Rock Up Whiteley Review

We had a chance to go and visit Rock Up Whiteley recently which my 3 kids were super excited about!

Since Rock Up Whiteley was built in October 2014 they have been desperate to go, each time we go to Whiteley they want to go and watch the children climbing. Each time we watch they are even more excited about going! With its glass front and bright colours it is very bright and eye-catching. I can see why most children would want to go and have fun there!

Rock Up Whiteley is an indoor climbing centre for all ages, with 26 climbing walls that come in all different shapes and abilities, it is suited for the young and old. Rock Up walls are 25ft in height but with the automatic belay devices which take in the slack as you climb and then lower you gently down to the ground so it is perfectly safe. My twin girls loved climbing up and then jumping back off so they slowly fall to the ground!

You can see L here jumping off!

 We had to book for Rock Up at the weekend because it is so popular, they have time slots with a limit of people for each time slot. We booked about 10 days in advance and there was a few time slots to pick from. The sessions last 1.5 hours, 30 minutes preparation and briefing, 55 minutes climbing and 5 minutes removal of harness and leaving the climbing area.

When we arrived we waited in the queue for a while, they could do with two staff on the reception during peak times so do make sure you arrive a little earlier than your time slot.

When you arrive and are booked in you are directed upstairs to the briefing room, this overlooks the climbing area so the kids were watching the clothes and choosing which walls they wanted to go on first.

After about 10 minutes wait we went into the briefing room where a lady reeled off her well-scripted dialogue of all the safety and how to use the Rock Up climbing walls.

She then allocated the harness, they come in two different sizes, the smaller ones are a body harness as well and go up and over their shoulders. The larger harness just goes around their waist. We were shown how to put them on but they are checked before they go down into the climbing area.

They were happy to do this, I know the photos don’t show it!! I think they were a little nervous. You can see my son has the larger waist harness and the girls have the body harness.

We were then told to wait again outside the briefing room and told to wait for instructions to go down to the climbing area. 20 odd excited kids were bursting to go and start!

Whilst they had to wait you are offered the chance to be shown how to clip and unclip the harnesses so you can speed up the change over down in the climbing areas. There is staff down there to do it but you do need to wait for them to see you waiting. Hubby wanted to learn how to do it and was given a blue Rock Up tabard.

 Once all this was done and the climbing area was ready the children were lined up to have their harnesses checked and then sent through a soft play type platform steps! This is a great fun idea for the kids to get downstairs, rather than going back down the boring stairs!

The one thing that was frustrating was that there wasn’t anywhere to leave your coats and jumpers, if you had someone who was sitting out of it and getting a drink then you could leave it all with them but if you wanted to be in the climbing area with them or climbing yourself then it caused a problem. It was an issue for the parents who had brought a group of about 10 kids on their own and a lot of coats!

Although upon coming downstairs we saw the lockers, very small lockers and charged £1 to use each of them. We had no change on us so left them all in the open locker and kept my handbag on me. I think for the amount of money Rock Up costs they could provide you with a safe play to leave your belongings or at least remember to bring £1 coins.

Once the kids were in the climbing area they had a fab time, it took them a while to get their confidence up and start to climb further up. They loved falling down, but this was great for their confidence building to trust the harness and cord.

Rock Up is well laid out with lots of brightly coloured walls, different shapes and different abilities. They soon learned which ones they found trick or fun.

This one was a big hit, I think there were lots of places to put their feet and they were quite large in size.

This light-up one was hit because of the lights!

This one was because it was like the Tetris game!

This one because of the lights and big feet holes.

We liked this one but found it hard as it was doubled sided and kept wiggling!

S looking very cute but sitting down on the poles! This was a group of poles that got taller and taller, mine all struggled with this as they found it nerve-racking with nothing to hold on to whilst going from pole to pole. Once you get to the top one you can jump off!

This one was good as you can be timed as there is a large stop button at the top of the wall. There are two walls next to each other so you can race a partner!

Each wall has a blue sign with challenges set for that wall, you can add up your points throughout the climbing session to see who gets the most if you feel competitive or to beat your score if you go often.

Below is a picture of ‘The Leap of Faith’ this is extra to your standard price. You climb up the pole on the side until you reach the platform and then jump to reach the ‘punch bag’ in the air. It looks good fun but you have to pay an extra £3 for this at the time of booking. We didn’t do this so cannot comment on the activity itself.

Rock Up provide a cafe area where you can watch the climbing if you’re not climbing or grab something to each once you’ve finished your climbing session.

You can see in the above picture that there is also a soft play area for under 5’s, it’s a great addition for younger siblings whose older siblings are climbing or you can just bring your under 5 to soft play for a play.

Under 6 months are free, non-walkers are £4 (peak and off-peak) and walkers £5 (peak) £4 (off-peak)

Rock Up offers climbing parties as well which I can imagine would go down very well with your kids for their birthday. Take a look at their website for info on their parties.

I wasn’t sure if it would have been my cup of tea and thought the kids would have had more fun but now my and hubby would like to now go on our own, it would be good fun and really good exercise.

Pricing: Child £8 (off peak) £12 (peak) Adult £12 (off peak) £15 (peak) plus the £3 for leap of faith if you want.

The pricing to me is quite expensive and talking to other parents we have the same feeling, however, I would happily pay this for as a treat but would not be able to make this a regular outing for us. This is a shame as the kids really did enjoy it. However it is busy, you have to book in advance so they must be doing something right!

We really enjoyed our trip to Rock Up in Whiteley and would happily visit again and I will recommend Rock Up to my friends and family.

* We were given 3 children’s tickets to visit Rock Up for the purpose of this review, however all opinions are honest and of my own.