Welcome to our Southport Pleasureland review!
We’re lucky to live within an hours drive away from several different seaside towns including Blackpool, Formby, and Lytham. We’re therefore spoilt for choice when it comes to days out with kids. Last weekend we chose a different beach location – Southport for an Easter afternoon out.
Southport has plenty to offer from the shops, amusements and the beach but we chose to spend the afternoon at Southport Pleasureland.
Southport Pleasureland Parking
We arrived mid afternoon and I was worried we might not be able to park with it being Easter weekend. We decided to park on the Esplanade Park and Ride and there was plenty of space. It cost £2 to park and the bus was included in the price. The bus stops at various points including the town centre and Silcock’s Funland. The carpark is just a short distance from Pleasureland so we opted to walk rather than use the bus.
Southport Pleasureland Prices
Rather than charging an entrance fee or offering wristbands, Southport Pleasureland offers a token system where you pay per ride. Each rider needs to buy a Fun Card for £2 each which you can then top up with tokens. You recieve two free ride tokens with each card so effectively the card is free. It’s a £1 a token and rides vary from one to four tokens per go. The cards are not interchangeable so each rider needs their own card. The cards are valid for the full season so if you return another day you don’t need to purchase another card, and any remaining tokens will also still be valid.
Whether or not this way of operating proves to be cost effective depends on a few things, including how many riders you have in your party and how long you plan to spend there. We were only planned on staying for a few hours and it was only the children who were riding so it worked out well for us as we didn’t need to pay for non-riders. However if you planning on spending the full day there you would easily work your way through a lot of tokens, especially if you wanted to ride the bigger rides at £4 per rider!
Southport Pleasureland : How to buy tokens
It is worth mentioning you can buy your tokens online and receive a discount, providing you do it in advance. If you are planning on an impromptu trip, as ours was, you can’t benefit from this offer.
There are both manned booths and electronic stations where you can check your card’s balance and top up if needed. We found the manned booths to be much quicker as they had quite a few staff on so the queue moved much quicker. The electronic machines seem to be a bit temperamental as at one point two of the three machines weren’t working.
Southport Pleasureland Rides
There’s a variety of family friendly rides, from little paddle boats to the Looping Coaster and Sling Shot for the older kids. There’s classic rides such as Log Flume (which unfortunately was shut), Carousel and Dodgems which the boys loved.
There was plenty of rides for our four year old to enjoy too, who particularly liked the Dumbo ride and Yellow Submarine.
Obviously the bigger rides charge more tokens than the smaller ones.
Despite it being busy there were no huge queues to contend with. There’s nothing worse than hanging around when the weather is hot and humid so we were thankful for that!
A full list of rides can be found on the Southport Pleasureland website.
Southport Pleasureland Food and drink
There’s plenty of options if you fancy a bite to eat between rides. There’s burger bars, coffee shops and refreshment stalls selling ice-cream dotted around the park. We visited after lunch and had evening meal plans so we didn’t sample any of the hot food. We did however treat the kids to snow-cones which they loved.
There’s plenty of grassy areas and benches to sit down while you eat.
Southport Pleasureland Summary
We had a fun afternoon and the kids loved the rides. It’s only small which is great for little legs and as long as you don’t go expecting Alton Towers, a great time can be had.
You may also be interested in our other Merseyside days out.
Oh my! Those snow cones! It looks like you’ve had such a good time!
Caitylis x x
It sounds like a great family day out. I love the fact you do not have to pay an entrance fee so effectively only pay for what you want to go on.
I haven’t been to Southport in years even though I live a short drive away. It used to be the ‘go to’ place when I was younger. The fair was always fun. Nice to see there is still a Pleasureland. I must take the kids one weekend in the Summer.
Looks like the weather was kind to you as well which made the day even better! I have never been to Southport but there is something similar near my mother in law with smaller rides and the kids think it is essential to go each time we visit!