Enjoy the Dining with Distinction Christmas Lunch on the East Lancashire Railway #Review

Enjoy the Dining with Distinction Christmas Lunch on the East Lancashire Railway #Gifted

The East Lancashire Railway is a volunteer organisation, run through passion, determination and sheer grit keeping part of Britain’s railway heritage alive and steaming!

At the Bolton Street Station stop at Bury you can immerse yourself in the traditional age of steam and learn all about our historical industrial heritage.

Now, one noticeable point, from the moment you arrive everyone is welcomed with plenty of smiles and open arms, it literally makes your heart melt.

Whistle blown, so all aboard, one of the beautifully restored Pullman carriages, for the experience of a lifetime, a fabulous festive Feast on one of the East Lancashire Railways Steam hauled trains.

The East Lancashire Railway Dining with Distinction service team know how to pull out the stops with all the bells and whistles. Expect only the very best with crisp white lining, luxurious furnishings.

The Christmas Lunch is just under a 3 hour steam hauled journey through the picturesque Irwell Valley. Included is a sparking glass of fizz on arrival and a super scrummy 3 course meal with mince pies along with tea or coffee.

Furthermore, if you would like to organise any additional extras, to add onto your package, to make your journey even more spectacular, such as flowers, a bottle of wine, champagne etc the team are more than happy to help.

The glass of welcome fizz makes for the best start and the winter warm vegetable soup, with bread roll and butter was wolfed down…delicious!

Cosy and snug in your First Class Pullman carriage, enjoy a hearty roast lunch with options such as Turkey and the lush Brie and cranberry parcel with all the trimmings and lashings of gravy.

Christmas vibes all round, with lovely snowflake decorations embossed onto the window and even the Christmas crackers are included.

Making the experience even more sweet, we indulged in a Christmas pudding with custard, mince pies all washed down with coffee and tea, simply divine.

Then just as I thought things couldn’t get any better, the team arranged an extra enthusiast’s experience, I actually got to ride the actual steam train…my excitement I can tell you was hard to contain for sure.

In the heart of the operation, the engine room, it was privilege to meet the guys who volunteer their time and work hard to provide this unique and authentic experience.

Genuine, authentic, passionate team energy and camaraderie, that felt warmer than the fire, brought tears to my eye – tears of joy of course!

The East Lancashire Railway is a home away from home, we left with full tummies, even fuller hearts and memories to last a lifetime.

Now you will have to be very quick for 2022 availabilities, but don’t be disheartened as for 2023 The East Lancashire Railway have a full schedule of themed dining train events such as Red Rose dinners, Lancastrian lunches, afternoon teas, murder mysteries and of course fabulous Christmas lunches and dinners.

May I take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Thank you for reading 😊

Melanie xx

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Breakout Manchester Escape Rooms Experience: Detectives vs Zombies #Review

Breakout Manchester Escape Rooms Experience: Detectives vs Zombies #Gifted

Manchester city centre, Church Street located in the busy eclectic Northern Quarter, is the destination of Breakout Manchester who offer an exciting Escape room Experience.

While we waited for our games master, our team prepared strategy and game plans to ensure a smooth and speedy breakout.

The Detective Agency

Benjy our lovely Games Master explained that Harry Dene, the world’s greatest detective, and our closest friend has got himself into a pickle to say the least. 

Spending most of his time dedicated to a specific case, but the dedication has led Harry to madness and now he has gone one step too far by taking the law into his own hands in order to solve the greatest case of his career.

Hello, hello, hello…what’s going on here, then? As his closest friends, my team turned up at Harry’s office to try and help. However, things had already escalated and gotten much worse, so with Harry nowhere in sight it was up to us to solve the case to help Harry. 

Word of warning Harry has certainly used his detective skills and is extremely good at hiding his secrets, so get your thinking caps on!

Analyse the evidence, uncover the truth and crack the case, good luck detectives. We nearly broke out, missing out by literally seconds – hence hiding behind our boards in shame on the photo line up lol, but the real question is can your team crack the case!?

Now, you have all those new found detective skills, you can use these to defeat the zombies and save planet earth in the Zombie Lab Escape Game.

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My Top UK Escape Rooms #Review

My Top UK Escape Rooms #Gifted

Escape Rooms have been trending now for some time and the trend shows no signs of slowing down.  In fact, Escape Rooms are becoming more technical, magical and super cool meaning for us lucky game players, we get to experience immersive game play at its very best.

From Manchester, Chester, Leeds, Harrogate Liverpool, Birmingham, Edinburgh to London, I have been up and down the country to find my best Escape Room brands.  In no order, here you have my Top UK Escape Rooms…

Chester

Breakout – Excalibur

Breakout Chester is an amazing city centre Escape games brand with rooms such as Dark Magic – I highly recommend, along with Exchalibur.

Brave warriors, prepare to fight the fight, as myself and my fellow knights had been kidnapped from Camelot.  Being held captive in a tower whilst the intruders are disguising themselves as us.

The challenge was to find our way out of the tower, back to the round  table and prove our worth by being the true king by removing the sword from the stone…

Manchester

Escape Reality – Bank Job

Escape Reality, located within the Printworks in Manchester city centre, has a whole range of games to play such as Alcatraz, Enigmista, Tortuga Pirates, The Asylum, Legend of the Mummy and Bank Job.

We grabbed our elite squad of highly skilled bank robbers, as we were amongst the chosen few who had been challenged to infiltrate the security systems at the world’s most protected bank vaults. 

Escape with the diamond within 60 minutes or face life in prison! An exhilarating, exciting and entertaining experience, will your team diamond bank balance go boom or bust!

Escape Hunt – Escape the Wild West

Exciting Escape Hunt Manchester, located in Manchester city centre, is where all the action takes place, as they have a whole range of game themes including Doctor Who, Alice in Wonderland, The Last Vikings, The Last Samurai, Blackbeard’s Treasure and Escape the Wild West.

Howdy partners, the wild west tiny frontier town of East Victoria, has struck gold, so celebrations throughout town are rife.  Not everything that glistens is gold though, as with this news, the bloodthirsty Bill French Gang are riding their way into town to claim the gold and kill everyone in East Victoria.  You best get the gold, before it’s too late or you’ll be shot at dawn.

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The Rena Spa’s Indulgence Spa Day at the Midland Hotel Manchester #Review

The Rena Spa’s Indulgence Spa Day at the Midland Hotel Manchester #Gifted

Ready for some rest, relaxation, and zen vibes well you are in the right place, as the Rena Spa located within the iconic Midland Hotel in the heart of Manchester City centre has all you need for some much deserved you time.

Offering a range of packages, The Rena spa has something to suit everyone.  We opted for the Indulgence Spa Day which included a 50-minute treatment, Afternoon Tea, a glass of bubbly, Robes and Slippers for use while in the spa.

The thermal areas are the perfect place to enjoy a dip in the pool, some jacuzzi time, sauna, steam room or why not enjoy some time under the swan neck water feature.  This may not be the fountain of youth, but it can certainly relax tension within those shoulders.

Treatments are a luxurious and divine offering at the Rena and there are a vast range of options such as the Vinosource Hydrating and Nourishing Facial, Divine Body Massage, Fleur De Vigne Candle Massage Calming Hand, Foot & Scalp Therapy Rose & Honey Harmony Facial, and my personal favourite the Caudalie City Living Contouring and Invigorating Body Wrap.

My lovely beauty therapist, who provided an amazing balancing and detoxifying treatment wrap, which involved gentle exfoliation with their crushed cabernet scrub, followed by an application of their contouring concentrate, designed to help boost the metabolism and ease away tension it also speeds up the elimination of toxins.

This is followed by an application of their vine body butter massaged onto the skin and then wrapped to cocoon the skin with hydrating. The experience also included a full scalp treatment for total relaxation.

After your treatment, while in a full relaxation mode, why not enjoy some post-treatment time chilling within the Rena zen area, a beautiful room with stylish seating, private chamber rooms and the free-standing pod units.

Now if that was not indulgent enough prepare to enjoy a delicious decadent Afternoon tea within the iconic Midland tearoom of course with plenty of beautiful bubbles. 

Christopher our server welcomed us with open arms and was a wonderfully friendly chap who made our day extra lovely.

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The Hilt York Axe Throwing #Review

The Hilt York Axe Throwing – Review: January 2020

Prepare to unleash your inner Viking warrior, arm yourself with an Axe and chop down your competition a peg or two.

The Hilt York offer an immersive, exciting and entertaining experience right in the heart of York city centre.

Alex and Josh York residents and founders of the Hilt aim to captivate the crowds, push boundaries and enable people to seek out adventure.

Right from the offset, the welcome, quality set up and authentic interiors provide a relaxed and realistic setting to conquer the Axe throwing challenge.

Yes, there was a safety briefing, but delivered with flair and finesse, so to keep you alert and on focus.

Additionally, on a serious note, the whole set up including type of axes used, blue chipped flooring, upper board panels and caging have been built for your safety which makes this Axe throwing session, as safe as it can be, so you don’t need to worry and can get ready to sling them Axes.

We loved every minute of our session, fun, informative and what’s not to like about hurling an axe threw the air at a target right?! There are even trick shots to be learnt, my personal fav the Gun Slinger – Pow!

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Gift a Thrilling Trick or a Luxury Treat this Halloween with BuyAGift – #Review

Gift a Thrilling Trick or a Luxury Treat this Halloween with BuyAGift – Review: October 2019

BuyAGift offer a whole range of Spooktacular packages perfect for your Halloween celebrations.

Family Frights

Family Frights include a marvellous mysterious magical Harry Potter Walking Tour of London for Two, so make sure the Witches and Wizards of the family have their wands at the ready just in case he who shall not be named makes an appearance.

Make Halloween a family night out and enjoy a tour for two adults and two children and choose from one of the following ghoulish tours; The Haunted Lantern Tour (Warwick); The Eerie Shadow Tour (Coventry); The Witches Tour (Leamington Spa); Warwick Paranormal Adventure
or Coventry Paranormal Adventure.

London’s murky past hides some dark times, learn all about London’s historical spookiness with a pass for 1 adult and 1 child to the London Bridge Experience.

Adult Scare Nights

Crank up the scare factor and enjoy a frightfully fabulous adult Halloween night.

Trick or Treat this Halloween with BuyAGift Review B

Enjoy a whole range of terrifying activities such as the London Sweeney Todd Tour for two, Jack the Ripper Walking Tour for Two and the Haunted Pub Tour for two.

Halloween Treats 

Fright night too much, well take the scare out of Halloween this season and enjoy a Luxury Treat for two.

Indulge in some much needed you time and treat yourself and a plus one to a super spa package with BuyAGift.

The package includes a full indulgent spa day at the 5-star Radisson Blu Edwardian Manchester city centre.

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York Cocoa Works Chocolate Lollipop Making and Afternoon Chocolatada #Review

York Cocoa Works Chocolate Lollipop Making and Afternoon Chocolatada Review: October 2019

Sophie, founder of York Cocoa Works is a skilled and dedicated chocolate enthusiast.  Creating a bespoke, luxurious and quality brand, York Cocoa works offers a range of chocolatey experiences to suit all tastes.

When visiting York Cocoa Works it feels like family, as Michelle and her team are just as lovely as their chocolate treats.

The Chocolate Lollipop making was a simple, but fun experience which took me back to my childhood evoking memories of baking in the kitchen with my mum.

You are free to release your inner artistic and creative spirit and use the toppings to create your Lollipop Piece de resistance aka your marvellous masterpiece.

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East Lancashire Railway Mid-week Luncheon #Review

East Lancashire Railway Mid-week Luncheon – Review: September 2019

The Bolton street station stop at Bury’s East Lancashire Railway has a rich historic industrial past, with story’s telling of the drastic decline of the traditional railways, and the heart-warming heroic struggles, both past and present, to keep a dying part of Britain’s railway heritage alive for future generations.

The atmosphere on the platform is electrifying, as the steam engine pumps and churns, excitement and anticipation build, as you prepare to be taken on an amazing journey back to the Golden Age of Steam.

Step on the platform and enter a bygone era of transportation and travel, board the vintage train and embark on a special and sophisticated kind of travel experience.

The vintage carriages are perfectly presented, immaculate and are a real breath-taking beauty.

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Grange Live Gaming Birmingham Rage Room #Review

Grange Live Gaming Birmingham Rage Room Review: August 2019

Warmly welcomed by all the team, you could instantly tell they are all a close-knit family at Grange and just a brilliant bunch.

Over 18 and need some time out to de-stress, well prepare to go large, get into your navy-blue overalls to take on the Rage room experience.

Rage Room is not about encouraging rage and anger, but a fun, interactive activity that is an ideal team building exercise, allows you to de-stress or simply smash some stuff up in a safe environment.

Hannah our lovely host, made the experience even more enjoyable.  Hannah made us feel relaxed and created an electrifying atmosphere, you can clearly see her passion for this wild activity.

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Escape Hunt Manchester Dr Who Vs Alice: Worlds Collide and Alice in Puzzleland #Review

Escape Hunt Manchester Dr Who Vs Alice: Worlds Collide and Alice in Puzzleland – Review: May 2019

Get your game on at Escape Hunt Manchester city centre and prepare to become amazing Alice and help Dr Who.

Take on the challenge, step into the future and enter the offices of ChronosCorp HQ.  The location of Eccentric billionaire Alastair Montague’s commercial time travelling experiments which have caused a huge tear is both space and time.

Warning, warning earth beings, a tear in space and time has been detected and an army of Cybermen now plan to break through.

As the Doctor’s loyal friends, we put together our investigative minds to collect Montagues time related artefacts in the mass of the remaining prototype time engine.

Escape Hunt Dr Who Worlds Collide Vs Alice in Puzzleland Review 1_edited1The fate of the universe was in our hands, we powered up and the result was Cybermen deleted, but question is can you?

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