Silver surfers head to The Lakes Aquarium

Silver surfers have been parking their boards in Cumbria in ever-increasing numbers since leading attraction, The Lakes Aquarium, installed a new feature originally designed to entertain visitors of school age. The attraction spent £100,000 on a new Virtual Dive Bell feature unveiled by Michaela Strachan, in March 2008, targeted mainly at children aged eight and over.

Comprising both a virtual journey to the bottom of an African lake, complete with encounters with hippos, Nile crocodiles and bull sharks, with interactive, educational screens, this feature has been a huge hit, but its fans are not necessarily within the intended age profile.

The Lakes Aquarium has found it’s the grannies and gramps who are the hardest to pull away from this feature, particularly when they are at the controls of the interactive pods.

Starved of the addiction of computer games at home, the grandparents have been making the most of technology new to them, using interactive screens, multiple choice quiz-style questions and exciting computer games that have them absolutely hooked.

These more mature visitors are now often to be found hogging the pods, as they follow a quest to discover more about scary creatures, investigating their eating and breeding habits, as well as swotting up on other creature knowledge.

They’ve been intent on completing tasks such as hatching crocodile eggs and feeding the hungry hippo, at times almost forgetting it was the grandchildren they wanted to entertain!

As word has got around, the Aquarium has even witnessed groups of older visitors arriving to explore this experience without any children in tow.

Lakes Aquarium marketing manager, Cathy Burrows, says: "It’s great to find that our Virtual Dive Bell isn’t just appealing to children, but it’s been surprising to see just how popular it is with older visitors. It’s as if they are catching up on lost time, exploring a computer-focused world they missed out on during their own youth. If that’s the case, we’re pleased to be able to offer them this experience."

Pensioners from Cumbria, Lancaster or Morecambe wishing to dive in to the Lakes Aquarium again, or visit for the first time, can take advantage of a special Pensioners Days on October 31. On this day admission to the Aquarium is half-price for those with proof of local residency, such as a utility bill, or driver’s licence.

Those who have taken early retirement can also take advantage of this fabulous offer, if they bring proof of their retirement. Each pensioner or retired person can also bring one friend, of any age, at the same price.

Cathy Burrows concludes: "Enticing a retired parent along to the Aquarium could be a great bit of pre-Christmas research. If it turns out that they, like many of their generation, just love the Virtual Dive Bell, a computer console might be just the ticket for their stocking!"