£13 for two for a day at Chessington? Bargain alert! (Chessington World of Adventures)

Member Name: azana

Product:	Chessington World of Adventures
Date:	03/07/09 (304 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: toddler pass is great value

Disadvantages: unpleasant when busy

Chessington is a well known theme park with a range of rides and attractions - a zoo and sealife centre are to be found here - which is situated close to junction 9 of the M3. I have been several times as an accompanying adult on school trips (not as fun as it sounds) but my most recent trips have been with a toddler, so my experience is a little biased towards this group for whom Chessington is actually excellent.

I recently visited Chessington with a little known discount - £13 total for myself and my under 4 child. The voucher can be accesssed on the Chessington homepage http://www.chessington.com/ and going to "groups" where it can be printed off and used on certain days, there is also a £17.95 price for certain school holiday days. On the day I went I saw lots of other parents paying a full £33 for themselves, I would suggest you check the home page for the best deals before you go - prices will vary but this toddler ticket has existed in various incarnations for several years to my knowledge. If you are not a toddler family shop around anyway, I don't think you need to pay full price you could go with tesco deals or 2 for 1 or buy early at a discount on the website.

What is there to do?

The park is divided into different zones, which the Chessington site lists as follows:

Beanoland
Forbidden Kingdom
Land of the Dragons
Market Square
Mexicana
Mystic East
Pirates Cove
Toytown
Transylvania

You can see full details on the website, but for adults the most scary rollercoasters are in Transylvania where there is the "Vampire" rollercoaster, though the universally popular Bubble ride is also to be found here - a sort of take on Disney's "It's a small world" with ducks. There are rides a plenty - on the day I went I found the map to be clear and also height restrictions clear. If you were going with a toddler as I did their ideal height would be 90cm in my opinion - they would be free to get in at this height anyway (all children free under a metre) but could go on a suprising amount of rides. We went on the dodgems and also the runaway train rollercoaster which was suprisingly fast. My daughter albeit just 3 loved this - clearly and adrenaline freak like her mum!

Some of the rides are a little old looking, the flying elephants ride being a case in point, it has no doubt been there since the park was first founded as a zoo, the theme park bit has been going since 1987. Everything is maybe not quite up to disneyland squeaky clean standards but there is a good range of rides for every age and the staff were friendly and helpful the day I went most recently - there were no queues as it was a week day but I know from frequently driving past the park in school holidays that is does get very busy.

On my last visit we must have gone on about 10 rides or more, some a couple of times and enjoyed the merry go round, the mini trucks and also a pirate boat ride which again was a suprisingly fast ride for 90cm and above. I wasn't able to go on the faster rollercoasters on this occassion but they certainly seemed as fast and popular as I remember from previous trips.

Other attractions:

There is a tent-like looking sealife centre now in the park. This was actually quite good and kept us busy for about half an hour. The walk through aquarium wasn't the biggest I have ever seen but there was a good range and the fish looked well kept (spot the anxious fish owner). The zoo has some nice areas, like the walk in monkey area and also a petting zoo. Some of the enclosures were a little run down though there were signs to say they were being refurbished. I don't like to see lions in a small area as they are here, but mainly the animals looked well cared for and there was enough to amuse. You can visit the zoo and sealife centre only at certain times of the year when the rides are closed.

Facilities:

Parking is fine but lacks signposts. There are plenty of toilets and babychanges dotted around and the staff are helpful - on my last visit I saw them helping out lost school children several times.

Food is the usual theme park fare - there is a burger king but also a Costa cafe and other healthier choices, you could get away without a picnic, if you do bring your own there are plenty of places to sit down and eat.

Overall:

At the price I paid the park was bargainous, I had a full day of fun with my toddler for £13, for the zoo, aquarium, a soft play and of course the rides. I can't fault it at that price. We didn't queue once, at all, all day.

We really enjoyed our visit and I will go again on a toddler ticket. At the full price and at a busier time I suspect it is less good value, but if you have a Merlin pass you are sure to enjoy using it here and I certainly think it is one of the better theme park the UK has to offer. Recommended.

http://www.chessington.com for full details of prices, opening times, directions and rides.

Summary: we had a great day here