by iamcrabstix | Jan 5, 2020 | Reviews
I was first alerted to the existence of stay, splash and play stays at Cbeebies Hotel in Alton Towers thanks to a tweet by Kip Hakes alerting his followers that he was about to post some exciting info on cost-effective stays at Alton Towers. He sent me the link to his super cheap splash and play post, which I sent to my other half for consideration as he was planning a trip away with our 3 year old when he was on annual leave in December.
We are no strangers to CBeebies Hotel having stayed there twice previously, once with our two year old when I was 27 weeks pregnant and the second time with both kids one aged 3 and one aged 10 months. Although it had only been 4 months since we previously had visited, because the stay, splash and play prices were about a quarter of what we paid in the summer and the fact that our son who isn’t a massive talker still considers this place the best place in the world, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to take them both back (and I couldn’t resist a third chance to pose with my old pal, Ubercorn).
This hijacked Mark’s plans a little bit because he thought our eldest needed some one-on-one parent time, but we both agreed we couldn’t let the little one miss out as he likes to be involved and as he was now walking, he would love the activities even more.
We only booked the day before we were planning on going and we were pleasantly surprised that the prices didn’t increase (a 3-hour journey with possible bad weather/possible winter colds meant that we wanted to play it safe). It was £107 for the Bugbies room for one-night b&b for 2 adults, 2 children and one day pass to the waterpark. We double-checked that the entertainment was all on in the hotel and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was. The theme park was closed on the dates, which didn’t really bother us as we’ve found with previous stays, they’d stay in the hotel if they could anyway and you get to meet and greet the characters in the hotel, so the theme park isn’t crucial to us.
When we had started our three-hour journey to the hotel, Mark had a missed call from an Alton Towers number, we rang back as we didn’t want to travel further if there was an issue with the booking to find that they were ringing to offer a complimentary upgrade, but they’d offered it to someone else as Mark didn’t answer (nice one!). But thankfully there weren’t any problems. We picked up some M&S food on the way for a picky tea in the hotel room as I’ve mentioned before, we weren’t very impressed with the quality of the food for the price in The Windmill Restaurant (not a chance our 3-year-old would sit knowing the musical meadow was within running distance, either).
Everything runs exactly like normal in the hotel. The meet and greets and entertainment start after the check-in time of 3 pm. Postman Pat is the first meet and greet available, but the hotel lobby has plenty of Bugbie based activities and the musical meadow shows Cbeebies shows on the big screen in between activity times.
Entertainment is usually in 30-minute intervals and is a combination of meet and greets (Postman Pat, In the Night Garden) and shows including meet and greets (Octonauts, Bing, Ubercorn’s Disco) and shows from the hotel entertainment team which involve singing, dancing, musical instruments and shows such as Swashbuckle and Andy’s Prehistoric Adventures. Bing’s Big Sleepover at 7pm has been the most popular show every time we have been (especially with our eldest, he didn’t a big fan of hugs but there was no stopping him with his favourite characters).
We’ve been in June, August and now December and obviously the level of occupation is quite different, hence the price, but the level of queuing to meet characters was the best in December! It was very easy to get a seat in the musical meadow too, which we’d struggled with before, especially in August.
We opted for the Bugbies room as normal as we thought it could be quite expensive going forward if the childrens’ expectations were raised to one of the suites! When we looked, the character rooms were only around £40 more, but with no Bing room, the hotel did itself out of any further money from us on this occasion. Rooms are always clean and (ridiculously) bright. It was a little on the cold side and the air con/heating thing didn’t really seem to do anything, that was the only negative I have about going in December.
There were plenty of times available for booking breakfast and there was a good selection of hot and cold food available as always. They could do with having more serviettes out for people to grab as kids can be messy and the take away of finished with plates wasn’t as fast as it has been on previous stays. Our eldest is currently dairy-free and they had a selection of dairy-free milk available, which was a relief.
Check out was 10 am and they let you keep the lanyards and wrist bands, which always goes down a treat with my two! The wrist bands are proudly worn a lot! The waterpark opens at 10, so there is a seamless transition. Parking is available close to the waterpark as well, which is helpful because no one wants to be confronted with the thought of trying to explain to a child that they can’t go back into Cbeebies Hotel if they see it!
The waterpark entrance was actually via the conference centre in the winter months, which we totally missed the small signs on the lamp post for, therefore we parked in the wrong car park and had a bit of a hike with the two children. It looks as though you’re walking into the splash landings/alton towers hotel rather than the waterpark as there are no signs, so it was a bit of a wander down hotel corridors to find the waterpark. When we did it was 20p per locker, which they were very happy to supply change for and the changing/locker areas were clean with plenty of families changing rooms.
I’m not the greatest fan of water, so I intended on putting the little one in his rubber ring and staying in the shallow pool. Unfortunately, he’s not the greatest at regulating his body temperature and after about 10 minutes in the pool, I noticed his lips were turning blue. He was almost 15 months old at this point and he is quite dainty for his age, but I wouldn’t recommend going to the waterpark for any child under this age during the winter months. There were also a lot of pipes etc so there was quite a lot of splashing (I know it’s called Splash Landings, but I was surprised at how little room there was in the small pool to navigate around the baby getting splashed in the face, but maybe that’s just me because as I’ve said, I’m not the biggest fan of water). They do allow you to keep your towels close and take in supplies, so thankfully I sat on a seat for a while and wrapped him up to get him warm again. The main pool was better but it isn’t somewhere you could stay with a little one all day, in my opinion. The three-year-old absolutely loved it, he loved the ride on floats, the walk around water play, the slide he was able to go on and getting us to climb up to where the bell occasionally dropped and splashed everyone. He would have stayed all day had we not had the little one with us.
The main waterside restaurants weren’t available but there was a small cafe which you could get food from, so I had a cash card with me poolside, which seemed a bit weird, I’m not sure if there is another system that operates in summer months. The fast-food chicken fillet, chips, and organic apple drink deal was OK priced and was really nice, the hotel restaurant should take note!
Overall, we would definitely go back on one of these deals again, but if I had my way I would give the water park a miss next time. It’s just not my thing and slightly too old for my little one for a couple of years until he is around aged three. The hotel is still a massive bargain even without the waterpark. We did get a pass for the golf too, which we didn’t use, so maybe if the weather was reasonable I would suggest the family doing that next time.
by iamcrabstix | Dec 31, 2019 | general parenting
2019 has been a very up and down year for me. It has been the best of times, it has been the worst of times and is definitely ending better than it started.
I’ve been crippled with anxiety, worried sick about going back to work, worried about my little boy and his development, had a cancerous mole removed, worried about my partners job, struggling with sleep deprivation and just in a constant battle with my own mind (thanks to everything on that list, thyroid issues and general overwhelm of having two kids under the age of four).
I’ve learned a lot about myself and about the impact that the feeling of personal responsibility for everything can have. Whether it be work-related, miscarriage related or anything else life related, blame and shame is soul-destroying. I feel that this year, I have made progress in regards to these feelings and stopped ruminating on them, which is a big thing. How I would have defined myself last year has changed and I’m actually happier for it, which I would have never expected.
I move into 2020 in a good place and where I am still looking for the constant physical danger in every situation with the kids (especially the little one), I’m now not crucifying myself worrying about things like us losing our jobs, for which I have no control over. What will be, will be, whether I think about it between the hours of 1-4am or not.
I still have to overcome a few things, which I would usually avoid, like meetings which I know will cause me to take things as personal criticism, events to manage where I have to delegate to people and hope they do as they should and my little boy still needs help with his speech and speech therapy are being quite useless, so I’m going to have to bash a few heads together. I’d usually fall apart, but I’m learning to lean on others and talk!
Here are some things that 2019 taught me:
- Truths are the stories we tell ourselves. Truth is different for different people.
- People may make you think that they are doing things better than you did them, but those things simply weren’t important to them before. See point 1.
- Most mothers that I have spoken to that suffer from anxiety seem to struggle with intolerance of uncertainty.
- Sticking to your values is very important.
- No two children are the same.
- Assumptions are bad.
- Potty training should be acceptable to add to skills on a CV as you’re an absolute pro if you do it without any help.
Here are some things that 2019 taught my twitter pals:
- Jon Shed was right to quit his job.
- Lisa found that she has no self-confidence and she needs to work on herself first before others (I’m gonna help her all I can).
- Sarah found that it’s okay to be on your own. She’s spent so long clinging to someone or something, she’s started to really enjoy her own company.
- Ms. Sentiment Shed is ending 2019 with an “I’ve got this attitude”.
- AR found that getting half-cut on gin and then pushing the ‘fuck it’ button one night by booking a trip to Disney World when drunk was actually not the worst idea in the world after all. Be more impulsive and stop holding myself back so much!.
- Jupiter was taught to always keep fighting for what is right, even if it’s hard and you feel like it’s going nowhere. Keep fighting and eventually, you’ll get somewhere.
It’s been a crazy year to live in the UK, but my echo chamber shows that it has given us time to reflect and move forward knowing who we are and what we want a little better.
Happy New Year!
by iamcrabstix | Nov 10, 2019 | eet
After 13.5 months, it looks as though our breastfeeding journey is over. As we had to take RLT to A&E on Tuesday night for tonsillitis, EET stayed with Grandma, which meant no night feeds for him and no time to express.
Offering none of my own milk is something I kept to after this evening of him staying at his Grandma’s house, as advice I received from Nicole from Baby2sleep in exchange for review, made me realise that breastfeeding was a sleep association for him.
So instead of offering my own milk, I have a bottle of cow’s milk available (he is over 12 months old) and offer him this for the first time he wakes during the night. Then after this, I offer him the bottle again (the sleep association may be for comfort, so the teet may be able to offer him this as he doesn’t have a dummy) but this time with water in it and continue this through the night.
We’ve made some positive changes with his naps, thanks to the build your own sleep plan, but almost four months down the line from making an active plan and following it, I was still being woken 4/5 times a night by him.
I’ve had to take the opportunity to break this association. He obviously isn’t happy about it, but I couldn’t function on this little sleep anymore. It’s affecting me in so many ways. As we have been out and about so much during the day recently, he’d dropped feeding anytime we were out of the house without any conscious effort from either of us, he’s just too nosy! So it has just been the evening and during night feeds to work on for the past month.
Rather than being sad that a big part of our journey is over, I’m looking forward to the rewards of a good nights sleep, for us both, at some point. It is making me sad that this drop has coincided with EET confidently walking, so baby days are officially gone and toddlerhood is here.
The first week was tough, I did occasionally give him milk, I must admit. But slowly and surely the persistence paid off and he began to understand that it was only the bottle that he would be offered. Slowly the sleep time crept up and within around 7/8 weeks he had slept the entire night through.
I’m trying to turn it into a positive in that I can’t wait to watch him grow and develop. When I look at him I could burst with pride at who he is and how happy he is. I played a big part in that and at a time when my anxiety has been through the roof, I look at him and I feel like I have done something right.
Disclaimer: Sleep Plan mentioned in this blog post was gifted for the purposes of honest review.
by iamcrabstix | Oct 9, 2019 | Reviews
Having two children at very different stages, aged one and three, I struggle to find places in County Durham that are suitable for them both, especially on a rainy day. So I took to facebook to ask for recommendations and decided to give Daisy Street Play Spennymoor a try, based on the recommendations of a mum with two children of similar age to mine. I was reluctant at first because the website images looked unappealing, which I shared on the facebook discussion, but the mum reassured me that it really was worth going along. I wasn’t disappointed, but I thought it may be worth writing this review for any parents who were left feeling the same!
Daisy Street Play is situated on an industrial park, just outside Spennymoor near what is now called Durham Gate, but what oldies like me know as the old Black and Decker factory area. It is tucked inside an archway just off the main road in Enterprise City and there is a generous car park thanks to it’s setting.
Under 1s were free (this has now changed for 2020, so check their admission prices), so for only £2.95 for our three year old we were able to play for around five hours if we wanted to, which is fabulous value for money. The staff were nice and engaging, one lady even keeping a lookout for families leaving so that we could secure a table, which I thought was really kind of her. The decor is lovely, the seating is comfortable and you are able to keep an eye on your children while you grab a cup of something, or even a cake, thanks to the room being completely open plan. I even thought it would be ideal to take the children on my own; as I would be able to see them both, even if they darted off into different directions – I get major anxiety about taking the boys out on my own, so this was a big plus for me.
The room has a dedicated play area that has well-looked after toys for little ones and a beautiful tipi area and a selection of books available. There is also a self-contained ball-pit that has a super-fast slide built on top of it, along with a mini climbing wall to get to it for the more adventurous and older children. Make sure you’re waiting at the bottom as the slide is fast!
There is a lovely drawing area with a selection of stencils, pencils and crayons available and a roll of drawing paper, so children aren’t limited by size. There is also a wall covered in blackboard paint and chalk available, which pleased our buddying Banksy.
There was also a further area with lots of figures and buildings for imaginative play. It was all contained by a little fence, so no worries about little ones wandering. I was thoroughly impressed and would urge any parents in the area to try it themselves. We were big fans of Little Land Play in Peterlee, which sadly recently closed and this is the best alternative we have found locally.
by iamcrabstix | Sep 25, 2019 | eet
My darling E – I can’t believe we are here already! You’re one! In 365 days you’ve collected almost as many nicknames as days you’ve been alive! There have been:
Arlo from Darlo (you weren’t supposed to be born there and I wanted to call you Arlo!)
Colin
Boss Baby
Squidgy Man
FOMO
Baby Fomo
Kevin De Bruyne
You’re definitely your own person and I love that about you. I just wish you’d sleep a little more! You’re so small for your age, you’re currently wearing age 6-9 months clothes and even then the trousers are far too long and far too wide around the waist. We’ve really had a lot of time together, you and I and I am so glad I took as long as I could off on maternity leave. Although, it is going to be so hard to leave you with Grandma and for you to start nursery, although I think you are so ready and you’ll absolutely love it!
You’re such a smiley little boy, who loves nothing more than being out of the house and being involved in whatever is going on. Your favourite things to do include Baby Yoga and Hartbeeps. When you were born, your brother had a little bit of difficultly adjusting to life as an older brother, but now you’re interacting with him, you get on like a house on fire. I love to watch you both together and you don’t let him boss you around, which is great and definitely what he needs.
You seem to have been teething since the day you were born and I think you have about 11 teeth now. You still won’t drink milk from a bottle, but I am trying so hard to stop your sleep association with breastfeeding and I am looking to switch you over to cows milk now that you are one. It will be a sad day for this journey to end, but we both need a better nights sleep and I will be going to work soon, so I simply cannot function on the little sleep you have been letting me have between feeding/comfort sessions for the past year.
You’ve been to Bluestone, Center Parcs and CBeebies Hotel and we are looking forward to meeting our friends next week for a trip to the lakes. Experiences with you are always a pleasure little man and I hope that the world never dulls your sparkle.
