Adventure Valley — Attraction in Framwellgate Moor

VERY DISAPPOINTED IN ADVENTURE VALLEY!! We come here for EVERY occasion including easter and christmas, we ALWAYS have chosen adventure valley but i think from now on we will take our custom elsewhere. bare in mind there were nearly 20 of us in total so our ticket prices alone came to near £250! and that’s not including the money we ALL spent in the cafe on food for ourselves and the children, the animal feed, the £1 coins put into the cars etc but yet the man working on the pumpkin patch had the audacity to accuse some of the children including MYSELF A GROWN WOMAN WITH 2 YOUNG KIDS OF MY OWN of stealing pumpkins which might i add we could of just bought for a £1 at asda but no we chose to come here and get one and make a day of it for our kids. He first refused to let one of our group leave the pumpkin patch with her 3 year old daughter unless she put her pumpkin back and went and retrieved one of the alleged ‘stolen’ pumpkins from outside. She then only got out because he came bolting over to me and snatched a pumpkin from my 3 year old daughters hands saying she was stealing a pumpkin from the display! He then continued to shout and scream in my face saying that i had ruined the display and i was stealing pumpkins! seriously why would i steal a pumpkin that’s worth £1? he then refused to let me out of the pumpkin patch and said i had to leave my two daughters in there who are 2 & 3 by the way and go outside and get a ‘stolen’ pumpkin back. bare in mind he’s doing this in front of loads of other families queuing to get into the pumpkin patch and he’s talking to me like i’m a child INFRONT OF MY CHILDREN. i had to literally ask another member of staff to literate to him that i have 2 children they have 1 pumpkin each which they could barely carry so how he justifies the fact they were stealing pumpkins i do not know because they were bigger than the both of them put together. he kept standing in my way so i couldn’t leave the patch until i literally had to force my way out by saying it’s okay i’m going straight to reception and he quickly moved but then followed me and found the rest of my party who were queuing to carve theirs and took two pumpkins from their table. ALSO may i add that the family he took the pumpkins from only had 4 pumpkins but they had 5 pumpkin tickets because one of the children who’d booked on with them couldn’t go. so in theory they could of had 5 but they only took less than what they’d paid for and STILL had two taken from them. Believe me when i say i am still totally livid and it has taken me until tonight to really process what actually happened. A grown man twice the size of me and all the women we were with was shouting and screaming and accusing us of stealing in-front of other customers - may i add it was all women and children non of our partners came with us so i don’t know if he thought because we weren’t with men he had one up on us or what but whoever he is really really needs to find a new job place, because speaking to women in front of babies and young children like that is actually disgusting. Don’t get me wrong the manager came straight over and apologised to us but the damage was already unfortunately done. I hope he reads this and realises how much he scared our kids & how much he has tainted this usually lovely place for us. We were all ready for booking christmas when we were leaving but i’m sorry to say non of us did. if a man can speak to customers who’ve paid more to get into the place combined than his weekly wage then that unfortunately is no longer a place we want to go. With everything that’s going on you’d think they would appreciate the fact that customers like us are still visiting allowing them to be employed but i...

After many years of using this place and some good reviews it's now time to review it currently when my kids were smaller and the prices were under 10 quid it was still a lot of money but you got the money worth for taken little ones round the animals and soft play when they do farther day deals ext then it's worth it however recently looking at coming as a family two adults three kids which doesn't matter as all same price 90 quid for us just to come to see animals and few parks not even a full day out and that's before food or drinks or animal food and all the other token things kids want it's getting ridiculous a family can go to theme parks for the same price this is local to me but I prefer to pay this money and travel at a better bigger place then go here now it use to be better run for families and affordable but now it's gone above its means and acts bigger and better then what it is and fact prices bump up for school holidays and having a nursery within it's ground now you think it would be more affordable for families to come visit it's not a them park and their is nothing for adults to do here and yet the ticket prices are the same which isn't justified and fact even if your disabled or have a career and you ain't even gonna be doing anything as there is nothing for adults to do never mind if disabled you only have it reduced by 2 quid where as most places it's free career no family tickets available I think this place offers no loyalty to any local customers and just gone mad for the money now and it's no different to what it's been for years yeh a couple new parks for small children their is things you never see open a soft play that's never been updated cafe never been updated petting area never been updated and just as small the same boring gold pond as you walk in and you have to pay extra for the mini golf if you havnt been before you may think it's great for a one off and if you have a little one and that's it may think worth it but when you have a mixed family of ages and want somewhere local to visit and you have to pay full price adults kids it's not worth it me and my partner wanna enjoy a walk and a coffee whilst kids go off and cost us over 30 quid for me and him just to do that I would understand if it was adult based and was things we would use but it's not it's probs entertaining for 12 and unders and that's if it's not raining I think a place like that is gonna be one that will get unused alot with these prices being unrealistic for what is on offer then complain when no one uses this place and it's not sustainable and then appeal to everyone to use it when they haven't thought of giving families value now the fact high prices when kids are off is shocking and taken advantage of disbaled people who are definitely not gonna get money worth from this place I wouldn't pay the prices for this place so if you are thinking of traveling here I wouldn't it's not worth the money at all go somewhere that's entertaining for all ages if your gonna pay these prices I certainly won't be revisited unless the change the prices to actually base it on value for what they offer and take off the ridiculous adult prices and stop charging disabled people all the best companies offer that free and with that their is actually things for disabled people to enjoy take part in unlike here don't waste...

I’m a carer and I work 2:1 with an autistic boy. We arrived at Adventure Valley late morning in the school holidays. We were shocked that there were no discount for carers and we’re told the only discount we would get would be for the boy we took, on proof he was ‘disabled’. The girl on the till took £1 off for our service user. It cost us over £42 for entrance which we had to pay ourselves as our young person didn’t have enough to pay for us all. Most places offer one carer FREE of charge or at least discount. This is an absolute disgrace and got us off on the wrong foot straight away.

First stop were the toilets, which were filthy and very smelly. I get that the previous day was rainy and the park is literally outside, but toilet floor was rotten and the toilets and sinks were very dirty. No soap. (Though there are troughs you can rinse your hands in at other places after touching animals).

Overall Adventure Valley is a mix of outdoor play areas which is great on dry weather but if it rains it immediately excluded 80% of activities. There are bouncing beds, climbing frames, pirate ships, a maze, slope for riding huge tires etc. a lot of us aimed at small children so not really suitable for the boy we took. There is a tractor ride several times a day but I recommend you queue WELL in advance or you won’t get on. Lots of outdoor animals to look at but the food will cost you extra at the front entrance.

Indoors, there are animals you can look at and pet and they all seem well looked after. There’s a cafe with plenty of seating, standard food and drinks, but hugely overpriced.

We ended up staying for 90 minutes and felt uncomfortable with the glares of parents, when our young person was being quite vocal in the soft play. I totally understand this is nothing to do with the park however.

Overall this place is overpriced. Be prepared to get filthy if the weather is not the best, as even pushing our child on the swing, our feet were squelching in the muddy rubber clippings!

If you’re a family, it’ll cost a fortune to get in, but if you take a picnic and stay all day it could be better value for money.

My main point for the owners of Adventure Valley is the lack of inclusivity. I previously worked for the leisure industry for over twenty years and know how big a deal inclusivity is. You definitely need to rethink your policy about carers (on minimum wage) having to pay to accompany someone with a disability. Staff wear ID but it’s embarrassing for anyone with a hidden disability to have to provide ‘evidence’ of this to prove they are disabled to get £1 discount!!!

Consider doing quiet sessions, or an afternoon in the holidays where children and adults with carers can enjoy the park without the judgement from other customers. I managed a trampoline park and offered such sessions twice a week. I hope you seriously consider...