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Parent Lab / Reviews

ParentLab Review: Isla de Muerta 6 Man Pirate Tent

A great looking tent, poorly executed.

1 / 5 Overall
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Pros
  • Great looking tent
  • Very spacious
  • x3 sleeping pods
  • Day light block
Cons
  • Poor instructions
  • Nightmare to erect
  • Flimsy material
  • Condensation
Product
The Skandika Isla de Muerta 6 man pirate tent. Best price £159.
For this family test, we booked a 4 day stay at WoWo in East Sussex (WoWo review here).

Experience

I was excited about getting this tent, I thought about dressing up (as a pirate!) and playing the Pirates of the Caribbean music as I pitched the tent to cheers and arrr’s from my children. Sadly, that was all just a dream. Despite my best intentions, this pirate tent experience was a nightmare.

The tent is heavy in the bag and a lot bigger than it looks in the pictures. The instructions are a sheet of paper. The instructions promise coloured coded help and simple to follow steps. No. There was no colour coded anything. I mean the instructions say ‘colour coded’ but don't actually say what bloody colour - the tent and poles are either black or red. As is the whole tent. The only colour I could find was an orange. Unhelpful then, that the instructions nor anything else makes any reference or match this orange. Two strings in the tent poles snapped and had to be fixed. It took over two hours (in the blazing sun) to put this tent up. All my pirate enthusiasm evaporated.

Once up, the first thing I noticed was how hot the tent was inside. There are 2 very small vents plus an opening at the centre of the rooftop peak, but they did little to keep the tent cool. Leaving the front entrance open to cool the tent created a new problem in that we were soon hosting a whole menagerie of flying insects as the entrance has no fly net. The tent is like Doctor Who’s tardis inside, very spacious with a central computerised control system (no not really), but there is plenty of room. There are no storage pockets either.

The groundsheet and tent are not at one with each other. So, on slightly uneven ground, you are going to have a nice open skirting board and draft. The tent walls make a bit of flapping noise at night with thanks to the air skirting board draft.

Outside the tent looks fabulous. Very eye catching and drew many stares and comments. The kids loved it. The skull and crossbones on the outside supposedly illuminate at night. Ours did not. Though I have since found out you need to shine a torch on the skull and cross bones to activate the illumination - seems pointless to me; who wants to wake up in the night bursting for a... - but have to spend time carefully stepping over the strings around the tent to shine a torch on everything to get it to illuminate? With kids asleep inside? Yes, they’d appreciate that - someone creeping about outside with a torch.

Sleeping in the tent was very good. The sleeping pods have fly nets and do keep some of the early morning sunlight out - not a lot, but enough. They are sealed and again, very spacious. We were cold during the night, as daylight broke the temperature rose. Condensation in the main area of the tent was very bad. Standing up, my back was wet from the tent lining. Not a major issue, but confirms the ventilation is not adequate for such a large tent.

Verdict

This is a large tent that can easily sleep 6 people across the 3 sleeping pods - more if you utilise the space outside the sleeping pods. The tent is a kids dream, but they do not have to put the thing up - and that was the major issue for me. String snapping, condensation, drafts, lack of flynet etc. Yes, it looks fun, but for real world use, the fun is outweighed by the negatives. Shame. Taking the children camping? Camping With Kids: 16 Essential Items You Need To Pack!
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