On Saturday the 20th of May, Dorset Adventure Park will be officially open for the summer season! It is all set to be a spectacularly sunny start to the season, with the Met Office weather forecast predicting highs of 19 degrees on Saturday that will continue on to a seriously sunny week. What better place to make the most of a sunny summer than at Dorset Adventure Park.
Situated at the base of the iconic and historic Core Castle, surrounded by 18 acres of lush, green woodland, featuring an incredible 2K long mud trail assault course with over 50 obstacles and two big beautiful, blue lakes full of 200m of inflatable obstacles for the ultimate aqua adventure; it is easy to see why this outside waterpark was voted the best in Europe. Last summer, Time Out London found Dorset Adventure Park to be the best waterpark in Europe from a survey that examined 852 waterparks across 29 countries and declared Dorset Adventure Park to be, “the ultimate escape”. It is not just the globally renowned and influential Time Out magazine that rates this water world so highly. At the beginning of 2023, Dorset Adventure Park won the ‘Tourism Attraction’ award at the Purbeck Business Awards. So, what makes this adventure course and total wipeout experience so celebrated and so consistently great?
One of the most reliable ways to know if somewhere is worth the hype is if they get repeat custom. At Dorset Adventure Park, the customers are not simply made up of tourists visiting the region and searching for fun family things to do in Dorset; but a huge majority of those visiting Dorset Adventure Park are repeat customers. The TripAdvisor page for the inflatable floating water park features many comments like these: “second time, just as amazing”; “had a fantastic day visit, my third visit” and “fantastic place 4th visit now”. It is not just the visitors who return to Dorset Adventure Park. Many staff members return to Dorset Adventure Park each year. This helps make the visitor experience so good as the staff care about where they are working and have so much knowledge and experience to apply. With newer staff joining the seasoned staff, really strong teams are built from the lifeguards monitoring everyone’s safety on the water, the instructors on the lakes, the staff on reception keeping it all running smoothly and the catering team making sure everyone has what they need. This summer, the most seasoned Lifeguard looking after you all on the water will be Will ‘Wizzy P’ Preston, who will be returning for his fifth year.
Also returning for their fifth year, will be Tilly Ferguson. Tilly started at Dorset Adventure Park back in 2017 and loves working as part of the Snack Shack team. The Snack Shack has been newly refurbished and filled with shiny new kit for this summer season. It may look simple from the outside but the Snack shack runs like a well oiled machine and is always awarded a 5 star hygiene rating by Dorset Council! It is not just the staff that make the shack so popular, it is the produce too. This summer you will have a choice of soft Cornish ice-creams, delicious patties, burgers and sizzling bacon wrapped up in baps produced by the local Corfe Castle Village Bakery. This family bakery produces fresh bread daily and is another local business with consistently high TripAdvisor reviews and ratings. The parks’ Director, Rob, is a key ingredient to the consistent quality of the running of not just the adventure park but the Snack Shack too. The Snack Shack name reflects the simple and relaxed dining atmosphere but the running and quality of the catering department is founded in Rob’s years of experience. In fact, Rob has over 20 years of experience running the successful and popular Haven Ferry Cafe, which he took over back in 2000. The Haven Ferry Cafe also consistently rates extremely highly on TripAdvisor; even receiving yet another 5-star review just this month stating, “Amazing! Wow! What a lovely cafe! A big menu with plenty of options. The food was fantastic and nothing was too much trouble. Perfect!”
Another reason that Dorset Adventure Park is so popular is because of the absolutely brilliant birthday party packages it provides. With three different birthday party packages to choose from, each birthday party includes a personalised birthday cake from Berry’s Bakery and party food. It is recommended that you book your child’s birthday party as soon as possible as kids love it so much that they can book far in advance. In fact, there will be seven children’s parties held over the opening weekend. Again, an element that Dorset Adventure Park has so much experience in that they know how to create an unforgettable party for each child’s birthday. Last summer a repeat visitor to the aqua park wrote that, “this time we booked for a birthday party & were amazed by the value for money & the food was 5*. Party of 12 had the best day ever”. Join the great adventure and book your kids’ birthday party package here.
This year, the colour trail is back by popular demand on the 12th of August at Dorset Adventure Park. An explosive riot of colour, spend up to 2 hours on the epic Mud Trail and get covered in colour as well as in mud! The sessions start at 10am, with the final colour trail running at 3pm. Prices vary from £12 for children up to £15 for adults. Again, this crazy, colourful festival is a hugely popular event so it is recommended to book your tickets now from the link here.
It is all set to be another amazingly colourful, unforgettable and spectacular summer season at Dorset Adventure Park.
