Write a review on your visit to Royal Victoria Country Park

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39 reviews so far

09/01/2012 05:22am

Jo  

My dog was nearly knocked down by some idiot driving way too fast on the path down by the water that goes from the gate thats locked.He didnt even slow down when he saw her. When on the roads leading to the carparks i respect the fact that cars go past and so she is kept on her lead but down by the water theres always kids and dogs running around so the drivers using this path should respect its a park not a road and stick to the 10mph speed limit.

 

16/12/2011 11:50am

Grace

Had a lovely visit to Royal Victoria Park this week to look at the tree fair. My little one loved the winter wonderland and enjoyed having her picture taken with a polar bear! Very festive.

 

18/12/2011 05:46am

Tracey Davidson

Myself, Nan and my two daughters went on Sunday 11th December, we have been going to see Santa in his grotto for the past 5 years. It all starts with a fantastic train ride through the park on a little steam train and then into the grotto which is fabulously decorated and is lovely and warm a treat after the chilly train ride. Then after the children have woken Santa they are called in individually by an elf and spend time with Santa chatting which culminates in a lovely present. The children then get sweets and us adults are not forgotten with a lovely glass of sherry and a piping hot mince pie mmmmm. Once all the children have had their presents there is a photo opportunity by the christmas tree with Santa, singing and joke telling etc., then back on the train to the station.

 

15/12/2011 08:31am

Mike Dawson

I was very disappointed with the Christmas Tree Festival Launch. What could have been a lovely event felt half hearted and not at all what it could have been. The craft fayre consisted of only a few stalls, mainly jewelery stalls. This event could have been an ideal opportunity for the cafe to serve some Christmas fayre such as mince pies and berry juice or mulled wine, but so such thing was available. As for the Christmas Tree's themselves this was not at all what I expected, a very shoddy display which we had to pay £6 to gain entry to! (3 adults). The advert spoke of live music and a DJ, we arrived at around 11.30 am and there was no sign of a DJ or any live music. I have added below a section of the advert on the Christmas Tree Festival that I gained from your website.

Join Wave 105's Simon Clarke for the official launch on Saturday 10 December and get in the Christmas spirit with live music, festive food, children's activities and gift stalls.

There was no sign of any festive food or live music. I cannot believe we were asked to pay £6 for something you clearly did not deliver. I can assure you your event did not leave us with the Christmas Spirit you claimed it would.

RVCP replies

We are very sorry to hear that you did not enjoy your visit to the Christmas Tree Festival Launch on the 10 December. This event was geared at families with a wide range of fun children's activities at the launch such as Santa's Grotto, photo opportunities at the North Pole, making reindeer pots, Sammy Star's Trail, mini fairground rides, pony rides, face-painting, hang a wish on the Wishing Tree.

However, for other visitors, there were over 15 different stalls selling a wide range of excellent local handmade products from wood crafts to festive gifts- 4 of these were selling jewellery. We always get a large number of requests to have more jewellery stalls as these are always very popular with visitors but we did limit them this year in order to ensure a greater diversity of other stalls. Festive food and drink was also available with mince pies and roast chestnuts, the Park's Friends Group provided excellent homemade cakes and refreshments in the Heritage Centre, and the Cedar Tea-rooms were also open throughout. Furthermore, our Friends Group of Volunteers were also running guided tower tours up the 150ft tower to promote the sites fascinating heritage for a small additional charge.

The main Chapel Hall was filled with over 30 Christmas trees all kindly sponsored by local schools and businesses - the admission charge was competitively priced at just £2 for adults and £1 for children. These trees were also cleverly and beautifully decorated by these organisations. For instance, one local garage carefully decorated their tree with tools, the Park's Gardening Group decorated theirs with natural materials found on the park and intricate handmade decorations which took many hours to make, and local school children made their own wonderful decorations to hang on the trees. Overall, we have received excellent feedback from visitors who attended the event who thought it was a fantastic idea with many voting for their favourite tree. Also, proceeds raised from the trees goes to Wave 105's Cash for Kids Charity.

We had live music throughout the launch with local bands such as the Hamble Valley Brass Band, Solent Accordion Band and Chandlers Ford Boys Brigade Brass Band kindly giving up their time to play traditional Christmas Carols and the Wave 105 DJ Simon Clarke was present on the 10th to launch the Tree Festival and turn on the lights.

Visitors can still come and see the Christmas trees every day right up to Christmas Eve in the magnificent Chapel Hall, look around the fascinating heritage exhibition, buy an assortment of wonderful Christmas gifts, Christmas trees and wreathes from our shop, book a train ride or guided tower tour, visit the tearooms, and do the children's fun Christmas activity trail and please let us know what you thought as we are always interested in your comments.

 

14/12/2011 11:47am

garry mabey

Hi i came to the park on saturday 10th because i booked tickets on the train for santa's grotto for 2pm it wasnt as good as i hoped not only was the train ride cut short it had no lights or decorations on the way round so it felt like just a normal train ride and to top it off i had planned on getting my daughter dinner in the cafe so wanted her to have some warm food seeing that it was so cold only to find you had stopped serving hot food and just had crisps and junk food so it messed my day up because it was the only day i had my daughter so had to leave early so i could get her a hot meal,its stupid stop serving food so early when familys go there for the day

RVCP replies

We are really sorry that you felt disappointed about your visit to the park. We have spoken to Royal Victoria Railway who own the miniature railway and Wise Catering who manage the Tea-Rooms for their response to your comments. We understand that you were booked onto one of the Santa's Specials and therefore would have received the full Santa's Special Grotto Experience when you visited the Park on the 10 December plus full train journey around the park.

RVR have been successfully running the Santa's Specials for approximately 16 years which comprises a train ride around the full circuit plus trip into Santa's Grotto which certainly has the WOW factor with sparkling lights, decoration, festive mince pie and drinks and quality gifts from Santa. This is a pre booked popular ticketed event, competitively priced and many visitors come back year after year. The Santa's Specials were running on the 10th as well as the normal train rides service around the park. The Railway doesn't decorate the train due to health and safety reasons but the decoration within Santa's Grotto more than compensates for this which is all decorated by volunteers from the Railway and of course children look forward to meeting Santa and his helpers.

Wise Catering is open from 10am and closes at 4pm every day during the Winter months but always have hot food such as delicious soup, hot rolls, pasties and jacket potatoes available throughout the day unless they've sold out. We have spoken to the tea room staff working on the 10th and they are not aware of any customer complaints on this day regarding lack of hot food. The staff are extremely helpful and try their very best to be accommodating and respond to the individual needs of customers. We hope this response helps to address your concerns.

 

05/12/2011 12:47pm

John Taberner  

I spent nearly two years working at the Netley hospital back in 1962-1964 as a cook. I was rather surprised when i returned to the UK to see such an overgrown wilderness. A sorry sight to say the least for me.

RVCP replies

We were interested to hear that you used to work as a cook at the former Netley Hospital in the 1960s and sorry to hear that you didn't enjoy your visit. You don't indicate when you visited the site or say how the site could have been improved.

Hampshire County Council took over the management of the site in the 1980s when it was semi derelict. The park has over 400,000 pedestrian visitors per year and is both a well loved and popular green space and tourism resource with a wide range of attractions.

We would like to reassure you that the site is not left as a wilderness. We operate to a 5 year management plan across the 200 acre site and although we only have a small team of staff, we are committed to ensuring the site is well looked after. We also have a Friends Group of volunteers, other regular volunteers who all work extremely hard maintaining the site (i.e. litter picking, horticulture and conservation work etc.) and work in partnership with a wide range of partner organisations to help us improve the site.

Some parts of the site are used for recreation and sport and are therefore intensively managed with regular grass cutting, whilst other areas with wildlife designations are less intensively managed with wildlife in mind. Over the last 2 years, we have successfully obtained the Green Flag Award which means that the site has been fully assessed against national criteria and is recognised as one of the best sites within the UK with high levels of management and community involvement.

 

07/11/2011 05:52pm

Jane Moore

I would just like to congratulate Nicky and all the staff on organizing such a brilliant fire works display.My day started by phoning to ask about tickets (very helpful and friendly advice given )told tickets would be cheaper in advance then on the night,sent my husband to get them(made a £9 saving)We had to wait no more then 5 minutes to get in and park (well done Marshall's)As for the fire works well worth the money (even without the saving).This was are first visit to the park cant wait to come back and see it in daylight.Thanks again keep up the good work.

 

18/10/2011 12:47pm

Georgina

I wanted to say thank you for all your help with our staff conference. It went well and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves/get a lot out of the day.

Thanks for getting everything in place, from setting up the room how we wanted it, communication before the day, and the couple of things we needed to contact you about today e.g. replacing soap so quickly and without having to ask twice.

 

04/10/2011 12:25pm

charlie cooper

As a local netley resident, we have a great park but it is truly embarrasing that the information placard at the bottom of the path from the chapel still has not been replaced. This is a most interesting historical piece of info and due to the weather it is now compleatly unreadable and has been for over a year. The nice new footpaths are lovely but why dont you just spend some of the money promoting its history and re newing this information placard. Its now the end of another season and its too late now for this year but im sure it would make many peoples visit a little bit more interesting.

RVCP replies

We are aware that the historical information boards are sadly now in a poor condition and need replacing, however, the park has faced significant financial constraints over the past 2 years and will have further cuts to come. We don't want to remove these old boards until they can be replaced. We are currently working on a major Heritage Lottery Bid which, if successful, will include better interpretation across the whole site.

 

26/09/2011 09:04am

Mrs Taylor

I was very very disappointed to find the heritage centre closed on saturday 24th Sept.My Mother had visited the centre in august and was so impressed she wanted me to see it. I thought you would have had the centre open at the weekend for a few hours until the end of sept. Surely it would have brought in enough revenue to cover costs.

The park is very nice but I dont think I would travel from north hampshire again as we have equally nice places here.

RVCP replies

We are are sorry that you were disappointed to find the Heritage Visitor Centre closed on your recent visit to the park in September.  In light of significant financial constraints and escalating costs, a corporate decision was taken to relocate the shop and reception next to the Cedar Tea Rooms to improve accessibility for visitors using the Tea Rooms and other facilities. We planned this work for mid September to keep disturbance to a minimum.

The Heritage Visitor Centre will now become the focus for an exciting programme of performances, events, conferences and functions.

The Centre will continue to be open for Guided Tower Tours Sunday Afternoons and Bank Holiday Monday Afternoons which are run by the Friends of Royal Victoria Country Park.  The Exhibition will be opened to the public as part of a Tower Tour, for special Heritage Open Days and by special request to schools/groups.

We are currently working on a major Heritage Lottery bid for the site which is extremely exciting as if successful this will include much needed investment in the Heritage Visitor Centre and rest of the park to promote the site's key attractions and better public enjoyment and understanding of the rich heritage of the site

 

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