Last weekend we spent the day at York Maze, my family and I were kindly gifted free tickets in return of our honest review.
We had never visited York Maze before, I had heard good things about their giant maize maze but apart from that we had no idea what to expect. It took us just over an hour to get there (from our home in Oldham), we arrived just after 10 and the car park was already filling up. This didn’t seem to be a problem as there was plenty of parking. We headed straight to the main entrance where friendly staff were directing us.
Every member of staff we met that day were extremely happy and helpful. We were given a free map and booklet of the entire place (wow it looked big) and asked would be like to buy a cheat map for £1.50 of the giant maize maze to help us get out if we got stuck!
We decided to head straight to the giant maize maze first after having a photo with Kernels and sorting all three of our children out with the free ID bracelets provided when you enter.
I had read all about the giant maize maze and I knew it was big, (the biggest in Europe) but WOW we were surprised! The maize must have been over 10ft tall, there’s no way we were looking over that! We had to get from the start (tower 1) to the end (tower 6) stopping at each tower in between, answering questions all about The Lion King. Every year sees a new theme for the maze, which are all on display.
The giant maze took us about 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete, without the cheat map! There was lots of running around and taking the wrong turns but we got their in the end. Joshua my eldest enjoyed filling in the booklet with all the answers, it certainly was lots of fun! The kids received stickers at the end. If you don’t use the cheat map, you are able to get a refund at the shop on the way out.
If you thought all there was to see was a maize maze, you’d be wrong!
Jurassic Maze- My three loved this, especially Oscar who loves dinosaurs. The kids ran around counting how many dinosaurs they could find! Whats not to love?
Finger Fortune Maze- this was brilliant fun. Hidden within the maze was 5 stations, each with different coloured chalk. We had to dip a different finger at each station with a different colour. Once out of the maze, we had to work out the coloured code following the instructions to see what silly dance or funny face we were to pull! The kids thought it was hilarious.
Mineshaft Maze- the kids enjoyed crawling through this maze, occasionally popping their heads up above the ground to shout hello.
Maze of Illusions – a fabulous forest full of illusions, funny mirrors and things to make your mind boggle!
Cornwall – a mini climbing wall for the kids, Joshua loved trying to get from one side of the climbing wall to the other.
Popcorn Pillow – the giant bouncy pillow was lots of fun. My children have been on bouncy pillows before, but what we liked about this was it was managed by staff (like all the activities) and was done in sessions. This meant that there were times just for really little ones, which was fab.
Cobstacle Course – Joshua loved the blow up cobstacle course!
Volcorno – a little too big for any of mine (even Joshua said it was too high), this was a giant slide. Children needed to climb up the side of the vocorno and slide down.
Corn On The Club – there’s lots of fun to be had with Corn on the Club! Everyone loves crazy golf right?
Angry Crows and Utter Cornage – Unfortunately we didn’t have time to try out Utter Cornage but it looked so much fun. The kids playing here were having an absolute blast with water, this is definitely one to try out next time.
Cornstruction Playarea – my three enjoyed playing in the sand play area, they didn’t even notice when it started to rain. There was plenty to do, including little houses, diggers, spades and even water play.
Giant Mural Painting – we noticed a giant mural painting wall whilst we were having our dinner which I thought was a fantastic idea! Once the painting was full, a staff member wiped it clean for other children.
Scarecrow Centre/Animal Handling – as we left the giant maize maze, we saw the scarecrow centre which was full of small animals including owls, snakes and a tortoise. During the day there’s also a chance to hold the animals.
The House Of Even More Cornfusion – this really was cornfusing! It was a little like a fun house, with lots of mirrors, moving floors, lasers and much more! Rooms seemed to magically shrink and even spin around.
Crow Mania 2 ride – I would have to say that this ride was probably one of our favourite parts of the day. We sat in a large trailer that was pulled by a tractor, a member of staff explained how we needed to help him get rid of the pesky crows, it included quite a bit of water! We laughed so much on our ride.
There’s even more to do that I haven’t mentioned including Corn on the Quad and Remote Control Boats (these are £1 extra), giant slides, pig racing and shows running throughout the day! We just completely ran out of time! We didn’t leave until tea time!
We had an absolutely brilliant day out, it really was fab for the whole family. There was plenty of places to get food, drink and ice creams. We visited the cafe and the refreshment kiosk for ice creams and coffees. We did bring our own picnic, there was picnic benches dotted about everywhere which was great.
Another thing I really liked was, once you pay to get in everything else is included in your ticket apart from the two things stated online – Corn on the Quad and Remote Control Boats. I thought this was excellent and very rare that there wasn’t additional costs.
Me and my family will certainly visit again next year, we can’t wait to see what theme the maize maze will be. See here for more information on tickets and prices.
I’ve shared some of my favourite photos below-
Out and about mummy 