Puddle Ducks at The Grand Hotel Gosforth Park
Puddle Ducks runs its 0 to 4 baby and pre-school programme in the leisure club pool at The Grand Hotel Gosforth Park, with a parent in the water at every class.
Who it suits
Parents of babies and pre-schoolers in Gosforth and north Newcastle who want a hotel leisure club pool over a council one, and who are happy to get in the water every week themselves.
Why it stands out
- Floaties, Splashers, Kickers and Little Dippers cover newborn to four years, all with a parent in the water throughout
- The teaching pool is shallow at 0.8 to 1.2 metres and kept around 29 to 30 degrees, roped off from the rest of the leisure club
- Spectators get proper seating, both poolside and on a mezzanine level above, which most hotel pools do not offer
- Parking uses the hotel's Parking Eye system, so you register your car at a terminal, ideally in the leisure club, every single visit
- Only the Thursday timetable was published for this pool; no other day of the week shows classes here
Our verdict
A comfortable option if you want a shallow, warm hotel pool with real seating for grandparents or a partner watching, and the price and timetable are published plainly on the venue page. Do not book if your child has started school, since nothing here runs past four years old; Swim Academy for older children is at other North East pools, not this one. Think twice too if Thursday mornings do not suit your week, because that appears to be the only day this venue runs, and the 10am Kickers slot already had a wait list.
What it is
Puddle Ducks uses the leisure club pool at The Grand Hotel Gosforth Park for its full baby and pre-school programme, from Floaties for newborns up to Little Dippers for children approaching their fourth birthday. A parent or carer is in the water for every class, which is standard for this age range across Puddle Ducks, but worth knowing if you were expecting to hand your child over and step back. The pool is shared with hotel leisure club members outside of lesson times, but the teaching space is roped off while Puddle Ducks is running.
Who should book
This fits families in Gosforth, Newcastle Great Park and the northern edge of the city who would rather swim in a warm hotel pool than a large council leisure centre. The published timetable only shows Thursday classes, running from half eight in the morning through to half ten, so it suits a parent with a free weekday morning more than someone working a standard week. Because only the 0 to 4 programme runs here, families with an older child at primary school need to look at a different Puddle Ducks pool for Swim Academy.
What stands out
Access for anyone watching is genuinely good: there is seating right at the poolside as well as an upstairs mezzanine, rather than the single standing area some pools offer. The changing rooms have a family area and individual cubicles, and Puddle Ducks is explicit that babies should not be changed on the raised benches because of the fall risk, recommending a mat on the floor instead. Parking runs through the hotel’s Parking Eye system, so every visit means registering your car at a terminal, and that has to be done again each time you come, not just once.
The verdict
Eighteen pounds a lesson is a pound more than Puddle Ducks charges at its Benfield venue across town, which buys a warmer, shallower pool and hotel-standard viewing rather than a leisure centre one. The gap in the offering is the timetable: with only Thursday sessions published, this is not a pool you can build a Tuesday or Saturday routine around, and the 10am Kickers class already had a wait list rather than open spaces. Skip it if your child is school age, since the programme stops at four, and skip it if a Thursday morning slot genuinely does not work for your week.
More Puddle Ducks venues
All Puddle Ducks venuesPuddle Ducks runs its full 0 to 10 pathway at Everlast Fitness in Hartcliffe, from parent and baby classes through eight levels of Swim Academy, in a warm 1.2 metre pool.
Puddle Ducks runs its 0 to 4 baby and pre-school classes on Saturday mornings only at the Everlast gym pool on Coldhams Lane.
Puddle Ducks has sole use of the Novotel Cambridge North pool on weekday mornings for its 0 to 4 baby and pre-school classes.