Life Science Centre — Attraction in Newcastle upon Tyne

I'm sad to leave ⭐⭐⭐ only, and that's a stretch. We had a membership when my daughters were tiny (now 10 and 12), and the center for life experience boosted some serious love for science in them. Now my son is 6, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce him full-time to the center, especially when he loves our solar system so much and knows every planet and its characteristic by memory. Unfortunately, since we joined back, customer service was not been the greatest. Not very helpful; whenever I asked a question, I usually heard the 'I'm not sure' answer. There isn't as much going on as there was in the past; the center seems empty. I even paid almost £200 extra to have my son's birthday party there, and it wasn't great. Our schedule was changed at least a couple of times, and after the children had lunch, my husband was asked by the cafe lady to clean.

I went in today with two of my kids, I had some work to do, so my 12yo and my 6yo went on to explore the making zone while I was sitting at the table. When it was 5 to 5, the lady in the scarf approached me with a grim on her face saying, 'we're closing.' I immediately got up, packed everything, and collected kids from Brain Zone. While my 12 yo understood the concept of time and gathered herself to the exit (we were next to the phone booth, so right next to the exit), my 6 yo was still busy 'talking' to the phone booth. The same lady approached me, saying, 'We're closing.' I replied, 'I know, you've already told me. Then she began poking herself in the dorsal aspect of a wrist, saying, 'But it is 5'. Really?

By the time I got back to my car parked at Time Square, it was 5 past 5. And we weren't the last ones. I'm sure this lady would like to see me dragging my son by his shoulder when the clock strikes five, but this isn't how I raise my children. At this point, I regret getting our membership.

The atmosphere isn't as it used to be. There is no wifi; there is no place where you can plug your laptop; there isn't enough seating area for parents in the soft play; it's relatively empty for the price, and customer service is not worth it.

The same lady was doing the theatre when my son had his birthday, and she flew by the experiments. Despite that, children were clapping and cheering, but then she seemed annoyed by it.

During my son's birthday, again, after one of the planetarium shows, the speaker announced 'happy birthday to the girl who had the party but forgot about my son. When I mentioned that to the staff, I heard, 'I don't know why. I did not know they do that.

Not cool at all.

I will keep an eye on how the place evolves the next year and might update my review; I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt to see if it is not due to them trying to pull themselves together...

Something for everyone.....a day out with a difference, carefully thought out activities presented and put together by a great bunch of people. So today was just me and my nine year old daughter we were up in Newcastle so the Life Science Centre sounded the perfect location for a day out together....... Parking 5 minutes walk away at the Times Square car park, you can see the Life Science Centre from the carpark. As we approached the entrance there was a large ice rink spread out in front of us I noticed on the website you could buy an entrance ticket with a ice skating session....it looked lovely with all the fairy lights in the trees surrounding the rink!! After a shirt que we bought the tickets and we were in.....we both scanned the layout of the place and then started investigating...the adventure began....I wont go into every activity we did...too much to tell but I must mention the highlights. We watched a live presentation on how and why we need satellites - the presenter was fantastic captured the audience for the whole 20 minutes including the young children with a little audience participation!! My daughter and I loved it. Next highlight was the woodwork workshop....we made a mobile phone stand. Through demonstration we started with a single piece of wood then we measured, sawed, chiseled, drilled, sanded, glued it was amazing.......my daughter did most of it.... Finally my last highlight was the science lab we were testing food samples for starch and sugar, my little nine year was kitted out in a white coat safety googles, gloves and set to work on the experiments it was brilliant. I haven't even mentioned the space exploration area included an actual piece of moon rock, the planetarium and the discovery area......we enjoyed it that much we didn't even stop for a drink and a cake in the cafe....oh well will try that next time. In summary a fantastic day out we both had such a good time it was worth every penny and again thankyou to the team of people running the centre some of the friendliest people you...

We (my husband and i) visited the first time with our 2 year old and on the website it states show times will be stated in the centre on the day.

The little bear shows (under 7s) werent on until 12.15 and 2.30pm... had i known this from the website i wouldve booked a later slot. We arrived 10am and knowing we had to keep a toddler entertained for 2hrs was not going to end well. But the website boasted 2-3hrs worth of entertainment and an under 7s play area (are they kidding?!) First of all it was at the top of metal steps with a broken lift... there was no gate/fence to stop runaway youngsters from heading to the steps or ultimately falling down them. When we arrived it was swarmed with school kids, nothing was really there to play with apart from a small kitchen and a handfull of soft play items. It was disappointing. After waiting until the teachers finally reigned the kids in we could see what was left and it wasnt much. Dont be fooled by "soft play" area for under 7s. So after being moderately entertained for 40mins we left as we werent willing to wait another 1hr+ for the main thing we wanted to see.

I understand that there would be school trips but it left nothing for our little one to explore so i feel like they should highlight quieter times when booking so we couldve had a more memorable experience... or even highlight an under 7s dedicated time to encourage parents to book around a like minded audience, i saw one poor Dad trying to get his 3 under 4 year old kids doing the same as us, trying to push past older kids to let our children have a chance!

Id leave 0 stars if i could, £30 poorer (x2 adults £12 each, 2yr old free, and including parking expecting to be there the stated 2-3 hours) ......