Knockhatch Adventure Park — Attraction in Wealden

I went with all my sisters and their children big family and the fact that children over two pay £25, you'd think the adults pay half that, but no. Adults pay £25. Upon arrival we used the overflow carpark, no signage directing people to the entrance. Once inside my son (almost 2) saw the digger attraction. I didn't have any cash and it required £1 to ride so we had to move on. After a short trip seeing some of the animals we did get a chance to go on the caterpillar quad bike which he loved, although the staff member who looked about 12, whispered his safety brief and seemed shy?

Then we looked in the froggy's soft play area, and immediately left. It was over crowded, and older children were everywhere, all in the under 4 area. Once your child entered the soft play, it would have been impossible to keep sight of them too.

The food at the lunch area was reasonably priced, but just took so long. It's like all the staff here are asleep and 15 years old. My son enjoyed the smaller jumping pillow whilst 1000 children (including my nieces and nephew ) played on the bigger one. Occasionally an older child came over and ruined it but not very often. We queued up for an ice cream for around 30 minutes, when the boy in front of us got to the stall he ordered ice cream and the staff member started preparing it, then his mother came over and said please can you add a bottle of water to it. The staff member, a young guy with a sassy attitude, told her to join the back of the queue and that shed jumped it. The whole thing was awkward, unfair and by the time he'd finished arguing with her, he would have been able to give her the bottle. Ironically two women pushed in front of me and my family next and he said to them that he hated queue jumpers. But he seemed to know them so that's okay apparently ? 3 ice creams and 2 drinks £20.00 and the ice cream tasted like sick. I'm not sure what was wrong with it, but it was disgusting. I had to throw it away.

The water slides took around 90 minutes for 5 people to go down. No wait time displayed. 3 or 4 boats to go down in, which are slowly brought up by a conveyor belt. Staff chatting and trudging over to get the boats at the speed of a snail. Then I decided to detour and go with my brother in-law to the go karts for a bit of fun and after queueing for 10 minutes l, we were told they were £5 extra per kart and that you had to pay at the main entrance. Similarly, when we got to the dinosaur indoor slides, three of my nieces were told they couldn't ride because they didn't have socks on. Socks were purchasable from, you guessed it, the main entrance.

The whole day I kept thinking this place is quite good, then I remembered that we'd all paid £25 to be there. It's overpriced, overcrowded and under-staffed. All I paid £25 for was to wait in line and...

We have emailed our complaint to Knockhatch, however we have not received a response.

We visited Knockhatch as a family of six, including two adults, a 2-year-old, a 4-year-old, and two 13-year-olds. Unfortunately, our experience was far from what we had hoped for, and we left feeling frustrated and disappointed.

We purchased our tickets at the door without being informed of an important rule—that children under a certain age cannot explore the park on their own. We were not told what the specific age requirement was, so we assumed our two 13-year-olds would be allowed to enjoy the attractions independently while we took our younger ones to the soft play area. For example at Chessington they need to be 13 and older. However, once inside, a staff member told them they were not allowed to walk around without an adult, despite them being more than capable of doing so. As a result, they had no choice but to sit with us in the soft play area, which was completely unsuitable for their age. Had we been made aware of this rule as we bought tickets at the gate, we would have not entered, as it would severely limit their ability to enjoy the visit.

The Froggies soft play area was chaotic. The designated toddler area was overcrowded and unsafe due to older children playing there, making it impossible for our 2-year-old to enjoy it safely. There was no one monitoring the age of the children and there were much older children in all the areas making it dangerous for the little children. The two other soft play areas meant for older children, were positioned in a way that made it easy for younger children to enter spaces that weren’t age-appropriate. Our 4-year-old repeatedly wandered into the older children’s section because there were no gates on any of the areas or the exits.

With the older children not able to leave outside and very few appropriate activities for our younger children, we ended up leaving after just 90 minutes—far earlier than expected. Before leaving, we raised our concerns with a staff member named Ethan at reception. Unfortunately, he was completely unhelpful, did not offer an apology, and refused to provide any kind of refund.

This was an extremely disappointing visit. We were all looking forward to the day, but it ended up being a waste of money and time and most importantly we had 4 dissapointed children. Had we been given the necessary information before purchasing our tickets at the gate, we would have made...

Quite a fun day out for families with children under 12. My 10 year old loved it - my 13 year old twins were bored (but did love seeing the animals - especially the exotic species).

£90 for my family of 5 so not a cheap day out, but lots of animals to be looked after, young staff to be paid and no doubt loans to pay back for recent developments, so probably a fair price in this expensive world we live in.

Drinks and ice creams fairly priced.

Food looked pricey and unappetising and does not have great reviews so we packed loads of snacks and a packed lunch.

Toilets are clean.

Facilities (play areas are clean).

Staff are very friendly, which is refreshing these days.

Loads of parking.

Loads of picnic tables.

Well sign posted and easy to find by satnav.

My only moan is...

Appalling terms and conditions if you book online. £15 per person but terms and conditions state NO refunds if you cancel or amend your online booking before the day of arrival (an additional £3 per ticket for any amendments, which is excessive).

Online booking website is basic and clunky and the system was tricky to navigate. So confusing I made an error and selected the wrong date. A 'quick' call to Knockhatch and my family 'Adventure' cost me another £15 for my family of five (£90 in total)!

Call taker (Carolyn) also took utter delight in charging me the additional £15 (on top of the original £75) by warning me 'those were the conditions 'you agreed to' when I bought my ticket on line. Savage.

Finally, on the theme of savage refund policy I bought a ticket for my wife (£18) and she was unwell on the day of the visit due to chemotherapy for cancer. Would they refund her ticket? No. No way. I even bought a doctor's letter as proof. Heartless.

Won't be going back. All left a bit of a sour taste. What a shame and a missed opportunity for Knockhatch to show a...