I wouldn't call it a 'world'! (Cadbury World)

Member Name: Absy_Baby

Product:	Cadbury World
Date:	11/05/09 (443 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I got lots of chocolate

Disadvantages: Some sections to old, some too young, not a day out.

I am as many of you know a self confessed Chocoholic, so it may surprise you to read that I have never been to Cadbury World, until now.

This Saturday I spent the day visiting the place chocolate dreams are made of, or so I thought.

Cabury World is located next to the small town of Bourneville, close to the M40. (It is a 2 hour drive from where I live).

I don't know what I expected but when we pulled up in the car park, we saw a building in front of us, with the 2 large Cabury and Bourneville factories behind it. All the railings were Cadbury purple and on first thought I was quite excited.

We went in the entrance and saw the largest Cabury shop in the world, and thought we'd save that till last. After the 2 hour car ride, we all needed the toilet so we went, the toilets were clean and easy to locate.

We went to the desk (no queue at all) for tickets (not pre-paid) and I brought 2 adult tickets and 2 children's tickets, the adult price was £13.50 and the children was £10.50, I was going to buy a family ticket to save £5 but didn't need to as I had a 20% off voucher, which we used (not on a family ticket as it isn't allowed) and all got in for around £37. Not bad I thought.

The reception area was a fair size and it was all rather purple. We got our tickets and map and headed to the door to go in, we were each given a curly wurly and buttons. Yummy. The map shows the inside as stages and gave a breakdown of what each stage was. These varied from marketing and branding, to the story of Cadbury, to the Cadabra (the Cadbury ride).

We walked round and I knew it wouldn't be like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory (my boyfriend had pre-warned me as he knows I have an overactive imagination) and it was all alright but a bit dull. I wasn't expecting all singing and dancing but perhaps more fun.

We visited the first sections and the two youngsters we had with us were 12 and 9, and to say the least not impressed with the 2 mini shows we had to watch. My boyfriend and I were more interested as to see how it all started etc but it was difficult to listen with all the little children and babies crying, talking, shouting, in general doing anything but listening.

There is kiddie friendly bits too, like the mirrored room with roses and crème eggs projected on the floor whilst moving and the kids had to stamp on them and they would open. There is also a bit where you can have your picture taken and its turned in to chocolate. Out the back there is also a large playground for kids.

Cadbury World is like a museum, which is fine but it's also not a museum. They need to sit down and work out who their target market is, I mean I would have gone if it had been the Cadbury Museum and would of probably enjoyed it more, but there wasn't enough information to class it as a museum but I wouldn't say it was an attraction as such either, there just isn't enough of either going on.

The best bit I enjoyed was walking through the actual part of the factory, and watching the chocolate being packaged and moving around on the conveyor belts from where it's made and shaped to the packaging, then boxed. It's quite fascinating but with a 9 and 12 year old, we didn't stay for too long.

The youngsters did quite like the demonstration area, where they were allowed to write their names in liquid chocolate (in a piped bag) and then watched a demonstration of how chocolate was made by hand before the machines came in (and took most the jobs).

Once we finished our way round and realised we had only been in there for 2 and a half hours, I decided it wasn't worth the drive or the money, I don't mind paying £37 for 2 adults and 2 children for a day out, this wasn't a day out. It was relatively boring in areas and not for all ages.

My main disappointment was it's called Cadbury World, and all four us thought it was Cadbury's not Cadbury and through learning about it all and seeing old branding and wrapping we which said Cadbury's but now in 2009 it says Cadbury, when did this change, and why?? We weren't told.

Summary: Not entirely sure what i should of got out of visiting Cadbury World, the answer: not much