For day 2 of our 4-day trip we visited Chessington World of Adventures. We travelled around 3.5 hours from Alton Towers, took a service station break for food (Burger King/KFC – and reasonably priced too for service station fast food!) and we got evacuated from the building due to a fire alarm.
The Hotel
We arrived at around 10pm to our hotel for the night – Travelodge Chessington Tolworth. We usually stay at the Premier Inn Chessington, which is right around the corner from the park, but as it was full, Travelodge Chessington Tolworth made a decent alternative being only 8 minutes from the park and had free parking, which is always a plus.
The hotel cost us £159 for 2 nights for 2 adults and 2 children in a family room. Arriving late, and in the dark, we headed to the car park in level 2, which is a rooftop parking area for the hotel, with a spiral entry ramp with no lighting in parts, that was reminiscent of a scene from ‘The Dark Knight’. Not the most pleasant of car parks. I’d seen some dodgy reviews on TripAdvisor (but doesn’t everywhere?), but the hotel was nice enough, check-in was straight forward and they had some cool arty pictures of ‘Croc Drop’ at Chessington in the stairwell which Evan loved.
We’d packed the usual travel cutlery and some porridge pots for breakfast so we could just get up and go quickly to the park, so we ate and headed out. FYI – When driving towards Chessington World of Adventures, one sign looks like the park entrance. It’s not. It’s the hotel entrance. A mistake that I, and several other cars made – and we’ve been here twice before, so should know better. The actual car park is a little further along on the right, so just be aware.
We parked in ‘Flamingo’ car park – they have a photo frame photo-op in each parking area with the designated animal on, so you can get a snazzy picture of yourself AND remember where you parked the car, which is handy!
How much is Chessington?
As we did with Alton Towers, we used Sun Superdays for our tickets. We always try and get our tickets for around the same time using the offer so we can make a roadtrip of it and do a few things, as driving this far isn’t something we can do regularly. Peak days were £20 per person (plus cost of papers) using the Sun offer and off-peak had some tickets for free. Theres always the Cadbury/Kellogg’s 2-for-1 offer (or ‘up to 25% off’ as it is now) Online prices show at around £40 for a peak day, so Sun/Kellogg’s/Cadbury is usually the cheapest option. Never pay at the gate though!
We arrived just in time for opening and the queues moved quickly and efficiently through bag check and ticket scan – and we were in. Hotel guests were already taking advantage of the rides, so we executed our ‘do priorities first’ plan and split up. Evan took Jo over for her first ever coaster with an inversion – the awesome ‘Mandrill Mayhem’, whilst Me and Elliott headed to do his first ever inverted coaster ‘Vampire’.
Queues were big for both at this time of the morning and Mandrill Mayhem is right by the entrance, so not unexpected to have a 60min wait at rope drop time, and Vampire was saying 50 minutes. I didn’t tell Elliott, we just walked in, and he didn’t look! It was a fairly slow queue, but he was fine because he was excited to be going on a ‘big’ coaster. He’d been having some ‘tummy troubles’ though, so this queue could have gone in a very different direction! At one point, I thought we were going to need to make an emergency dash to a bathroom, but the moment passed. Queue was accurate for around 50 mins, and we were into the station. It stinks in there (and no, it wasn’t Elliott – he was still fine). The smell pods that they use to make Vampires crypt smell like fart gas that you used to get in joke shops. Can you still get fart gas? Do they still have joke shops??
It’s a massive station that Vampire has, with very little theming for its size, aside from the lighting along the ramp and the stage featuring an animatronic of Dracula himself, playing an organ. I presume its Dracula. It didn’t look like Robert Pattinson anyway!
Elliott was a bit nervous (again, not like that – still fine) as it was a big coaster and new to him. He was initially nervous on Accelerator at Drayton Manor but was fine for the next 7 goes! Vampire is a 1.1m height requirement and he’s 1.15 but all was fine, and he got on with a lift into the seat from yours truly. As usual, he’s quiet for the first drop (new ride nerves) then starts screaming “I love it!!” as loud as he can for the rest of the ride. As it’s an old ride, it’s a bit rickety, but fine nonetheless, as it flies over the faux rooftops of the park below, though trees and up a second lift-hill, around and back to the station. I was pretty sure we’d be back on it later with mummy, depending on how she fared with the Mandrill…
We love ‘The World of Jumanji’ area. It’s so well themed, along with a great coaster and accompanying flat rides ‘Mamba Strike’ and ‘Ostrich Stampede’. Just a shame it’s missing something for the under 1.2m kids. Jo said she’d found her limit with ‘Mandrill Mayhem’. Its an incredibly smooth coaster and the inversion wasn’t the issue – it was how it hangs sideways along the top of the Jaguar Shrine that she didn’t like. If the queues weren’t long, she’d would have definitely done a few more laps though, but we had to get some other rides in.
While we waited for Mum and Evan, we hopped on ‘Trawler Trouble’ (a little Rocking Tug boat ride) and ‘Adventure Tree Carousel’, a great looking animal-themed carousel featuring spinning tubs and wheelchair accessible benches along with the usual animal seats. It even had Capybaras. I love Capybaras, but Elliott chose a Tiger, so I had to be on the Rhino. Indecisive Elliott returned after seeing the queue for ‘Elmer’s Flying Jumbos’ had reached a whopping 10 minutes, and he walked off to find something else. He finally settled on ‘Tiny Truckers’ – a tracked truck ride (which has seen better days) which looked like a smaller queue. It wasn’t. It was 30 minutes and we waited it out. Elliott enjoyed it. Me, not so much!
We regrouped with Jo and Evan, who’d also been on ‘Tomb Blaster’, an indoor shooting dark ride which Evan loves. We took time for a spot of lunch – sausage rolls today from the cool box in the car boot, which was still going strong with 1 remaining fully-frozen bottle of water in it. We had the usual sweets and treats too. Again, not a fan of park prices for four of us to eat, and we like to eat on the move so we’re not wasting valuable time on busy park days.
Another ride on Vampire? Go on then!
Recharged, and with Jo recovered from her experience on Mandrill Mayhem, we headed back to Vampire for another lap and a 60-minute queue. With games on the phone and sweets to hand, the queue moved pretty quickly. Weather wasn’t great either but was getting better through the afternoon. It was in the sweet spot where its not too hot and not cold and wet, so makes queuing a little more bearable.
We all enjoyed our ride on Vampire. It is an older coaster with its accompanying slight discomfort on some elements and could definitely do with a clean-up. Great to have a coaster that looks big and that the smaller kids can get on!
After this, we swapped kids and bags. I wanted to get a lap on Mandrill Mayhem, so with Evan in tow, we braved the 1hour queue. You could tell a bit of queue boredom was kicking in for Evan here, but we powered through. I do love this coaster, and you get a different experience no matter where you sit, especially back row rides in the reverse seat! We got off the ride, grabbed a £6.50 Mandrill Mayhem magnet from the shop, and had a quick 15 min queue for Mamba Strike – a magic carpet type ride – with some queue jumpers. I hate queue jumpers. Queue jumpers and adults who think its okay to swear and be obnoxious in a queue full of young children.
Jo and Elliott went to ‘Zufari’, which was unfortunately closed, but did open later. The Safari jeep ride to see actual animals is a great feature of the park. They did Tomb Blaster, The Sea Life centre (which is always hot inside, and not as good as the one at Alton Towers), saw the Gorillas and visited ‘Room on the Broom’, which was over capacity, so they ended up missing some scenes and Elliott missed out on doing some of the fun activities. It’s not usually like that though. He then decided to be a fusspot again and refusing to queue for anything else, but finally calmed down after a trip into one of the play areas. We, however had headed to ‘Croc Drop’. We do love a good drop tower and this one I so well themed. Shame about the 30-minute queue, threatening rain and obnoxious adults again (see above). After ‘braving the drop and releasing the curse’, we were nearing the end of the day.
After Croc Drop, the app was showing Rattlesnake (a western themed wild mouse coaster) was on 15 mins, so we rushed along. It was probably nearer 30 and the queue was not set up properly, so we went the wrong way a few times! Not the most comfortable of rides either! I expect coasters to have drops, but I like them to be a steep, smooth descent, and not like you’ve been dropped in a ditch from height! After my spine had recovered from Rattlesnake, we had one coaster left for the day, so we joined the 60-minute queue for ‘Dragon’s Fury’.
Dragon’s Fury Breakdown
It always seems like a massive queue for Dragons Fury, and it moves so slowly too. Hopefully we might get on before rides close. The sun re-appeared so we grabbed some ice-creams from the little shop mid queue. Then disaster struck. Dragon’s Fury had broken down (again), so we watched as they evacuated people from the trains in the lower section of the track. Staff announced they weren’t sure how long it’d be down for, so we waited. But no. Moments later, they evacuated the queue, giving out fastpassses for this or another ride valid for today, which is a decent thing to do, especially if you’ve been standing waiting for so long. So, we sprinted over to Mandrill Mayhem again, but so had everyone else. The Fastrack queue was now massive. We decided against it and took another quick ride on Mamba Strike – this time with no queue jumpers! Ostrich Stampede was on 40 mins, and while it’s a fun ride, its not worth the wait.
Evan had an undying urge to do another lap on ‘Tomb Blaster’ so we ran across the park. It’s a bit dated, and I’m pretty sure the guns don’t work properly (my score wasn’t great, so it must have been the guns!) so needs some work, but its an ok ride that looks pretty good inside.
The plan for the end of the day was for us all to go on Vampire one last time. Elliott decided he wanted to go on the Gruffalo River Adventure though – which is a fun ride raft ride though the story of ‘The Gruffalo’, featuring all the characters from the book with big, colourful scenes that the kids love. And the water tunnel at the end is awesome. So with that, me and Evan decided to cash in our chips, and fastpasses, and get in line for Mandrill Mayhem.
Back row ride on Mandrill Mayhem
We got through pretty swiftly – glad of the fastpasses, as I really didn’t fancy waiting over an hour for the final ride of the day. Whilst it’s a good coaster, being a boomerang/wing coaster, it takes a while to get everyone on and off and can only have one train at any time. We asked for back row seats and our wish was granted! What a great way to end the day. Elliott picked a Vampire magnet from the shop, also a pricey £6.50, and it wasn’t a shiny metal one like the Mandrill one, just a bendy plastic one, but another magnet for the fridge nonetheless!
With that, the day was done, and we made our way back to Flamingo car park (via the small shop at the exit – because someone NEEDED to buy something else – a pencil case) and headed out.
We were at Travelodge Chessington Tolworth again that night but stopped at a local Tesco to pick up tea. Pot Noodles and Pasta Pots did the trick, and some milk for cereal later (we’d packed some Tupperware with Shreddies and Crunchy Nut Cornflakes for the kid’s supper).
The cool box was still frozen, so the milk made it through the night, with just enough for a cheeky brew for me!
