they love a water park. And with it being a nice warm summer holiday day, we were all pretty disappointed by it. There was also a notice to say that the Jester’s Revenge ride was also closed. Not the best start to what was going to be a great day out.
Nevertheless, with a park map in our hands, we could see that there was still plenty to try.
We headed up to the very top of the park where there was a log flume ride, a train and a rollercoaster which I recognised as the Buffalo ride from my childhood days at The American Adventure theme park!
The pirate ship at Twinlakes is also from The American Adventure too.
We worked our way from the top of the park and towards to the entrance, with a stop for lunch in between. We pretty went on all of the rides, including my 4-year-old son who is a tall 120cm so was tall enough to get onto everything. My 7-year-old daughter has been to Alton Towers and has already been on a few rollercoasters but Twinlakes was a great introduction to rollercoaster rides for him. And with the park staying quiet for the while day we were there, there were no, or very little queues for him to get in and become anxious, we just walked up to everything and pretty much got immediately.
The park has zoned areas, 2 of which are indoors so even if you came on a rainy day, I think there is still enough to entertain your kids. We decided to eat in one of the indoor zones, the Buccaneer’s Island to get a break from the sun and all the wasps that seem to be buzzing around. The indoor play areas was fab and the kids enjoyed it in there too. So much so that they also wanted to try the Labyrinth once too. They loved the sack slide in there the best.
We spent around 5 hours in total at Twinlakes, and we still hadn’t seen everything. Obviously, we missed the water park (still gutted about that one), but we went on most the rides, some of them twice, saw a birds of prey display, had lunch and some ice creams. We missed the train, didn’t go on the quays which has pedalos and rowing boats, and we missed the farm too. My youngest was getting too tired and so we decided to call it a day.
It was a great, fun filled day and you really can spend the whole day there if you have the energy for it. Once the water park is cleaned and re-opened, we would definitely consider coming back.
Rating: 4/5
Tickets cost from £9 to £22 (book online to get the best prices)
For more information or to book tickets visit www.twinlakespark.co.uk.
Twinlakes Park, Melton Spinney Rd, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, LE14 4FF | 01664 567777
