The National Space Centre, Leicestershire, UK
We decided to visit The National Space Centre for the first time in a few years a few weeks ago. I was a little worried that my son Emerson might not enjoy it there anymore as he is a little older now, but I was worried about nothing. He loved it!! In fact it’s all he spoke about on the way to school the next morning.
When we arrived at the centre we noticed that a few things had changed. The entrance had moved and they have updated a few things inside. One thing I was really glad to see hadn’t changed was that once you pay for your entrance fee, you can upgrade for free for a annual pass (It does say you have to book online for the free upgrade but they were happy to do it for us even though we hadn’t booked). I love this as now we can go as many times as we like throughout the year. With it all being under one roof it is a perfect rainy day day out!
There are so many things to do there. With interactive activities everywhere, fact videos and places where you can go and watch about “how it all began“ and even a room where the floor vibrates to make you feel like you are part of a landing party to another planet. When we get into the centre Emerson asked if we could just stay an hour as he wanted to get back to his computer (yeah…he is at that age) but once he started seeing everything he could get involved in we where there for hours! Actually we stayed until closing. Me and Tom (my husband) were thrilled that we got to spend the afternoon together somewhere we all enjoyed.
When you pay your entrance free you are asked what showing you would like to go and see the show in the auditorium, I highly recommend seeing the show. This was by far one of our favourite things from our visit! It is a fun way for children (and adults) to learn a little about how atoms, planets and life where created. The show lasted just over 20 minuets and Emerson loved it! As you only get one visit to the show per “pass” it is something you do not missing it. I’m not sure if you can pay to see it again with your annual pass, I’ll look into that, but please don’t miss your chance to see it.
There is a weather broadcasting simulator where you child can be on television presenting the forecast, costumes for under 5’s to dress up in, and a rocket were you can go in and you can let your imagination go wild. My hubby and son loved being in there pretending there where floating around in space pressing all the buttons and switches. Everyone in there was doing the same.
There is a cafe that did look nice and of course a gift shop, with things to buy from a 60p badge up to what ever you want to spend. My son loved the Star Wars droids so he was so happy when he saw merchandise in there with those on.
All in all our visit was a great day out. We arrived just after lunch and left just before 5 and we didn’t get to see everything there. We will definitely be going back and exploring more on what the Space Centre has to offer throughout the year.
