Family day out at Geronimo

We were lucky enough to be invited along to Geronimo last bank holiday Monday. We'd never been to a 'festival' or even on a big day out to a kiddies theme park. We were excited but also slightly apprehensive about taking the Toddler out due to his tendency to wonder off.  However since it was a bit of an overcast and windy day we were able to put him in a really bold snow suit so he could always be spotted - plus he didn't really wonder off.

The highlights for us were:
* Watching his little face on the rides. Normally there is a tantrum as he wants another go - but if there wasn't a queue he could just go round again. These types of rides always cost a few pounds each so I thought this was good value as its all included in the entrance fee.

* My little boy loved the Crocodile Joe tent and has absolutely no fear in standing inches from a tarantula and even touching a snake!

* Being able to try out lots of different rides

* The cup and saucer with great views of Harewood in the background. We didn't realise that our ticket included entry into the lower parts of the house and we would have enjoyed shielding from the wind and rain in the house.

* We really enjoyed Sam Sam the Bubble Man's show in the main circus tent. He blew smoke out of bubbles and even made bubbles big enough to fit a small child in. I took some pictures and videos of his show but it was so dark in there that they didn't come out very well.

* He enjoyed seeing some of his CBeebies favourite on stage - like Andy and Mr Bloom. I would agree with some of the critics that it was hard to see the stage and it would have benefited from screens either side - we were okay as the Toddler is still okay on our shoulders but I can understand this isn't plausible with older children.

* There was a good variety of food trucks. I had a delicious stone baked pepperoni pizza and we all shared some churros from the Churro truck. The Belgian got some chicken and the Toddler was adamant that he wanted a corn on the cob and although he NEVER eats sweetcorn he does when its on the cob!

* We loved the helter skelter - this was about a twenty minute queue once it got busy - and daddy and the Toddler went down together. The Belgian did say that it was so windy at the top he thought that it would blow over!

* The Toddler loved joining is with the warm up games and played an actual football match with these guys - I can't remember their name! This was probably his favourite thing of the day. The coaches were very sweet and inclusive - even though he's too young to play a proper football game he had a few touches and was very chuffed.

* We chanced upon the meet and greet with the Clangers and so got a photo and had a story.

* The soft play tent was good to help the little man blow off some steam.

* He enjoyed the balance bike course.

Ways to improve the event would be:-

* A map or floor plan as there were so many exciting things that we missed as we didn't know when they were going on. I've read about a press tent in another review but this was never pointed out to us. As mentioned we chanced upon certain events - the Clangers and the bubble show - but only through being in the right place at the right time.

* I think that the queues were poorly managed on the Sunday and it was a lot busier. Luckily we had chosen to go on the Monday and it was a lot quieter and so we were able to do most of the things we wanted to. However the guy at the pizza truck said they'd been queuing two hours on the Sunday for a pizza - he said his pizza was good but not that good! Haha!

Overall we had a fab day out, even though the weather was a bit grim and we would go again. Although there were lots of things for toddlers to do - baby sensory, soft play etc - there seemed to be better activities for older children like rock climbing, craft activities, graffiti tshirts etc so I may go again when the Toddler is about six.