If you’re looking for an outdoor day out in Tees Valley, The Gardens at Wynyard Hall are definitely worth a visit. Wynyard Hall has opened the grounds up to the public (for an admission fee) and they’ve done a really fantastic job. Their experience offers something for everyone, regardless of your age or agility.
We decided to visit with our nine-month-old baby, whilst our toddler was at nursery, so we were able to explore from the angle of suitability for visits with a small child and also mindful of access issues due to having a pushchair with us.
The Rose Garden was absolutely beautiful. A mixture of the smell of the roses and the running water from the foundations made this place a sensory sensation and we all felt incredibly calm whilst there. The time and dedication taken to getting this garden right are absolutely commendable, it had a great deal of height, which we weren’t expecting. There are some great information plaques which give you little snippets of the history of the house you can see in the gardens and the bell tower.
There is an edible garden, which grows produce used in the food in the cafe and the restaurant, just as they would have been when the Hall was originally occupied. People must have been taking the name a little bit too literally as there were big signs ‘Do not eat the plants, do not pick the fruit’ all over, which did spoil the aesthetics a little, but needs must, I suppose! There was also a retail space within the edible garden, but it was a little too hot in there on the day we visited, so didn’t go in.
We did visit the Woodland Walk, which was absolutely fantastic for young children. There were various wicker sculptures, animal graves, a train carved from tree trunks and a sandpit in the middle in a lovely tranquil spot. It was a great addition and is definitely best explored with those who can walk, as to get to the walk you must go down some steps and a small gate. If you have a pushchair, it is not impossible if there are two of you to carry it over. There is also a lot of hogweed growing, so you need to ensure your youngsters’ lookout for it.
We did venture into the cafe for our lunch and the menu was good. I got a bacon and brie panini, which unfortunately I found tasteless and Mark got a chilli jacket potato that he enjoyed. However, the coffee I had was one of the best I’ve had in a long time! I found some of the clientele not to be child-friendly. one lady moved a chair to sit in the sun, which in fact blocked my pushchair from leaving the courtyard area. When I politely asked her to move, she didn’t make much effort to do so and actually told me the seat was too heavy to move (but I knew it wasn’t there when I entered the courtyard!) so that put a little dampener on my day, as I feel she looked down on me. But that is no reflection of the staff or owners, simply some of the clientele who use the cafe for long leisurely lunches.
Overall. we really enjoyed the grounds and thought it was worth the admission fees charged. We did purchase an offer through Travelzoo on this occasion. We will be back with our toddler to enjoy the trail, we will. however, avoid the cafe.
Disclaimer: All views in this review are my own and paid for own voucher via Travelzoo.
There aren’t many ‘firsts’ to experience after you’ve had one successful pregnancy, so to ensure that we had a special experience with baby number two, my partner booked a 4D scan as my birthday present as we never did this with #rlt. I’ve always thought 3D scans a little bit freaky, but I had a look at Window to the wombs social media channels and the 4D scans which were then compared to the baby when they were born were brilliant! You really did get a feel for what the baby looked like! I’ve been quite open in that this pregnancy is very different to my last one, so I was really excited to see our baby in 4D!
Mark had booked it online and the scan was quite local, but it seemed sooooo far away from when he originally told me about it (I needed something to look forward to in the short term at that point), the company were great and let us move it forward. We didn’t quite know what to expect, so went with no expectations at all.
The customer service was absolutely fabulous, everyone asked a lot of questions about the baby and for the first time in a long time, I felt that people were interested and that made me happy and excited. I feel that this time everyone feels that we’ve done it once, so aren’t interested as much. Only my sister-in-law who has two of her own gets it and gets excited as me and asks to feel the kicks. So I loved talking about our baby and the pregnancy to the staff.
The sonographer and the lady with her kept this rapport up and again were absolutely fabulous. I didn’t realise I had to take my maternity notes, so was a bit panicked about that, the joys of you not getting the confirmation when someone else books the test for you! So I felt very unprepared and unsure what the process was other than let them scan my belly. I also didn’t know that the package was (it was called Born to be a Star, that much I now know).
The process was like the usual NHS scan except there were TV screens on the wall in front and to the sides, from the usual view the sonographer would press something and the image would then change to a 4D one of the baby.
Typically our little one was sucking their thumb throughout the entire scan! Something that we found RLT was doing when he was born, so that was really interesting! The images on the screen – I’ll be honest, some of them were terrifying, at angles he looked like a Gremlin – but you’ve got to remember that it is a real-time 3D image which is formed from soundwaves not an actual photo of your baby!
It was really, really interesting to see and he really does resemble his big brother! I did need the visualisation because I have been so scared throughout this pregnancy that something is going to go wrong, even more so than last one, so it was brilliant to see him, to see his little face and check his heartbeat was OK.
There were various packages available and the one Mark opted for was £109, born to be a star package, included in this were stated as:
Well-being scan & report
99%+ accurate gender confirmation
full 4D scan
Full movie recording of your 4D scan
4 medium full colour photo prints
All digital images
So after the scan, which lasted about 11 minutes, we were asked to go and select four images – which as I didn’t know anything about the package, I assumed were the only ones we were able to take away. But basically, they printed out four on a printer for us and put them in an envelope. We were then given a code which again was put in the envelope to download the video and other images. I was a bit confused by this as all of the literature pointed to IOS device app compatibility, nothing about android and the corresponding ‘bumpies’ app on the play store had an odd summary, which did not mention getting your scan images on there. But anyway, it worked and all of the images that she showed us on the screen were available to download to my phone. Such as this one of baby enjoying his thumb and blocking his face so we couldn’t see him!
It took a while to work out the video – Mark assumed we would get a DVD that we could show RLT as we decided against taking him – he’d only try and press all of the buttons on the ultrasound machine! But the video was basically what appeared on the screen for the 11 minutes and was a little hard to find on the download section, only when it appeared in my google drive did it become apparent. There was also music over the top of it. It is great to keep.
We didn’t get any kind of printed report and a report is in the package – so I am unsure if that is a verbal one as she did check the heartbeat and we did hear it (at this point they ask you if you want to purchase a heartbeat bear). So I think that should be more explicit.
VERDICT: I am glad I have had the experience, however if I was paying for it myself, I am not sure if I would have been happy with the cost, as it does seem exceptionally expensive – it is pretty much £10 per minute of scanning and the outcomes are basically to your phone, which I think takes the magic away! I think a dvd would have been a nice touch to keep in a memory box – or even a USB stick. Because I didn’t want anything for my birthday and because of how I have been feeling, it was perfect for me and has given me a massive lift. However if it was something someone was having to seriously save for, I probably wouldn’t recommend it, it is a nice to have, but not essential. However the clinics are incredibly busy, appointments are incredibly hard to come by, so there is definitely a market out there!
I was so super excited to try the Chin Up Mask as I love products like this. Why? Because I am 34, work full-time, have a 14-month-old child and I don’t have time to do anything about the effects of any of that!
My appearance has been getting me down since I gave birth. In particular my double chin, I’d never had one before, but I think the combination of being in my mid-thirties and developing an appetite for snacking on biscuits multiple times a day have taken their toll over the past year or so. So obviously the thought of trying a Chin Up Mask was music to my ears. I don’t have oodles of time for self-care, so anything that will give me a little bit of a confidence boost, which I can fit around my life, is fantastic.
I had done no research on the product before I received it in the post, so I was impressed by the quality of packaging when it arrived. It felt like a quality luxury product due to the practical, well-designed and sturdy packaging. The branding is clear and concise as is the level of information provided – the company has clearly done their research with having call-to-actions to sign up to the VIP scheme on the surrounding packaging.
As with most beauty products, it had the ingredients written on the back, again designed very crisp. The instructions were provided in the form of images – very similar to instructions you’d find in Ikea, only designed nicer. Now I am personally not too good with pictures like this, I like words. I’m the world’s worst person at Pictionary! So I had to think harder than the average person when following instructions – but this is more likely down to my own unfortunate challenges in common sense rather than the product – but as this is a review of my experience, I thought it was worth mentioning!
For example, you measure your chin with the measuring tape before and after use to measure success – I wasn’t 100% on where I should start and end the tape. An arrow is provided on the instructions but the arrow goes over the face, so did this mean that I measured within the structure of my jaw or below it? Probably common sense to anyone else who looked at it, but confused me a little. I got the headband the wrong way around too, but this was soon rectified as I just hadn’t looked at the image on the instructions close enough. I’ve checked other reviews such as the one here, but no one else experienced this, so it is just me!
The items also come wrapped in tissue, when you open the box, a lovely touch! The contents were as described on the flap, with further ingredients and cautions on the chin up mask individual packets, just in case they become separated from the box. First I used the supplied tape measure (not sure if I did this measuring correctly due to my reading of the instructions!) I measured from the tip of my chin and the underside of my chin until I reached my neck – this came to 7cm.
My delightful doobla chin before using the mask
I then ripped the individual chin up mask packet open to unfold it as instructions said, it was covered in the ingredients so incredibly wet inside the packet, so I’d recommend doing it in the bathroom. Not to the point it was pouring as it was thicker than that, but you need two hands to unfold the mask! I then placed it on my face.
Placing the mask
Then it was time to place the chinup band. You can feel the band working against gravity the moment you put it on as it is meant to be tight. It smushed my face up and I’ve only got a little face, so this caused hilarity in my house!
I then went about my nightly business of checking gossip sites online whilst I waited 30/40 minutes to remove the mask. After about three minutes I felt like my chin was on fire! I checked the wrapper which says ‘feeling warm is a normal phenomenon when applying the mask’, so this put my mind at ease that I wasn’t having some insane reaction. The heat stayed there the entire time the mask was on, but it didn’t intensify. The black band is tight on the chinip mask, so you instantly feel a lift. I felt my tongue was having muscle exercises and being moved back in to my mouth.
I took it off after 39 minutes due to the baby crying and not wanting to terrify him when I went to settle him. I massaged as instructed and then checked my chin measurements again in the same way as before the mask, it now said I measured 6.5cm – if correct a 0.5cm loss. My partner commented that it did look better and the skin felt lovely and soft. I went to bed, wanting to take photos in the morning with a better light.
Here is a before and after shot:
I’m not sure how much of a difference you can see but it definitely FELT better, tighter and firmer. Two days on, it doesn’t feel as firm as it did, but I feel that I look much less ‘jowly’ than I did a few days ago. I read on the website that the effects can last up to five days – as it is my time of the month at the moment, there could be a water retention issue. So I will certainly use again in a week’s time and post an update. It did make me feel more confident about my appearance and I felt much better looking in the mirror when applying my makeup. That is worth more to me than someone else noticing, so I would definitely consider using this product longer term.
I had the trial set, which came with two masks which you can purchase here
I was kindly provided the trial set for review purposes and all views are my own. The product provider has not seen this review until published and has had no input in to the contents.
I’ve had the most awful experience of trying to report faulty goods to Maclaren Customer Service that I felt compelled to write about my experience.
Maclaren no longer will deal with customers or service centres over the phone, they will only work through digital platforms. No problem you’d think in this day-in-age, but what do you do if your local service centre doesn’t use email? This made a massive problem for me and the subsequent responses from Maclaren (or lack of) made me astounded as to how they treat customers with product issues.
I purchased my Maclaren Orla Kiely quest in January 2017, only to notice that there didn’t seem to be enough material to support the mechanism of the foot rest, therefore the underside of the buggy material was ripped on both sides. Fearful that this expensive pushchair was going to completely rip or catch something and create irrepairable damage, I contacted Maclaren through twitter who advised me to email them with the problem. I did so, to then have a generic link to service centres sent to me.
These tears started appearing shortly after starting to use the pushchair. Not what is expected of an item with RRP £295
I went to my local service centre to be told they no longer were working with Maclaren, but they had not been successful in getting their details removed from their website. Weird I thought, as I’d contacted them via Facebook beforehand and they’d never mentioned this, however, they were keen to discuss over the phone my problem (I thought I’d struggle to explain so took it to them on my lunch break).
The gentleman in the service centre advised me I’d need a replacement as it couldn’t be fixed and got out his contacts book to call the numbers he had, only to find every number he had previously used having a voice message to email. He advised that he had previously had issues with getting in touch with Maclaren, which had led to his decision to no longer work with them, sentiments which were echoed by another service provider he called for advice.
After an hour in his store and refusing my requests to send an email to Maclaren on my behalf, he advised me to go to another service centre around thirty miles away, as he didn’t have any further time to help me. This was not only unhelpful but not possible (I’ve only got a full-time job and a small child, so finding the time to drive thirty miles in the opposite direction to work and home was difficult). He was unwilling to put anything in writing, so my efforts had stalled. He took my details and said give him 24 hours and if I didn’t hear anything else from him he couldn’t help. This I felt was a tactic to get me out of his shop and it is now a month later and I am still to hear from him, so believe this was a fair assumption. I tweeted Maclaren a few times whilst I was in the service centre, as well as emailed them, but these appeared to be automated responses as they were not addressing my question of ‘can the service centre ring you as he doesn’t use email’.
24 hours later, didn’t hear anything from the service centre (shock horror) so I contacted Maclaren again through their live chat system online, wanting to converse with a real person and not an auto response which I was getting from email and twitter. The responses I got were really unhelpful. I was told the service centre could use a platform to report it, if so the service centre weren’t aware of this, neither were others he called for advice. There was absolutely no solution other than email.
The person I was talking to kept giving me the phone number of the service centre rather than a customer service phone number despite me repeating my problem quite a few times. The chat just got worse. At one point the person told me they were responsible for the German market, like it was my issue he was on the live chat for his company!
Here how the chat ended as it was emailed to me afterwards (Nicola being me):
01:29:42 PM) Nicola: he won’t use email, this is the problem! 🙁
(01:30:07 PM) Benjamin: i don’t have a number, because we don’t have a customer service number
(01:30:31 PM) Nicola: he shouldn’t be allowed to be your service centre if he can’t help people!
(01:32:19 PM) Benjamin: yes, but i don’t know the service centers in uk, i’m responsible for the german market
(01:37:11 PM) Nicola: Can you transfer my livechat to someone that can help me then?
(01:38:06 PM) Benjamin: you can send an email to customercare@maclarenbaby.com
(01:38:24 PM) Nicola: I have. I’d like to deal with someone now not in 24 hours time, please.
(01:38:56 PM) Benjamin: that’s the only thing i can do, or you send an email to claire.jaques@maclarenbaby.com who is for uk
(01:41:31 PM) Nicola: I have done that. Apologies, you’d assume a company like maclaren would have a call centre not a few account managers answering this.
(01:42:49 PM) Benjamin: this is the only thing i can do for you, that has been all my possibilities
I emailed the UK person as Benjamin suggested on 6th July and to date, I have not had a response. I know it was delivered as she had an out of office on, which stated she returned to work that date.
As I had such a terrible experience, I decided that I couldn’t face going round in circles like this again. This product retails at £295, it isn’t exactly pennies. So I contacted Boots, which is where I bought the goods from and explained the situation. Boots organised a refund for me as they stated that they no longer stocked the item.
I then went to Mothercare to try out some new pushchairs and told them of my experience. They also shared their concern of Maclaren customer service and said that they had three ongoing customer complaints that had not been dealt with adequately. If someone the size of Mothercare is having issues, one little guy like me has no chance.
I felt the entire customer service experience (or lack of) from Maclaren was disgusting. A few other people have also had issues which I found here.
There are several negative reviews of the product on Amazon too, which is a shame as it is damaging the reputation of my favourite designer Orla Kiely by association.
This is completely my own opinion, based on my own experience and I’m sure many other people have had positive experiences.
We were looking for a good quality all inclusive hotel for our baby’s first holiday abroad. Our criteria was that it had to be less than a three and a half hour flight and it had to be around a four-star rating. We selected the Iberostar Malaga Playa on this basis and were so happy we made the choice we did.
We did very little research, so didn’t really know what we’d be getting except a room and a pool, but it was so much more than that. The spread of activities, the cleanliness of the hotel and the range of food and drink available through the all inclusive option topped with the best customer service I have ever received throughout a hotel, made this the ideal holiday to break us in to travelling with a one-year-old child.
We opted for a basic double room, which was tastefully decorated and had enough room for the beds, cot, pushchair without feeling cramped. Space under the beds for the suitcases, three wardrobes, a tv and a bathroom suite. There was also a balcony which looked over to the side of the hotel out onto neighbouring complexes, but as I had a small child, I didn’t feel the need to use it other than to dry the swimming costumes!
The kids club operates from age 4, so I can’t really give a review of that other than the entertainment team were always wonderful and friendly. There were lots of activities within the pools and in the kids’ clubhouse area next to the kids’ water slide and swings. There was a ‘mini disco’ every evening at 8.30 where the entertainment team played games in the lounge area with the children. This was great fun for all ages and our one year old loved joining in and meeting Starky and Stella, the Iberostar mascots.
There was also a show every evening with waiter service in the lounge and water activities daily for the adults including Aqua Gym and Zumba ran by a very funny guy named Willy.
The swimming pool is a great size and has a shallow end for the little ones as well as having a smaller pool within the kids club area and a walkable shallow area around the kids’ waterslide.
There was a large amount of fresh seafood, the catering staff worked so hard ensuring that the food was always fully stocked and available. At some all inclusive resorts, you get a little sick of the same things every day, not here as there was a good amount of differentiation with changes of themes. The alcohol and pops on offer were all branded too, something you would probably have to pay a premium for at other all inclusive resorts.
Every evening you were welcomed to the restaurant with a drink and a smile from Ivan, the Guest Services Manager, who is possibly one of the genuinely nicest people I have ever met. He made an effort to speak to every guest, including the kids to ensuring they were having a great time. All of the staff would say hello as you passed by, they were truly wonderful.
Torrox itself is unspoilt by English tourists and appeared to be where Spanish people visited for their holidays, so that was a nice touch, it didn’t feel spoilt by English pubs and bars, which was nice. Apparently, Torrox is the healthiest town in Europe and with the nightly exercise classes next to the beach, you can see why!
There was a gate at the bottom of the complex where you could walk out to the beach and the promenade, was wonderful for after dinner walks. Although there is very little reason why you’d need to leave the complex if you didn’t want to.
Here is some wonderful drone footage (credit: iberostar) for you to see what I am talking about. Wonderful. We will definitely be staying Iberostar again!
Taking a little one abroad seems a daunting task when they do not travel lightly. So we opted for a visit to Center Parcs at Whinfell Forest, Cumbria as we could pack the entire contents of our house and put them in our car to take with us!
It was approximately one hour and fifteen minutes away from us along the A66, so wasn’t a bad drive at all to do with a little one, although it was his longest time in the car to date.
We managed to get one of the older three bedroomed lodges for under £400 mid-week at the end of April, which seemed like a great deal compared to the prices we’ve been quoted when we’ve looked at other times. From the moment you enter the drive-in check in you know that Center Parcs is well run – they’ve thought of everything!
We did not know how ‘old’ and used it would be as neither of us have been within the past five years, but we had nothing to worry about as the accommodation was well kept and modern inside.
If you’ve never been to Center Parcs before, you are able to access the facilities ahead of your check-in time, which for us on the Monday was 3.30, so access to swimming is popular! Some of the restaurants are closed on the Monday as this is a changeover day. You are able to view and book activities before your stay through the website or app, although you can do this while you are there, please note that things such as bike hire is cheaper if you do it beforehand! I think I paid £29 per bike for booking it beforehand and if I’d done it on the day it would be £41. If you require trailers or child bike seats, I now know that you have to re-enter your booking as you cannot do this at the time of booking – apparently there wasn’t enough room on the web page! As I missed this minor detail, I had to pay when I got there for a trailer for RLT at a cost of £29 for the four days. Children are able to use the trailers from six months, they are a good way to get around with a little one!
There are lots of activities to do with kids of all ages – but most paid activities start for around 18 months plus. The swimming is great for little ones as it is indoors and the pools are heated but also separated so that there is an area for babies only as well as toddlers and then many various deeper pools, rapids and slides. There is a wave machine, which starts off OK but goes wild – floation devices are OK for babies and they also have vests for them to wear, which is useful.
The village centre (pictured below) contains the swimming pools, bowling, starbucks, cafe rouge, Huck’s, and other eateries, clothes shops and a grocery store/bakery (which wasn’t really that badly priced!). Everything is an additional extra at Center Parcs, they’ve made it so easy for you to spend money without realising – you add your card details to your wrist band and they debit your card at the end of your stay! There is the option of taking all of your food and drink with you in your lodge, which is advisable as the prices are a little bit more expensive than you’d usually expect. Swimming is free, however if you need towels it is a £2 per day towel charge.
The accommodation is comfortable and open plan living did make it feel big, but there are lots of sharp edges around the fire surround and a full length radiator on the wall next to the patio doors – so we had to move the leather chair to obstruct it in order for the little one not to get it. It tried to snow a few times while we were there, so it wasn’t the weather for keeping the heating off.
There are cots and highchairs supplied for anything over a two bedroomed lodge, so you don’t have to request them. The cot is extremely deep, easy to put up and comes with a mattress, however it doesn’t come with a cover for the mattress – which baffled me as how was I supposed to know the dimensions of a cot I’d never seen before? On the picture, the cot is by the right hand side of the bed, when it was put up there was absolutely no room between the bed and the cot, so was tricky to get him in.
Our housekeeper apparently forgot to supply us with toilet paper and when we opened the oven the oven tray was full of fat, so this wasn’t great. The apartment was clean, but they obviously hadn’t done a thorough check that they had done everything ahead of our check-in. This along with no cot bedding just felt like housekeeping let it down.
There were many free play parks around the forest, which were great and there was an indoor soft play in the sports centre – it was advertised at £4.25 for a two hour play session, but when I got to the desk they told me it was free for under 1’s. They just didn’t advertise that fact!
Verdict? – A great place to go with kids for a short break and to feel relaxed! Swimming is absolutely brilliant as are the outdoor areas if the weather is right for it. Should probably make some minor modifications to the lodges to make them a little bit more child friendly, in my opinion, Kielder lodges are cosier, but they just don’t have the facilities such as the swimming. It is very easy to go there and spend a further couple of hundred pounds on eating and drinking out – most being chain restaurants and hardly the tastiest things on the planet. I think Center Parcs is perfect for using the accommodation to cook your own food and enjoy the company of your loved ones.
