royal naval dockyards porstmouth

[cod]

am going on forgs recommendatiopn
any does or donts?

Frogs

How old are your kids?

7.5

5.5

3

Hmmm.
I think it's going to be quite hard work with a 3 year old tbh.
Lots of ladders etc on the actual ships.Everything on the flat is museum-y.
The older ones should enjoy Action Stations!

\link{http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/welcome.html\You've probably looked at this already}

yes i have
oh god ds3 coudl go to nursery that day
wonder if he still should

hmmm, was thinking your 3 rd old might just not have the attention span or interest in clambering over the ships, which are quite hard work steps and ladders wise. Will you be the only adult? If yes, I would honestly leave the little one in nursery.....

the big cafe on site (at back of Tradewinds shop) is good, and has a 'playzone' type thing which is free, I sometimes go there with my 3 yr old DS just for that and ignore the ships and museums!!!

no dh will be there
adn so apprently will pph!

Yes, it's a good day out. You can buy a ticket for all the attractions, and use it over the year. We went at the February half-term and will be finishing off this week. The ticket includes a trip around the harbour in a boat.

It is child-friendly in that they have a free soft play area in the main restaurant, and lots of souvenir shops. Parent-friendly with buggy parks and ramps.

The insides of the ships are reasonably touchy-feely for the kids, and it is not endless reading of plaques.

We could have easily spent a whole day had we not had a sick child with us. Even then, we were there for over four hours.

The worst bit about it was driving through Portsmouth to get to it.

We'll be going either Wednesday or Thursday - I'll be the harrassed mother with five kids...probably stuck in the bar with a large glass of dry white.

lets have lunch then coddy, get the men together to talk cricket. will just be me, dh and ds1

think we wer planning ot picnic pph tbh
meals out wiht the dsses are hard work

we wont be buggying i think so thats ok
have been beforewhen ds1 was 1!

What day are you going, Cod and PPH?

wednesday.
what if it rains coddy? do they have somewhere to picnic inside?

tis VERY S unny

They have a schools' area, so I suppose that would be fine for picknicking. The actual restaurant area is cavernous, and no one would notice if you took your own food. They have a bar.

meals out not too bad there as the kids can charge about in the soft play bit while you eat (you can see the soft play bit from the restaurant seating - it's literally right in front of it)

thinking about it, I think it's actually the pub seating that the soft play is next to but the food was edible and it's quite relaxing eating while they entertain themselves

Gunwharf Quays is a couple of minutes walk away, for shops, places to eat, and the tower thingy.

ok BLATANT picniking in restaurant was de rigeuir

place fab but ds3 was annoying

only did do a few of the attractions but can go back to finish it off another day.

met pph which was nice. place very empty

We were there today!

We started off with the boat tour, which let us off at Gunwharf Quay - which is fab! There was a great atmostphere because some RTW boat race was in harbour. They have all the mid-priced chain restaurants there, where I had a bit of a strop - they muddled up our order and wouldn't take any money off the bill, so I left without leaving a tip. Gunwharf Quay is an outlet mall, so a good place if you like shopping.

When we got back to the harbour, we went to Victory and then the Mary Rose Museum - we did everything else on our last trip.

god we only did action sattions and the warrior then walked to gwq

i had on red rain coaty thign ans was hte one shouting at ds3 fo thrwoing litter int he water in front of action stations