Jurassic Kingdom Leeds

Jurassic Kingdom is completing its tour of the UK with a visit to Temple Newsam, Leeds.
From October 14th – 29th you have the opportunity to see 30+ life size, animatronic dinosaurs up close at this family friendly event. 

Jurassic Kingdom Leeds

We entered the trail and followed the narrow path through the bushes, I didn’t know whether to expect a dinosaur leaping out from the bushes or not, I wasn’t entirely sure just how animated they were.
Nothing leaped, thank goodness, and the space opened up.

We were greeted with a roar from a fierce looking Styracosaurus, and so it began.
Seth looked a little unsure at first, the sheer size of the dinosaur and the sound coming from him must have been pretty overwhelming to a little guy like him.

He got over it pretty quick and we went to explore.
The trail doesn’t follow a specific route but does have a bit of a flow, however, being with Seth, we visited the dinos in a very haphazard manner!

The animatronics are motion activated, this proved particularly eerie when the boys had left me to take some photos, as I quietly made my way around a Spinosaurus, taking his photo he just looked at me, opened his mouth and let out an almighty roar.

The way it looked at me for a second made him feel real. Safe to say I pooped myself was shocked.

Jurassic Kingdom Leeds – What We Thought

It’s hard to capture in pictures just how impressive the dinosaurs are. We’ve all read about dinosaurs and seen the pictures but only when you are stood next to one do you really get it.
It’s not very often I feel small.

The sounds were fantastic, sounds you’ve rarely heard and could never mimic.
The Trail was quiet when we visited as it wasn’t yet open to the public but I can imagine when there are hundreds of visitors there and all the dinosaurs are roaring at once, it is a pretty intense experience.

Once Seth realised he was going to be roared at a lot, he absolutely loved running around finding more dinosaurs and roaring back at them.

He really wasn’t as impressed with the T-Rex as I was though.
Standing 18 meters high and dwarfing the lorries and  street food vendors vans nearby, he really is an imposing character. Seeing him life size also really makes you question how Mr Rex ever ate never mind hunted with such tiny arms!
I totally get why he was ferocious, he was hangry!

 

Although not ready when we visited, there is an excavation area where your young, budding palaeontologists can dig for bones. They will also be able to visit the educational marquee to find out how the dinosaurs lived all those years ago.

Tickets are available here and prices start at £9.50 for children, £11.50 for adults and £38 for a family ticket.
When booking tickets you choose a time slot to enter the experience but once inside you can stay all day.
It’s certainly worth booking online as the tickets are cheaper.

There are street food vendors and refreshments available within the event and a merchandise marquee so you can pick up a memento of your day.
You could take a picnic but I didn’t notice many places to sit and eat.

The route is part path and part grass. It can get a little uneven but is accessible for wheelchairs and buggies.
If it’s been wet, it will be muddy so pop your sensible shoes on.
It is also entirely outside so take a brolly if it’s raining!

The website suggests heading toward the house car park when driving to the event but I would head to the lake car park instead as it’s closer to the event and free to park.

We really enjoyed our visit to Jurassic Kingdom, Seth would be a little too young to appreciate the educational side of it but older children will learn a lot from it.
Even those who aren’t really interested in dinosaurs will enjoy and appreciate the skill and effort that has gone into making these dinosaurs.
It’d make a great half term day out.

The Jurassic Kingdom event is open daily from 10am to 6pm, with the last entry is at 5pm.

You can find Jurassic Kingdom on Facebook here and follow them on Twitter here.