Thought we'd try the Canalside Cafe. After seeing staff loading a chocolate cake onto a plate using bare fingers and no utensils, with every slice "fingerprinted" in the process, we left without buying anything and won't be back. After Covid, we expect staff to care about hygiene, and management to set the bar higher not at rock bottom. If the staff member didn't know, that's down to lack of training. A disgusting example of how not to do it. Goodbye Conkers.

We went to the Winter Wonderland experience with our three children and when we arrived to see Santa he was sitting through a tiny door with a rope across it so that the children couldn't have their photo taken with him. He also only spoke for a minute and wasn't very jolly. Most of the elves looked as if they couldn't be bothered to interact too. Our children were left very deflated and disappointed. Compared to other Santa experiences this was awful. We certainly will not be coming back to Conkers.

Winter wonderland - our third time visiting and it was the last! The Santa was awful, he looked 12. Didn’t interact with my son at all, was in and out in 30 seconds. Elves were miserable. Paths weren’t gritted and my child fell. So disappointed there was no festive magic at all. Price increases every year we’ve been but isn’t worth it at all

Having not been for 15 years, we were looking forward to our trip to Conkers with the next generation of our family. Unfortunately, Conkers hasn’t been so busy with updates. Whilst the idea and general execution is still fantastic, the place is very tired. Almost every indoor exhibit is broken in some way - a snapped of ants leg, a missing plaque, an absent handle, bulbs not working, screens blank. It’s like no one has done any maintenance since day 1. And many of these diy deteriorations mean that the exhibits don’t work at all or make sense, users are left baffled and disappointed. The cafe was great, facilities clean and staff were friendly. The park is a fantastic place to run about and the soft play is well designed and disability friendly. The concept is admirable and this would be a wonderful place for schools and families alike. But it needs closing for at least a long weekend and an estates team in to give it some tlc. It wouldn’t take much but it would mean a lot. Otherwise I can see the wildlife and environment park going to seed itself…

First time we visited Conkers. Here's an honest opinion. First off, I didn't pay, a friend bought us a annual voucher - had I have paid I might have asked for my money back. The lady who served us at the reception desk was inept. She was halfway through talking to us when another visitor interrupted and asked her a question. Had it been where's the toilets or something quick, fair enough. Instead she proceeded to go into detail with this guy whilst we all stood there waiting for her to finish. she then started cooing over their new born baby. So her service was appalling. When we did finally get served, we go out into the play area and the first thing my children spotted was this amazing looking ropes and ladders building at the end of the park. Looked brilliant, I was all hyped up ready and when we reach the end. It's closed. I go back to the receptionist who simply said "Oh it's not open unless it's term time". Ok fair enough but perhaps she could have told us that. We also found as we were walking around that 2 or 3 other areas were closed as they were being repaired. You had to walk to that area to find that out. Again the receptionist could have let us know. However, despite the receptionist caring more about her nails then information, my children actually loved it. They had a great time and were not too upset by some areas not working. We have an annual pass and will of course visit several more times this year. If they have repaired the issues then I'll be pleased, but judging by other comments on here, I suspect that it's not their top priority. £90 for the year for 2 adults and two children is a bargain but only if they sort out the issues. Several areas the looked good were only available during term time is another negative, but as I said my kids did have a great time. To summarise and going off of the other comments. 1) sack the Santa and get someone akin to Attenborough. 2) Spend some cash and sort out the issues. 3) Sack the receptionist, she put my back up before we'd even walked into the place. 4) Put on the necessary staff so that half the facilities are operational to prevent disappointment.

A tired and dated place to visit. Reception staff were lovely, can not fault them. Once inside, main exhibition lots of interactive items not functional. Typical late 90s exhibition with lots of buttons, but very little working. Was more of a wander round and see what works. 4D cinema great (tickets included) but front two rows out of order. Note to centre, give the glasses a good clean! Once outside the maze was closed, swan ride closed and train out of service. We had a wander in the wood, and made a shelter. Decided not to fork out more money for high ropes etc. Had a quick wander on sensory trail and decided after an hour enough. This place has amazing potential, but you need to take customer feedback and refresh. Take stock of the tired site, close down the indoor section that has had it day. It’s the start of the busy season and you don’t sadly seem to have come out of winter well. General could do better.

Nice place. Needs a lot of work and love going into the place. The blond Girl working at the waterside centre was extremely helpful and happy to help us a real credit to your team. After reading some reviews it’s clear to see that the higher ups don’t care about the indoor facilities if they have been broken for over 3 years. We are looking at coming back in the summer as I said the girl at reception told us a lot about the park and what’s on offer during the holidays.

We visited today with 2 young children. This place has lots of things to do and successfully kept the kids entertained throughout the day. We lost a lot of time really though because the map and the signage around the park is quite disorienting. We also got turned away from going on the swan pedlows at reception because it was to busy even though all the swans were outside in a line with nobody on. We decided to walk over to the other side of the park to watch the show and go round tree top walk thing.. we went across the wobbly bridge, we nearly lost a child in the pond because one of the planks on the wobbly bridge had snapped off and she wasn’t looking as she stepped, we caught her quickly though but quite easily could of broken a leg at the angle she went down. I was quite surprised at the lack of staff around the park, considering the amount of children there was (obviously aimed at children) one could quite easily go missing and there is no staff for the children to go to.. there’s places around the woodlands where children can go or places where the ponds are where there’s no safety measure in place for them. I get that parents/guardians should be keeping an eye on them but these things do happen it’s quite easily done to lose sight of your child for a split second especially when’s there’s so many running around. This place has the potential for some serious money to be made here.. there really is something for everyone here. But I don’t think conkers has quite tapped the nail on the head so to speak with getting it quite right. There’s lovely woodland walks for adults or adventurous families or simply couples/friends looking for somewhere different to explore. The cleanliness of the place especially the cafe where they serve pizzas is to be desired for really. The floors we’re disgusting and especially the bottom of the disabled lift as your walking past. The staff just stand there chatting really, when they could be doing bits around the cafe to improve it really. It wasn’t particularly busy we were the only ones there at the point we went. Overall it feels like the whole of conkers needs some love, care and attention as currently it isn’t getting any. It would benefit from a maintenance team, a gardening team to tidy round outside as well as more staff visible to children and adults to help with directions. When we asked the lady on reception how to get over to see the show across the other side of the park she said she didn’t know, we asked another receptionist who was great and gave us the directions and we followed them and got there in no time at all. Indoor and outdoor items need cleaning and perhaps attention and a paint in places. We did particularly enjoy the adventure trail which we all thought was the best bit.

Went as a family of four. Two children. One in a buggy, one on foot. Indoor experience is really old, tatty and non of the interactive buttons worked! A real shame. Outdoor was so so muddy it was unbelievable - which I guess can't be helped but I do think better paths would help - chippings etc. Anyway, mus was a nightmare with a buggy. And in fact, the whole place was a bit of a buggy nightmare to be honest and my partner basically had to miss out on everything and go where the buggy would allow. I didn't think there was that much to do. Real lack of picnic tables. Wouldn't return. Only saving grace was tickets are fairly cheap.

Unfortunately went for a family day out with all looking forward to the high ropes but after paying the rather family friendly prices for the course we were rather surprised to hear one of the instructors exclaiming to his team that he is still dizzy from last night but should be fine. After hearing the lads worrying remarks we decided that it would be safe not to participate in the activities as they seemed rather understaffed even with this lad functioning at a normal capacity. we tried our best not to let this ruin our day and decided it would be more fun to do the bare foot walk which they have renovated since I last visited and although it was a bit cold and windy we all had a laugh and loved the experience.