Dinosaurs Unleashed Review

Harry and the Dinosaurs at the Museum

Just the thing to read to prepare for a trip to Dinosaurs Unleashed.

When we arrived in the BIC there were two large moving dinosaurs in the foyer. These dinosaurs are in a public area so can be viewed without paying. If you're not sure if your children will enjoy the exhibit and you live near by, taking them to see these dinosaurs would be a great way to test the waters.

The kids watched these dinosaurs while I went to buy tickets which was excellent. Luckily there were no queues, but they would have been happy there for a while.

The day before our visit we had been to the New Forest Show. The BIC had a stall and we got chatting to the guys on the stall. One of them said he would be at the BIC the following day giving guided tours and we should look for him. Well we bumped into him just before we entered the main exhibition hall so true to his word, he was our tour guide for the visit.

Having a tour guide was a really nice touch. The guided tour is included in the price and really adds to the experience. Our guide talked us round the exhibition in chronological order, telling us lots of interesting facts about dinosaurs. Including an explanation of how the name Velociraptor was associated with the larger, scarier Utahraptor in Jurassic Park. The real Velociraptor, which was on display, was a smaller dinosaur with feathers.

DS2 (2) answered lots of the questions "What's this dinosaur called?", "tops". While his older brother just took it all in quietly.

Our guide took the time to explain all the activities that were available and point out that there were screens at a lower height for younger children. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

The dinosaurs were life-sized, they moved and they 'raahed'. The room is darkened with lots of red and green lights for atmosphere. Some young children would definitely be scared, DS2 looked unnerved for all of two seconds as we saw the first dinosaur, then he was in awe for the first 30 minutes and then completely at ease for the rest of the visit. He is dinosaur mad though.

All the favourites were there like Diplodocus and T-Rex and a few less familiar ones including a alligator-like dinosaur in a bubbling swamp. There are some impressively huge dinosaurs and some smaller ones giving a great idea of scale - we're used to seeing them as similarly sized childrens toy dinosaurs.

Our guide told us that Iguanodon wouldn't fit into the hall so they will be taking him on a tour of Bournemouth on a trailer at some point. DS1 (3.5) was amused by the idea of the people of Bournemouth being scared by a huge moving dinosaur!

The dinosaurs were great, but actually it was the activities that held the children's attention for longer.

All around the hall were small activities for the children.

The kids loved getting to colour in a Triceratops - they did this from a touch screen which was then projected onto a 3D model. Great fun.

Then there was the excavation of dinosaur bones from sand with paintbrushed. Very much enjoyed. The kids (well and me) really liked the big wooden dinosaur puzzles. Even DS2 could do these with a little encouragement.

There were screens with various games including dragging dinosaur bones into place on a skeleton. These were good but the touch screens were a bit temperamental. Even the adults found these a little tricky.

We're usually immune to photo shoots, but we thought it was worth a go with all three kids in a photo. We did this right at the end of the visit. DS2 was very tired by this point and was more scared of the man taking the photos than he had been of the dinosaurs so he opted out. DS1 and his cousin went in. DS1 was convinced to perform by a cuddly monkey while his cousin needed no incentive and got into every pose that was requested. The photographer was excellent with children - much better than the professional photographers we've experienced at preschool and playgroup. DS1 was tired and hungry by this point and he's really not keen on having his photo taken, but the photographer really drew him in with the monkey and as long as he wasn't asked to do anything he thought was daft, he was fine.

Small photos were £6 each, large were £10 each and they were 3 for 2. The photos were taken against a green screen and dinosaurs were added aferwards. I think DS1 would have been more amenable to striking various poses if he had fully understood what was going on, rather than just being asked to get into various positions. But all became clear when we viewed the photos. For most of them we were happy to keep our money. But there was one gorgeous one of the two cousins standing under a huge dinosaur looking up. We couldn't resist so got one for each family and an extra as a present for Granny and Grandad on the 3 for 2 offer. We're still pleased with this decision after having time to cool off!

The shop was a bit disapppointing and a bit of a missed opportunity I think. There was a small collection of not particularly exciting dinosaur merchandise. Items such as books were priced higher than their RRP which didn't encourage us to buy them. This Children's Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs looked really good and came with a CD of images, but it was being sold at £15 when the RRP said £12.99 so we knew we'd be able to get it cheaper elsewhere. (At time of writing Amazon sells it for under the RRP and there are a few Amazon Marketplace sellers offering it for less even including postage. I like the idea of the accompanying CD of images, I think this is one for the Christmas list.)

The boys were rather taken by some poor quality large plastic model dinosaurs. DS2 loved the Parasorolophus (his favourite dinosaur) I'm afraid we told them they were for display only. Is that bad? Despite being cheaply made I think the boys would actually really like them, but £7 is a bit steep for a gift on a day out unless it's something really special. Maybe for Christmas.

We came away with some stickers, a bouncy ball with a dinosaur in and a plastic dinosaur that we think is a Rhamphorhynchus which DS1 proudly brandished at the till - "we haven't got once of these have we!", I'd told him he couldn't have yet another cheap plastic T-Rex as he's got plenty. DS1 got another one of his precious Dinosaurs Unleashed mini carrier bags to carry his stuff in, so he was very happy.

The Dinosaurs Unleashed website suggests a visit length of 30-90 minutes. We spent nearly three hours there! After the initial tour, the kids really enjoyed all the activities. Even DS2 had a go at most things. He loved putting his hands in to touch the objects and guess which one was the dinosaur skull, even if he didn't fully understand what was going on. And he did actually manage to operate some of the touchscreens, in fact his little hands seemed to work better than our big hands some of the time. DS1 had a brilliant time and wanted to go on everything, which he pretty much did, some activities more than once.

So if you have smaller children who are real dinosaur fans, you could spend longer there than average. The older children who were there seemed to be really enjoying things too - asking lots of questions of the tour guides and showing off their dinosaur knowledge.

But if your children aren't actually that interested in dinosaurs I could imagine older children walking round once and saying 'is that it then?'. Really depends on the child I think. But absolutely superb for smaller children as long as they won't be terrified by huge noisy dinosaurs. Our children are very cautious generally, but their love of dinosaurs far outweighs this.

I was sure what DS2 (just 2) would make of Dinosaurs Unleashed. I thought he would probably be fine, but was concerned about wasting money and having to take him straight back out.

So, the day before we went I played him a video of the attraction on YouTube (see below) and talked to him about it so he would have some idea of what to expect.

When we arrived, he had chance to get used to the dinosaurs in the lobby which weren't too scary. He was a little unnerved by the first dinosaur on the tour which was a little scary, but it was only a look of concern, no tears. I picked him up and he was reassured. As we went round the tour he was fully engaged, answered the guide's questions and asking the see the Stegosaurus which he could see was coming up. After the tour he was fully at ease and happily joined in the activities and fearlessly ran around the exhibits.

I realize it could have been different though - two unhappy toddlers were leaving when we arrived.

I didn't show the video to DS1 as I didn't want to spoil the effect for him. I was pretty sure he would be fine with the dinosaurs. He was much more scared of the (very friendly) tour guide and the man taking the photos (who was brilliant with children).

We had to travel to Bournemouth so we thought it was best to get tickets to be sure of getting in. Tickets are sold from the BIC website so I went to book and found that you couldn't book a family ticket. So I phoned up and waited in a queue while an automated message helpfully informed me that it was possible to book tickets on line.

When I got through I was told that a family ticket would incur 4 servcie charges (adding £3 to the total) and we'd have to queue up anyway so it wasn't really worth it. They weren't getting full to capacity anyway. Grr I hate wasting time like that. They could have put this info on the website.
Ah well, it was no problem to buy tickets when we got there.

A family ticket is £25 and individual (adult or child) tickets are £8. (At time of writing)
You have to pay for children from 2 years of age which is unusual. This meant we needed a family ticket, only £1 extra on top of three individual tickets so that was okay.

We also got a discount voucher for a return visit. £5 off a family ticket (or £2 off an individual ticket).

Yes, for us it was definitely worth the entrance fee. The kids really got the most out of every activity and the tour was brilliant, we all learned some new dinosaur facts.

Would we go again? If it was on again next year then yes we probably would. I'm not sure we'd visit again this year though. We'll probably go over to Dinosaur Isle on the Isle of Wight for a change. If we actually lived in Bournemouth we'd probably give it a second visit this year though, with the discount voucher.

Highly recommended for dinosaur fans.

Update - a week after our visit.

I just asked DS2 (aged 2) what he would like to do tomorrow. He said 'dinosaurs, dinosaur printses'. It took a little while for us to realise what he meant.

He was talking about the dinosaur footprints (with dinosoles logo) leading through the BIC to Dinosaurs Unleashed. The kids had stepped on every one as we headed to see the dinosaurs. He was telling us he wanted to go back to see Dinosaurs Unleashed again - not the first time he's asked since our visit. It obviously made quite an impression.

Perhaps we will be using that return discount voucher after all!