Chessington World of Adventures 2023

I have been a little lazy on the blog lately after a couple of manic weeks finishing off the school holidays and then everyone being back to school work. On top of that Tina has changed her hours, we've had to buy a second car and I had the British Masters Cross Fit Championships last weekend as well. So the blog had been way down on the list of things to do.

Anyway in our final week of the school holidays we decided to take the kids to Chessington World of Adventures as we have not been for a good 3 or 4 years and wanted to try out the new Jumanji Mandrill Mayhem ride. We has been watching the queue times a couple of days before and the big 5 or 6 rides all had 90+ min queues which I think is ridiculous given the fact you pay nearly £40 to get in!!

On this occasion Joshua didn't want to come with us and so we didn't force him due to it being an expensive day out if he is not going to enjoy it. As a result of this we saved a bit of money on entry and due to the ridiculous queue lengths we decided to buy Holly and Brandon the Ultimate Reserve and Ride tickets. I am usually dead against paying for these given how much you pay to get in to the park, however we only go once in a blue moon and I just didn't want the kids to spend all of the day queuing and only getting on 3 rides.

The Ultimate Reserve and Ride was absolutely brilliant. We found a little work around where me and Tina both installed the App on our phones and both logged in on the same account to reserve the rides. What this allowed us to do was reserve the ride for 2 people to fast pass, then as soon as one phone was scanned we reserved another 2 on the other phone meaning that all 4 of us could go on without having to incur the cost for 4 Reserve and Ride tickets.

The kids managed to smash out 4 of the big rides within the first hour and by the end of the day had been on everything multiple times. By contrast one of Brandon's mates went on the same day and only managed to go on 3 rides all day!! So as much as it hurt me paying for the Ultimate Pass, it was an absolute god send and made the day really amazing and enjoyable for the kids rather than standing in tedious queues for 75% of your day.

I think Joshua made a mistake by not coming as we had a really, really great day out.

The amazing new Mandrill Mayhem ride which in my opinion is a Florida quality of coaster, just incredible.

Mandrill Mayhem whizzing past with a twist. Chessington's first inversion coaster.

A ray and a shark facing off in the aquarium.

Holly and Brandon about to ride Cobra.

Up close with a Rhino in the safari (which seems to have got a lot shorter since last time we went).

The giraffes were also out and about.

And doing the front splits whilst grazing.

Holly on Croc Drop which looks a lot worse than it is.

Holly ended up going on Croc Drop 2 or 3 times as she loved it.

Holly and Brandon only had one ride on Dragon Fury as it seemed to break down several times throughout the day.

Holly and Brandon on Jumanji.

Tina and B on the good old Vampire.

As always Holly got her head banged around on Dragon Fury.

Me and H on Vampire.

Brandon on Vampire.

Me and B flexing on Tiger Rock.

Holly and Tina getting a good splashing on Tiger Rock.

Holly and Tina on the Gruffalo ride (they never should have changed this from the Bubble Works!).

Me and B on Jumanji.

We must have had about 4 or 5 goes on the new Jumanji which shows the virtual queue works.

Tina and Holly on the Tomb Quest ride. Me and B gave this one a miss.

Another go around on Jumanji.

Me and H on Ostrich Stampede in the Jumanji area of the park.

Holly and B on the rickety old Rattle Snake.