Sealife Centre, Scarborough

Some good bits, some bad. I'll start with the good - or should I say amazing! I love seadragons and to see a couple of these incredible creatures made my day. Alongside the seahorses and jelly fish they were my favourite and I could have spent hours watching them. The seal hospital had two pups recovering ready for release which makes you realise the entry fee is necessary to keep the facility open, but TOP TIP is to check your car parking tickets you purchase over the days before as some have £5 off vouchers on them. we didn't find this out until after our visit though :0( The big negatives were having to pay to park as well as the entrance fee, and the cafe - I've never seen such a grubby floor! We went for a drink whilst our son played in the soft play area - which was basic but could have easily kept him occupied for an hour. It must have been around 3pmish, and there were only two other groups of customers in the cafe, but several tables were filthy and covered in plates etc. The staff seemed more interested in chatting to each other than doing their job. We cleared the table adjoining the soft play area and I scrubbed it with wetwipes before sitting down. That said, the staff in the main sealife centre were great - we visited on National Talk Like a Pirate Day and they were all dressed up and taking part. We got to touch a star fish, enjoyed the otter feeding talk and the seal talk too. My husband went to the penguin feeding alone as we couldn't get the boy out of the soft play area, but he said it was interesting. We would probably go again, but only if we found a £5 voucher beforehand!