Down Leisure Centre, Downpatrick
posted in Down, Indoors |Swimming in Down
The leisure centre is situation in the town centre and is not easy to miss. (Although having said that there is a one way system for entering the complex which took me two goes to get in!)
We arrived at Down Leisure Centre after visiting the Museum. Having had a light lunch this seemed the perfect way to finish our weekend away. Swimming is always a hit with my kids. We turned up at reception and were greeting by a very friendly and helpful receptionist. There were swimming accessories on sale and I managed to get the long overdue swimming floats for the kids (very reasonably priced too, I might add).
We headed off to the changing rooms and I was very impressed with the setup. There is a family changing area which is actually family size and not just one adult/one child size. I don’t know if it is just me but getting changed in swimming pool changing rooms is always a nightmare. The lockers were located right outside the family cubicles so there was no need to keep running back and forth for shoes and bags. The place was clean and looked relatively new. I was impressed.
The swimming pools themselves consisted of one baby pool (and it is a baby pool) and one main pool. The shallow end in the main pool was about the right depth for my two to practice their swimming. The baby pool was for having fun. After a while (of being one of those mums who wants to see them swimming having paid for their swimming lessons) we moved to the little pool. Big play floats were distributed to both pools and the kids had lots of fun splashing around. It was well set out and very busy. There were some older children in the baby pool who were being a bit rough though I was not that worried for my kids but there were some younger babies in the pool and I would have expected the life guards to move them on.
WOW Overview
5 year old: I thought the big pool was too cold. The floats were good fun but the frogs hurt your arms a bit after a while.
6 year old: I got a big square float and it was fun to swim around. The baby pool got very busy and it was hard to find a space.
Stress Level 2 (The set up and the changing rooms were excellent and it made taking two kids swimming on your own easy. I think the baby pool should be for younger kids only though. I guess my children will be growing out of the baby pools sooner rather than later. When they are confident swimming we will move up.)
Fun Level 4 (The kids loved the extra large floats and were very disappointed when I said it was time to go after 1.5 hours.)
Cost Level 2 (I think that swimming is still one of the most cost effective ways to kill an hour or two. Not only are they getting a good work out, the more they go the more confident they get.)
