Table of Contents
Summary
A guide to and review of the Toddler Play sessions at Oxygen Activeplay in Salford MediaCity.
| Where: | Oxygen Activeplay – MediaCity, Salford |
| When: | Monday 9th February 2026 – we stayed 10:20am – 12:20pm (2 hours) |
| Who: | Mr Where and Youngest Where [YW] (2 year old boy) |
| How Much: | £20.50 for a 3 hour toddler play session (5 and under) starting at 9:30am (includes a £6 fee for reusable Oxygen branded jump socks) |
| Would We Go Again? | 😄 Yes! We had a great time. |
Likes / Dislikes
Likes 👍
- Lots of different areas to explore – the inflatable slide was YW’s favourite.
- 4 hours of free parking for Oxygen customers at Quayside car park. Enter your registration number in the tablet at reception.
- Long, flexible session time from 9:30am to 12:30pm. Turn up any time you want.
- Under-5s only – no worries about older kids bundling over toddlers and it wasn’t very busy.
- Lots of decent-sized free lockers – just enter a code, no coins required.
Dislikes 👎
- Some areas of the equipment could have been cleaner – crumbs, hair and grime that could be easily vacuumed away (particularly in the inflatable section).
- Broken buttons in the Strike Arena – stopped you from completing the game.
- Metal toilets – they always evoke dirty public toilet vibes.
What is there?
From the website, I wasn’t 100% sure exactly what would/wouldn’t be open for the Toddler Play sessions. So here’s some detail about what’s available.
Interactive Worlds
These are small walkthrough areas before you enter the main park. We spent about 10 minutes exploring these – it felt a little bit like filler for spare space at the entrance of the park rather than proper areas to play.
The space for Oxygen wasn’t purpose designed – it’s where the former “I’m a Celebrity – Jungle Challenge” attraction was.
- Clothing/Washing Machine Room – mini ball pool, mini trampolines, big crawl-in washing machine, crawl-through tumble dryer.
- Banana/Egg Room – interactive floor, bouncy ‘eggs’ and large soft banana to walk on.
- Lights/Mirror Room – mirrored walls with light strips.
- Pipe/Peephole Room – a room with lots of painted pipes and little peepholes with screens inside.
Locker Area
There are lots of free lockers – just enter a PIN code to lock them.
Cafe
A large cafe area with lots of seating (there are even more seats behind this photo). We bought a gingerbread man for a snack for £2.65.
Trampolines
Lots of trampolines at different heights with various interconnecting “soft bits” in between.
Inflatable Area
Inflatable area with slide (very steep, almost vertical climb), large gym balls and inflatable “stalagmites”.
Soft Play
A small toddler soft play area with slides – aimed at kids 5 and under.
Strike Arena
The Strike Arena is usually aimed at over 5s, but was open to all in the toddler session. I can see why – there are some steep climbs and higher bits that would be challenging for toddlers to reach.
On a tablet you select a colour, type in your name and then race around pressing buttons that match your colour in different parts of the arena to get the highest score. Sadly, two of the buttons were broken so that stopped us from progressing in the game.
Giant Airbag
A big cushioned airbag with two jump points at different heights.
Toddler Play Activities
On the website it advertised music and games led by the Oxygen “Hero Crew”. We didn’t see any staff-led activities in our time there, but there were some extra things dotted around the park: dress-up costumes, books and a parachute.
To be honest, we wanted to just enjoy the park and wouldn’t have taken part in these extras even if available.
Closed High Ropes Course and Sky Rider
The High Ropes course and Sky Rider (metal rollercoaster style zip line around the top of the park) were both closed due to the 1.2m and 1.35m height restrictions on these activities.
Conclusion
We had a great time at Oxygen and would definitely return for another Toddler session. There’s a really good variety of activities and it easily kept my son occupied and engaged for a couple of hours. He was a very tired boy at the end of the day!