Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Great rides, big cats and lots of fun |
| Disadvantages: |
Price if you don't have vouchers |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Earlier this year we were invited to our nephew's wedding in Dorset and since we live in North Wales we decided to make the journey worthwhile by staying 'down south' for a week. For my Christmas present last year Dave had bought me an 'experience' of feeding tigers by hand at Paradise Park so we decided to stay for a few days in Basingstoke and do Paradise Park, Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures on consecutive days.
I have already done reviews of both Paradise park and Thorpe Park so I though I would tell you all about Chessington World of Adventures.
How do you get there?
Starting from Basingstoke made it very easy to get to Chessington - it was almost on our doorstep. It is situated 12 miles from London on the A243, 2 miles from the A3 and M25 - junctions 9 and 10. If you are coming from the south take junction 9 and if you are coming from the north take junction 10 and follow the signs.
There are also detailed instructions on how to get to Chessington using public transport on their website www.chessington.co.uk
How much will it cost to get in?
Well as you might guess it's going to be expensive if you pay full price for your tickets. The price for an adult entry in 2007 was £29 and £19 for a child. There were discounted tickets for disabled visitors and their helpers plus a range of family tickets, group tickets and tickets combining a visit to Thorpe Park with a visit to Chessington World of Adventures.
Details of these can be found on the website when the park is open. You can also buy an annual pass valid for all the Tussauds group of
attractions for £95 or £285 for a family.
The other type of ticket available is a fast track ticket which enables you to wait in a separate queue from everyone else to go on your ride, thus meaning that you don't have to queue for as long and thus get on more rides per visit. There are two of these available one costs £40 and covers all rides, all day, as many times as you like - mind you I still think it's a bit steep after potentially paying £29 to get in the park in the first place! The other pass is just £6 and covers 6 rides for one go on each. The rides covered are Vampire, Dragon's Fury, Bubbleworks, Tomb Blaster, Dragon Falls and the Runaway Train so we decided to buy one of these for each of us.
Since we had used a buy on get one free ticket from Tesco's and both got in for £29 we decided an extra £12 to make sure we got on some of the good rides was a fair deal. As you will see from the rest of the review it was very busy the day we went so we thought it would be £12 well spent and we were right.
So what happened when we got there?
Well, I was surprised! We are used to visiting Drayton Manor or Alton Towers being originally from the Midlands and we always used to go off peak so Chessington World of Adventures in the middle of August was a real eye opener for me! The queue just to get in was immense! It took us about half an hour just to get into the park!
Incidentally almost all of the people I could see were holding some kind of offer voucher to reduce the costs - I don't blame them, either!
What rides do they have?
Chessington is divided into various themed areas:
Beanoland
Chessington Zoo
Forbidden Kingdom
Land of the Dragons
Market Square
Mexicana
Mystic East
Pirates Cove
Toytown
Transylvania
Each ride area has a selection of white knuckle, medium and children's rides. They also each have a couple of shops selling gifts and food.
Beanoland
This one is mainly for children and families as the name would suggest. The rides here are the Bash Street Bus and Dennis's Madhouse for the junior adventurers and Roger the Dodger's Dodgems and Billy's Whizzer (a waveswinger with water) for the family adventurers. There are no white knuckle rides in this area and we didn't bother visiting this part of the park.
Forbidden Kingdom
This area has Tomb Blaster for family adventurers and Rameses Revenge for experienced adventurers - white knuckle to me and you!
Rameses Revenge is one of those rides where the victims sit in 2 rows of about 20 people and are swung backwards, forwards and upside down through jets of water, culminating in being held upside down and lowered head first into fountains - not my sort of thing at all!
Tomb Blaster was one of our fast track rides so we joined the queue having no idea what to expect when we got inside the ride - quite brave for me really!
When we got inside we were led to cars seating about 5 people if I remember rightly each of who had access to a laser gun. The idea was that as you were taken round the 'spooky labyrinth' in the car you had to shoot scarabs and various other things with your gun to score points which are recorded on the display in front of each person in the car. It was great fun but I was useless!!
Land of Dragons
In this area they have Dragon's Playhouse, Dragon's Tale Theatre, Sea Dragons and Sir Walter Squirtalot for the mini adventurers better know as the tiny tots.
There is Canopy Capers which is a tree house and set of walkways high in the sky (no thanks!) and Griffin's Galleon which is the pirate ship. We didn't actually find this until it was time to come home so we didn't manage a ride on this one.
There was also another of our fast track rides here - Dragon's Fury. Now this is listed as being for families but for me it was well into the white knuckle category!
You sit in a car carrying four people in two twos sitting back to back. The car is then propelled to a height of 59 feet at a speed of 45mph. This roller coaster differs from a 'normal' coaster in two ways - firstly the car spins as well as travelling up and down on the track and you can arrange the people in the car according to weight to make it spin faster or slower apparently - we just jumped in and went for it!
Secondly the track turns through 90 degrees at the top of the track meaning that you
travel over the highest point of the ride sideways and spinning!
Whilst standing in the queue I was a bit nervous about this one but once on board it was great! Our car was spinning but it not too violently and it was a brilliant ride. If the queues hadn't been so long I would have gone on again!
Market Square
For the little ones there is an events stage where they have shows and the Fun Fort Amusement Centre.
For Junior Adventurers there is Hocus Pocus Hall which is a 4D walk through haunted mansion. We went inside and it was good fun although not too scary so children would enjoy it.
This is also the terminus for the Safari Skyway which is a monorail ride to view the animals in Chessington Zoo.
Market Square also has a lot of food outlets including KFC, Pizza Hut, a family pub, sweet shop, ice creams and a few gift shops too.
Mexicana
In this area for families there is a Runaway Train which was one of our fast track rides so we went on this. It was good fun and travelled at a fair speed.
For the older adventurers there is the Rattlesnake which is a fast twisting roller coaster. Due to queues and lack of time we didn't go on this one.
Mystic East
In this area for the families we have Dragon Falls and Peeking Heights. Dragon Falls is a good log flume. As this was another one of our fast track rides we went on, although due to the numbers waiting they were packing each boat. Each boat seats 5 and we went on with another couple and their young daughter who insisted on sitting at the front with her dad so the remaining three (not skinny) adults had to get in the back and it was snug! Still it was good fun and we all managed to duck at the end so that Dave (my husband) at the very back got soaked!
Peeking Heights is a big observation wheel and as I am not good with heights I kept well away from this one!
The other attraction here was the Extreme Games Zone for the experienced adventurers. We didn't go into this and didn't really have chance to see what it involved either so I am afraid I can't tell you any more about it.
Pirates Cove
For the families we have Seastorm in this area which is basically a roundabout with a slight up and down motion where the riders sit in boats.
For experienced adventurers there is the Black Buccaneer which is quite a big Pirate Ship. Now I do love these but we just didn't have time to try this one.
Toytown
As the name suggests this area is for the younger visitors with a Carousel, Tiny Truckers, Berry Bouncers, Toadies Crazy Cars and Flying Jumbos.
Transylvania
This is where we found our remaining two fast track rides. The first of these was Bubbleworks sponsored by Imperial Leather. Basically this was just a boat ride through the 'factory' where the bubbles were made. It was good fun and did have a bit of a sting in the tail when the final room was full of water squirts flying in all directions. It wasn't really a ride that we would have bothered with ordinarily, a bit mild for us, but it was a good laugh and a chance to behave like children!
The other ride here is also classed as a family ride which I wouldn't really agree with but there you go and it is Vampire. This is the same principle as Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park and Nemesis at Alton Towers. The seats are suspended in rows of four beneath the track which snakes its way through the trees above the park. The big difference here is that the ride does not corkscrew or loop the loop - in fact you do not go upside down at all. The ride actually benefits from this because it can go extremely fast and the riders get the sensation of speed as the cars swing out with the centrifugal force and the trees are a blur as you whizz past.
Although I do love Nemesis at Alton Towers I felt that this ride gave a much better sensation that Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park where I felt the ride builders are just trying to put in more loops and more corkscrews just for the hell of it and the sensation was lost in my opinion.
Chessington Zoo
We walked across the lawns from Hocus Pocus Hall towards the zoo part of the park.
First we encountered the small animals such as Capybara, Otters, Sealions, Penguins, various birds and reptiles. There was also a walk through area with Squirrel Monkeys. There were a couple of keepers on hand to make sure that we went through the double set of doors without opening them both at the same time to give the monkeys chance to escape! It was really nice to see them swinging through the trees in the enclosure and watching them drop down to pick up the fruit left by the keepers without having to look through cage wires.
I then had an amazing surprise! I hadn't noticed the 'Safari' or 'Big Cat' signs and had assumed that they had got rid of all the big animals when they converted the zoo into a theme park.
We walked along a path, which I now know was part of the Trail of Kings, turned and saw an enclosure with a family of Lowland Gorillas! We stood and watched for some time as they were wandering about and playing.
The next enclose had a family of Sumatran Tigers, which I just love, with two adults and three cubs. They all looked happy as they played and chilled out together. There was no evidence of the pacing around that you get in some zoos which always bothers me.
Next there was an Asiatic Lion who was on his own and you'll never guess what he was doing. Oh you did guess, yes, you're right he was fast asleep! The sing on his enclosure said that his partner had died and he was due to get a new mate later in the year - maybe that will wake him up!
The final enclosures had a leopard who was just lying a there looking very comfortable and chilled out and last but not least there were a family of Bearcats. I don't think I had ever seen Bearcats before and they were a fascinating cross between a bear and a cat (I bet you wouldn't have guessed that would you?) and they were very lively.
So all in all the zoo turned out to be a complete surprise to me and I got to see some of my favourite big cats - what a bonus!
Facilities
There were enough toilets on site and there were lots of food outlets with many famous names - Pizza Hut, KFC etc. - so although it's not fantastic food you know what you're going to get and it's the right type of stuff to be serving at a theme park.
So what did I think of Chessington World of Adventures?
In short I was impressed! The park was well laid out with plenty of room even though there were lots of people about.
When we were at Thorpe Park earlier that same week I was disappointed in the rides as they all seemed to be constructed with as much height and as many twists and turns as possible with scant regard to whether the rider gets a fantastic sensation or just fear and nausea.
The rides at Chessington were much better. They were fast and scary but the builders had made sure that the riders got some real sensation when riding!
I would definitely love to go back there one day.
The factual stuff
Chessington World of Adventures & Zoo
Leatherhead Road
Chessington
Surrey
KT9 2NE
0870 999 0045
www.chessington.co.uk
Opening times vary throughout the year but are usually about 10am until dusk although it is open later during October for the Halloween Fright Nights. They sound like fun!
Incidentally I was just checking the web site for the address etc and discovered that next year there will be Sea Life Centre there too.
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