Exploria — Attraction in Portsmouth

A fantastic day out for those with little ones!

I'll always miss the event rooms and swimming facilities that Pyramids used to host, but as a parent myself I'm always happy to see great investments in children's entertainment and Exploria is a much needed addition to Portsmouth's activities and engagements on offer to the youngest.

The only complaint I would have would be about the parking situation. The car park was absolutely chockablock which resulted in us having to park a 10 minute walk away, thankfully, Southsea's a great place to take a short walk. You also can't fault a business for their reasonably sized car park being full, if anything, this was just an early sign of the well earned popularity of Exploria.

For health and safety reasons, you must purchase a pair of Exploria socks, though this is fairly standard practise for a facility like this and is worth the £2 or so (per pair).

Ticket prices vary depending on the package you choose, and you can pay a small fee to add an additional parent or guardian to the ticket, which allowed for both of us to attend with our little one.

We were restricted to the under-5 section of the facility, though we found this was more than enough for us to stretch our legs and wear ourselves out as if there were three kids running around.

Additional to the normal climbing, sliding and ball pit section, there is a sensory room to the side that allows for a quieter, more personal experience. This room is particularly great for kids under 2 or anyone who likes to take a quiet minute or two to catch your breath away from the noise.

There's an on-site cafe offering a selection of cooked meals, treats and drinks with an abundance of seating, located in-sight of the play area and close enough for old/achey joints to keep a watch.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see the lockers were free and required no passwords or staff interaction. Simply store your belongings, set your own code, lock up and go!

Overall, we had a fantastic time and plan to return and I would recommend the facility to any parent or guardian as a must-do activity alongside Playzone...

The place was ok, plenty of activities to do for the kids which was great but the staff were miserable, the practicality for kids wasn't amazing, we were there for a birthday party and one of the nuns has 2 kids, one aged 5 the other about 2 and she had to try keep an eye on both the kids, the youngest couldn't use the equipment up the other end and the younger kids one is the far side so she had to be in to places at once. The party was rushed, my son had barely finished eating as they cleared it all up and were telling them to put there shoes on and ushering us out of the room, to be fair to the host though she was about one of the only members of staff not miserable that we saw.

Another one of the mums couldn't do anything right, she has a newborn, she brought the pushchair up to where the trampolines were so she didn't have to hold the baby constantly and was told to take it down because it would tear up the flooring, an all rubber wheel, single wheel each corner and they claim it would tear the flooring up!?! then she got moaned at because her son looked younger than the others and didn't have a wristband on, no one was available to give them one when they arrived and she didn't know she would need one!!

All the staff we saw either had a miserable look on their face or were complaining to each other, not paying any attention to what the kids were doing but more at what the parents were doing apparently, I wouldn't come back here if you paid me to! The only reason I didn't give it 1 star is because my son loved the trampolines but even he said he wouldn't want to go back! When a 6 year old says he doesn't want to go back that's telling you something!

I am seriously unimpressed with this place, it was much better as a swimming pool! At least the staff were happy at what they...

You get what you get, there's a great variety of areas designed for different ages of children and abilities. However wish more parents supervised their children, staff can only do their best to ask parents to supervise but minuites later they'll be sat back down with a coffee and the kids (under unsupervised age) will be running off without supervision. I wouldn't want to be in their (staff) shoes to be fair, I can't imagine it's comfortable asking parents over and over again to do the bare minimum!

Sensory room was great but the water tubes need some new distilled water as has floaters/scum. The fibreoptic carpet is worn through. Having the projector "game" in the sensory/baby room brings in older children who aren't supervised, it also isn't consistently responsive and for ND children can cause distress when the "action reaction" isn't working as should - feel like this room is not a good location for it. In the toddler area and the older area both the "air vents" (blows air up when you push a button) doesn't work.

the deep crevices within the soft play could do with a good clean/hoover and some attention.

Toilets and locker rooms are well maintained, cafe is a little on the high side of pricing. Cafe and seating area is kept as clean as can be by staff (a lot easier on quieter days)

For the money, it could have more attention given to it but it's the only play area around now pirates and princesses has gone. The staff are all very very lovely and can't fault...