We’re lucky enough to have Merlin passes this year, and how better to use them than by checking out the new Gruffalo River Ride at Chessington World of Adventures!

Gruffalo River Ride at Chessington World of Adventures
An Owl Saw the Mouse and the Mouse Looked Good…

 

Over the Easter holidays I braved Chessington World of Adventures on my own with our 3 children, aged 8, 4 and 2 years.  Am I completely bonkers, you may well ask!  Well yes quite possibly.

However, I am pleased to say it was a success!  There were a few tricky moments like trying to take everybody to the toilet at once, and having to tell my 8 year old she couldn’t go on particular rides as the queue would be too long and the little ones might not manage the wait…but on the whole I think we managed to do a lot!

Of course it does help that we have Merlin passes, so there wasn’t pressure to do everything in one day, and I just needed to focus on enjoying (surviving) the day, doing whatever the children fancied.  I’ve also got the benefit of familiarity with the place as we had annual passes (just for Chessington, not the Merlin pass) a couple of years ago and visited many times.

You may have been to Chessington World of Adventures before, so I’ll start off my review by talking about the Gruffalo River Ride and then I’ll talk more broadly about the whole theme park.

 

The Gruffalo River Ride

The Gruffalo River Ride at Chessington World of Adventures
Queuing and boarding the Gruffalo Ride River boats, as you enter the Deep Dark Wood

The first thing to note is that as the ride is new it certainly attracts big queues!  Though the ride is quite fast-loading, meaning that the queue does not stagnate.  I strategically left this ride till the end of the day.  We started queuing at about 4pm and the queue on a Tuesday during Easter holidays was about 20 minutes long, which is lucky because my younger ones were getting rather fatigued with it all!  So I can recommend leaving this ride till the end (or possibly, get there super early and leg it straight over to this ride).

Those of you who have been to Chessington previously may remember the Bubbleworks ride.  Oh, I have been on that ride so many times and I must tell you, I did have a pang of…oh no, they really have replaced it!  It’s GONE FOREVER!  But fortunately I managed to get past my longing for the Bubbleworks and immerse myself in the new Gruffalo River Ride which now physically occupies the same space and as you may expect, structurally resembles the Bubbleworks ride.

Other than sitting in the same circular boats which wind their way around to a grand finale of beautiful fountains in a tunnel formation the ride is completely new and different, and any Julia Donaldson fans will not be disappointed.  The characters from the Gruffalo story feature in larger than life form, and it is really done so beautifully.  It even smells good!  As my 4 year old son said, “I love that ride, it was amazing, I went INSIDE A STORY!”

This brings me to the final point I wanted to make about the Gruffalo River ride.  Perhaps we are a little sensitive to the dark and anything that seems rather thrilling, but I think I would be remiss if I did not mention that I think the Gruffalo ride, perhaps as they are trying to appeal to the whole family and not just very little ones, is a little on the scary side!  So if you have very little ones who may be very imaginative or prone to nightmares, you may wish to test out the ride yourself first.  I actually spent much of the ride cuddling the 4 year old in order to reassure him that all was well as he had been worried while queuing that we would be entering a Very Dark Tunnel – which is the entrance of course, to the Deep Dark Wood), but in doing so found that the 2 year old who is normally quite fine and oblivious to these things was not a happy bunny by the end!  Perhaps it was all the evil-sounding echoes of the snake’s voice!  I don’t really wish to criticise the ride as it is so well done with lots of special effects, but it does seem a little odd that it is so theatrical that it can frighten children in the very age bracket I imagine the Gruffalo story is marketed toward.  I did not find that to be an issue, for example, when we saw the Gruffalo stage show in the West End last year.

Anyway, it’s still a must-do at Chessington World of Adventures so hope you will get to check it out, with tots in tow, or not!

Read my review and top tips for visiting Chessington World of Adventures and the New Gruffalo River Ride
An owl saw the mouse and the mouse looked good…

The other great thing to mention is that the Gruffalo film is now being played, several times a day, at the main stage in Chessington World of Adventures (where the Madagascar show was performed, previously).  As my sons are big fans of the Gruffalo they enjoyed watching this, while my 8 year old went on the Treetop Hoppers ride which is located right next to it (minimum height 0.9m, under 1.1m needs adult to accompany).  There is also a regular meet and greet with the GRUFFALO himself.  So obviously, diehard fans will not want to miss this.

Gruffalo film screening and meet and greet
The Gruffalo Arena, where you can meet and greet the Gruffalo as well as watch the film

Other Favourite Rides and Attractions at Chessington World of Adventures

If you’re not tired of reading yet, here is a list of what else we have been up to at Chessington World of Adventures besides the Gruffalo River Ride (some of these we enjoyed last weekend, when we returned to the park with my husband for another visit! I didn’t do them ALL by myself with 3 children!)

  1. The ZOO – the kids really enjoy this, and at the moment there are lion cubs at Chessington.  The gorillas are another hot favourite, the tigers, and the sea lion show.
  2. The SEA LIFE centre – I find this rather magical still, even though I have been many, many times now!  Sea life is just so colourful, isn’t it?  One thing my daughter always enjoys doing here is allowing the shrimp to “clean” her nails!  Watch out for the gift shop at the end…hard to make a speedy exit but it can be done.
  3. Tiny Truckers – Oh my goodness, this ride is VERY slow-loading.  Bring something to entertain little ones if you plan to queue for this.  But they do love it, pretending to drive little trucks (under 1.1m needs to be accompanied by an adult)
  4. Dragon’s Playhouse – Soft play – You’ll need to bring socks for this one.  Good for the little ones to burn off some energy and it’s all indoors so head here if the weather goes sour (it has a maximum capacity, but they let another group in every 15-20 mins, maximum height 1.40m)
  5. Sea Dragons – this relaxing merry-go-round style ride was just perfect for the 2 and 4 year olds.  It’s located right near the Dragon’s Playhouse.  Adult has to accompany children under 1.1m.
  6. Canopy Capers – fun for the 4 and 8 year old, it’s a play area that’s outdoors and above ground.  Under 0.9m needs to be accompanied but to be honest our 2 year old is above that height and I would want to accompany him as not all of the play area is within view from the ground.
  7. Tuk Tuk Turmoil – this is basically bumper cars – our 8 year old was able to drive her own and my husband accompanied the 4 year old – they all loved it!  By the way just a footnote about the actual tuk tuks they used to have at Chessington which children could climb in and out of – these seem to have gone!  It’s a shame for us, as my 4 year old used to love playing in those.
  8. Flying Jumbos – lovely ride that all 5 of us were able to do together (we sat in 3 separate elephants)
  9. Hocus Pocus Hall – we haven’t done this one since we visited a year ago, but it was great fun then.  It is a little spooky but not as bad as I expected!  Probably again not one for very little ones (though it was actually fine with a baby aged 6 months, as he was quite oblivious!)
  10. The Vampire – I haven’t been on this hanging rollercoaster ride for years!  But I had to mention it as I used to love it so much as a teenager, many many moons ago…
Tiny Truckers Ride at Chessington World of Adventures
Tiny Truckers ride – hot favourite with the little ones but be prepared, queues are slow moving!

There’s much more that I haven’t mentioned, including a penguin talk, a nice new safari-themed carousel (called Adventure Tree), the Zufari ride (which I still haven’t been on!), a petting zoo (called Children’s Zoo), and Amazu which has lots of lovely spider monkeys located in and around one of the play areas.  There’s also a Madagascar meet and greet with characters near the SeaLife centre, and an Animal Antics show which takes place on the lawn outside Hocus Pocus Hall which is a great place to relax with an ice cream.

With all these activities I can safely say you could fill 2 whole days at Chessington World of Adventures.  If you want to stay overnight they now have a glamping area which I haven’t checked out but it looks interesting! There is also the Chessington on-site Hotel.

Queuing

It might be worth mentioning there is a constantly updating electronic board in the Market Square that tells you how long the queues are for most of the popular rides, so that can be helpful for planning where to go next.  You can also download an app which apparently allows you to keep this information at your fingertips.  There are fastrack passes available, for a price, if you do not wish to queue.  You can actually buy a fastrack pass which can be used for all rides, or buy a pass for just one specific ride or group of rides (the pass for one ride has to be bought from a kiosk at the park, on the day, but the pass for a group of rides can be purchased online in advance).  If you don’t plan to get fast passes and you’re visiting at peak times make sure to bring something to entertain little ones in queues, and take lots of breaks to do other activities that don’t involve queuing like attending a show, having a bite to eat or checking out the SeaLife Centre.

Food and Drink

With regard to food, the Fried Chicken company is a place we keep returning to.  It is easy and the kids and I both like it.   We also tried out the hot dog and nachos stand in the Market Square this time, they were quite generous-looking hot dogs!  I’m afraid I can’t really comment on the other food places as we usually try to bring a picnic to keep costs down!  But there are many places to eat at Chessington World of Adventures.  Of course you can feed your family to your hearts’ delight on doughnuts, ice creams, and slushies.  But healthy food I haven’t managed to find yet, though there has to be some somewhere!  You’ll have to let me know in the comments, if you find anywhere you’d like to recommend.

Read more on the Chessington World of Adventures website, link below to the opening times.

www.chessington.com/plan/chessington-opening-times.aspx

Be sure to look out for buy one get one free vouchers to save on ticket costs (often to be found on cereal boxes).

Have fun if you go to Chessington!  We love it.

If you haven’t been to Kidzania London, read my review of our visit and top tips for enjoying this “mini city for kids” here:

Kidzania London review and tips – successful first visit with my 8-year old

 

If you fancy a trip to Legoland you might like to read my blog post below:

Top 16 attractions at Legoland Windsor – Fantastic family day out!

Accidental Hipster Mum
Plutonium Sox

Brilliant blog posts on HonestMum.com

The Smallest Of Things
ethannevelyn.com


 

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33 Replies to “Chessington World of Adventures and the New Gruffalo River Ride – Mummy Review and Tips”

  1. Well done for managing a day out at Chessington with three children single-handedly. Good tip about the best times to go for the Gruffalo ride too. Having a pass makes such a difference. It’s nice not to have that pressure to fit in as much as possible into one day.

    1. Aw thanks Louise, it was quite a military op at times! Yes wish we could have a pass every year, such a great thing! Thanks a lot for stopping by and commenting 🙂

    1. Hey Carrie, I’m so glad I could help connect your two with potential Gruffalo mania at Chessington! It’s definitely worth visiting 🙂 Thank you for commenting!

    1. Some of the old rides are still there from our childhoods which is nostalgic! Hope you can go soon! Thanks for the comment 🙂

    1. You’re so right Jenny! It’s definitely worth a visit and but just wanted to pre-warn! Cuddles at the ready 🙂 thanks for stopping by!

  2. We are also a Gruffalo fan. We haven’t heard of the Merlin passes before. Sound like a great deal. We need to check that out. Thank you so much for linking up with us on #FabFridayPost x

    1. The Merlin passes are great if you’re planning lots of days out to theme parks and it even lets you into places like Warwick Castle. I will do a post on the passes some later on this year! Thanks so much for the lovely comments 🙂

  3. Sounds like a fun day out. It’s great you have a pass, better to enjoy the day rather than feeling you have to get your money’s worth! Enjoy many more adventures. Thanks for linking up with us at #FabFridayPost

  4. Oh I’ve never been to Chessington but have heard really good things about it lately. The Gruffalo ride sounds amazing, although it’s a shame it is a bit too scary for little ones. It sounds like the sort of thing that would frighten my youngest but she does love the Gruffalo so we may risk it if we go. Thanks for linking up to #FamilyTravelTips!
    Nat.x

    1. Glad you feel encouraged to go! Hope your daughter enjoys the Gruffalo ride. My 4 year old son did enjoy it, as well as being spooked, and is now asking for the Gruffalo book to be read at bedtime every night…so it certainly captured his imagination!

  5. Going out with 3 on your own is pretty rave, well done. I can barely manage it with two. I’ve never been to chessington but it sounds like there’s so much to do there and my son loves Gruffalo right now too!

    1. Aw thank you! It felt good to get out and about with 3 but I won’t be doing it too often on my own, if I can avoid it! Sounds like your son would enjoy Chessington, hope you’ll get to go! Thanks so much for reading and the comment 🙂

  6. Great tips thank you, we have merlin passes and are planning a trip to Chessington this Friday has my daughter has a training day before half term. Fingers crossed it won’t be too busy. Thanks for some great tips 🙂

    1. Hi, I’m glad you found it helpful! Hope you have a lovely day, it’s such a good idea going on a training day to escape the crowds. Thanks for commenting 🙂

  7. I loved the bubbleworks as a kid! Love the gruffalo more though and looking forwards to trying this out when my baby grows up a bit more. Also good tip about it being scary for little ones, thanks!

  8. I didn’t realise they had a gruffalo ride, this sounds right up my toddlers street. We love the zoo there but didn’t do much else when we went as our toddler was quite small and didn’t have the energy for much else. You have inspired me to take her again!

    1. It’s definitely worth another visit! The aquarium there is great too, if you have the energy next time! Thanks for commenting 🙂

  9. Hello – I hope it isn’t too late to ask a question.
    My husband and I have three children – 7, 5 and 2. We normally go to Drayton Manor with the eldest two and the 2 year old is left with family for the day. We now want to involve him in our trips and we would love to go to Chessington. My only worry is the older two will want to go on all the rides they can and if they have to be accompanied with an adult each, what will we do with our 2 year old?
    How did you manage your older ones wanting to go on rides while you had your 2 year old? And assuming you still have a buggy for your 2 year old what did you do with your belongings while on the ride? Any advice, or explanation would be more than welcome!

    1. Hello! I hope it isn’t too late to reply to your very good question. We have a similar challenge with the spread of ages… How we juggled getting on rides and attempting to keep everyone happy varied according to the ride. On some of the rides eg flying jumbos our daughter (8 yrs at the time) went in an elephant by herself, one adult went with 2 year old, the other with 4 year old. On some rides it was possible to all get on together, in one boat, for example the Gruffalo river ride. On Sea Dragons the kids could all fit on with one adult accompanying (perhaps two would have fit, but I didn’t fancy it at the time as I get a little sick going round in circles sometimes!) For Hocus Pocus Hall my husband took the 4 and 8 year old and I waited outside. Tiny truckers only little ones can fit in the lower section (with the steering wheels) so the 8 and 4 year old squeezed in there (and I went in the back with the 2 year old). I guess an option for rides where just 2 can sit together in a car would be to take it in turns, so just one adult and one older child goes on while the others do something else, and then the adult later goes on with the other child.
      Also, it honestly wasn’t too much trouble having our 2 year old with us as there is so much to do at Chessington that isn’t just about the rides eg. the play areas, animals, and aquarium. As for our stuff, we left the buggy just outside the ride (there is normally an area designated for this) and any bags of non-valuables were left in the buggy. Cameras, phones, money came on the ride with us – no problem. I hope you manage to go with all 3 of your little ones, and have a fantastic time! Is it the Drayton Manor in Birmingham, by the way? I’ve been there as a child! Loved it.

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