Life Science Centre Reviews Summary

Exhibits and Activities

Pros:

• "Loads of interactive exhibits, with a good range of special exhibitions."
• "Experiments in the lab suited to all ages."
• "There are a lot of activities to do, many things to explore and experience."
• "Amazing place to visit we spent nearly 5 hours walking around and getting hands on with the exhibits."
• "An amazing day out. Full hands on experience in all’s areas with staff on hand to assist and encourage."
• "A fantastic, interactive museum. My children, aged 8 and 11, loved it."
• "Fantastic displays with interactive learning for kids of all ages."

Cons:

• "Not very interesting if I'm honest."
• "Not the best day out poor value for money."
• "Unfortunately, during our visit one of the top floor areas was already closed when we showed up."
• "Not much to do for the entrance fee, a lot of the exhibits have been there since it opened."
• "This event is not suitable for very young children or children on the Autistic Spectrum."
• "Space exhibit was mostly screens with walls of text and a few games."
• "Disappointing. Noisy and chaotic, science section closed, lifts not working, poorly laid out, underwhelming interactive exhibits."

Value for Money

Pros:

• "In summary a fantastic day out we both had such a good time it was worth every penny."
• "Highly recommended to all ages and better still for families."
• "For £12 (for an adult so less for kids I'd think) they would be entertained ALL DAY."
• "It's a great day out for the kids and even without the event, the science based experiments, practicals and visual/audio guides make more than worthwhile to go for a very reasonably priced £15.00 per person (£8.00 for under 17s)!!"
• "The Annual Pass is definitely worth it! You even get some money off the parking down the road!!!"
• "If you pay around £30 you can get admission for a whole year though so that might be worth it if you're going to make more than one visit."
• "The Centre was very good value for money and the indoor picnic area was very helpful in keeping costs down."

Cons:

• "Expensive for a pretty small museum."
• "A chaotic, overpriced, boring mess."
• "Definitely not worth £16 entry!"
• "Ticket prices are an absolute scam for how little there is."
• "Rip off. Not worth the steep price."
• "I really want to give this place a good review but for the price being nearly £40 for 2 adults and 1 child I couldn't help but feel a bit robbed."
• "Not worth it for the ticket price (£16 per adult)."

Staff and Customer Service

Pros:

• "Staff very friendly and helpful. Café was good and staff very good at managing the lunch hour."
• "Staff very helpful."
• "The staff are friendly, knowledgeable and very engaging."
• "The staff all friendly and helpful and great with the kids."
• "Staff are always friendly and helpful too."
• "The staff were warm and friendly, especially Helen, the lady presenting in the Science Theatre."
• "The ENTIRE staff are amazing."

Cons:

• "Centre staff should have done better, or not allow in unaccompanied U16's."
• "The attitude of your, inexperienced, poorly trained staff was disgraceful!"
• "The staff were very unhelpful with a don't care attitude in the cafe."
• "The staff on entry were just miserable."
• "Unfortunately, since we joined back, customer service was not been the greatest. Not very helpful; whenever I asked a question, I usually heard the 'I'm not sure' answer."
• "Staff disinterested and unenthusiastic."
• "Daughters went ice skating, the supervisory staff were very rude and unpleasant."

Facilities and Accessibility

Pros:

• "The eating areas were clean and tidy throughout the day and the toilets spotless."
• "Easily accessible - next door to Newcastle Central Train Station and a multi-storey car park."
• "it is conveniently located in the centtr of Newcastle with good car parks nearby."
• "Parking 5 minutes walk away at the Times Square car park, you can see the Life Science Centre from the carpark."
• "There is a multi-story car park just over the road which you can buy tickets for when you pre-book tickets for the center for life."
• "There are loads of disabled parking spaces and a large parking space next door."
• "Easy to get to, literally next to Central station, nothing else to pay for once you get in, had a good day out playing on retro games, planetarium, etc."

Cons:

• "First of all it was at the top of metal steps with a broken lift... there was no gate/fence to stop runaway youngsters from heading to the steps or ultimately falling down them."
• "Only reason I’m not giving it 5 stars is the lack of food options, apparently they stopped doing hot meals during covid and have not started up again."
• "The café didn't have any children's meals at all."
• "Some of the devices weren't working, areas were restricted, ques on 2 of the main attractions."
• "Although a queue outside baby changing as no facilities in the men's toilets which they seemed disappointed about."
• "Only challenge we had was one of the lifts broke so we had to lift my daughter's wheelchair up a short flight of steps."
• "Very disappointed - it's the summer holidays but there are lifts, cafes and toilets out of order."

Cafe and Food Options

Pros:

• "Food in the cafe was very nice and reasonably priced."
• "The cafe is well priced, the coffee delicious."
• "Had lunch in cafe which wasn't too badly priced and a good choice of food."
• "The cafe also serves great hot food at a reasonable price."
• "Cafe area has plenty of choice and some great kids options."
• "Good well priced cafe."
• "Food in the cafe is also really good and staff were so friendly and helpful and really polite!"

Cons:

• "Cafe overpriced and poor quality."
• "The café didn't have much choice so that does let it down a bit."
• "The only negative of the day was the food we bought in the cafe. The quality of it was fairly poor and overpriced for what you got."
• "Cafe wasn’t the best as was only cold food on and it looked like it’d been sat there for a bit."
• "It is very expensive in the cafe, soft drinks are nearly £2 a bottle so for a family this doesn't come cheap."
• "The cafe really need to improve they service because people are paying for good service and better quality food."
• "The cafe took a long time to deliver food orders and was a little bit on the high side price wise."