Sandcastle Water Park, Blackpool

Sandcastle Water Park bills itself as the UK’s largest water park. It is on Blackpool’s promenade right next to South Pier and those familiar with the climate in the North of England will be glad to know that the attraction is indoors. The kids were desperate to visit this park after we read about it online before visiting Blackpool so we headed there on a wet day. I was shocked at the admission charges, an adult pays £14.20 for admission to the pool and to ride all of the chutes with a child ticket costing £11.85. You are free to stay in the waterpark all day once you have paid but I would also have liked to have the option of paying less for a two hour visit.

The waterpark has a tropical theme with fake palm trees and brightly coloured birds dotted around the place. The first impressions I had was that despite being the biggest park of its kind in the UK that it was not particularly huge. There are two main pools, one is shallow with loads of kids activities and the typhoon lagoon for stronger swimmers is deeper and has waves which are switched on every half an hour. Despite the relatively small size the park has 18 slides dotted around the sides of the pools, play areas for younger children, a waterfall, a rolling river and a wave pool offering fun for all the family.

The most impressive of the slides is the Master Blaster, the worlds longest indoor rollercoaster which also holds the title of being the worlds first uphill rollercoaster. Riders are seated in small inflatables while the water injection technology propels riders along the 250m long slide which snakes outside the building. The slide is not particularly fast so is suitable for children from the age of 8 and is the most popular slide in the park and so the queues can be long and despite paying extra for a wrist band to use the rollercoaster then you may be limited to only one ride. There were queues of half an hour to use the rollercoaster the day we visited but the kids thought it was well worth the wait.

The fastest of the chutes are the duelling dragons, a thrill ride where strong swimmers can race side by side to see who reaches the bottom first. On the sidewinder the riders are dropped down a steep slope on a rubber dinghy. The Thunderfalls and Treetops water chutes are suitable for families and kids from the age of 5. The Ushi Gushi Water Creek was a favourite with all of the family. You simply relax and let the flowing water carry you around a backdrop which looks like it is a tropical paradise.

There are three areas which provide extra fun for the under 10 crowd; the Caribbean Storm Treehouse is an area with water jets and canons and a coconut up in the air which you can use to tip water over yourself. HMS Thundersplash is a wooden boat area by the poolside which has more water canons for the kids to shoot at one another. The third area is especially for the youngest children and is called the Shimmering Shallows and has special small and gentle slides and more water jets where pint sized non swimmers can safely have fun in shallow water.

You have a choice of changing rooms with separate areas for males, females and families. They were spacious with ample cubicles so you could get changed in private and were impressively clean with dry floors and ample showers and toilets, make sure that you remember to take a 50p piece for the lockers!

If you are not swimming you have to pay an extortionate £5 to sit by the side of the pool in the sweltering heat of the Palm Tree Snack Shack. Swimmers are encouraged to eat here during their visit by going into the changing room and getting some money so you will be surrounded by people in swimwear if you sit here. The food itself is unimaginative comprising of poor quality burgers, hot dogs and chips and the prices are really high for what you get.

Away from the poolside Sandcastle have designed more ways to part you from your cash with a souvenir shop, the amusement arcades which you can never escape in Blackpool and an overpriced coffee shop in the entrance although thankfully the paninis and coffee are better quality than those offered by the poolside.
The kids aged 12 loved Sandcastle Waterpark and would happily go back again. The adults were not quite so impressed, yes the pools were nice but it was not as spectacular as it seemed from the brochure and no doubt our opinion was coloured by the fact we had paid almost £50 for four of us to go for a dip. The kids were happy to run around the complex all day and loved the variety of the rides and attractions but the adults got a bit bored after a couple of hours. This is a place that kids from the very young to teenagers will enjoy and the adults will pay the inflated prices to keep their nippers happy.