I’m sorry, Paulton’s park is HOW much???

[soootiredddd]

I seem to have woken up in a parallel universe whereby it costs me and my DH £116 to take our 3 year old to Paulton’s park for the day. Surely this cannot be right?! This includes £26 saving for booking in advance, if I wanted to go today it would cost £143. This is insane, have I missed something or does everyone use 2for1 vouchers or some other trick to make it vaguely affordable?!

Also just to add, our younger DD is only 1 so she goes free but if they were (for example) ages 3 and 5 it would cost £190. I think I need a sit down.

Following with interest. My 2 would love to go, but I haven't ever taken them to a 'big' place like that as it's so costly. Plus my 3yo would probably be tired after 4 hours.

It's very expensive. We went last year. Couldn't find vouchers anywhere. The three year old went free though, based on height.

We used to do lots of stuff on Tesco vouchers when the DC were small. Have you looked at those?

Yeah I took my 3 kids and my niece there for my daughters 2nd birthday and felt I could have had a week in a caravan for the same money a few years ago. Crackers. Kids did love it though

I think thing with Paultons is they never discount or have any offers on unlike Thorpe Park, Chessington etc

We’ve been a few times with 3yr old DD and it’s been a great day out, Paultons itself is very clean and lots for this age to do.

I have been googling and can’t find any vouchers anywhere. I don’t have a Tesco club card so will maybe look at that but I presume you need to build up points which I obviously don’t have yet!

I can’t even find any cheaper days, eg with legoland and chessington if you take them in term time on a weekday then it’s £25 for an adult and a preschooler together so all four of us could go for £50 which is still expensive but much more reasonable than £116!

It is very expensive and no offers are available. However, the place is so clean and kept immaculate. My 5 year old absolutely loves it.

We have had season tickets the past few years, but they have now got too expensive for us which is a shame as I will miss it so much.

Prices have gone up, wasn’t that expensive a couple of months ago Im sure.

You need to look at the short breaks part of the website. You get 2 days park entry and one night in a hotel with breakfast and it works out better value. We have always found we needed the 2 days because there's so much to do at the park (much more than peppa pig world), but our kids are a little bit older.

We went once years ago on tesco vouchers.

You get good at spotting bargains - wowchers, 241 vouchers, black Friday deals, April fools deals, Newspaper tokens etc etc

Sometimes an annual ticket can make things more palatable - so for the zoo we paid twice the entrance fee for annual tickets but have been 4 or 5 times this year.

My memory of Poultons was that wr had a lovely day and didn't see it all. We could easily have spent 2 days at the park.

All those places are very expensive and yet always rammed with people. I don't understand it. There's a very small theme park near here that's c. £90 for a family of 4 and yet always very busy. Some families may be struggling, but there are clearly lots who aren't.

Supply and demand, I suppose. If people didn't pay it, it would be cheaper.

It’s a really great day out but I do think it should be cheaper for kids who are over 1m tall but still not big enough for the “big” rides. There’s loads there that you simply won’t use unless you and DH take it in turns to go on by yourselves while the other adult stays with the kids.

@OctopusSay I had the exact same thought when I was in town the other day. All of the restaurants were absolutely rammed with families eating out, cinema was heaving, shops all busy etc. MN is always full of threads talking about how much people are struggling and I’m sure some are but you wouldn’t know it sometimes.

@catmg yes i just looked at the short breaks and it’s much more palatable to pay £220 for a weekend away including two days at the park, an overnight hotel stay (which includes swimming pool so that effectively is worth £20 as that’s what it costs for us all to go swimming here) plus breakfast. So that does look like a really good deal. However it still means your total spend is up in the hundreds whereas I was hoping we’d be able to have a day out for maybe £40-60 plus food (picnic) and petrol.

@ItsSnowJokes I’ve just looked at annual passes and if I’m understanding correctly (and you need to buy one pass per person) then buying three annual passes would cost more than my mortgage this month.

We used to go alot but have relocated so not been for 3 years. We used to find it better value getting annual passes. Is that an option?

My children absolutely love it. I can afford it. It’s a magical day out for the entire family, the food is so much nicer than lots of other places, can’t wait to go again!

@LetsGoCrazyPurpleBanana they’re £250 per person if you want to be able to go in the holidays or at the weekends 😯

Paultons is an easy day trip for us, but it’s very very expensive. There are never any offers on admission, not even for locals. Season tickets are insanely expensive.

That said, you get the impression that a decent chunk of the revenues are reinvested in the park. It is immaculately clean, the rides are gleaming, the staff are happy. In that context I don’t mind the price as when we went to legoland it seemed tired and run down in comparison.

we didn’t go all that often when our kids were small. Sure, PPW is very exciting but it’s also fiendishly busy, and they get very limited enjoyment compared to the ticket price. My kids are now 6&8 and it’s a fantastic day out for us, we do it once a year (and the kids get another go with cubs/beavers). It’s now possible for me to take them on my own/with a friendship group and we have a fantastic day. The older kids are also able to foster some independence as it’s pretty safe.

@warmsuncoldwind I’m glad you can afford it and I’m sure it’s a great day out. But the prices are still pretty shocking and although you personally may be able to afford it, I still don’t think it would be classed as “affordable”.
Particularly given that it’s basically aimed at preschoolers/toddlers who, if they’re anything like mine, will occasionally wake up in a foul mood or have tantrums or whatever which means that spending £100+ on a day out just for them can feel like money down the drain.

When we first bought 3 years ago they were £119 a person. Now they are at £250 a person. It's a hell of a hike! If they let you pay monthly we would do it but to find £750 in the current climate is just too much for us. We had great use out of them (we live close by) and did have about 20 visits a year but just can't find that money currently.

The soft play in bluewater costs £30, and youre basically there for an hour. All day trips are expensive- I guess there are farms and soft plays that are more reasonable and you would visit regularly. Theme parks like peppa pig world or cbeebies land, I think of as more special days out- like a birthday treat.

It is ridiculous how much things cost. We used club card over lockdown and saved enough to go to legoland and Tomas land. I wouldn't pay full. You can get the 2for1 vouchers sometimes in supermarkets so worth keeping an eye out. One tip avoid June-august you spend the whole time queuing!! We did legoland in august think we did 6 rides. Thomas land we did in September was fantastic we did everything.

When we’ve been it’s very clean and well organised. We had a great time and look forward to going back!

It is expensive but it’s relative, look at the cost of Drayton Manor, LEGOLAND etc where deals are available but in my opinion so much more at Paulton’s park. It’s clean, staff are friendly, you can go on so many rides without stupid queue times. Picnics are welcomed but good is actually pretty good for a theme park. With your little one being 3, if you can go midweek then do just be sure to miss school holidays/inset days. Also the price does drop when it’s not high season. We go in November and it’s lower in price.