It’s Chriiiiissstmaaaaassss!!!
Well, nearly. It’s December anyway. The festive season is officially upon us and my fella no longer has the right to roll his eyes and mutter “It’s November” every time I buy a box of mince pies.
To celebrate the start of Christmas, we went with a few friends and their children to the Alpine Retreat at Castaway Play in Congleton. It was the perfect way to get us all in the spirit, and the kids had the best time.
My other half even managed to enjoy himself. They sold cake which probably helped…
Castaway Play’s Alpine Retreat is a unique little set up. It’s a giant kid’s play centre and an immersive Christmas themed experience rolled into one. It’s suitable for kids of all ages, it’s huge, it’s well designed, and most importantly it is bags of fun!
Anyway, I thought the place was excellent, so I wanted to do a little write up for you lot.
A Christmas Winter Wonderland With… Dinosaurs?
Castaway Play does not just pop up for Christmas.
It is a kids play centre all year round, but at Christmas they go through the whole venue and turn it into a Winter Wonderland. The issue is, the rest of the year each section of it has a different theme: Fairytales, Dinosaurs, Jungle Land, Pirate Ship etc.
Obviously, a suspended tree-top jungle adventure structure can’t very well be dismantled just for Christmas, so there is something of a clash of themes here. It really doesn’t matter though. Dinosaurs at Christmas – why not?
There is loads to do there. We had 2.5 hours to explore during our session and in all honesty it wasn’t enough time. We didn’t leave feeling like we missed out, but we could definitely have stayed for 5 or 6 hours including a break for lunch.
They had a giant arctic snow globe the kids could throw themselves around inside of:
There was an area full of fake snow, snowballs, and Christmas trees where we had great fun pelting each other. Although it got into my hair and I looked like I had dandruff for the rest of the day 😳ðŸ¤
There was a Jungle themed room which had been left as normal. We actually spent a fair bit of time in there as it included a ball pit, lots of slides, a climbing wall, guns that you could shoot soft balls out of, things to climb and swing on, etc:
There was an indoor and an outdoor sandpit and both of them were MASSIVE. The outdoor one is covered so rain is not an issue, and both have wooden play structures for the children to use:
I particularly enjoyed the little disco room – luckily no-one was checking ID on the door:
You will notice the life size sleigh. We could pose for family photographs on there, with and without the costume characters who were wandering around, like The Grinch and Mickey and Minnie Mouse:
There were also soft play elements, a stage, a ball pit, and lots of standalone mini kiddie rides. Every available surface had been decorated too, so the whole place felt magical.
I mean, imagine being 3ft 5in tall and 5 years old walking through that lot – what an adventure!
Meeting Santa
Meeting Santa and getting a present is included in the entry price, so I was dreading the queue.
As it happens, they have system where you scan a QR code which puts you in a digital queue. You then get a text 5 minutes before your turn. Oh my God it was such a life saver. It meant we could spend every spare minute exploring the rest of the site, and avoided 30 minutes of whining about how “This is taking aaaages” from the kids.
In the very short queue, the kids can sign a book to say whether they have been naughty or nice, then after about 5 minutes Mrs Clause or an Elf comes out to get you. You enter the grotto and there are two doors. The kids knock on one of them and a jolly voice from inside welcomes you to come in.
And there he was. It was only Father bloomin’ Christmas! 🎅
He looked awesome. The room looked awesome. It all looked awesome. This was no Glaswegian Willy Wonka experience (gosh that story was funny), Castaway Play had clearly made a big effort.
The only tiny let down was that we could hear the other family in the next room. Now I understood why there were two doors once you got inside the grotto. This made me question whether or not ours was indeed the real Santa, but the kids didn’t seem to notice.
In Castaway Play’s defence, having two Santas makes total sense. It means everyone gets seen and no one is rushed through the experience. The time inside the grotto was quality time, and that’s what counts.
The guy who played Father Christmas made a real effort to engage with the kids. He was asking all sorts of questions – not just “What do you want for Christmas?” – and genuinely trying to get to know each child.
I even asked if he remembered me from when I was a little girl and he played along as though we had rehearsed it. He was great!
Wrapping Up
Our slot to meet Father Christmas was conveniently at the tail end of our allotted time. This meant that when we came out of Santa’s Grotto it was nearly time to go.
We had the chance to buy a photo they took in the room, but I looked awful so forbade my fella from buying it. It’s a good product though. They called it a snow block photo, and basically the image is encased in a thick block of transparent Perspex. It sort of looks like a block of ice, so very festive.
The kids then had just enough time to make some reindeer food. There was a station set up outside the grotto with one poor elf whose job it was to sweep up all the seeds the kids dropped everywhere. We are going to leave ours out for Rudolph on Christmas Eve.
We hadn’t played in the outdoor sandpit so we spent the last 10 minutes or so gathering all the children (and a few of the grown ups) in the same place before saying our goodbyes and heading home.
We had some very sleepy children on the journey back which is always the sign of a day well spent. I may have nodded off for a while too!
The Cost
This isn’t exactly a cheap experience, but it’s very good value.
Bought individually, tickets cost £19.99 for kids up to 10 years old (under 1 year olds cost £4.99), with each adult costing £7.50. However, you can also buy ‘Gold’ kids tickets which include Luxury Build a Bear for £38.99. There are family ticket options too, with and without Build-a-Bear and the snow block photo. These range from between £50 and £100 for two kids and two adults.
If you spend £100 on a family day out, meet Father Christmas and get a present for each child, plus two teddy bears, and a photo keepsake – I reckon you’ve done alright.
There are a lot of optional extras but you really don’t need to spend that additional money if you don’t have it or don’t want to. There is plenty to do here without shelling out more.
Extras included:
- Build-a-Bear – £20
- Toasted Marshmallows – £4
- Santa Photo – £12-£24 (different options)
- Mini Kiddie Rides – £2
- Food/Drink – Variable
We bought individual tickets but then did all of the above apart from the photo. We spent somewhere in the region of £90 including snacks and drinks from the café.
I felt it was excellent value for money. They could really take the proverbial with their pricing but they don’t. I got the impression Castaway is owned and run by people who are doing it for all the right reasons and put the experience first.
I can’t recommend it highly enough, and I will definitely be going back.