Roarr Dinosaur adventure is located near Norwich in Norfolk, just short time off the A47, if your not local you may find this a little difficult at first to find it, the attraction focuses on Dinosaur relating activity and exhibits with several play areas, also many of them themed on Dinosaurs etc. This review focuses on there Lockdown procedures as per government guidelines, a full review of the place can found on my site. For further updates about lockdown and COVID, please check out there site also.
As I’ve said before this is one of my closest attractions as its about 5 miles from my house, add that Dinosaurs is one of our favourite things, then its no surprise we have visited here. However we last visited just before lockdown in February, so I was intrigued to see how they have responded, the kids haven’t been to too many places so its a good chance for them to let off some steam.
Table of Contents
The Begining
Like many other places you have to book, and with this attraction, you have to book a timeslot, once we arrived at the carpark, we made our way to the edge of the car park in which we were greeted by a staff member, who was only letting people from a time slot block, go over the main queue. This was a little odd as we were waiting in essentially the car park, I was surprised to not see him in a mask? but we didn’t wait long and ventured over to the main queue, this was laid out using dino footprint, once to the main entrance, the attendant s would call you over check the paperwork and head through, they were also not wearing masks, which again found a little weird as we were getting quite close, and after visiting other places where the staff are all wearing them, it’s just a little odd.
We are in…
Inside the park, many of the outdoor activities are still on, including the Dippy water area, the New Karts, and host of the other outdoor play areas, with limited restrictions being applied to them, and this is an advantage of being relatively sizable space and mainly outdoors, being close to each is fairly difficult unless you try to, needless to say, there were several people ignoring social distancing but this is nothing new at the moment. However, I was surprised there weren’t more signs about wearing masks, especially in this closer areas.
There were some one-way signs, the main trail through the woods past dinosaurs is one way, though this was still a free for all and you have to time it right to not be near people, but it shouldn’t be too difficult, at the bottom of the trail is still the petting zoo area, and Predator tight ropes, the barn and animals is the only area I really saw about masks being on, this was also a little one way, it’s not a big area so again just be aware whos around you.
The toilets were a little strange, from a men’s perspective there was one toilet, there are others located back near the entrance but here are the main ones this way, and with the urinal boxed off and one of the two cubicles closed it left a limited option, this was a little weird as a cubicle, in essence, is a boxed off area, and perfect for keeping a distance from people? I get that you don’t want several Urinals close to each other but just have one free and not block off the rest would have been better? The other big part down here is those High ropes, Roo went on and wore her mask, but watching them its again a little free for all, you should be one family on a piece at one time but that’s normal anyway for safety, let alone the distancing, however on joining platforms, steps etc this didn’t faze people as they were just going wherever they wanted to, again I did some staff, and these ones at least had masks on but I wouldn’t say they were organising people and reminding them etc.
The one way does take back up the top, and your back to the main circle area, this will get busy, especially at the moment, 2 of the main areas here are their indoor play areas, but due to guidelines these are closed, this is a little bit of a blow for kids as these are normally very good, but based on what I’ve seen with people and expectations its not terrible that there closed.
The exit is now not in the shop, it’s situated to the side, and back to the car park, both the entrance and exit have Anti bac stations, but during the visit, these were not a visible or as many as I thought there would be, you shouldn’t touch many things, obviously, but still, the option should be there especially around the main circle area.
Overall
There are pasts of this that doesn’t really get an effect that much by the guidelines, and that’s great, if your sensible you can stay away from people as much as you can, you can hunt for Antibac, and bring some yourself, likewise you can wear your masks to be safe. As for the Park, I didn’t feel that pressure, which is nice but it also gave the impression of it all being a bit lackadaisical and minimum effort, you could argue it doesn’t need it? but there will be people that want that more serious and safety approach, I’ve seen other places that can be strict, and it can be frustrating, but you have to find the happy medium for yourself, the kids still had a good day, though the weather was baking, and if your sensible you will still have fun ad be safe.
