After my darling Dad won a family ticket for Cadbury world last year, and decided to give it to me for my family use, I finally got around to using it....today!

My reasoning for this fact is due to the crappy weather (fog and freezing weather), it would be nice to be indoors doing something we never have done before and secondly due to the fact that it is very close to Christmas, so was hoping for a few festive freebies!

We are lucky travel wise as we live a few miles away from Birmingham, being situation in the borough of Nuneaton, so after gleaming the directions from the internet with the Cadbury website itself being very useful, we found a relatively easy journey there, though there are various methods of travel open to you, with there being a train station two minutes outside of the Cadbury complex.

I was also impressed that there is free parking available to the visitors, a couple of the places we have visited before have had the cheek to charge for parking on top of the extortionate entry prices, but here there was plenty of parking available in various different areas and all for free.

On entrance to the building I instantly felt festive and uplifted, with there being a 9ft plastic formed tree to have your picture taken in front of and a huge brass band playing Christmas carols to the people waiting to get in, and boy were there a few, though luckily as I had already reserved my time slot over the telephone the day before, we could go to one of the empty ticket desks to get our family ticket, and even though we got there an hour early, the delightful attendant changed the start time of our tour and we went to queue straight away.

This is where the queuing began, though thankfully we were only there for about 15 minutes, just the right amount of time to soak up the festive atmosphere, and visit the strategically placed toilets, next to the queue!

On the way into the first "zone" we had our ticket scanned by a very friendly "elf", and was given two chocolate bars each, (curly whirly and buttons in case you wondering!), and we entered the first room......which is the precise moment my son decided to kick off!

The first two or three zones consist of a history of chocolate and it's origins coming from the Aztec jungle and how it came to England in the first place, this was shown in a jungle filled with (what my son described as) very scary looking men.
The fact that the room was lit by lamplight gave a very gloomy and scary looking look to the room, so I was starting to panic that the entire tour would be ark and scary for him, with my husband getting dangerously close to walking out!

After rushing through the jungle part, which in fairness didn't really hold much interest to any of use, we came into a room that held a selection of Victorian looking shop fronts, depicting Bull street, where George Cadbury opened his first shop, funnily enough selling tea!

This was nice enough display, but was a holding room to go into two other rooms with shows on in them, again this was in a dark room that very soon filled up, so we decided the best thing to do was skip these two shows and go onto the next zone, which I have to say was easily achieved with the help of a lovely man escorting us through.

Due to us missing the shows out we got into a room with loads of computers and screens that enabled you to choose and educational film showing how specific types of Cadburys sweets are made, this thankfully was in a well lit room, and we didn't have to worry from that moment on as Connor decided actually he really liked this place, as long as he could start eating the free chocolate, bribery is such a harsh word!

From this point on we were heading to the factory itself, meaning that we got to see in detail every part of manufacturing of the chocolate, which I found really interesting, from the tempering of the chocolate through to the moulding and wrapping of particular bars, these were Dairy milks today, but it does state that there maybe times there is no action on the factory floor, though the impression we got was that there was the factory parts behind the scenes and certain areas filled with action and workers that were there 24/7 to be seen.

A t a few moments through this tour (and endless sets of stairs, though there plenty of toilets and lifts for the disabled on the way), there were areas for getting freebies, with there newest bars "spots and stripes" being given out, but also the chance to sit with a Santa in a sleigh for a photo opportunity, (which there were plenty of, all with the chance to buy at specific points throughout the tour, but not obligated to do so!), at which point my children were given a Cadbury's plastic cup with twirly straw from Santa, which I though was a lovely touch.

After this my son again decided he didn't like the look of the next area, which turned out to be my daughters favourite part, car ride round what I can only described as "chocolate egg land", which contained lots of different funny scene's of eggs in their houses watching the television, even eggs skiing down a slope, which my daughter thought was funny and amazing with the temperature even being dropped to mimic how it would feel in the snow!

The car journey was fun, and suitable for all ages, and just as much fun for the children as it was for the adults, my favourite part was an adult sized caramel bunny sitting under a tree having a caramel bar, fantastic!

The last zone again was touch and go for my son, as it started in a darkish corridor, backlit with the Cadbury's purple strip lights, but it wasn't until we turned the corner that we saw the corridor in it's entirety, with this being the new advertising zone, with adverts and displays from the very beginning.

After watching a few vintage adverts(and myself and my hubby having a sing along, the kids looking at use bemused!), we wandered into a room with a large mirrored area and a huge DJ's desk and chocolate DJ model.

After watching someone hitting one of four buttons at the bottom of the base we heard the Phil Collins song piped into the room, "in the air tonight" and was gob smacked to find the mirrored area become clear glass with a completely mechanised gorilla on the drums behind it, we were all transfixed by it, and we did play it at least three times more!

In he next room there were a plethora of interactive and child friendly games, from shadow football to a fantastic area that encourages children to "jump" or "stamp" onto the unwrapping chocolates projected onto the white floor, this created enough noise and vibrations to actually make some of the other displays shake, but was thoroughly enjoyed by my children and another family there at the time.

We then came out of this area straight into the words biggest Cadbury's shop, and needless to say went onto to spend £30.00 on sweets and merchandise, well it would be rude not to! And there is even an area where the mis-shaped chocolate is sold, along with other discounted priced sweets, a bargain or two was picked up from here I can tell you!

There loads of other area's to visit once the initial tour is over with, there is lovely clean and quite spacious looking restaurant, serving holt and cold meals with plenty of choice of everything in-between, we stuck to the hot drinks though (to go) and let the kids play on the massive adventure playground for a bit, well to at least burn of all the energy they had gained from the chocolate they had eaten so far!

There is another display featured with the "Bourneville experience" that is part display and part interactive, though aimed more towards an adult, my kids (and hubby!) enjoyed designing their own chocolate box then typing who designed it, it instantly got displayed on a bill board in a fake sweet shop front, it took a good three attempts for me to be able to take a photograph of their designs but I got there in the end!

Finally we got to the last show, again one that my husband decided to sit out of as my son preferred to stay outside on the playground.

The show in question was one called "essence", which involved a ten minute laser show of George Cadbury and two of his staff at the moment he discovered the "two and half glasses" of milk was the secret ingredient, this then ended in a room with two lovely men who let each person choose a ingredient and then they poured a generous helping of warm runny chocolate, I had marshmallows and it was delicious and the perfect ending to the experience.

There are full listings of prices and opening times on the website - www.cadbury.co.uk, with my particular family ticket (two adults and two children), saving me £42.00! Bargain!

This is a lovely trip out that started slow, but soon became fascinating and a lot of fun.

The staff are more than helpful and almost determined that everyone has a good time, with each one offering extra advice and directions to the best stands and shows, though I do feel this was the best time to come as I know feel extremely festive!

Recommended!

Thanks for reading, especially if you made it until the end! xx