Inside Bluewater’s Haribo Hide n Seekers giant ball bit

The UK’s largest ball pit sounded like great fun and as soon as my five-year-old saw the pictures from inside, she was itching to go.

So we headed to Bluewater to find out if the pop-up attraction was as good as it looked.

The free Hide n Seekers experience has been created by sweet makers Haribo and features 700,000 balls. It is billed as fun for all ages with the chance of winning prizes.

The ball pit is located in a large marquee by The Village car park – the website said to look for the Haribo flag. It turns out we didn’t need to look for the flag – the tent was easy to spot by the very long queue snaking its way back towards Pizza Express.

A sign at the end of the queue said there was an hour-long wait from that point – so we joined behind and hoped for the best. Maybe they were exaggerating the length of the wait?

Luckily the marquee is next to a small children’s playground so little ones could go off to play and adults could see them while waiting in line.

Once inside there was a waiver to sign, wristbands to put on and then a bit more waiting. At this point there was also a giant inflatable Haribo gummy bear to bounce on and a photo opportunity to distract the kids for a few more minutes.

Then it was our turn to head to the main attraction – you’re instructed to remove shoes (make sure you’re wearing socks) and loose items, and put them in the lockers provided. You’re then in another queue to wait for the next slot.

Haribo’s slogan is ‘kids and grown-ups love it so’. However, by this time, as I looked around at the other grown-ups in the queue, they were looking less than impressed – and just a little bit frazzled from keeping their kids entertained for so long. Younger children meanwhile were getting very impatient.

But then you only had to wait 15 minutes for the group in front of you to have their go – and you got to see what it was all about while you waited for the final bit.

When it was time for us to go in we were ushered inside a small inflatable pen where a man on a microphone explained the dos and don’ts.

And then finally we were climbing over the inflatable steps and into the giant ball pit.

You got a few minutes to play, lie in the balls and chuck them at each other before the games began.

The man on the microphone would call out what balls you were looking for – for example “three balls with eggs on them” – and then it was a mad scramble to find them and be the first to wade your way through the balls to show the host to win a prize.

It was harder than it looked – the eggs (or whatever you were looking for) were small stickers on the thousands of same-sized coloured balls.

And then if you were lucky enough to find what you were looking for you had to be the first, or one of the first, to make it to the front. Some games had three winners and others only had one.

During our 15-minute slot there were three games to play. And then before you knew it, your time was up and you had to clamber back over the inflatable steps to make your way out.

My eight-year-old was slightly miffed he didn’t win anything and I noticed at least two other parents dealing with mini meltdowns because their children hadn’t managed to get their hands on any sweets.

But fear not, there was a gift kiosk on your way out with a chance to buy some Haribo goodies. Some of these were quite expensive but judging by the amount of people we spotted with Haribo bags, it didn’t seem to put people off.

So was it worth queuing all that time – about an hour and a half from start to finish – for 15 minutes entertainment? I’m not sure it was. But my children seemed to forget about the long wait (and the not winning) and said they had a great time.

It was definitely a fun 15 minutes. It was something a bit different and a chance for adults to be a bit silly with their kids. I actually think having some more time to just play in the ball pit rather than scrambling to look for stickered-balls would have been better.

A few comments online have complained about the length of the wait compared to how long you get inside – but others have said ‘what do you expect for free’. The wait is the same as a theme park queue when you only get a few minutes on the ride.

I think people would actually pay for the experience and then maybe it could be improved – with more entertainment to distract kids in the queue, a small bag of sweets for every child participant and a bit longer in the ball pit.

Hide n Seekers is open from noon Wednesday to Sunday. The first half hour is set aside for sensory sessions and then it is open from 12.30pm for general admission. We arrived just after 12.30pm. But it seems if you arrive later – you might have a much shorter wait.

After the ball pit we stayed for lunch and then a walk around Bluewater’s nature trail. When we headed back to the car just after 4pm there was no queue outside the marquee – just the waiting area inside – and we were very tempted to head back for another go.