Tuesday 19 December 2017

Meet Santa and his Antarctic creatures at The National Sea Life Centre Birmingham this Christmas

The Sea Life Centre is a great and momentous attraction to visit anytime of the year, but throw in a chance to meet Santa (experience and visit is available to book until 23rd December) and it turns into a magical visit. All admission tickets  (starts from £12.75) to the Sea life Centre include Meet Santa experience with children under 3 going for free!

Our family has visited the Sea Life Centre a few times in the past but this time everything seemed much more exciting.
 As your enter the first segment of the attraction- the Gentoo penguins! However unlike previous visits they seemed to interact with us more than before, even though they are through the glass. L and I were particularly elated as one penguin took a liking to her and decided to move when she moved, like a cute mirror image.

I personally found the penguins elegant in the way they moved, with an element of playfulness and cuteness.
The general layout of the Centre is the same with some superb fishes and underwater creatures to see through the looking glass, ranging from "Nemo"- as L calls them (clownfish) to the streamline sharks and rays.
                                     
We also gave the starfish a stroke! A staff member was offering passing visitors the chance to touch the sea creatures. They vary so much to the touch, the first I stroked had a hard and rough surface, but the other starfish was soft and delicate, very interesting as I have never had the chance to stroke underwater creatures before, so definitely an experience I will not forget.

                                        
As we continued our walk we passed "Dory" and "Nemo" and the wonderful, yet slightly creepy giant octupus. L seemed too excited to stand still so it was a matter of taking a look when we had the chance whilst she dragged us to each window!

Next up were some very cool white and black spotted rays and a very strange fish with crab legs, it was very interesting and the topic of conversation for several minutes with L. As she too found it bizarre but that makes sea creatures so interesting.
We then passed the jellyfish which are elegant when you look at them in their glowing tanks.
Halting at something which we noticed people queuing for- a chance to have a 4D Polar Express experience. Now I am yet to have experienced anything in 4D, so this opportunity was not to be
missed. We were given prior warning of what to expect: loud noise, lighting and the possibility of water! I would say this experience would be more suitable for older kids as some of the noises and effects might seem too loud and frighting for little ones.

Back up the winding path passed the cute little frogs and turtles, we knew what was coming next- the awesome 360 Ocean tunnel with sharks, rays, fish and a turtle. You simply do not know where to look, there is so much going on around you that you end up spinning on the spot and forgetting to walk forward.
Eventually when we did manage to pull ourselves away from the brilliant tunnel, we arrived at a queue. We knew what this queue was for, but tried to keep it a secret for L for as long as possible, it
lasted about 10 seconds. L was very excited to see Santa in his "Antarctic" cave!! She already had a list of what she wanted, but tried to lower expectations a little. Just before we meet the man himself, there is a final opportunity to see the penguins again through a glass window whilst waiting to see Santa.

Santa was sat on his sleigh surrounded by Christmas trees, and it looked great! L got a little shy but happily interacted with us for the pictures and when Santa gave L a cute crab plush toy. The experience in general was brilliant and seemed to build on our previous visit.

Just to add- you can purchase the images (inc. a keyring and other printed items) for £20, which seemed reasonable.

Once we said our goodbyes to Santa we had a choice of either let L have a run around in the indoor play area or do some painting with her (2 separate rooms), we opted for soft play room as this seemed small enough to be able to watch L without following her everywhere.

L was quite literally drained of energy when we left the Sea Life Centre, exhausted by her incredible and energetic experience she had at this truly memorable attraction!

Would I recommend it on a normal day, yes, however add Santa into the equation and you have a "definitely"!

Disclaimer: I was offered to visit the attraction with my family for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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