Our Day at Chessington World of Adventures
We have had lots of lovely things to celebrate recently which means we’ve been lucky enough to head to some lovely places and have some great family days out. One of which being Mini Kat’s 6th Birthday. I honestly can not believe she is 6 now, it’s gone so fast. She had a fantastic birthday with a party and a trip to Chessington World of Adventures with the family which was so much fun, if a little busy. We are quite lucky that it’s only just over an hour away from us so it didn’t take too long to arrive. Now Evie is getting older I’d love a chance to take her to Thorpe Park. Pink Oddy has a great place on why Thorpe Park is perfect on a hot day.
A group of us headed up with our two for one entry tickets thanks to a lot of Krave cereal over the last few weeks but it was so worth it to get six of us in the park for £138 which is a massive saving. You can, of course, take advantage of the online savings however we weren’t sure if we would make it until the last minute so advance tickets just weren’t an option for us.
We arrived quite late in the morning and parked in the Explorers car park close to the Go Ape field. This is the Tiger Field and a short walk from the Explorers gate. It’s really important to note if you park here you have to leave by this gate. We didn’t know this when it was time to leave as the first time we saw a notice of this was when we left through the main exit and saw a sign in the carpark. It would be really ideal for the ticket gate operators to inform you that you need to leave the way you enter to save a little time at the end of a tiring day.
Before visiting I really recommend downloading the app which helped us to get around. It includes a digital map and uses GPS to see where you are in the park, really helpful when planning where to go next and to see what’s close to you. The app also has all the show times, animal encounters and queue times which is so handy and a great way to plan throughout the day.
We visited on Friday 2nd September and it was very busy. We hoped we would get on the bubbleworks for one final time but throughout the day the queue was a minimum of 60 minutes. Because of the amount of people there it meant we didn’t really get to go on a lot but we saw the Penguins of Madagascar, Operation Cheezy Dibbles which was a really fun show full of music and dancing. Absolutely great for kids and is one a few times throughout the day.
We missed a lot of the animal shows from being in queues but we did go on the Zufari ride which is completely worth lining up for. It was awesome. It’s very bumpy and you are very likely to get wet on this ride so if you don’t like that then stay away from the end seats. Each row seats five people however the seats are quite small. Luckily you’re only on the ride for about five minutes. You get up close and personal with giraffes, rhino, blesbok, zebra and flamingos and it’s lovely to see them on a safari adventure. Close to the ride is a part of the zoo featuring Gazelle, Meerkats and a whole host of other animals to peek at.
There are plenty of seating, grassy areas and picnic benches throughout the park for those that take picnics with them as well as clean toilets situated in each of the lands with smaller sinks for little people. For those that have smokers in the group like we did there are plenty of designated smoking areas scattered throughout the park however there is no smoking allowed in queues.
We managed to get on the Carosel, Bumper Cars, Hocus Pocus Hall, Rattlesnake, Scorpian Express and SeaStorm throughout our day. We probably could have gone on a few more rides if we had planned better but the crowds did make it hard to get from one end of the park to the other and it is so much bigger than I remember. Seeing the animals in the sea life centre and through the trail of the kings was great and Mini Kat was really intrigued by the Gorillas.
We will visit Chessington again as it’s just ride for Mini Kat’s age and size now however I really would like to go on a quieter day to get around a bit more as well as stay overnight in one of the hotels as I think that helps you get around a lot more. They also have a glamping option available there too.
Have you been to Chessington World of Adventures recently? What did you think?
We have never been to Chessington but it is quite a way away and if its so crowded we may not bother.
Its much better on a quiet day if you can go in term time or during the cooler months – to be honest I think pretty much every theme park is busy during the school holidays, weekends and bank holidays. The hotel/glamping look lovely and make for a good family break. There is so much to do for families there too.