Xscape

Loud and bright and busy — if you like that sort of thing. I visited for the Imax cinema but had a look around at everything and this place is quite the centre of fun. From arcade games to win tickets for prizes to air hockey to milkshake and fast food places and even an ice cream van outside. What most caught my eye was the climbing wall and over head walkway hanging course that is right in the middle of the centre and on above everything else! scary stuff but a great challenge — may have to go back to try it out — see the pics — they also have an immersive (i think 6D?) cinema pod.

Nestled inbetween Castleford and Pontefract near the M62, also with its own train station (Glasshoughton), Xscape is in a pretty accessible location! It’s a while to get there on bus and train from Leeds to be fair (about 45 mins on the train or on the boring 410 bus), but i don’t think you could get a facility this huge in Leeds! Think of this place as like ‘The White Rose Centre’ in Leeds, but instead of mainly retail units the place is full of entertainment facilities and eateries. If you’ve been on the M62 towards Hull or Leeds then you’ve probably seen it.
‘Cas-​Vegas’ (what I’ve heard the locals call this area) perfectly sums up Xscape. It’s a massive leisure centre full of things to do. The massive purple thing is even bloody visible from Pontefract! You have sports facilities (arguably the main attraction which i havent been in is the snow slope), restaurants, bars, clothing stores, cycle shop, arcades, a bowling alley, a cinema, gym, skatepark, Lazer quest, etc, etc. There’s loads to do.
If you fancy a bit of shopping or just get bored of Xscape, Next door is Junction 32 (which used to be Freeport), which is a big outlet shopping centre full of clearance stores from brands such as Nike, Reebok, Gap, Next, etc. There are also loads of drive-​thrus and a B&Q (KFC and McDonalds).
This place I’ve found gets busier on weekends, in the evening and at nights (this place is a busy nightspot by night full of revellers from mainly Castleford and Pontefract). Other times I’ve found the place to be not too busy. On a Friday evening when I visited the place was busy as hell and you’d probably be fighting for parking space.
Honestly, if you don’t find something to keep yourself occupied in here then I don’t know what’s wrong with you!
**
The bad points in my opinion are that Xscape lacks in shops that I actually want to go in. There’s only Ark, which I’d actually go into and have a look. If you want to shop then go next door to Junction 32.
The place is also packed full of chains you see on any high street as well. It’s just not that exciting on the restaurant and bar front either. I mean come on… Wetherspoons? Frankie and Bennys? It’s popular though so I guess the majority are satisfied and having fun
I suppose if you’re in Pontefract or Castleford you’d come here because to put it blunt both town centres are ghost towns (I only go to Pontefract for Haribo)

Let me start by saying that I review individual businesses at Xscape on their individual merits and that this review is about the general set up and management of the centre. I have held off writing this review but have found that my observations have been confirmed several times.
for all it’s claims Xscape is not a good place for young people to go without the protection of at least one adult. The security employed by Xscape are aggressive and racist. They target young people and, as long as there is no-​one with authority around, will use verbal and physical aggression to intimidate. Members of the public who dare to speak out are verbally abused.
Of course it is highly unlikely that all the security personnel are as bad as this example but until Xscape get their house in order parents would do well to either accompany their children or make sure their children use facilities elsewhere. When I see evidence of an improved régime I will, of course, update my review.

Both of my kids have had birthday parties here one in the laser quests which went down well with the kids although the service was pretty slow with one member of staff doing most of the work whilst two others stood around and had a chat. When booking this party they offer the cosmic golf at a reduced rate I wouldnt waste your time with this one. Cost wise I think it was £12 per head.
The soft play area does an excellent younger kids party with each child coming away with a teddy and a separate area for the parties to have their food, the staff are extremely helpful and friendly. Cost wise I think it was £16 per head.
The sledging parties get bonus points for being unique but be prepared for the kids to feel a little cheated and complaining it was all over too quickly. I’m not sure about the costs.

Xscape is practically on my doorstep so, as you can imagine, I pretty much live there! Though there are several other cinemas, eateries, bowling alleys and shops in the area that I live in, Xscape is always my first choice. And I’ll tell you why.
Restaurants: Bella Italia, Flaming Dragon, Chiquitos, Ask, Frankie and Bennys, Nando’s, Pizza Express and The Winter Seam are my favourites (especially The Winter Seam). I visit at least one a week and the service is always exceptional. There are other places too (I just prefer to stick to the places that I’m familiar with) and I’m sure their standards are equally high.
The bowling alley is a BowlPlex and is fantastic, but is more pricey than your average Super Bowl.
Cineworld at Xscape is exactly as you would expect, apart from the fact that this one is HUGE!
If you’re looking for a shopping experience, you should probably visit Junction 32. It’s a 30 second walk over the road, and packed with a variety of good stores. I’m not saying that Ark, Ellis Brigham or any of the various sporting stores aren’t acceptable. Just that Xscape advertises itself as ‘The Ultimate Entertainment Destination’, NOT ‘The Ultimate Shopping Destination’.
In a nutshell, you’d be silly not to give your nearest Xscape a try. After all– it doesn’t cost a penny to go in and have a look around!

I live one motorway junction down the m62 from Xscape, and to be honest it’s pretty handy having such a variety of cheapish restaraunts, a cinema and kids play area so close.
Have been to the Chiquitos, Nando’s, Pizza Express, Ask and Frankie and Bennys, and as you would expect they are all decent enough. The indian buffet place upstairs is also okay’ish’. It’s not the place to go if you’re looking for something different, but great for families like mine.
The cinema is of decent size, and is a cineworld, so we save a fair bit of money with my wife’s cineworld card. It has a decent selection of mainstream films, but is generally quite busy. I also still can’t quite stomach the price of the popcorn and pop, but it seems like the norm nowadays!
Last of all, I am often dragged along to ‘Xplore’ for kid’s parties, and again it’s decent enough. It gets the kids quite excited, but in my opinion it has a strange layout in which you can go for ages without actually seeing your kids (which is a bit worrying when one is still not fully potty trained!). It is definitely inferior to ‘Polka dots’ in Garforth but still worth a visit if you fancy letting your kids loose for a wee while!
So yeah, it’s not the sort of place I like to go too regularly (the strange looking gypsies put me off!), but it is definitely an asset to the region, and has been a huge success.

Let’s face it there is so much entertainment and cinema to offer in the city centre that sometimes it’s not obvious to look a bit further a field but I beg you, do. I know that was a feeble attempt at begging but I’ve been on my knees way too long this week already so you’ll have to take my word for it. And my word says Xscape is a complex that should be explored.
We’re not talking the other side of the world here. It’s a quick drive down the M62 to the rather amusingly known «Cas-​Vegas» aka Castleford. For that short drive the pay-​off is good. It’s an entertainment hub with loads of stuff under the one roof. Of course you have the rather immense snow slope but that warrants its own inclusion so I’m sticking to the other stuff on offer.
How about a big multi-​plex cinema with all your latest blockbusters. It’s a decent cinema and part of the Cineworld group. If a film isn’t your bag then what about bowling? Again, we’re talking a decent amount of lanes and I’ve never waited much longer than 20 minutes to play which is a good sign. If you want to be a big kid (and I do quite often) then you’ve got more arcades than you can throw your unwanted (or wanted) change at. Just for my own note, I think you’ll find I am the undisputed Air hockey queen so if you ever see me hustling around the foyers be warned, I rock!
Now if that isn’t enough then really what is wrong with you? However, you have crazy golf. I can recommend avoiding the cosmic golf though. It’s about as cosmic as septic peg and nothing else. You’ve also got some militant laser action and dodgems. Phew!
As for eating, well take your pick. Italians, pizza, fast food, chicken and the lot. There are some shops too and a few nice bars and a few so less nice bars. At least one of the bars shows live football and there are some shops too to add to its appeal. Just be warned, a different species seem to come out in Cas-​Vegas on a Friday night so go fully expected feeding time at the zoo.

Xscape is retail park you can actually spend more than an hour at and not get bored. Fancy that in these here modern times. Xscape doesn’t actually call itself a retail park, it calls itself the ultimate entertainment destination, which I believe is not in the least bit modest, but it’s got a fair arsenal to back the statement up with. Ok so you’ve got the snow slope, the snow bars, the dodgems, the laser zone, a skate park, an aerial assault course, a cinema, a gym, cosmic golf, bars, restaurants, coffee, and last but not least, shopping. Right, from a generic food point of you there’s a choice of pretty much most genres, think of it as the supermarket brand version of variety dips all connected to one central plastic vein. Ok the run down is, there’s a Nandos, a Frankie and Benny’s, a Pizza Express, a Subway, Bella Italia, Flaming Dragon, Burger King, Starbucks, Rockies Bar, Sno! Bar, Lloyds Bar, Chiquitos, and a few more. There’s plenty. If you’re hungry and you’re not the mega mega fussy type, you can pretty much feed everyone. Shopping wise caters more to the skater surfer outdoorsy type. I dare not say what’s there, as lately there’s been a bit of a shake up and every time I visit Xscape it seems something else has changed, a standard is the Ellis Brigham store, and the more trendier Ark, previous expeditions included stores selling super trendy Paul Frank, Analog, Nordica, WESC, Westbeach, Ripcurl, Hurley, Atticus and the like. If they pulled in more stores to fill in the empty units this would be a really sweet little entertainment destination. Nearly guys, nearly.

My main experience with Xscape is from using their most excellent laser quest services. My boyfriend’s birthday was coming up and so I decided to organise a huge surprise laser quest session with a whole bunch of our friends. Booking was easy, I phoned in advance and put a deposit down for us, and it was sorted.
On the day everything was dandy, we settled the rest of the bill, and we were ready to go! The only downside was of course the fact that as there was only 14 or so of us there weren’t enough of us to fill the laser quest capacity, and we had to play alongside children. Beyond that, it was immense fun. Being a massive Call of Duty fan I fancied myself somewhat of a sniper, but alas, in «real life» this was not quite the case. Not that this marred the fun, the laser quest was awesome and much bigger than I expected!
As well as laser quest, Xscape also has a cinema, bowling, health and fitness suites, dodgems, a skate park and even climbing activities — which, most excitingly, are held in the humungous entrance hall over the escalators — very exciting!
It is a leisure centre literally filled with things to do. You really ought to pay them a visit.