The Deep, Hull

Upon arrival it looked pretty impressive, the center is shaped as a boat and looks enormous. It’s a little difficult to find as any Sat Nav soon becomes useless and you have to keep an eye out for the brown signs and small roads leading to it. You can get a very small discount if you are to book online, however we paid on the day and it cost us £10.75 each, which seemed reasonable at the time, as we didn’t know what to expect.

When making your way through the building you can either take the ‘scenic route’ of the stairs, or the lift. We obviously chose the lift and it took us out into a corridor before entering a dark room with lights on the ceiling as stars. Next up we were presented with long walkways of interactive games to entertain children as they walked by and information to read and listen to. Everything interactive was definitely aimed at a very young audience and I feel slightly older children, 10+ would have been bored by it. After walking down some hallways we arrived at the first aquarium where a talk on the fish was happening and you could see them being fed. There was also a discovering zone but nothing seemed to be happening there.

After leaving there were more walkways of little amusements and nothing much to look at. Then we entered a big hall where the same aquarium could be seen but from a different angles. There was also an opportunity to climb a ladder into a bubble inside the aquarium, however due to how it was set up, little could be seen. There were more games for children and another aquarium with much larger fish could be seen, again it had opportunities to look at it from different angles. We then entered a dark area where a loud voice could be heard halfway through of whatever he was talking about, which was unhelpful and confusing. This led to a room of interactive games and small creatures to look at. After this there was a very white walkway with walls of ice and a video playing on the wall. Again it was half way through with no way of knowing when it will restart.

Another walkway appeared with yet more games on the walls and then that was it. It lead to a little play area at the bottom for very small children, a couple interactive games and a few creatures to look at. However, the best part, well the only good part, was the underwater elevator that came right at the end. We were fortunate enough to get in alone and got the chance to film inside, it took roughly a minute to reach the top but it was still exciting and fast enough that if you were waiting, it wouldn’t take too long. It took us around half an hour to get through everything, it was very orientated towards very young children and didn’t have half as many exhibits as we imagined or hoped. As we came out incredibly disappointed we decided to go around again, whilst filming, and really try to read things and play the games. Basically to act as if we were children and see if we enjoyed it more. However despite playing the games, there was little more than 13 minutes of footage, which means it would have taken us around 20 minutes to walk around the entire center. Now £10.75 for no more than half an hours entertainment is ridiculous and with how expensive it is for the price of children as well (£8.75) would have been a complete outrage.

I’ve heard lots of mixed reviews on it, but now I can safely say that it is very overpriced, with little to see and far too much walking between exhibits. Another thing we noticed that there was no staff around to ask any questions, and some of the bigger tanks didn’t even label the fish inside for those curious minds. If you’re travelling far to go, I would definitely change your mind and go elsewhere, however if you’re local and bored, with money to throw away, go and see for yourself.