AD | Gifted tickets
Erin LOVES fish. Ever since we took her to the Sealife London Aquarium a couple of months ago she has been obsessed. When we had to opportunity to go to another Sealife, I jumped at the chance. We made the most of this too and had a family day trip to Great Yarmouth.
Although we arrived at about 11am on a weekday, Sealife Great Yarmouth was pretty busy! There must have been 2 or 3 school groups visiting at the same time as us. However, we got through the entrance quickly and had a couple of photos taken before heading in to see the fish!
The minute Erin realised where we were, she was so excited! She ran around in circles, howled (yes, she howls) into the air and went straight for the biggest tank she could see! The first area is quite small but luckily, the crowd thinned quite quickly and Erin could spend ages looking at the fish.
Erin is definitely a free spirit and she really doesn’t understand that you’re supposed to do things in order yet. She kept running back and forth from one thing to other was just a bit mental to be honest. We soon worked our way through to a much larger area where there was space for Erin to run around some more.
Strangely, Erin was much more fascinated by a map of the UK showing where all of the Sealife Centres are. There were buttons to press to light up each one and Erin spent ages doing this. We had to try to coax her back over to the tanks, which she wasn’t happy about!
This area was one of my personal favourites because of the rays. I love how they bob their heads out of the water to seem like they are saying hello. There was also a lovely little hidden area where me and Erin could sit down together and talk about the fish in the tanks. Well, I spoke and she said ‘wow’ a lot.
Next up was the penguin area, which I think was Erin’s favourite. Unfortunately, this was because she loved the big plastic penguins and wanted to hug them a lot, rather than the real penguins. You can either look at the penguins from inside or go upstairs to an outdoor viewing area which was great. However, there are only steps up to this bit and a ramp would be much easier for everyone!
We had so much fun exploring Sealife Great Yarmouth as a family. Both John and I got to spend some quality time with Erin in one of her favourite places. Erin may not be old enough to understand the difference between the different areas and the different fish but she gets so amazed at everything there is to discover.
Unfortunately, our trip was not perfect. In one area, near the tanks with the Medusa head, there is a fire door. The area was packed with us, other families and school children so keeping a hold of Erin was tricky. She was stood near the door and walked towards it. She was able to push it open herself with one tiny little push. I mean, she’s 19 months old and has barely any strength to her. On the other side of the door is a set of a couple of steps. Now, they’re not steep but had we not grabbed Erin quick enough, she would have fallen down them and could have really hurt herself.
Sealife Great Yarmouth has a lovely sized gift shop at the end and there is also a cafe and soft play area. We had other plans for lunch so we didn’t eat here and the soft play area was full of older children so Erin wouldn’t have been able to have much fun in there. However, I think this is a great idea and somewhere to keep the children busy if they’re not too bothered about sitting in the cafe!
Overall, we had such a fun day at Sealife Great Yarmouth. We don’t drive but we were able to get a bus which took us about an hour. We then had a short 1o minute walk to get there and it was really easy to get to!
You can find more information about Sealife Great Yarmouth, including directions and prices HERE!