The girls and I had the privilege of sneak peak look around the New Sea life centre at Manchester. My eldest daughter was ever so excited when I told her in the car that we were off to see the fishes. She had a few requests:
1. She wanted to see a diver [she calls them Fish Man]
2. She wanted to see a Manta Ray
I was a little unsure I could meet her requests but hoped for the best.
We met with a group of around 30 bloggers from the group Blogs up North and eagerly awaited the doors of Sea life Manchester to open.
We were split into 2 groups of 15 and ventured inside. The first area we entered was turtle beach.
We all gathered around to watch the presentation, my eldest daughter did struggle to get to the front to see as there were a lot of people in the room. However what she did see she really enjoyed. It was lovely to hear the passion from the presenter about conservation and protecting the turtles.
After turtle beach we entered a circular room and we were surrounded by a shoal of fish swimming round and round. My eldest needed to be picked up in order to see the fish and my youngest in her pushchair could not see. When I had picked her up she loved watching them.
My eldest loved walking around and looking at the variety of fish. She was too small to see in some of the tanks but big enough to see in others.
As a trained diver I always love to watch these more outside than under the water but am still as fascinated with them, I always have to get a photo
The Sea life centre have tried to make the attraction interactive to children. One of my eldest favourite parts was the mini glass tunnel. She loved that she would walk underneath and look up at the fish.
She also enjoyed the big tunnel watching the sharks and Rays fly over head. I personally was expecting a longer tunnel but my eldest did not mind
My youngest loved watching the turtles swimming and my eldest loved that they kept coming right up to her.
We continued our journey round and went to the large tank to look for the large green sea turtle. He was sleeping on the bottom. My eldest loved watching the sharks swimming round and the Rays.
The soft play area looked fantastic but it was not ready in time for our sneak peak. My eldest really wanted to play and I had to show her all the balls for the ball pit still in the bags, She was disappointed she could not play but understood why.
The Sea trek sea bed walk sounds like an amazing experience as it gives you the chance to walk inside one of the tanks with no diving experience.
Our final tank was one which contained rays and a good selection of fish which kept swimming round and round. As the tank was raised the base of the tank was at eye level with my daughter and she loved watching the rays swimming past her.
The rock pool experience was the final port before our exit, both girls were a little tired by this point and did not want to touch the crabs. Many other children did and all seemed to enjoy themselves.
Sea life Manchester has tried to cater for different ages by having tanks on different levels. There are several points at which children can interact and feel part of the displays. I love that throughout the experience there is a continued theme of Protection. I was expecting the centre to be bigger having visited other Sea life in the past, as we managed to walk round the whole attraction in 40 minutes. At varying times I did feel as if some parts had become very busy and congested. This was only with 15 families and I do wonder what the attraction would be like during school holidays.
The girls and I had a really lovely day at the Sea life Manchester and it was wonderful to have a sneak peak at the attraction before it opens on June 6th.
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