A Day Out at Dino Kingdom Nottinghamshire

[Ad- gifted experience] From the creators of Lightopia, an event that Dann and I look forward to every single year, Dino Kingdom is an interactive dinosaur experience with a dinosaur walk, that we were all very interested in going too. Lightopia is more aimed at adults, with a lot to see and not quite a lot to do, however, Dino Kingdom is a smaller scale event, with a of interactive rooms and points for children to enjoy. We decided to go up to Nottinghamshire for the Dino Kingdom event, which was in a massive park. The car park for Dino Kingdom is a bit far away, so you will find yourself walking down a trail full of jokes and dinosaur facts, which was a nice way to lead us where we were going.

Dino Kingdom has an app that you should download before going. This app is something you will be using a lot during your time. We put Kai in charge of scanning all of the QR codes within the venue – as he really enjoys learning more about dinosaurs and the other creatures in the area. Dino Kingdom, when you first walk in, is a dinosaur walk with huge dinosaurs that are moving and making noises. It’s really neat to see these creatures, moving and in life. Due to it being close to Halloween, there were also a number of Halloween decorations spread out throughout, so it was an interesting mix. We then walked through the dinosaur trail, taking pictures at each figure and scanning our app to ensure we were reading about each of the creatures we saw. Along with dinosaurs, there were other creatures like bees and scorpions that had evolved hundreds of years ago, able to see up close as giant statues. This trail then leads to a massive Halloween area, that actually had decorations from Lightopia – giant flowers and plants to help bring together the mood of it all – which was neat to see. Many of the Halloween decorations added a bit of spookiness to the venue, but these weren’t really that needed in my opinion, as the dinosaurs were enough on the trail.

Once we got to the end of the trail, which took around 45 minutes with us scanning everything, taking pictures, and reading everything we possibly could, we were spit out at a big ending, with a few more different giant statues – including a giant dinosaur skeleton that we got to walk into – along with a few interactive rooms and a fair grounds. These interactive rooms were quite interesting. One had a game where you could raise your hands to get food to drop down, which you can then use to feed dinosaurs running around in the background. Another interactive element in Dino Kingdom was a room where you can color a dinosaur, and then it appears in a screen, and you can take care of it and battle against others. Robin and Amelia really liked this room best, protecting their own dinosaur as it took on fights against others on the screen. A third room had a giant figure that had the inside of a dinosaur – the nerves, then the muscles, then the bones and skin and feathers, projected on a giant dinosaur model. This room was one that really stuck with Dann, who felt the 3D statue that was being projected on added a lot to the experience. Each of these rooms had a jungle feel to it, completely decorated as if you were walking into a cave of some sort.

After we had explored all of the rooms, we started in on the fair ground rides. These rides, it’s worth mentioning, are not included in the ticket price – and neither are the food stalls that are at the end. The rides are priced the same as fair ground rides normally are – we actually had stopped at Cattow’s Farm on the way to Dino Kingdom and their fair ground (which costs even though there is an entry fee) was actually more expensive then this one, so I felt it was pretty reasonable. All of the kids really wanted to go on the rides – bumper cars, the bouncy castle, and the scrambler were very popular, with the kids taking the time to go on each one. On the fair ground there is also dinosaurs, as well as dragon statues, and a few interactive dinosaur related places that are included in the ticket price – a sand pit where you can brush away sand to reveal dinosaur bones and some statues that you can sit on and ride, which Robin really enjoyed.

Along with the fair ground rides, there were a few of the classic fair ground games, though we weren’t really interested in that, a sand art tent where you can make and keep sand art for a small fee, and a lovely face painting room where the kids all got dinosaur themed face paint for a small fee. We also grabbed some food for us adults, through the food stalls, which reminded us of the ones at Winter Wonderland – the German food you’d find there. My loaded fries were very good! I found Dino Kingdom to be a good experience – we liked seeing the dinosaurs, learning about them through the app, and the fair at the end was fun. The entry price is on par with the prices of London-based events, so it is something we were use to spending and got what we expected for the price, however this event isn’t in London, so it might be a bit expensive for the area. We all did spend three hours there – the max amount of time that you can park at the car park – and our only real issues was that there didn’t seem to be enough seating around the park (only a few picnic tables in one area) and that the app was a bit challenging at first to use, as the staff wasn’t sure where the eggs were that you needed to scan – and we were determined to use this app to it’s fullest! Seeing some of the aspects of Lightopia made me really excited to go there this December too.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!