Another half-term treat, we went from all things robotic to discovering dinosaurs at Event City in Manchester. This was heavily promoted but I hadn’t given it much thought until reading a review of its Birmingham stint, was intrigued and decided we had to go. I am a bit of a sucker for these immersive live-action things….
We waited until the second week of Son’s half-term, booked our tickets the night before and had our choice of time slots for the whole of the next day. It takes 70 minutes in total, I admit to having my breath taken away when paying – £25 each means it is most certainly not at the cheaper end of the scale.
Arriving at our allotted time, we were given 3D glasses and met our “guide.” It reminded me a lot of a Disney or Universal themed ride – all very well done and very convincing.
We entered our “time machine” (definitely a bit cheesy) and watched as the years counted back 67 million years. Then we climbed into our “jeep” to get to our destination – the “laboratory” of a company researching dinosaurs. This was one of my highlights, an excellent simulator, it really felt like you were on a dinosaur safari as the shutters came up and we started to move.
Outside the windows were lots of dinosaurs and very convincing looking terrain. The graphics and 3D side of it were realistic and this is the best of this type of thing I’ve done in the UK. Normally we find them a bit disappointing and not a patch on the Disney experience, this was right up there.
We arrived at the labs and explored room by room with our guide. A huge Alamosaurus heart was pretty striking, Son enjoyed pressing the button to see it pump and pulse.
Good laboratory theming here and even the chance to get stuck in with more messy things…
We saw a dinosaur autopsy in the next room, again very well done and interesting as a 5 metre long creature was dissected.
We found dinosaur eggs about to hatch….
Saw some caged creatures….
Then took the “lift” to the lookout area. Again this was superb and with the 3D glasses really felt like we were in a panoramic viewing area looking out at prehistoric life on the plains outside.
We had a while there, then a dramatic ending obviously to rush everyone through and into the gift shop. It was realistic – maybe a bit too much so for a couple of young children who were hysterical by the end – but we enjoyed it. A T-Rex attacked the lookout, we had to leave by the emergency bunker and experienced lots of sirens, darkness, flashing lights and more than a bit of drama.
Of course you leave via the gift shop, Son and Husband tried out a few gimmicky things testing their strength and looking at the world from a dino perspective.
Son also tried out a dino tail for size…
A great 70 minutes, definitely not the cheapest experience but it was so well done, different to anything we’d experienced and you definitely didn’t need to be a dino nut to love it.
