Alice and the Chocolate Factory (Cadbury World)

Name: Picasso

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Product:	Cadbury World
Date:	29/05/06 (1702 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Chocolate and more chocolate!

Disadvantages: You might eat too much

Last summer I visited Cadbury World in Birmingham along with my husband, my sister and my 10-year-old niece Alice. Both my sister and niece are self-confessed chocoholics. Quite a few of Alice’s friends had been and all the feedback on the trip had been positive. As a birthday treat for her we went along last May.

Before we went
I decided to check out the website regarding opening times and was glad I did. It was only then that I realised that you really needed to book in advance either by phone or on line. The place opened at 9a.m on the day we wanted to go (a Saturday) and Cadbury’s were booking places in half-hour slots from then on. I initially clicked on the 11a.m. slot, to find that only 3 spaces were available whilst there were plenty for 11.30a.m. For health and safety reasons, a limited amount of people are allowed per session.

On our journey down from Manchester, questions of “Are we nearly there yet?” were frequent as were statements by Alice like “I can smell chocolate, I can taste chocolate”, “Can we get there any quicker?”

On arrival
Allowing for traffic we had given ourselves plenty of time and arrived early. We went straight to the pre booked desks and were given our tickets. We sat having a drink until our allotted time. Twenty minutes before, we were asked to form a queue. During this time, official check tickets to ensure that no one is queue jumping and artistes entertain the children. Before long, we were handing in our tickets. We were given a carrier bag containing 4 chocolate bars per person, these consisted of a curly wurly, wafer bar, dairy milk and a crème egg. Alice was also given a quiz to complete.

Our journey begins
The Aztec forest starts our trek, travelling back in time to see how the Mayan Indians and the Aztecs lived. Here the quiz begins too, see how cocoa became the central way of life and find out who was responsible for bringing the secret of chocolate back to Europe. This was a really interesting start, especially for the children.

The Cadbury Story is next, welcomed by John Cadbury on screen you can hear the inspiring story of the early struggles to establish the business. The Cadbury family were Quakers and unlike many factory owners at the time, cared for the welfare of their workforce. The story explains how the growth in productivity increased, therefore prompting a move to “the factory” in 1879 and how it became named Bournville.

The chocolate making section has a great smell. Alice decided that chocolate must be good for you when she realised just how much milk was used along with cocoa to make Cadbury’s dairy milk. Here we were given another chocolate bar.

On to the factory itself. Regulations don’t allow you to visit the whole factory, but a specially created route takes you through to see how chocolate is moulded and wrapped. You can see into some areas through a Perspex screen. The smell by now is intoxicating. On leaving this section we were all given handfuls of chocolate. By now the bag was quite heavy, Alice having eaten several of it’s contents making it a little lighter.

Cadabra, step into a Beanmobile and enjoy a ride through Chocolate Wonderland. This is great fun for the children and some adults too. Queues do form at this stage and the ride isn’t compulsory, but you just have to do it.

The demonstration area follows. We were greeted with a liquid shot of milk chocolate served in a glass and the test is not to get it on your lips – impossible! Here you can dip caramel and fudge into warm chocolate or try your hand at writing with it. Again great fun and a hands on experience, but be careful, the chocolate is unlimited, how much can you take? This is a chocoholics heaven.

One area that doesn’t give out chocolate is the Cadbury and T.V. room. Here you can see the actual set used by Cadbury’s for the original Coronation Street sponsorship. (The one with Albert Tatlock) I really enjoyed this bit because it includes a trip down memory lane and seeing old adverts that I had long forgotten about.

The Purple Planet is the penultimate section and is a state of the art exhibition, where you will experience chocolate like never before. Chase a Cadbury crème egg, grow your own cocoa beans or watch as it rains chocolate.

The Cadbury Collection is the end of the journey. This was my favourite of all, a haven for nostalgics, this museum of memorabilia is home to a large range of Cadbury artefacts, long forgotten chocolate wrappers, cocoa tins dating from the 1950’s and posters which used to adorn our shops.

The World’s Biggest Cadbury Shop
Here you will find every kind of Cadbury bar, tins of cocoa, boxes of biscuits as well as lots of novelties and souvenirs which include clothing, chocolate smelling pens and china cups displaying the Cadbury logo, ideal for those hot drinks of chocolate or cocoa. I can only liken it to an Aladdin’s cave for chocolate lovers. At this point, Alice decided to buy the chocolate smelling pen. As she paid for it at the till, she was given a couple of novelty chocolates. She soon got wise to this and decided to purchase items separately at different tills and ended up with a dozen or so more goodies. The carrier bag was now bulging.

And the rest
Feeling desperate for something savoury, we headed to the self-service restaurant. As well as the usual chips, burgers and sausages, there were healthy options including jacket potatoes and salads. All but Alice decided on a jacket potato. I was surprised at the reasonably priced food, seeing as they had quite a captive crowd. As we paid for our purchases, guess what? we were given more chocolate! Alice was by this time very quiet as she tucked into her chips and ketchup. You guessed, she was feeling a little nauseous and wanted some fresh air.

Outside there were tables and chairs and ice cream kiosks, a further but smaller chocolate shop, in case you hadn’t has enough and a novelty play area. Whether this is a good idea I don’t know. Children could perhaps work off some of the chocolate they had just eaten or, they could lose it some other way!

After a total of three hours, we decided to head back to Manchester. Alice slept the whole journey, having said that she didn’t want to see chocolate ever again. Once home, I gave her the bag containing the day’s freebies to share with her friends and her eyes lit up. Twenty-four hours later, it had all been eaten.

Finally
We all thoroughly enjoyed our time at Cadbury World. Entrance fee was £12.50 per adult and £9.50 per child. Students and OAP’s £9.95. Children under 4 go free. When you think about how much chocolate you are given, I think this is excellent value. You need to allow around 2 hours for the experience itself and add on time spent in the restaurant and play area.

There are excellent disabled facilities and one on the beanmobiles is adapted to take wheelchairs. Toilets were plentiful and clean.

Opening times vary depending on what time of year and what day you go. The earliest opening is 9.a.m and the latest closure 5p.m. Check out the user-friendly website on cadburyworld.co.uk for details. You can book on line here to or phone direct on 0845 450 3599. I thought that the whole event was very well organised, thus avoiding crowds or lengthy queues.

This is a great place to learn whilst at the same time being fun. For the hundreds of dooyoo chocoholics out there, this is one place I would definitely recommend you go!

Have fun and don’t eat too much!

Summary: A heaven for chocoholics