Kingston Maurward Animal Park and Gardens — Attraction in Stinsford

Went with a friend, our 4 year olds & baby. The older children really enjoyed seeing the animals, helping feed the pigs & hand feeding the sheep & alpacas. The guinea pig "fishing" feeding was a bit strange & the girls were a little disappointed not to be able to hold a guinea pig like other places do. The duck "racing" was a bit of a let down as the ducks were apparently new, didn't know what to do & it's around such a small pen that it was hard for the children to get to see. Pumpkin carving was advertised but they ran out of pumpkins at lunchtime & only had a couple of sets of carving tools so even if you managed to get a pumpkin there was nearly an hour's wait to be able to actually get to carve it. The Halloween trail was ok, though there wasn't enough signposting & decorations along the route to keep the children engaged. The trail is also not pram, pushchair or wheelchair friendly at all as it is nearly entirely "off road". Some areas of the gardens & trail had slopes rather than steps but there were several times where we had to carry the pram down steps, manoeuvering the pram over thick gravel, through the woods, over a grated bridge & through a large muddy area. If there were pram, pushchair & wheelchair accessible routes they were not signposted at all. It was a nice day overall & we had discounted entry for locals but I would have felt disappointed had we...

I bought a Groupon voucher for 4 £10 on offer. I've been here before so I knew what to expect & knew I had a bargain by purchasing the deal. The complex is completely outdoors so only visit when it's dry. It's a place of 2 halves. You can spend an hr or more just in the animal complex. For 50p you can purchase animal feed in the entrance for only goats & sheep. Believe me they are very hungry animals so will not care that they have been fed hundred or more times a day & they r so gentle when u feed them u can be brave and put a handful in your palm or just let them feed from the pot. It's such a lovely feeling just remember to wash your hands before eating. We took a picnic and had our food in the vast seating picnic area. U can go back to your car after visiting the animal bit to collect your picnic without having to carry it around. Once you have visited the animal complex u can then visit the beautiful gardens & lake. We took my mum in a wheelchair. There is a designated path for wheelchair users but we failed to follow the map & some paths were quite treaturous. It is doable. It's only 10 miles from Weymouth so u can get to the seafront & extend your day like we did. Thoroughly...

Was looking forward to the open day event here today, but to be honest the whole event was a bit of a shambles. The map we were given at the gate was not very well laid out and we spent most of the day asking the helpers which way to exhibits as trying to read the map became annoying. The helpers themselves even seemed to struggle with explaining to us where certain things were. Everything seemed far too far apart. Kids became restless walking to each different activity - not knowing if we were going to make it in time. The kids missed out on stuff in the animal activity area and didn't actually see any of the small animals because we were directed the wrong way and the youngest became frustrated with the noise of the train whilst we were trying to find our way. If it hadn't of been for us practically walking into the bird people showing the birds of prey we would have missed this activity following the woman with the ringing bell felt like we were cattle. I would like to say though that the students helping were friendly and approachable and the bird activity we attended was great. I just wish the map was a bit more understandable due to the size of...