Doctor Who Experience

piccolopat

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 25, 2014
DH and I will visit London from the U.S. in late August. We are thinking about taking a day to travel to Cardiff to see the Doctor Who Experience and add with Cardiff Castle or the National Museum of Wales if time permits. We'd love to hear from our UK friends on whether the Doctor Who Experience is worth the long trip out from London. We'll be in London almost 12 days and I've planned full days with only one day left to plan. For now it's being left as an "anything that we missed so far" day but if going to Cardiff for the day is worth it, I'll pencil that in.

As a point of reference, my daily commute to work is 2 1/2 hours each way via commuter rails and subway and so the train ride to Cardiff is fine as long as the destination is good.

Thanks for any feedback you might have.
 
Hi There

Welcome to the UK Community board, Im Sue and I live in Cardiff, so hopefully I can help you out.
I have been to the Dr Who Experiance and as a fan of Dr Who I throughly enjoyed it. If you do want to see it though this year is your last chance as it closes its doors later on this year and will finish forever, so grab it now.
Cardiff Castle is beautiful and our city has some of the best shopping and dining around. The journey is a very easy and plesent 2.5 hours from London Paddington with no changes. You arrive right in the heart of the city centre, you can then easy get the Bay Bus down to the Bay or a cab if you like for Dr Who and maybe grab a bite to eat and a drink on the waterfront.
There is also the Welsh Assembley and The Norweign Church to see down there.

You can then make your way back to the City Centre, either by Bay Bus, 10 mins, Cab 5 mins, or on foot approx 25-30 mins and see the beautiful Cardiff Castle, The Principality Stadium, a sports stadium where all the Major sporting events and Concerts are held. The Shopping centres and dining areas are plentiful right around the town centre. We have a fabulous Civic Centre and a wonderful city centre Museum all within walking distance.

National Museum of Wales is on the outskirts of Cardiff and I think to do Dr Who, and Cardiff Castle and the City Centre Museum in a day is very doable, but I think you would be hard pushed time wise to do the Museum Of Wales as well in just one day.

I hope this helps in some way and if you need any further information please let me know.

Cheers

Sue
 
I'd say go for it, the Doctor Who experience is perfect for any whovian out there it has lots of props , costumes all ranging from the classic series to the new series and if you are doing anything else while your at the experience try the TARDIS tour. With the TARDIS tour you can basically go inside the studio they film Doctor Who and honestly it's a lot of fun the experience. Also I hope you enjoy your trip around Cardiff and I hope the museum as well as the castle impress you while your there.
 
Thank you both for the replies. Do you think it is necessary to pre-book our rail and Doctor Who Experience tickets now or can we wait until we are in London?
 


I went to England last year and we went over into wales for a bit mostly for the doctor who experience. It was definitely worth it, one of our favorite parts of the trip to be honest.
 
Im not sure with regards Dr Who as I have heard its busy because its the last year, so I think you might as well. With regards the train, prices go up the closer you get to the leaving date, if you are able to select a day you know you can go and retuen I would be inclined to buy tickets sooner rather than later. Try and get advance saver tickets, although you must remember you are tied into the day and time you select. Its expensive peak times, from 7am - 10.30am and 4pm -7.30pm! Im presuming you will want to leave early in the morning and have a full day in Cardiff. However if you are happy to wait and buy on the day or just before you can get an open return at a more expensive price.
 
Thank you both for the replies. Do you think it is necessary to pre-book our rail and Doctor Who Experience tickets now or can we wait until we are in London?
Oh absolutely. Trust me you won't regret going there. I will tell you as soon as you go through the doors of the queuing area your pretty much going through an interactive section at the very beginning before you get to the actual costumes and props as well as the other stuff they have on display. I won't spoil anything for you but I guarantee you that the interactive section will be alot a lot a lot a lot of fun. And I know it's a bit of a plug here but if your interested in my upcoming trip report for DLP you will find a link to the thread where you can comment on it. I won't be able to post anything while I'm on my trip I'm leaving for DLP tomorrow morning but I will have a lot to say when I get back. So here's the link for you and again I really hope you enjoy the Doctor Who experience just as I did back in April: https://www.disboards.com/threads/t...om-maidenhead-returns-to-euro-disney.3616825/
 


Oh absolutely. Trust me you won't regret going there. I will tell you as soon as you go through the doors of the queuing area your pretty much going through an interactive section at the very beginning before you get to the actual costumes and props as well as the other stuff they have on display. I won't spoil anything for you but I guarantee you that the interactive section will be alot a lot a lot a lot of fun. And I know it's a bit of a plug here but if your interested in my upcoming trip report for DLP you will find a link to the thread where you can comment on it. I won't be able to post anything while I'm on my trip I'm leaving for DLP tomorrow morning but I will have a lot to say when I get back. So here's the link for you and again I really hope you enjoy the Doctor Who experience just as I did back in April: https://www.disboards.com/threads/t...om-maidenhead-returns-to-euro-disney.3616825/

Thanks for this info and enjoy DLP. We were there 15 years ago as a day trip when we visited Paris. We had a great time and I'm sure you will as well.
 
Im not sure with regards Dr Who as I have heard its busy because its the last year, so I think you might as well. With regards the train, prices go up the closer you get to the leaving date, if you are able to select a day you know you can go and retuen I would be inclined to buy tickets sooner rather than later. Try and get advance saver tickets, although you must remember you are tied into the day and time you select. Its expensive peak times, from 7am - 10.30am and 4pm -7.30pm! Im presuming you will want to leave early in the morning and have a full day in Cardiff. However if you are happy to wait and buy on the day or just before you can get an open return at a more expensive price.

Thanks for the info. I guess I'll have to nail down my day to day plans so I can pick a date for Cardiff.
 
I visited Cardiff including the Dr. Who experience in May. My DD (23) loved it. I found the "experience" part a bit lame but the exhibition was very good. (I'm old enough to remember watching the 2nd Dr in the 1960s!)

The castle was amazing - I'm so glad we paid the extra to have a house tour.

We were staying near the Queens Street station so took the train down to the bay and then had a pleasant walk to the Dr Who experience. If you are a Torchwood fan remember to look out for the Ianto Jones shrine (again it was something DD wanted to do.)
 

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