Alderford Lake — Attraction in Whitchurch Urban

Visited Alderford lake today with the family during our holiday. Absolutely fantastic day out. Pre booked online and all the information was clearly stated online and had no issue getting into anything or issues with queus. My cousin forgot her flip flops so went in the cafe to look for some. Staff were very accommodating and helpful and told us where to go and we got some no problem. I was worried it would be busy and it was but hardly noticeable with the amount of space and had plenty room to mooch about and plenty of benches to sit on and the lake was very refreshing. Also went on the aqua park. A simple process and safety briefing and even tho it was only an hour it felt a lot longer than that and the park was worth it as it was lot harder than it first looked and the people and lifeguards were very helpful around the course. Someone even helped pull me out and had some funny interactions with people on the course in my session. Didn’t hear a bad word from anyone with some shouting it’s absolutely fantastic and the kids around were loving it and getting stuck into the course.

My grandma came with us but dint go on anything and she said she didn’t feel left out and had a great day laughing at people on the obstacles and interacting with other people watching along with her. We took our own food and drink so didn’t bother with buying any, only thing i will say it seened very expensive for what it was.

In response to the stupid reviews on here regarding staff interaction and food. It’s a very busy location and staff don’t have time to see to everyone and treat you like you are important because frankly you are probably not, they are very helpful and accommodating when required. If you want 5* food and customer service go to a proper restaurant like the shard where you will get that kind of service. This is a place where you swim and go on an aqua park it’s not for 5* food and staff interaction as it’s simply a place where you swim and go on an obstacle course.

Absolutely no issues at-all even parking being free for 3 hours and getting in and out was no bother and there was plenty of facilities to hire equipment paddle boarding and canoes. Also included toilets and changing rooms and a cafe with a few takeaway sections for drinks and burgers/pizza. We loved it and will 100% recommend and plans for a return in the future are already underway. Fantastic day thanks...

We went to go and see father Christmas on Santa island just before Christmas. Wow, what an experience it was! Truely magical, completely different to anything we had done before and a lot more there than we expected.

We had booked on line so check in in couldn't be easier, just a quick search of our name and we were in. Everything was very ordered, with time slots for the trip over the lake, so after grabbing our life vests and watching the safety briefing, we were helped into the boats and taken over to the island. We were there just as it was dropping dark, so got to see the magic appear through the dark. As we approached the island, you could see numerous structures and elves and other guests, as well as the resident goose, Nicky.

As we landed we were met by an elf, who helped us on and then helped us make toasted marshmallows and played some games and told some jokes. We then went into our first tipi for Christmas story telling, sat on skin rugs, which was fun with audience participation. Following this we made reindeerfood, played jenga and then searched for our wishing cube which we used to make a wish as we crossed the bridge to Santa's tipi.

The elves were all fantastic, with one cheeky naughty elf darting about and making mischief. Santa was super, Taking time to talk to us, find out what the kids had asked for and then sent us away with a signed copy of the chritmas story as well as a gift. There was also an elf on hand for the full family photo. We could then take photos on Santa's sleigh before the boat ride back. All in all it was just over an hour. We then popped into the alderford kitchen for a simple dinner in their lovely kitchen restaurant.

A magical experience for the kids and excellent value as far as the parents were concerned. Thank you for putting on this event at a time when we all need a...

Where do I begin… We attended the fireworks and they just haven’t learnt anything from past years and past events sadly. So many people so little vendors. The one’s they did have eg lakeside outdoor kitchen, took 25 minutes for 2 hot chocolates, which was beyond a joke. The rides were fine but so cramped and had so little space to move as they were placed right by the main entrance. The kids/silent fireworks was meant to start at 7, let’s be fair, that's most kids normal bed time, but they didn’t start until 7:30. There was no announcements or updates so we all stood by the edge of the lake for 40 minutes waiting. I’m sure the drone they put up got some lovely footage though, which is clearly more important for the social media content than delivering things on time. Gotta get those likes. The main display was meant to start at 8 but didn’t start until 8:30. Fine but the kids/silent display should not have been delayed. People plan things around the timings set and it was a shame that this dramatically changed the evening for us. Leaving was a nightmare, as always, with cars stuck in the car parks (literally) but again, they have not learnt from past years. All in all I think the time has come to stop giving Alderford my hard earned money until a change in event management is seriously thought about. This stuff has been happening year after year and no change. They want to run big events fine but hire the right people do to so. Invest the money into proper infrastructure within the site, provide a suitable amount of vendors for the amount of people attending and focus on making a much better customer experience. Investing now will really make each event better thereafter. The fireworks were great and it would have been such an enjoyable night had these issues not occurred. Can’t expect people to pay high prices for poor...