The Baby Show
A few weeks ago, I won 3rd prize in Yummy Mummy Tips‘ competition! This won me a genius Baby and All bag and one ticket for The Baby Show held at Earl’s Court in London the 16-18th of October. Woo hoo! My original plan was to attend on Friday, 16 October despite knowing that we would be returning from our holiday in the US on 15 October. I assumed that I could bundle Little Miss off to the in-laws or sister-in-law and hoof it down to London Town on my own. I was wrong. Jet lag is a powerful thing. Especially for Little Miss! Upon further consideration for the good of my child, I decided that packing her off to Nanny & Grandad was not the best idea and it would be better to lie low at home. Hubby generously volunteered to attend The Baby Show with Little Miss and me on Saturday instead so we were sorted. Or so I thought.
Unsuccessful in my attempts to find another free pass for my hubby, I knew we’d be paying the door price of £20 but I figured that would be ok. Our grand scheme was to drive from Peterborough to Cockfosters, take the train all the way to Earl’s Court and enjoy The Baby Show. Someone else had other plans for us. For starters, it took us 30 minutes to get out of Peterborough due to a detour of hubby’s which required us to visit a supplier of his (Hubby runs a Generator Company…supplier was for parts, not drugs!) Then finally happily on our way down the A1, a warning sign alerted us that the A1 was closed after the A14! Great! A ridiculous detour around and through St. Neots did nothing to improve hubby’s mood. Mind you…we had left our house at 11:15am and it was fast approaching 1pm!
Back on the A1 we finally got to Cockfosters (that name makes me laugh every time I say it!) and wouldn’t you know it, the car park at Cockfosters was full! I love that car park- £3 for the day! Straight Piccadilly line into London…gorgeous. Alas, it was not to be. This began the endless circuitous route into London. Time ticked by. The Baby Show was set to close at 5:30. I had joked, somewhere in hour 1 of our drive, that we’d end up finally at Earl’s Court at 4:30. It was becoming a distinct possibility.
New plan…drive to Paddington Station, park in their car park and take the Tube to Earl’s Court. Arrival at Paddington Station: 4:00pm. Left house at 11:15am. 4 hours and 45 minutes to get from just outside Peterborough to Paddington Station. Argh. After a relatively uneventful Tube ride to Earl’s Court, we got into The Baby Show at 4:30pm. Remember that joke?? We made it a reality! I figured that since there was only 1 hour remaining of The Baby Show, I’d be able to get at least a reduced rate if not free entry for hubby as I still had to pay for him. Uh, that would be a no. Apparently the organisers of The Baby Show don’t allow for pro-rated entry fees for poor sods like us who turn up with 1 hour to go. So, £20 entry for Hubby to wander around The Baby Show. And not even for an hour, more like 30 minutes. You see, we were STARVING as we had not eaten since before leaving the house. I was weak, Little Miss needed sustinance and hubby was fractious as well. We scuttled over to Pizza Express, nabbed 2 pizzas and scarfed them down thus leaving 30 minutes to race around The Baby Show.
It looked like there were great things going on at The Baby Show. I’ll never know. 
We managed to nab a few free samples of laundry powders but that’s it. Oh, and Hubby got cornered at the nPower stand and managed to get us switched to nPower! A very unsuccessful trip to The Baby Show. I’d like to really see it sometime!
Having been thwarted at every turn for the entire day, I decided we needed some fresh air and suggested that we walk from Earl’s Court back to Paddington. It was a good suggestion! But a wrong choice at Cromwell Road and Exhibition Road meant that instead of cutting through Kensington Gardens to get to Paddington Station, we went round to Hyde Park and had to double back. By 7:30pm we arrived at Garfunkel’s, near Paddington Station, and ordered dinner for 3 (Little Miss inhaled her omlette and chips) and finally we returned to our car in Paddington Car Park and were on the way home. A thankfully uneventful ride home allowed us to pull into the drive around 10pm! 11 hours after leaving our house, we were back home. 6 hours and 45 minutes in the car, 15 minutes on the tube, 60 minutes in The Baby Show and 60 minutes walking. Knackered. Next time…I’m going by myself!
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Sounds like a hideous day.I think you should stay away from travels plans for a while.Have you heard back from the airline?
Poor you, sounds like hell. But being an exhibitor at the show this year I am so understanding your frustrations with them charging full price at the last minute! Even having paid a fortune for a stand, they still charge exhibitors for parking! Can you believe it and exhibitors dont even get as much as a glass of water, the so called exhibitors lounge was so expensive we sent staff out to McDs or all our profits would have been spent on a mingy sandwich…
On top of that, no breaking down stands until 45 mins after show ends. Well the seating area that drove traffic past my stand was gone by 4pm and we were told not to fret about the empty stand behind us either as that would be filled with the Telly Tubbies, YEAH RIGHT, a cardboard cut out!!!
This show was a waste of time, unless they support smaller businesses no one will get there, we could never afford it again, huge loss once all costs are added together…Not impressed…
Oh, I did begin replying just to say, you can always visit our online site!!! http://www.kiddycat.co.uk
VERY interesting! Perhaps you should write to The Baby Show organisers. I’m tempted to do so regarding the exhorbitant fee and lack of pro-rating. The poor sod who let us in got it in the neck from me and said that other shows at Earl’s Court allow for reduced fees for latecomers so why not The Baby Show? Perhaps they think they’re too good. I really think you should write to them. I don’t know how other shows work but the idea that you should have to pay for parking AND be given rubbish food that you have to PAY for is INSANE! Not doing much to support small businesses and there were a fair few of you from what I could see. Interesting stuff. Sorry to hear about your bad experience.
Thanks for commenting as well!
Had I realised you were going and using the A1 I would have warned you and probably given you a shorter diversion!! What a pity you had such a nightmare day and as for paying £20 for less than an hour what a con! I know that onewell tho, I take 53 people in a coach pay £15 minimum for the privilege of parking the passengers all pay the exorbitant price to get in and they struggle to let me in to use the toilet never mind actually visit the show. They don’t even offer us somewhere to go and keep warm!! As long as they make money nothing else seems to matter so get on your soap box write that letter and see if you can at least get a free ticket out of them for next time!!!!
I sent them an email and a link to my post so we’ll see what sort of response I get. I know the organiser of The Designer Baby Show (slightly smaller scale) which is in Slough on 22 November and told her about my experiences at The Baby Show. She assured me that if someone turned up with 1 hour to go at her event, they would have been allowed in for FREE. Seems like when something gets BIG, they forget the little people. There are THOUSANDS of massive-money-spending parents who traipse through The Baby Show’s doors every weekend…you’d think they’d have a slightly different atttitude as they are obviously making money hand over fist. Alas…we’ll see. Thanks for the comment…I’ll check with you in advance when we venture out on the motorways!
aw you poor thing! what a nightmare! come to Excel in Feb and email me in advance and we will arrange for you to have one of our exhibitor tickets!
Aw, thank you Helen! How nice of you. I’ll keep it in mind for Feb! Love your products by the way! I’m coming to The Designer Baby Show in November so I’ll pop by and introduce myself. You are genius Mummies!
Just to let everyone know that at The designer baby show if anyone comes in with 1 hours to go it will be FREE!! 9 days until the first show, FREE parking for all visitors and exhibitors.
If anyone mentions TWITTER to me you can come in for FREE anytime!
2010 Sandown show will have over 225 exhibitors and the parking will still be FREE for all 3 days!! http://www.thedesignerbabyshow.co.uk
FREE entry to anyone who comes to the show and mentions TWITTER!! http://www.thedesignerbabyshow.co.uk
Hi
I had a similar experience, only after a disastrous journey I gave up and went home without even getting there. We had sushi at Paddington station (Sarita’s favourite) and felt we had saved the day.
Sarah
At least you had the sushi! We had a gr8 walk around London that got a bit too long but still. Accentuate the positives!
Hi
I’m exhibiting at the Designer Baby Show so if you need a ticket, let me know. Please stop by and see me – I may be on my own for most of the day so would love some company!
If I make it I will do for sure!