Chessington World Of Adventures

Today Joshua's school had a teacher training day which meant no school day. So me and Tina booked a day off of work, we pulled Brandon from nursery and used up some Tesco vouchers to buy some tickets for Chessington World of Adventures. The weather was scorching hot all day and surprisingly the park was very busy for a Monday after half term which should be a school day for most kids (obviously there was a lot of teacher training days today!!!). Anyway we had an absolute blast of a day and the boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves. For Tina the day wasn't quite as good as being 3 months pregnant she obviously could not go on a lot of the thrill seeker type of rides. So whilst the boys were trying to push their boundaries of thrill seeking, Tina was having to tone her down to the little toddler rides!

 

It is really nice to be able to go to these big Theme Parks now and to enjoy the rides with the boys. They both had smiles on their faces all day and must have walked quite a few miles around the theme park. Their little legs were really tired by the end of the day, yet they still thought off going to sleep in the car on the way home as they wanted to stay awake long enough to see us go through Dartford Tunnel. The pictures really don't do our day out any justice as believe it or not we hardly took any pictures because we were too busy enjoying the day and secondly a lot of the bigger rides simply don't allow you to video or camera anyway.

 

Joshua and Brandon taking Mummy and Daddy on a drive.

"Taxi, taxi, please take me to the Vampire ride as a matter of urgency."

Who parked their car like this?

Joshua has clearly taken after me and is a bit of a monster for thrill seeking roller coasters. Upon entry into the park me and him headed straight for Dragon Fury and he absolutely loved it. As we sit there nervously waiting for the ride to go we keep saying to each other, "What have you got me in to now?". Even better than this though, Joshua also had his first Vampire ride experience. The queue took us about 45 mins but it was well worth the wait and again he absolutely loved every minute of it. Unfortunately Brandon is still a little too short for these two big rides so whilst me and Josh were on these, Tina was taking the little guy on the Bubble Works and a few other rides. So although Brandon did not go on as many big thrill seeking rides as Joshua, overall he did go on more rides than his big brother.

A very happy Brandon on the Bubble Works, he loved getting a good soaking on this ride.

Mummy, Joshua and Baby on the Bubble Works.

The boys thought the Safari Skyway tram looked like the Peppa Pig car. From up here we had a great view of the park and some of the animal exhibits.

Mummy, Josh and Baby on the tram.

Me and Little B.

A view of the sea lions from up on the tram.

Joshua and Brandon on a carousel.

So as not to waste anytime for lunch we timed our lunch break perfectly for the 1pm showing of the Madagascar Live show. The boys are both big fans of Madagascar and new all of the songs. 

The Loin and Hippo characters on stage (sorry don't know their real names!).

Brandon and Joshua on the Madagascar Live stage.

The only bad part of the day was that we waited over an hour for a ride around the new 2013 Zufari safari ride. The boys were so keen to go and see the animals on the safari but after an hour wait the queue just ground to a holt as they decided to feed the animals to try and make them more visible for the safari trucks. It was hot, sticky, the boys were bored and Brandon needed the toilet badly, so we cut our loses and accepted we had wasted an hour and left the queue. 

Flamingos in the new Zufari exhibit.

Pirate Joshua and Brandon on the ships.

Brandon and Joshua on a tuk tuk.

And another one...

Not really sure what the link is between a tuk tuk and a bumper car. Either way both the boys really enjoyed the bumper cars. Tina obviously could not go on these and Joshua was not tall enough to drive on his own. So we took advantage of the parent queue scheme where I took Brandon on first, then without queueing was allowed to go back to the front to ride with Joshua afterwards. What a great idea.

Little B soaking wet having run up and down through a load of water jets in the floor.

Joshua and Brandon about to run through some water jets.

Back on the bubble works for Brandon's 3rd ride on this one (and he is still smiling like a Cheshire cat).

This was one of my most thrilling rides, having Joshua and Brandon drive me around a track in a racing truck!

Is that Joshua hanging out of the truck window when he should be driving?

Me and the boys up in the Canopy Capers trees.

Joshua waiting patiently for the big swings to start.

 

So another fun packed family day out. Lots of thrills, lots of sun, lots of not very good food. But once in a while it had to be done. I will treasure taking Joshua hand in hand on his first Dragon Fury and Vampire rides and look forward to doing the same with Brandon next year. Of course the parent queue sharing will become even more valuable next year as we will have to juggle Joshua, Brandon and the Baby.