(AD) Nickelodeon Adventure at Intu Lakeside is a new indoor play venue for kids. We went along to the opening day to try it out, with our children aged 3, 8 and 10 to find out what’s inside.
Nickelodeon Adventure is made up of six zones, with different activities to explore and character to meet. All of these are spacious so you don’t feel crowded together, and there is plenty of room for the kids to run around.
As you first enter, you come to the Paw Patrol Adventure Bay zone. This area includes replicas of the Paw Patrol vehicles that kids can climb into and play pretend, and it also includes the control tower with slide. You will see Paw Patrol characters doing meet and greets here too, sometimes as individual characters and sometimes as a group. Depending how busy it is when you visit, there may be queues for this. However, when we visited the queues were not bad and it was well managed.
This area was very popular with the younger kids, including my 3 year old. She spent ages playing and kept returning back to this zone throughout the day.
As you venture a little further into Nickelodeon Adventure, you will come to Nick Central. This area includes climbing tubes, which are themed with Shimmer and Shine (another of my 3 year old’s favourites!), a Blaze and the Monster Machines racing activity, and Dora’s Night Sky interactive constellation activity.
In this area, you can also do meet and greets and character interaction with Shimmer and Shine, which she was really excited about although a little shy at the time! They took the time to chat with my little girl and help her come out of her shell with them a bit, and I saw them dancing together with some of the slightly older children. If your kids want character interaction and photo opportunities, then this is definitely a good place to come as you can meet multiple characters in one place, in a calmer environment than theme parks, and at a more affordable price.
Here are some of the other activities from Nick Central, the Blaze racing and the Dora Night Sky which my older kids had a go with
Moving on, you will reach Sponge Bob’s Bikini Bottom area, where we also took part in character meet and greets with Sponge Bob and Patrick.
The highlight of this area is the Boating School, which is a driving ride themed as a boat. This ride is suitable for 90cm and above if they ride with an adult, or 120cm and above to ride alone. Luckily, my 3 year old has just managed to finally hit 90cm and she was able to ride it with her dad which she loved. My boys had a turn on it too, and enjoyed riding the boats around.
I would recommend you check heights before getting in the queue, if you’re not sure. We waited about 15-20 minutes for the ride, and then you get to take a picture for your child’s driving license before you board the boat.
The Sponge Bob Bikini Boat area also includes lots of scenes to look at, and fairground type games to have a go at.
Nearby to this zone, is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Zone which includes another ride – Donatello’s Flyers. This ride has the same height restrictions as the Boat School (90cm to ride with an adult, or 120cm to ride alone). It’s worth noting that if your child is under 90cm so not able to take part in either of these rides, they actually get in free to Nickelodeon Adventure anyway (and still have plenty of other things to play with)
My two boys rode the Donatello’s Flyers ride, which is pedal powered and takes you round and round up into the air.
The TMNT Zone is also home to the TMNT Action Zone, with soft play to explore including a climbing tower and secret underground tunnels like the turtles would explore in their TV show. My boys enjoyed this area a lot, and found plenty to keep them busy. They really liked the way the tunnels were hidden, from when you first look at the soft play you just see some stairs going up, then go through a door and find the rest of that soft play area. It is not huge, but the design really appealed to them and one of my boys asked me to come in and try it out for myself as he thought it was really cool! It is all cleverly designed and very in keeping with the TMNT characters.
Within this zone, you can find yet more character interaction with a chance to meet the Ninja Turtles. My boys had a dance off with the turtles, which was pretty cool.
The 4D Cinema area is also themed around the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with a short movie featuring effects like water and vibrations through your seat. For this attraction there is a height restriction (possibly 1m?) so double check if you have a TMNT fan who is quite small. The movie was around 7-10 minutes, so not too long and the times are written clearly outside the attraction so you won’t need to queue, just come a couple of minutes before the start time and go straight in.
For the younger visitors, they can play in the Rugrats Zone which is a soft play with building blocks. If you have a baby or younger toddler who is not ready for the TMNT Action zone, then this area will be much more suitable for them as it’s very calm.
In addition to these six main areas, there is also a cafe with drinks and items like sandwiches. The toilets are situated right by here, and there are also party rooms nearby if you decided to book Nickelodeon Adventure to host your child’s birthday (Which would be a really nice party if some of their favourite characters happen to be featured here!)
Downstairs before you enter the main attraction, there is also a Nickelodeon shop where you can buy toys, clothes and all kinds of things featuring your favourite Nickelodeon and Nick Jr characters
We spent a full morning at Nickelodeon Adventure (around 3-3.5 hours)and found plenty to keep the kids busy. It’s a great place to go if you’re looking for something new and different to do indoors on a cold or rainy day, especially if you and your kids enjoy character interaction. I would definitely recommend for younger children, but older siblings accompanying them will be able to find activities to enjoy too.
The price for 2 adults and 2 kids booked online in advance is 32.20 which I find pretty reasonable as you can easily spend that just for soft play, and this felt like something much more different with more to offer. You can find the full price list here.
Visit the Nickelodeon Adventure Website to find out more.
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.