The Gruffalo Experience at Bluewater

By 2MumsViews in Family life on September 9, 2015October 2, 2015

Based on the original book “The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

My three children (and I) love Julia Donaldson’s books. Our favourite is most certainly the Gruffalo, followed by a squash and a squeeze.

I wanted to take my son somewhere memorable and fun just before he starts reception.

The Gruffalo Experience takes place within a bespoke event structure outside Bluewater Shopping Centre in Greenhithe Kent.

To access the event, you will leave the centre from the West Village entrance (next to Zizzi) Turn right, walking along the river past the small play area towards Kids Inc Nursery. The Experience is located on your right hand side, before the Nursery.

If you accidentally park somewhere else (don’t panic!) banners with clear directions are all over Bluewater; your little mouse/mice could even follow the Gruffalo’s footprints.

Gruffalo footprints — Follow the footprints.

Our magical journey commenced at 9:30am.

We were greeted by friendly staff with our very own mouse ears to wear, and kept ourselves busy colouring and playing giant Gruffalo 4 in a row.

The ‘Gruffalo Guide’ led us in the footsteps of the little Brown Mouse.

Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take any photographs beyond the doors.

INSIDE:

The interactive adventure was split into 5 zones, using puppets, lighting, sounds, and smells to bring the creatures from The Little Brown Mouse’s journey through the the deep dark woods off the pages into live magic right before our eyes.

During the 45-50 minute experience we found out where the woodland creatures lived and what they liked to eat! Eddie’s favourite was the Fox because it had supersonic ears.
All was quiet in the deep dark wood, the Mouse saw a nut and the nut looked good.

Chocolate covered nut. — Chocolate covered nut

Further into the wood, the Gruffalo himself made an exciting appearance!

His eyes are orange, his tongue is black; he has purple prickles all over his back.

At the very end we got to Meet & Greet the Gruffalo himself and had a professional photograph taken as a memento of our visit to the deep dark wood. [Purchased separately]. Prices start from £5.95 for an A5 coloured photograph in a cardboard mount.

The highlight of our day was definitely meeting The Gruffalo!

Dates & Times:

The Gruffalo Experience closes on Sunday 13th of September. HURRY! You have 3 days left.

Opening times:
Monday – Saturday: 9.30am – 7pm

Sunday: 9.30am – 6pm
Child / Adult ticket – £11.25 per person

Children aged under 2 visit FREE.

Ticket can be purchased online here Gruffalo Experience tickets or at their ticket office near the village. There’s also a ticket stand in the food hall next to Bills and Nando’s.

See more at Bluewater Gruffalo Experience

After our Gruffalo Experience, we walked to Boost next to the Lego shop to get roasted fox, scrambled snake and owl ice cream (smoothie made with apples, pineapple, mango, melon and kale). It was D E L I C I O U S! (And a healthier alternative)

I hope you enjoyed this post.