With the weather turning wetter and colder, soft play season is also upon us. It is that time of the year where parents say goodbye to easy afternoons down the local park and instead we have to think (and find) entertainment indoor options to get the kids out of the house.
So, on a morning this week, I decided to check out the new inflatable park at Eastgate Retail Park, which opened last month where the Asda store used to be. Local to BS5, it is good to be familiar with what the area has to offer for children.
Paying £8 for the two-hour toddler session, we arrived at Jumpin Fun just before 10am, when our session was due to start. After a quick check in at the reception desk to get our wristbands, we had to watch a safety video on a small side room but this kept crashing and not loading properly, which was a slightly frustrating start.
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There are plenty of lockers (make sure you take £1!) and there is no need to buy special socks, unlike in some other inflatable or trampoline parks in the city. This is a big plus if you ask me, as I (like I am sure many parents) resent paying an extortionate amount of money for a pair of socks that will get used a couple of times.
The inflatable park itself is a good size and there are plenty of different areas to explore and keep you busy. A highlight for our toddlers was certainly the huge ball pit, where we spent quite a lot of time.
There are also slides of variable lengths, together with several climbing walls and different challenges. When we visited, the park was not very busy at all and we had plenty of room to run around.
The inflatable park felt like the perfect fun for all ages, from toddlers to even adults. I loved having a go (and miserably failing) at a couple of the challenges; I most likely lost all dignity along the way, but I am a firm believer that is a good thing sometimes.
Jumpin Fun also has a large cafe upstairs, which offered the sort of food you expect in this kind of place. However, on the morning we visited, their coffee machine was broken which was a shame. We still managed to have a sit down in peace while the toddlers explored a couple of arcade rides.
While there were couple of issues that demonstrated they are still finding their feet, Jumpin Fun is a great new addition to East Bristol. We had lots of fun and, despite me not usually being a retail park kind of person, I have no doubt we will be back.