Going to a big city with a toddler + Pregnant! Our little trip to Blackpool
I took a sudden craving to writing a blog post.. or two.. okay, I actually have three blog posts lined up. Basically just things that happened in the month of March up until now. I got all the pictures together and categorized the posts (how organized, ha ha).
Let me just first say, I don't have anything prepared. Apart from pictures. I have pictures. I just thought it'd be interesting to tell you about our little few days away in Blackpool; what it's like to travel with a toddler, things we did, what it's like when you're pregnant.. stuff like that. I hope someone find this informative, ha ha.
The trip to Blackpool was William's Auntie Shona's (Graeme's sister's) idea and she paid for the majority off it. William already has loads of toys and stuff so she wanted to do something different for his birthday. How nice is that? :)
William's birthday was on the 22nd March. We set of on 16th March, Sunday morning and we were back William's birthday.
I'll just split everything into days. Might be easier, ha ha.
Sunday, 16th March
This is actually the day of my mum's birthday, but because we were leaving early that morning, I gave my mum her gift early. The reason we left early on the Sunday was because we wanted to go to the Sandcastle Waterpark, which was only opened on Sunday.
We were all so excited to go there because we honestly thought that was going to be William's favourite thing! He used to love water and flumes, but then we stopped taking him for a while and I guess he just got a little scare when we took him to such a big place. It was really noisy too!
We didn't stay in there for too long and then we headed out to find some food.
William enjoying his McDonald's
For food, we chose McDonald's. It's really quick and easy, especially if you have a child with you. It might not be the healthiest option, but the way we seen it was William was on holiday, so we let him do a few extra things he wouldn't usually be allowed to do, aka the cup of coke on his tray! Oh, he loved the coke! But like I said, it's only a treat to him, when he's home he gets juice or water. You'd be surprised how much he loves water actually, ha ha.
We then went to the hotel and dropped our swimming stuff off. It was really cool how our hotel had a tram station right outside!
Then we headed back out to Coral Island with William's previously saved up bags of 2p, 5p, 10p and more! He had a lot of money for the machines.
William sitting in a car at the back.
Oh gosh.. this was scary! William really wanted to go on the little cars on the picture above but we were really scared to let him go on because he's usually got someone next to him, otherwise he tries to.. leave.. basically. This car track actually went up the way and then back down and we were all scared in case William tried to get out the car whilst on top of the track.
The lady was nice enough to say that she would stop the whole thing if he tries to climb out. We put him in a car that was really safe and almost impossible for him to open.
The ride was switched on and then the lady went away and a different lady came. 'Oh great' we thought, let's hope he doesn't climb out now.
He was absolutely fine actually. He was fine until we all tried waving to him. I think when we waved to him, he thought we were going away, and so he started crying. You couldn't hear it due to noise and music but you could see it. He clearly wanted out of the car. I think he was debating climbing out the window, and, of course, we started panicking and asked the lady to stop the ride. She said she couldn't. I was not happy. William was clearly crying and wanted out. She eventually stopped it, thank god.
Long story short.. it was scary, ha ha ha.
Then there were these really cool boats, pretty much at the ceiling and you just floated around the whole of Coral Island, it was really cool. Above, is what my view was like. I let Graeme and William sit at the front, and I sat at the back.
Play area at Burger King
Soon we were all hungry again. William's first day here wasn't as good as we thought it would be. We looked for somewhere to eat and ended up in Burger King, which I don't actually like that much but it was okay AND it had a play area inside too! That was really cool, and to be honest that must've been William's favourite part of the day, ha ha.
Our Hotel
We then got back to the hotel. We stayed at Norbreck Castle Hotel, which actually has so many bad reviews! I agree with the people saying that it's outdated but I truly believe that if the place got refurbished it would lose its' atmosphere, if you know what I mean. The staff were lovely and I think it was a great hotel for what Auntie Shona paid for it. Nothing luxurious but I would definitely recommend it.
Monday
We picked Tuesday to go to the Blackpool Zoo and I am so glad we did, because the weather was beautiful! I won't put up pics of the animals because I have that many.
William on a slide.
This was so much different compared to Belfast Zoo, and William was only about three months old when we went to Belfast. All the animals were active and walking about, and there were a lot of interactive activities and interesting information through out the park.
There was a little park outside, and obviously, William had to go on the 'weeeeee' (slide). He loved playing outside, and like I mentioned, the weather was great.
Mummy (me), Daddy and William.
We then went to the barn which was just outside the park. William didn't seem that bothered to be honest, ha ha. I was really surprised because he loves 'moo's' (cows), 'quack quacks' (ducks) and goats (yes, he can say goat, ha ha).
We only spent a few minutes in there and then we were back out again. We just walked around the Zoo and then William needed changed so we looked for the Cafe. We changed William then sat outside for a while and that's where we met our friend Peacock :)
Daddy, William and the Peacock.
Me and the Peacock.
I forgot to mention; I was actually scared of Peacocks after we went to Belfast Zoo and one chased us. Well.. we thought it chased us, but it must've just been running in our direction, ha ha. But I met the peacock above in Blackpool and it was cool. He's my friend now. Or she.
Auntie Shona, William and Daddy.
How cute's his little face in this? He's been pulling faces like mad since Blackpool. In fact, he's coming on far too quick!
William in a 'choo choo'.
After a lovely day at the Zoo, we had some food and then William fell asleep, which gave us some time to do some shopping. It was really fun. Everything's so close by and within walking distance, we just had to get trams to the hotel.
We dropped all our shopping off at the hotel (and there was A LOT) and we went to Coral Island. Again. There's not much open at night and Coral Island was perfect for William. There was a lot of kids' games and stuff, so William and Daddy felt right at home.
William and Daddy 'driving a car'.
Tuesday
Tuesday was a completely different day, it was rainy and windy, but it's okay because we had a visit to Sea Life planned that day anyway, which is inside.
Peeking out his rain cover.
We put a rain cover on the buggy. That was useless, ha ha. William stuck his head out and then kicked it that hard he almost ripped it, so we just took it off and got on the tram.
Sea Life was really good. It was quite small compared to what I was expecting but it was definitely good. Once again, William preferred the little play area to anything else, ha ha.
Posing with a shark :)
We had a few McDonald's by that point, and I think it's fair to say we were getting sick of the sight of it. Soooo, that day we decided to go to Pizza Hut. I'm not that big of a fan of pizza but I love how they do unlimited salad AND it's kid friendly :)
William colouring in.
On way back to the hotel.
A little picture from Sea Life.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, we went to Madame Tussauds. William enjoyed it more than a lot of the other things we went to, which was surprising. We took a lot of pictures there.
Mummy (me), Lady Gaga, Daddy and William.
Mummy (me), Daddy, Bob The Builder and William.
Pizza Hut.
We did a lot of other things in between. We did a lot of walking, found the best freshly made doughnuts, ate a lot of candy floss and a lot more.
I recommend packing A LOT of clothes for your baby/toddler. We ended up having to buy some clothes for William because he went through them so fast. Auntie Shona was nice enough to buy them as part of his birthday present.
We all had a great time and I can't wait until our next holiday. I'm hoping to have a weekend away around July time, before baby #2 is here, hopefully. Once baby #2 is here, we can save up for a year or so and go on our first family holiday together.
Hugs from me to you,
Love, Daria xoxo
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