Chessington World of Adventures 2014

Last Thursday the teachers at Joshua and Brandon school had a days industrial action and thus no school for the day. So armed with two "buy a child ticket and an adult gets in free" vouchers we decided to hedge our bets and go to Chessington in hope that it would be a bit quieter than in the school holidays or a weekend and we would have minimal queuing. I must be getting old and begrudge paying some of these entry fees as I had it in my head that two children's tickets would cost around £50. However the entry fee still came to £80 even with the vouchers. Holly gets in free and for me £40 a child is very steep.

Anyway our bet seemed to pay off as the park was reasonably busy but the queues were definately not as bad as we have previously experienced. To start the day me and Joshua jumped on Dragon Fury and only waited about 5 mins. We then headed to Vampire where Brandon was finally tall enough to have a ride. Tina queued with him for about 35 mins whilst me, Joshua and Holly went on the Bubble Works. For the first time ever we really made the most of the parent share cards which work a treat. So once Tina had queued for 35 mins with Brandon, she could then get the card signed for me and Joshua to swap over and go straight through the fast track without any queuing. We managed to work this system on most of the major rides which saved us no end of time.

The bad news is that after a 35 minute queue Brandon did not enjoy Vampire. He had a grin from ear to ear for the first 2/3rds of the ride but then as it swooped down into the dark tunnel he got a bit scared and didn't enjoy it. Fortunately I have one daredevil child with Joshua and can therefore still enjoy all the high thrill rides. With Joshua being nearly 1.3m tall he could ride on virtually everything except a couple of 1.4m rides, but even those he wanted to go on and he was pushing me to try and get him in (maybe next year). So the only new ride Joshua really got to go on this year was Dragon Falls (again we parent shared so that me and Tina could swap places and both have a ride with him).

Holly seemed to enjoy the day and was awake far more than she was asleep. She got to ride on Bubble Works, the Carousel, Peking Heights, Toads Cars to name just a few. Despite being at the theme park from 10am to 5pm there was so much of it that we didn't even get to see. Towards the end of the day we rushed around the animal park and the SeaLife Aquarium, but really could have done with a few more hours. Anyway here are a few pictures from our day out.



Joshua and Brandon now big enough to ride on the little spinning pirate ships without needing to be accompanied by an adult.

Once the ride got going there ship started spinning around and they were both grinning from ear to ear.

Me, Josh and Holly headed into Bubble Works whilst Tina and Brandon queued for Vampire.

A great smile from Joshua as we get a good soaking.

Holly was not amused at getting her hair wet! But she was intrigued by all the lights and colours and didn't know where to look first.

Holly enjoying her first ride at Chessington on the Bubble Works.

Joshua riding on the carousel. How big does he look?

Me and Holly rode in a carriage whilst Joshua and Brandon were on the horses.

Holly having her second ride at Chessington with her Dad to look after her.

Brandon having fun.

Joshua drove me and Brandon around on the racing trucks.

Although I wish we had of known he was showing off and driving without any hands!!!!

One of the new rides for 2014 is the Scorpion which is basically a revamped Runaway Train with a Scorpion Theme. Again we were lucky with a small 10-15 min queue and then used parent share to jump straight back on. Both Brandon and Joshua loved this ride. As you go around the track a huge blast of fire shoots up into the sky and then as you approach one of the bends, a giant animated metal scorpion squirts water at you from its poisonous tail.

The revamped Runaway Train with a Scorpion theme.

Fire shoots from the top of the mine.

A quick selfie of me and Brandon on the train.

Joshua having a good look around and getting excited about what is to come.

As we pass the giant Scorpion we all get blasted with cold water from his tail.

One of our longest queues of the day was for Tomb Blaster and I have to say this was the worst part of the day and a bit of a waste of time. Neither of the boys really enjoyed the ride and despite having the opportunity to walk straight back on with the parent share, they chose not too!

Joshua outside Tomb Blaster - not impressed.

Joshua driving one of Toadies Cars.

Brandon driving Holly and Mummy in another of Toadies cars.

Brandon showing the women how to drive properly.

Joshua and Brandon playing on a Tuk-tuk.

Josh and B on an army jeep in the Zoo part of the park.

Brandon in the SeaLife Aquarium.

Joshua in the tunnel looking for the little Hammerhead shark.

Brandon looking at two big fang like teeth in this big fishes mouth.



A quick dash through the zoo and we got a stunning view of the Tigers.



We missed the sea lion shows but managed to at least see a few of them swimming around.

We had a very long and tiring day out. The journey back sucked as there was a big crash on the M25 which effectively shut the road off. So we ended up taking a detour down the M26 and then cutting back across to Dartford tunnel ultimately saving a lot of time. We then had a quick stop off in Burger King for some dinner and it was then a dash home to get the boys in bed at a semi reasonable time ready for school the next day!!! We all had fun but it wasn't a cheap day out. I think in total if I count fuel and tunnel crossing then I doubt we game back with much change from £150.