Читать книгу Crap Days Out - Gareth Rubin - Страница 7

With an impressive average of one star out of five on the popular travel website Tripadvisor, Dorchester’s Dinosaur Museum has its work cut out in living up to the hype.

One of the main talking points is the notable lack of dinosaurs in the museum, whether alive or dead. Few visitors had expectations of the former, but a smattering of the latter would not have gone amiss. Instead the museum apparently features a number of plastic toys similar to those widely available at your local market, and a costume which was once in an episode of Doctor Who. That is one of the old series of Doctor Who before it became ironic. The whole place seemingly evokes a strong sense of being in someone’s spare room. Perhaps it is also a mistake to show Jurassic Park on permanent loop, since it only serves to remind visitors of what can be done with a substantial budget and a certain degree of effort.

Here is just a selection of the comments on Tripadvisor:

‘The only thing correct on any of the leaflets is the address. I can imagine that the only award this place ever got was for worst attraction. Papier mâché old tatty models, bits of junk in boxes to feel, no real dinosaurs, and the sound effect of a dinosaur was an old bike horn. All in a room no bigger than half a tennis court. No staff except one miserable and rude woman doing both tickets and shop. Took my dino mad son who asked if we could go somewhere else after five minutes.’ AMW

‘I’d rather go the dentist than back to this place. Styles itself as Britain’s Premier Dinosaur Museum. It’s not even the premier dinosaur museum in its street.’ Harbottle

‘I paid £17 for three of us to go into someone’s house and look at plastic toys nailed to the wall, and put our hands in a box with feathers in it. I could have done that at home.’ CC Speakman

‘We were out in minutes.’ Helen

‘Can’t think what they are spending the money on. Certainly not on air-conditioning. The upstairs rooms were like a sauna, despite it being a cold, wet day. One of the most memorably bad exhibits was a plastic box on which was written the question “T. Rex is viewed as the king of the dinosaurs. Which animal is today’s equivalent?” Inside was a plastic lion, with a leg missing, nailed to the floor of the box.’ WorthingTruthSeeker

‘When we asked what their refund policy was having been round it twice in about eight minutes the woman at the counter looked like she’d seen the ghost of a severely hacked off T-Rex.’ Scatman

‘“Interactive” means you can poke some more holes in the paper models. Avoid it. If you don’t believe me, stand outside and look at the faces of people coming out before you make a decision.’ Idratherbesleeping

‘You would be better served burning a £20 note which would be wildly more entertaining and much better value for money.’ Bidsky