Close Encounter With Dinosaurs

Last week was half term and I always like to find things that help to occupy my son. I was pleasantly surprised when I received a call from Metro Radio. I had recently entered a competition to win tickets to visit the Centre For Life on the radio station. The call was to say that I had not won tickets but would I like to come and visit the Centre for Life and go on the 4D Motion Ride with their DJ Brian Moore. I could bring my son and there would be other families attending. It sounded fun so we decided to go.

I have visited the Centre for Life several times, most recently we attended The Maker Faire which was a fascinating day out. I really like the way that the exhibits change on a regular basis so there is always something new to see. At the moment they have the Age of Dinosaurs Exhibition on which is something I knew my son would love. It will be on until November 2013.

When I told my son we had been invited to attend the Centre For Life by Metro Radio he thought we would be picked up in a chauffeur driven car. I dashed his hopes when my husband dropped us off. The Centre For Life was crowded due to it being half term, but we were quickly shown to our rendezvous point. The Metro Radio people explained we would get to go on the 4D motion ride first and then we would be free to wander around the Centre For Life ourselves. We were then taken to the ride and shown straight in. I have been on the motion ride before but it has just recently been upgraded to 4D so I was interested to see what it was like.

You enter the room and sit down in a seat which is a bit like a roller coaster seat. As you go in you are handed a pair of 3D glasses. As we had gone with Metro Radio the DJ Brian Moore said hello to us all and introduced the ride a bit before it started. The bars then came down on the chairs and we were off. We were watching a film on the screen called Time Chasers and as we hurtled about though space and time in 3D our seats moved as if we were part of the action. We experienced water, smoke and wind as we moved about and could even smell the action. It was a really good ride and we really enjoyed it. The wind and rain really added to the experience and made it more real.

The ride over we were left to wander around ourselves. We headed straight to the Age of the Dinosaur exhibition.

The Age of the Dinosaur exhibition has come straight the Museum of Natural History in London. It is really fascinating, it contains a mix of life-life dinosaurs along side fossil specimens and dinosaur bones.

The exhibition is dimly lit which makes you feel like you are walking though a Jurassic forest with close encounters at every turn.

There are also hands on exhibits which my son loved, he also wanted to read all the information on each exhibit and we learned a lot about dinosaurs. It was a fascinating day out and thank you Metro Radio for inviting us.

Disclosure: I was invited to a free event but I was under no obligation to write about it, I just thought it was interesting.