Anyone been to Deep Sea World N.Queensferry?

[Paula71]

Squeezed into that extra long topic heading - basically I want to take my ds twins (aged 27 months) somewhere other than Edinburgh Zoo for animal fix quotas! They absolutely love animals and as they were quite interested in Finding Nemo I wondered if anyone would recommend Deep Sea World in North Queensferry as a good place for toddlers?

It is such a monumental task planning somewhere new for our days out I just don't want to take them somewhere they will hate (and thus make the whole day horrible!)

Took DS1 there two years ago - he was about 8 at the time. It was OKish, but we wouldn't go back. Passed it last week, and both myself and DH commented that we wouldn't return with DS2 (now 16 months). I'm afraid I can't really spell out why not - didn't really think it was worth the money (?) We have been to much better and bigger sealife centres elsewhere, so perhaps we were spoiled by that.

I would second Libra - I took DS1 last summer when he was nearly 3, and he was a bit young for it at the time and the conveyor belt was much more of an attraction than the animal life. Also, being very pregnant with DS2 I found it pretty stressful keeping him safe (jumping on and off the conveyor belt) and out of other people's way! I remember feeling it was fairly expensive FWIW and scruffy. For alternative animal-based activities I'd recommend the Almondvale Heritage Centre in Livingstone and only if you're Edinburgh-based, the small Gorgie City Farm, as it's free and there's a lovely little cafe beside it.

Haven't been to that one but went to Blue Planet (?) at Ellesmere Port last year - have no idea how it compares for size, it did seem relatively expensive, but has some fantastic displays including Nemos!!! (Did you know they are Clown ANEMOne fish? V cute - all these little kids kept squealing "Nemo!" and rushing up to them and patting the glass!)

This page has a brief rundown on Blue Planet; this one has a similar thing for Deep Sea World (big pic of Nemo fish!) They sound very similar - Blue Planet also has Amazonian tree frogs for instance (fantastic colours!) although this blurb doesn't mention them.

My kids are 10 and up so our experience is different but all the little ones there when we went looked to enjoy it a lot. It's all fairly dimly lit and some of it is really dark but nobody seemed to mind. HTH!

We've been to DSW a couple of times. It's okayish, not wonderful. I'm not sure it would keep 2yr olds interested for long, though the touchy-feely bit might keep them occupied. Dd1 was very scared of the dark inside and later had nightmares about those fish that live in holes!!

Thanks for that folks! I just didn't wanted to be faced with bored toddlers, Edinburgh Zoo they love so much. Especially the jaguar who comes up to them on every visit (separated by a thick pane of glass of course!)

I think I will leave DSW for now then. I live in West Lothian so there is plenty other things to do and the train/tractor rides are back on at Almond Valley!

Agree on DSW, expensive and does not really keep them entertained for the excitement:money ratio. Can you help with other ideas though - live in Perth and get bored with what I have visited around here