GOING ON A SHARK MISSION WITH THE OCTONAUTS AT WEYMOUTH SEA LIFE

This Easter, visitors to Weymouth Sea Life will be able to take part in an exciting all new, deep sea adventure featuring the Octonauts. Young explorers can join Captain Barnacles, Peso, Dashi, Shellington, Professor Inkling, Tweak, Kwazi and Tunip and go on a thrilling quest to uncover the secrets of the ocean's most jaw dropping predators.

Elliot's favourite library book is about sharks so understandably he was quite excited about this and was very keen to visit and go on the Shark Mission himself. He was even more excited when he discovered he was the very first person to do it at Weymouth Sea Life!

There's lots to do in the dedicated Octonauts area - visitors can help the crew solve the mind bending puzzles of the mystery tanks and find out which sharks live to be 400 years old, which sharks can smell a single drop of blood in an Olympic size swimming pool and why some sharks have skin as rough as sandpaper.

You can visit Professor Inkling's colour lab, take a special dive of discovery with Dashi and follow instructions from Captain Barnacles to make a shark puppet.

If you're really lucky you might even get to meet Shellington like we did - he's much taller than he looks on tv ;)

Hidden around the park are special Octonauts clues which feature a letter - jot these down on your mission notes, once you have all the clues you will be able to read the name of a fearsome creature. Young explorers who complete the mission will get a personalised certificate signed by Captain Barnacles plus a Shark Mission pop badge. Elliot loves the pop badges and was thrilled to bits to be given a Rockpool Ranger one by a member of staff!

Spot the clue!

For older kids there is plenty on offer such as sunken cities to explore, looming shipwrecks and mystical underwater caves brimming with weird and wonderful creatures. There is also the fab Caribbean Cove playground which is one of the best outdoor play areas we have visited. (our Shark Mission visit coincided with a very wet day so unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time here much to Elliot's dismay!)

Our Sea Life highlights are the rock pools and the walkthrough tunnel and we always spend lots of time here. Elliot loves touching the starfish and never hesitates to plunge his arm in the water..even though it was freezing on this particular visit! As Erin gets older she is getting more interested in her surroundings on days out and she also enjoyed looking at the starfish in the rockpools.

Octonauts: Shark Mission runs at Weymouth Sea Life from 30th March - 15th April and is included in the usual admission price, with ticket starting from £14.50 per person. The best ticket prices can be found online by prebooking at www. visitsealife.com/weymouth

Deep Sea Adventures with the Octonauts at SEA LIFE Weymouth

This Summer, CBeebies favourites The Octonauts are coming to a Sealife Adventure Park near you, ready to take you on a brand new deep sea adventure.

The much anticipated Octo-Glow Explorers event will offer children and their families the chance to
join CBeebies’ most intrepid ocean explorers on a special mission to uncover the secret world of
glow in the dark sea creatures.

Elliot loves the Sealife Centre and is constantly nagging us to take him there - he was quite excited to hear we would be visiting and checking out the new Octonauts event!

On arrival in Weymouth the centre and carpark are well signposted and located within Lodmoor Country Park. Car parking is plentiful although you do have to pay for it.

Once inside we headed over to the Octonauts area where we were able to take part in the interactive acitivities to discover how creatures of the deep use light to hide from predators , attract their prey and communicate with each other. Other features included puzzles, morse code cracking and even a chance to appear on screen with the Octonauts via the magic of the green screen and a photobooth!

Newly recruited sea scientists will also be invited to share their findings in the Octo-Glow Lab with
Octonauts, Kwazii and Peso, during an Octo-Glow Explorer character meet and greet. Elliot met Kwazii and he said this was his favourite bit of the whole day!

After meeting Kwazii we went off to explore the rest of the park including the much talked about Carribean Cove play area which opened earlier this year. It's a fantastic outdoor play area featuring slides, tunnels and all manner of play equipment. Unfortunately weather wasn't on our side and it was a bit wet to play for too long but this just means we will have to return another day to explore it properly!

photo credit - Kara Guppy

The park is home to over 1000 creatures and they are separated into different creature zones including rainforest, rockpool and ocean tunnel. You can see fish of all shapes and colours (you might even spot Nemo and Dory!), otters, penguins, turtles, octopus, seahorses and many more.

Elliot enjoyed looking at the tiny seahorses and amazing Weedy Seadragons in the nursery but my favourite was the Rockpool area where we learnt all about creatures native to the UK. Children (and adults) can learn so much on a visit to the Sealife Centre with information and facts scattered around each exhibit. Did you know that starfish eat by turning their stomach inside out?!

The penguins are always fun to watch - one of them took a shine to Elliot.  Everytime Elliot moved his arm, the penguin followed him up and down the tank!

Sealife Weymouth has three food/drink outlets if you get peckish. We had lunch at the Adventurer's Grill cafe for lunch and everything was reasonably priced. It does get very busy in there although, especially at peak times and rainy days!

The entire park is buggy accessible which is brilliant for families but there are plenty of parking stations around the park where you can leave your buggy if you want a closer look at the creatures. There are also locker facilities located at Crocodile Creek if you need to store your belongings.

For ticket information, visit the SEA LIFE Weymouth website - usual admission tickets will cover entry to the Octonauts Octo-Glow Event which is running from 29th July - 28th August 2017. You can also find out more about the amazing marine conservation work  that SEA LIFE does.

We had a brilliant day out at SEA LIFE Weymouth and can't wait to return! 

*Disclaimer - We were given free entry in exchange for an honest review and coverage of the #Octoglow event