This morning we bounced off to Inflata Nation, an inflatable theme park!
We arrived half an hour before our session time, as requested on the booking email and filled in waiver forms which we exchanged at the check in desk for wristbands.
There were lockers to put valuables, coats and shoes in. These were free.
We were told to wait in a queue and were given a safety brief on what we could and couldn’t do on the inflatables. We were then let loose on the bouncy castle.
Inflata Nation is described as an inflatable theme park and it is essentially one giant bouncy castle! There is a small area for under 4’s and a huge area for everyone else.
Food is available to buy in the cafe. Bottles of water are £1.35 for a normal sized bottle and £1 for a small one.
The larger part of the inflatable is for over 4’s and adults although, there are adult only sessions so it was mostly families while we were there (Sunday morning).
There were lots of activities around the edges of the giant inflatable, including a giant slide, a normal sized slide and an inflatable assault course with a smaller slide at the end.
There are also activities which are limited to a few people at once including a wobbly platform where you try and knock your partner off and giant balls where you have to bounce from one to another.
There is a climbing wall made of the sort of steps you get on inflatable slides and a giant ball pit filled with purple balls. It is an idea to note that while the ball pit covers a large area, it is very shallow and if jumping in you would need to be aware of that. There are signs warning you, my child still managed to ignore the signs and bump his knee!
There were staff members around if you needed them, each watching a section of the bouncy castle.
The idea of Inflata Nation is great and it makes a change from the trampoline parks springing up everywhere. The cost is quite high and with paying for drinks and possibly food, it could add up. We took our own waters and kept them in the lockers for when we needed them.
You can see some of the fun we had at Inflata Nation on this video on our YouTube channel:
Taking an autistic child to Inflata Nation?
There are autism friendly sessions on Saturday mornings without the usual loud music and busyness. I would highly recommend booking one of these sessions if you would rather it was quieter.
At normal sessions there is a risk it could be quite crowded and the music is very loud. It wasn’t too busy for our session which was 10am on a Sunday morning but the 11am session had a lot more people.
The inflatable is large so it is worth paying for yourself to go on too, especially as the level of supervision by staff is quite low if you have a child with additional needs.
The locker area can get crowded. We avoided this by leaving a couple of minutes before the end of the session.
There is a car park right outside the door. If this is full there is parking available on the street which isn’t busy.
We were told to queue while we were waiting to get on the bouncy castle. The queue can be crowded and actually comes out just round the corner by the cafe. Then you walk round to the entrance. So instead of queuing you could make sure you watch the safety brief near the tills to relay safety information to your child and then wait in or near the cafe where it is quieter.
In order to go on the inflatable you need to wear a wrist band. The staff put it on for you.
There are a few Inflata Nation’s. The one we visited is located in Trafford, Manchester. We were guests of Inflata Nation for this adventure but all opinions are definitely our own.
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