Chessington World of Adventures top tips

Chosen at random Prerna Gupta comment 13 is the winner

The Sun has teamed up with Merlin and is offering The Sun Superdays free tickets to some of the biggest UK attractions for anyone who signs up for a new Sun+ membership (The Sun’s digital entertainment bundle) You can visit Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventure, Legoland, Warwick Castle and Thorpe Park.

To receive two adult tickets worth £88 all you have to do is sign up to Sun+ (see link above)

Here’s a review of our recent LEGOLAND day out plus our Top tips if you’re planning on going

And last year’s Thorpe Park review for an insider’s idea of what to expect there.

For this occasion we decided to take a look at Chessington World of Adventure

Chessington World of Adventures

I must start this review by saying we got stuck on the M25 for 2 hours on our way to the theme park so we battled a queue from the M25 to the park, another queue into the car park, another queue to collect our tickets and then continuous queues throughout the day for each ride we chose to go on some we missed completely as they were 120 minutes long. Exhausting. Irritating and a learning curve.

My first top tip would be to NEVER go during school holidays or sunny weekends, choose school inset days and dull weekends and you’ll probably get more out of your day.

However all was not lost as there is still lots to do on packed days like these including a visit to Chessington Zoo

Chessington Zoo

Also called Trail of the Kings and a walk past reindeer, gorillas, tigers, lions and more. There are large glass windows to peer through into the enclosures where the animals are kept. The twins loved this and we were all very sad to see the lioness had passed away earlier this year leaving the lion on his own but Chessington are on the lookout for a new mate for him so keep your eyes peeled.

We also had a lot of fun at Sealion Bay watching the sealions practising their tricks in return for fish which they love!

Hocus Pocus Hall was a great attraction with a short queue, you enter a beautiful old building wearing 3D glasses and follow a fun route inside with some great ‘spooky’ features as you go.

SeaLife is a miniature acquarium well worth a visit, having seen the London Acquarium previously we can say it’s very similar; it’s interesting, educational and fun, at the end there’s even a chance to touch some of the sea creatures.

Zufari, possibly one of our highlights of the day. You clamber on a truck which drives ‘off road’ through the fields where the animals live freely, we saw giraffes, zebra and rhinos too amongst other animals.

Madagascar Live! On stage in the centre of the park. A short 20 minute circa performance including some of our favourite Madagascar characters planning a party for Alex, a lot of fun, singing and dancing to be had an an ideal moment to sit down and grab a sandwich in the madness.

Peeking Heights. A beautiful old Ferris Wheel which very strangely only lets three carriages on at a time, you then ride to the top and on a day like yesterday have an amazing view with the London Eye, Gherkin and Canary Wharf in the distance, breathtaking.

Seastorm. A fast roundabout where you sit in ships which can turn backwards too as the ride travels up and down over bumps, short 30 minute queue (that is short trust me!) and the kids loved it

Verdict: I’m going to have to return to Chessington World of Adventures to get a better feel for the park, this time was mayhem from the initial traffic jams to get there through to the overwhelmingly packed park. There is a lot more to see and do and I would have loved to try out the rollercoasters but they were all from 60 – 120 minute waits.  Fastrack would have been an option but I wasn’t offered the Premium solution at the desk, the queues were way too long for any advise from the sales staff so we ended up with regular entry tickets. I didn’t see any Fastrack booths around the park but this could be as it was so packed and I found it difficult to get my bearings.

There is an electronic sign in Market Square which tells you how long the waits are at the various rides but they’re in alphabetical order and again if you don’t know where they are in the park it can take quite a while to find them by which time the queue times may have changed (for better or for worse)

TOP TIPS for Chessington World of Adventure

1. Order online tickets and save money

2. Book Fastrack ALWAYS on busy days

3. Get to the park as early as possible and do the rollercoasters first before the queues start

4. Wait to the end of the day as the park empties out for extra goes on your favourite rides with no queues.

5. There is a LOT of walking around the park so try and have a route and plan made before you go, check out the Chessington World of Adventure Resort map before you go

#Sunfessions win £250 towards a day out

#Sunfession is a competition which asks parents to share a cringeworthy or funny parental confession on Twitter and Instagram, along with the hashtag #Sunfession

Have you embarrassed the kids in front of their friends?, Have you ever told a white lie to get you out of a tricky situation? Have you broken one of their favourite toys or a LEGO masterpiece whilst cleaning?

Tell your #Sunfession on Twitter and win £250 towards a day at one of the attractions.

To support the #Sunfession campaign, I have £250 to give away to one Mari’s World reader to spend at Chessington. All you need to do is log in to your Twitter or Instagram account and retell a hilarious or awful thing you have done to your kids.  Don’t forget to include #Sunfession AND #MarisWorld. Hit tweet or post, and then visit the Sun site to see your #Sunfession appear: http://bit.ly/1dwABCw

1. Retell your #Sunfession via Instagram or Twitter
2. Include the hastags #Sunfession and #MarisWorld to make sure you get seen
3. Leave a comment below with your tweet

 I will be selecting a winner on the blog in 14 days!

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Disclosure: We enjoyed a day out at Chessington world of adventure courtesy of The sun and their promotion

Marianne Weekes