Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular

I've just left Liverpool on the train after seeing Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular at Liverpool's Echo Arena with my little girl.

Spectacular is certainly an understatement. It was absolutely amazing!

We arrived at the arena just before the doors opened at 10am for an 11am start. This is my first arena experience so hunting for the right door to get in the place was the first job. Thankfully, it's pretty obvious. It has a City Side and a River Side entrance. We were River Side so we made our way to the door - second in the queue.
A ten minute wait and we were in.

Block 12; Row KK; Seats 299-300
Surprisingly easy to find after we'd made the necessary trip to the toilet.
Walking through the doors the arena opened out before us. Seat on three sides with a blank space at one end surrounded by dinosaur teeth. In the middle of the arena space was what looked like a rock formation with space around it for the dinosaurs, presumably.
Our seats were brilliant. Around 20 rows from the back with an excellent view of everything.
It was 10:15. We had 45 minutes of waiting yet.

There's no point in me going through the entire show. We were led by a paleontologist who described everything about the dinosaurs we were seeing - and we saw some amazing dinosaurs.

Every single dinosaur had some sort of animatronic components to it from the small raptors to the massive Brachiosaur which was about 30ft tall. Every one moving as if it were real. Reality, I believe, would be the next step.

The highlight for both me and my daughter was the dramatic entrance of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The storyline for it's entrance was based on it saving it's child from being bullied by other dinosaurs. The arena grew dark and quiet. Then came a deep rumbling before the loudest roar and in it came. It was huge and moved, like the other dinosaurs, so smoothly you wouldn't think it was robotic. It wondered around the arena roaring and snapping at the other dinosaurs. Amazing.

There was also a touch of humour added to the event.
The paleontologist rummaging through dinosaur poo; the big T-Rex interrupting the narration with a massive roar; the baby T-Rex taking the limelight and a bow of his own at the end.

Overall, a truly amazing spectacle.
You don't think about how things are done or what you see that show they're not real. They're so huge and realistic in their movement and their actions you're drawn into it all.

A brilliant day and a highly recommended show.

(Check out these photos from the day - http://bit.ly/IuZ4z)

(See videos on my YouTube channel - http://www.youtube.com/pdsharpe)

BYL.