What To Expect At The New Look Inflata Nation, Manchester

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Disclosure - We were invited to Inflata Nation for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

Last year we visited Inflata Nation in Manchester and little J loved it, he loved it so much that he has continued to ask when we could go back. Last week we finally managed to return and it was perfect as it has had a refurbishment and is bigger than before with dual level inflatables.

For those that have never been before Inflata Nation is an indoor inflatable arena so is perfect for lots of bouncing fun.

Little J couldn't wait to get bouncing as soon as we walked through the door. Upon arrival you need to complete a waiver form (if you haven't already done it when you booked online). You are given a coloured wristband to show staff that you have bought and paid for a one hour time slot. If you book two hours you will be given a second different coloured wristband. Once checked in you can remove your shoes and place them in a locker and then head for a safety brief.

As soon as that is complete you head to the inflatable arena ready for your session. There are so many features to choose from little J didn't know where to start.

The new arena has lots of super slides to choose from

Two lane slides with a jaw dropping 7m near vertical drop. This was little J's favourite thing. He went on it 25 times. He just wanted to go round and round and round again. He is such a daredevil and the look of excitement as he slid down with his arms crossed on his chest, made me giggle.

Next to the vertical drop slides are dual bumpy slides. Little J didn't quite fancy these but John had a turn and almost flipped upside down.

The incredible tipping slide looked fun so I encouraged John and little J to go on it. It will definitely test your balance and skills as the slide inflates and starts tipping you down.

Inflata Bubbles always makes me giggle as little J bounces from one to another.

Inflata Free fall is a new free fall activity for all thrill seekers. Take a jump off the 6m platform. You’ll be wearing a harness and clipped to a free fall device to help you land safely.

The new ball pit was another favourite of little J's.

There is also and Improved interactive obstacle course for trying out those challenging ninja style moves. Both John and little J tried this out and had lots of fun doing so.

Inflata Duel, the popular and hilarious gladiator podium is back however we were told it was reserved for a party only which was a shame. Little J was desperate to have a turn.

As well as the arena there is a downstairs cafe, party and viewing area plus an upstairs seating/viewing area too.

For more information you can visit Inflata Nation.

We really enjoyed our session and I would definitely recommend choosing a two hour bounce. It will give you time to take a break in between and have a drink as it does get hot in there.

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Brickburn Paw Patrol Brick Trail | AD

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Disclosure - This is a paid collaboration with Brickburn

We love packing up the car and heading for a day out and this morning we headed to Blackburn to complete the Paw Patrol Brickburn Brick Trail. The idea of the trail is to find all the Paw Patrol characters that are hidden in The Mall, Blackburn and also the surrounding areas. All the figures are made from Lego bricks.

When we arrived at The Mall we headed to the Ask Me Point to pick up a Brick Trail map which included a quiz for the children to complete as they found each character. There are three maps to complete.

The Brick Trail Quiz is all about the models you will find in and around The Mall. There are 15 questions in total asking you how many people built Skye? or how wide is Paw Patrol HQ?

The Paw Patrol Quiz Map has 10 questions all about the show. Little fans will be sure to know which pup is a lifeguard? or who is the human leader of Paw Patrol?

The Kitten Catastrophe Map and Quiz gives you clues as to where the kittens are hidden. Each location has a code and you need to fill in all 6 codes on the back of the sheet.

Once you have completed 1, 2 or all 3 quizzes you can hand your sheets back in to be in with the chance of winning £100 vouchers.

It was time for us to begin our trail. First we headed to Debenhams to find our first character, Chase. Each character has information about how many bricks it took to make, how many people and how many hours too as well as other information.

It was lovely to see lots of other children heading towards Chase with their brick trail map in hand ready to answer the quiz question and get a photo with the popular Paw Patrol character. 

We found all the characters in The Mall. Everest was hiding in Primark, Mayor Goodway was in Virgin Media, Zuma was at the Entertainer and Marshalls Fire Truck was at the Ask Me Point.

 Next we headed downstairs to Blackburn Market to try and find Kitten Catastrophe. For those who are Paw Patrol fans you will know that the kittens look just like the Paw Patrol but they are very mischievous.

Finding the kittens was our favourite part of the trail. Each kitchen was hidden on a market stall so we had to make our way through the stalls and find all six kittens. They were hidden high to low but we found all six kittens in the end.

We then headed out of The Mall to try and find more Brickburn Brick Trail Paw Patrol characters that were hidden in the surrounding areas.

We headed to Blackburn Cathedral. It was a lovely opportunity for us to go inside such a pretty building, something we may never have done without the Paw Patrol Brick Trail. There was a service being held inside the Cathedral so we had to be very quiet although we did let out a little gasp when we saw the Paw Patrol Lookout Tower. It was huge and looked just like the real thing.

If you are looking for something fun to do with the kids then I would definitely recommend heading to The Mall, Blackburn for the Paw Patrol Brick Trail. The trail is available from 23rd August - 1st September 2019. It is lots of fun and I loved watching little J  try to find each character, answer the quiz questions whilst taking in some of the some of Blackburns sights, and best of all it’s free.

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Our Guide To Visiting Liverpool

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Disclosure - This post is a collaboration. We recently enjoyed exploring Liverpool over two weeks and the spending money we used to enter attractions was gifted by Hotels.com. Any thoughts, opinions and photographs are our own.

I still find it strange when I hear people say they are going on holiday to Liverpool. With it being my home town I just see it as a place I grew up in, but visitors can enjoy a huge range of attractions, restaurants, shopping centres and hotels in Liverpool that I probably take for granted.

Obviously when you head to Liverpool you will want to see all the tourist attractions however there are quite a few hidden gems that you may not know about unless you live here.

When I visit the city I head straight for the Waterfront. It's so pretty and although it can get busy at times it's just my favourite place to be. The Albert Dock was once home to This Morning but is now filled with lots of things to see and do.

5 Things To Enjoy On The Waterfront. 

The Wheel Of Liverpool

We usually take a trip on the The Wheel of Liverpool once a year on New Years Eve and has become quite a family tradition. The wheel stands 60m tall and is open every day giving you the chance to enjoy views of the city and the river.

River Explorer Cruise with Mersey Ferries

We have just recently been on a river cruise on the River Mersey and it was so much fun. The cruise lasts approximately 50 minutes as a round trip. This excludes any time you spend at the attractions as you can leave the ferry at Seacombe and Woodside to enjoy Spaceport and the U Boat Story.

The Beatles Story

Such a huge part of Liverpool's Musical History. The Beatles are everywhere in and around the city. The Beatles Story is a great place to visit even if you're not a fan. It's so interesting and tells you everything you need to know. You can also jump on the Magical Mystery Tour to see childhood homes and famous places such as Penny Lane.

The British Music Experience

The British Music Experience is situated in Cunard Building in Liverpool on the Waterfront. The idea behind the experience is to tell the history of British music through costumes, props , instruments and  lots of other interactive features. Suitable for all ages and those who enjoy music.

Liverpool also has an amazing shopping centre, Liverpool One, which is packed with shops but also restaurants, bars and a cinema.

5 Things To Do At Liverpool ONE

Chavasse Park

There is usually something going on in Chavasse Park which sits above the shopping centre. In Summer there are pop up bars so you can sit back and enjoy a drink in the sun. At the moment the dinosaurs have been unleashed and are popping up all around Liverpool One. Our favourite is Christmas time at Liverpool One, it turns in to a mini fairground with rides and stalls.

Shopping

Liverpool One is the perfect shopping destination. Filled with lots of shops, all under one roof. You will find John Lewis, Pandora, Zara, Debenhams, Victoria Secrets, Build a Bear and many more. My favourite is obviously the Disney Store and that's usually were I head to first.

The Terrace

The Terrace sits on top of the shopping centre and next to Chavasse park. It's filled with lots of different restaurants and you will be sure to find something that takes your fancy. Yo Sushi, Ed's Easy Diner, Pizza Hut, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, TGI Fridays and the very popular and very busy Nando's to name a few. Most of the restaurants have the option to dine outside too which is lovely on a sunny day.

A Good Nights Sleep

After many great nights out in Liverpool we have headed to bed at one of the hotels close to Liverpool One. The Hilton is situated opposite Chavasse Park and also the Premier Inn and Novotel are close by too.

A Trip To The Cinema

The Odeon at Liverpool One is our favourite place to go to if we are looking to watch a movie. Even though we have cinemas closer to home, The Odeon at Liverpool has the gallery which really does make it a little bit special. There are also other cinemas in the city offering luxury seating such as Cineworld and Showcase.

Liverpool also has some great places to visit out of the town centre.

 5 Things To Do Around The City

Knowsley Safari Park

Knowsley Safari Park is only a short drive from the busy city centre which makes the park so special. It's hard to understand when you see all the amazing animals up close that you are not in the African Savannah.

Crosby Beach and The Iron Men

A great day out with the family no matter what the weather. Crosby Beach has become very popular of the past few years especially after the Iron Men arrived. There are 100 Iron Men in total situated on the beach. There is also a water sports centre, cafe and children's play area.

Acorn Farm

The award winning family friendly farm is just 15 minutes from the city centre and has a wide range of animals to see. You can purchase food to feed the sheep, goats, chickens and hens. Attend a small animal petting session and you can even go horse riding. There are two children play areas, a woodland walk and also a cafe offering homemade meals.

Otterspool Prom

We have been visiting Otterspool prom for years. It's a great day out with lots to do and see. The arrival of Otterspool Adventure Park last year has made the prom very popular.

Croxteth Park

The park is beautiful with Croxteth Hall and Gardens, a cafe and children's play area. It was announced that Croxteth Park would be used for events across the year and we were very lucky to visit one of the very first 'big' events it hosted last year,  CBBC Summer Social

If you are planning a trip to Liverpool soon I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Michelle

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Play Expo Manchester

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Play Expo returned to Manchester last week to a new location at the Central Exhibition Centre. This was Little J's first visit to the gaming exhibition and he loved it more than I expected!

We arrived at the event early to make the most of the day. Programmes of events where handed out as we entered through the now familiar bag check process. This also included a map of the venue with each of the sections clearly marked.

We headed first to the Antstream setup. Antstream advertises itself as a Netflix for retro gaming, with the ability to play on Xbox One, Pc, Android devices and support to come for PS4 and iOS in future. Its currently in kickstarter but they had live stations set up with a selection of games to play.  The speed of games loading was really impressive and I loved having a go of Speedball 2 having not played it for about 20 years.  Little J loved the fact that they had bowls of sweets to pick from too!

Playstation VR was available for try outs just next to this section and both Little J and I had a go on Driveclub VR.  I really thought the experience was amazing, and have been considering buying the VR set, however I did find that it made me feel a bit ill, so it was good to have the chance to try it to make the decision for me!

Next it was over to the Fortnite section. This was already busy, but we didnt have to wait long to sit at a station and Little J played a few games next to around 40 other gamers. He was really enjoying the experience even though he could have played at home.

We headed over to the arcade section next, with a large selection of original arcade machines, all set as free to play. We spent to time on Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man,  Operation Wolf and waited for a turn on the original sit in cabinet for Out Run. I also played some of the original star wars games and had a few goes of Galaga.  It's always great fun to play the originals all over again, and even more so to see Little J playing and enjoying them too.

Next to the Arcade section was the Pinball section.  We all had a go on 'The Adams Family' which is my favourite machine. I was surprised at how out of practice I had become!

Next it was time for some Fifa. We could only find two machines running Fifa so had to wait a little for a chance to play.  We played three matches at different times throughout the day and this was Little J's favourite part of the day. When I asked him why, when he could play it at home, he just said 'Its better playing it here'

Then it was onto the tombola, where we won sweets and a teddy bear, and then to the market stalls. Usually I find something catches my eye in amongst the gaming merchandise but nothing did this year.

We didn't have time to go to visit any of the presentations on the main stage, or other areas, and we didn't try out Knightmare Live or the Breakout Rooms, however we still really enjoyed the day playing games, and will definitely be returning next year!

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Visiting Play Factore, Manchester

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Disclosure - We were gifted tickets for the purpose of this post. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are our own. 

Last week we were invited to Play Factore to try out their Virtual Reality attraction.  Play Factore is located right underneath Chill Factore by the Trafford Centre and is part of the Beyond entertainment complex.

Play Factore is the UK's largest family entertainment centre, and boasts Europe's tallest standing indoor slide.  The first thing I really noticed about Play Factore was how they have used the space so well, with each activity in its own zone, and lots of seating for those not taking part right in the middle of the centre.  The activities are big enough for all ages to attempt, with most areas aimed at 5-16.  Adults will have no problems accompanying little ones and there is also a specific toddler zone too.

We headed firstly for the giant red slide. This involved finding our way up the climbing structure to reach the top corner, which was lots of fun with obstacles to climb over, slide under and dodge as you go higher and higher. You can see down below over the rest of the centre from the structure and Little J couldn't believe how high he had climbed.

The slide had a staff member at the top for safety instructions and we needed to fold our arms across out chest and head down. Big J went first and literally flew down the slide.  It didn't look too fast so I took Little J down next to me.  We discovered that looks can be deceiving!  We bounced over the bumps and Little J found it hard to keep his arms crossed with the speed we moved at!  The slide really is so fast and lots of fun, but not for the faint hearted.

Next it was onto the football area. This is a short climb up the structure and is a great area with two goals and netting all around so the balls can't go missing.  Football is always a hit with us and we spent a good amount of time playing.

Big J and I tried out the Virtual Reality game next.  You are in a small arena with two staff manning the area from the outside. You wear a backpack containing the tech needed to run the game, a headset and hold on to two handheld devices that act as your guns.  The staff set you up and two play at a time.  Finally your headphones go on and the screen loads up.  You have a short training exercise to complete which is really useful as it gets you used to the controls and how to move around quickly and then its onto the main game.

If you haven't tried VR before then you are in for a surprise.  Even if you have just tried the VR headsets that you can put your phone in, this is a different class. It's amazing too look all around you and be in another environment, and actually feel as though you need to be careful when walking across platforms in case you fall.  The game consists of three main sections, involving shooting down drones, moving up and down a hangar bay, and the final battle to destroy a reactor.  The game lasts around 7 minutes or so in total, however feels longer, and you do become immersed in the game as there are no distractions or anything else in your vision or hearing.  We both really enjoyed the experience and will be looking to try it out again on out next visit.

Little J wanted to go on the Go Kart area whilst we used the VR and this was fun as he could drive the kart himself around the track. It isn't fast and perfect for the littler ones.  Big J also got to sit on the back of the kart on his next go around.

We then took a short break for some food from the restaurant. Play Factore employ 5 chefs as they prepare and cook every single dish on site using the best locally sources ingredients. The pizza is cooked in a traditional stone bake oven, and this is impressive for a play area!  We really enjoyed out food and the selection of drinks is really good too, with a range of coffees, tea, soft drinks and Tango Ice Blast machines.

Finally for us it was more football and then onto Laser Tag. we had been having a great time on the other activities and had forgotten about laser tag until the end of our visit. The Laser Tag was great fun, with just a gun each needed. The guns are the weapons and also the part you need to hit on your opponent to score points.  The area to play in is perfect for the game as there are plenty of places to hide, duck down, and higher areas too to get some high ground.  The game lasts around 5 minutes.

There are other activities to do in Play Factore that we didn't check out this time such as the Arcade area, with a selection of arcade games to play and also the huge children's Zip Wire which sends children from one end of the building to the other, flying over the heads of people sat below in the centre!  This is available for ages of 6 -16 and is manned by a qualified team of zip line experts to ensure everyone is kept safe.

We really enjoyed out visit to Play Factore and its another centre that we will be certain to head back to in the future.

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John

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Salford Museum and Ordsall Hall

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Disclosure - We were invited to Ordsall Hall and The Salford Museum. We were gifted lunch and snacks however entry was free and we were not paid to create this post.

On Sunday we had a lovely day visiting Salford Museum and Ordsall Hall in Manchester. Usually I would do a little review of each place however they are only a 5-10 minutes drive from each other so you could easily do both on the same day and they are both free to enter and make a lovely day out.

We visited the Salford Museum first, this was due to the opening times of both. The museum building is quite pretty from the outside and reminded me of a library rather than a museum. There was parking at the front of the building however it is chargeable parking which cost us £2.50 for the time we were there.

We went to the reception desk first as we had never been before and the lady kindly told us a little bit about the museum, what to expect and she pointed out the toilets and the cafe.

The Salford Museum is home to Lark Hill Place. It was our favourite part of the Museum. Lark Hill Place is a re-creation of a typical Northern street during Victorian times.

Lark Hill Place was originally created in 1957 when many shops and houses in central Salford were being demolished to make way for new developments. Many of the shop fronts that are in Lark Hill Place today were saved and restored. The interiors have been furnished and are full of authentic objects, recreating the way they were used in Victorian times.

Visitors can explore the street and dress up in traditional Victorian costumes to really get in the spirit of things.

Little J loved dressing up and chose his own outfit.

After we looked through the shop windows and experienced what it felt like to walk down a Victorian Street, we finished at the sweet shop. There was a volunteer behind the counter handing out sweets to the children. There is no charge however you can make a donation. It was a lovely treat for little J and it was nice to see her weigh out the sweets. 

Once we had finished visiting Lark Hill Place we headed to the first floor to the art gallery. I enjoyed this part of the Museum however little J wasn't too interested and wanted to head back to the Victorian Street.

Once we had finished we headed to the cafe for some lunch before we headed to Ordsall Hall.

Like I said earlier Ordsall Hall is only 5-10 minutes away so perfect for enjoying both in the same day.

Ordsall Hall has had a long and interesting history with many different uses since it was first mentioned in records in 1177! Today, it is a welcoming and friendly historic house telling the story of the Hall and some of the people who made it their home.

The building looks very impressive but the location is quite strange as it is amongst a housing estate and is surrounded by a main road and while we were there lots of people passing by heading to the Manchester United game. 

The grounds are well kept  and lots of nice walkways to explore and things to see.

Before we began exploring the hall we were shown a 10 minute video which explains a little more about the Hall and also help you understand more about the building and it's history. It was a beautiful afternoon so little J just wanted to explore outside so John and I have said we would love to return to explore the hall more another day. Entry is free so would make a perfect day out for just the two of us. There is also another lovely cafe with delicious looking cakes.

We really enjoyed our visit to Salford Museum and Ordsall Hall. As both are free entry they make a really nice cheap day out.

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Michelle

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