Chessington
World of Adventures Review

Typical…half term week, weather forecast warm and sunny for the week
except for one day and that had the be the day that my family and I were
heading off to Chessington World of Adventure for our very first visit.
We’d been invited to the opening of the Wanyama Village and Reserve at
the Chessington Theme park and Zoo, so we couldn’t postpone our plans
and go another day, consequently 10 am found my partner Vince, our 8 year
old daughter Kira, our 6 year old son Jamie and myself Suzy heading up
the M23 and along the M25 to Chessington in the pouring rain!

The journey wasn’t too bad seeing as we set off after rush hour and the
park itself was well sign posted from the M25. We did have a bit of trouble
finding the right car park as our Sat Nav instructed us to park in the
bus parking area which wasn’t the right place for us seeeing as we only
have a family car, but a friendly park employee gave us the directions
to the correct car park and by 11:10am we were parked and entering the
foyer of the Holiday Inn Chessington.

I
had never even realised that there was a hotel within the grounds of the
Chessington Theme park, let alone that it was African themed! Lots of
dark wood, African looking art work, animal print carpets, and soft furnishing
did give a certain feel of Africa with the icing on the cake being that
once you walked out onto the wooden veranda from the bar and restaurant
area you looked out over the Wanyama reserve area where a couple of Grevy’s
Zebra and a few Scimitar Horned Oryx grazed. Sitting on the veranda and
watching two zebras having a bit of a play fight was quite sureal…if
the sun had been shining I might have believed that I was sitting in the
middle of the African savannah.

After a non-alcoholic zebra cocktail (coconut based which only Vince
actually liked it so he got all 4 of them!) and a short meet and greet
with a large Blue Macaw who could talk and a sweet little baby Meercat
called Charlie, we were shown around the Wanyama Village which is an new
part of the Chessington zoo built in an African style to house their collection
of small African animals such as Meercats, Crested Porcupines, Gizzelle
Deer, Fennec Foxes and Dwarf Mongoose. Unfortunately we didn’t see these
animals as they hadn’t fully finished this area although it was open to
the public and you could walk though it to the wooden walkway that takes
you out into the middle of the field where the Zebra and Oryx graze. In
the pouring rain wearing a bright blue theme park plastic poncho I have
to admit it didn’t really feel too African, but I can imagine if you visit
on a hot sunny day the ambience will be there! The highlight of this part
of the day was meeting a gorgeous baby skunk…I know, I know, how can
a skunk be gorgeous?, but honestly he was just so sweet!

Back at the Holiday Inn we were entertained by Destiny Africa Children’s
Choir who performed a selection of tradition African songs and dances
while our lunch cooked on the African Braai (BBQ to you and me!). After
eating our lunch on the veranda while watching the Zebras and Oryx grazing
we headed off back into Chessington World of Adventures to sample everything
else it has to offer.

Despite
usually loving zoos, both Kira and Jamie just wanted to run through the
zoo part to get to the theme park rides as fast as possible! We found
ourselves in the Mexicana area but the first ride we came across, the
Rattlesnake, had a 1.40m height restriction which meant that Kira and
Jamie at 1.16m were too small to have a go, so we bypassed that one and
headed towards The Runaway train, which they were tall enough to go on!
The poor weather had certainly kept the crowds away as there was no queue
at all for this ride and because there wasn’t anyone waiting when it finished
the train just kept going for another spin around the track which my children
and their father thought was great. Me being a scardy cat with terrible
motion sickness can’t go on any of the roller coaster type rides, but
luckily I do enjoy watching other people on them! Next we walked through
the Forbidden Kingdom, bypassing the Rameses Revenge ride as that too
had a 1.40m height restriction and over to the Tomb Blaster which surprisingly
had a very long queue despite the low crowds. The next area we came to
was The Mystic East where my favourite type of ride is to be found…..the
water fall ride Dragon Falls. This was ride that we all went on and at
the end of the day both Jamie and I voted it our favourite ride. We followed
this with a go on the Dodgems in the Wild Asia area, although they had
been renamed Tuk Tuks to fit int he Asia theming. This area had a couple
of rides with 1.2m height restrictions so we had to skip them and headed
off into the Land of the Dragons where apart from the one roller coaster
type ride, Dragon’s Fury with a height restriction of 1.2m, there were
a good few things for younger children to do…soft play area, small roundabout
type of ride and swing ship ride although at 8 and almost 7 year old our
two children were really getting a bit too old for these type of things
as they were for the Toy Town rides of trucks going round a track and
the flying elephant ride, but they seemed to enjoy them never the less
while us grown-ups sat and had a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.

By
this point it was getting late and we had less than an hour before the
park closed. We checked the park map and found one big ride that only
had a 1.1m height restriction…The Vampire, so with two short children
begging to go on fast scary rides we headed off to the Transylvania area
so that Vince and the children could go on that ride while I browsed the
gift shop. It was one of those gift shops set up at the end of a ride
that customers have to walk through on their way out of the ride…it
did take a fair bit of persuasion to get Kira and Jamie to bypass the
tacky plastic over priced souvenirs and guide them towards a cheaper,
more useful fridge magnet with note book when they exited the ride. So
now it was time to head back to the car as the park was closing. There
are two entrance gates to the park and the way back to the one we needed
led us through the zoo. At this point Kira and Jamie were much more interested
in looking at the animals than they had been when we entered the park,
so we spent some time wandering through the Trail of the Kings walk past
the big cat enclosures and the Sea Lion pool. We wandered out past the
Sealife Centre that we didn’t have time to visit and made out way wearily
back to our car.

All
in all we had had a great day despite the weather which did have it’s
advantages as the fact that the day had started off so wet had obviously
put lots of people off visting so we didn’t have mega long queues for
the rides like I thought we would. We were lucky that the rain stopped
around lunchtime and we really only had one shower during the afternoon
when we were going around the theme park as there wasn’t a lot of places
undercover. Very few of the queuing areas for the rides were undercover,
so had it continued to rain we would have got very wet indeed! The place
itself was clean and all the staff we met were friendly and courtious.
Chessington World of Adventure certainly seems to have something for all
age groups although it can be a bit frustrating for children like ours
who are eager to go on fast scary rides but are just that little bit too
short to be able to safely go on them. I’m sure we’ll go back again one
day, but not until both Kira and Jamie are over 1.2m as then there will
be far more big rides available to them. Having a hotel within the ground
is very handy especially if you have to travel a long distance to get
to Chessington. Themed hotels are not new and even a African Savannah
themed one complete with wild animals isn’t original seeing as Disney
has done it on a much grander scale in Florida, but it’s the first themed
hotel I have come across in this country. If we didn’t only live an hour
away I would be tempted to book a family room for the night as I’m sure
the children would love it.

Reviewed by Suzy Williams, her partner, Vince and their two children
Kira and Jamie

For more information on Chessington World of Adventures visit: http://www.chessington.com/