Diggerland Kent — Attraction in Great Britain

I would give 0 stars if it was an option. Terrible Experience - Save Your Money and Don’t Go!

Our experience at Diggerland Kent was beyond disappointing, and I would absolutely NOT recommend this place. We arrived full of excitement, but it quickly turned into a day of frustration and upset.

To begin with, we had to wait in a 30-minute queue just to get in the door. Once inside, the whole park was a nightmare of huge queues for every attraction. What made it even more infuriating was that there were empty diggers sitting there and the staff were clearly incompetent. They didn’t bother moving people along when diggers became free, meaning people just stood around while rides weren’t being used. The whole setup was chaotic and disorganised.

But then things went from bad to worse. My 6-year-old was really excited to try out one of the diggers (after a 45 minute wait) and as soon as she started using it a staff member who was leaning into the digger shouted in her face! He was aggressive and rude for no reason. This left her in tears and understandably distressed. Whilst queuing other customers commented on his behaviour and how it was ironic that his badge said “have buckets of fun” where he was doing the opposite.

Naturally after that incident we wanted to leave so immediately spoke to management about this unacceptable behaviour and while they seemed sympathetic at first, they told us that because we pre-booked online (the only option available due to a sign on the door saying pre-booking was required), they couldn’t give us a refund at the park. They told us to email head office instead for a refund. If we had paid on the door, they would have refunded us immediately.

When I contacted head office, things got even worse. The staff were unhelpful and completely unwilling to understand the situation. Despite explaining that we spent less than 90 minutes in the park and left with an upset child because of their staff's behaviour, they refused to issue a refund and said it didn’t meet their circumstances for a refund. Instead, they offered us tickets to come back, but after this experience, there’s absolutely no way we would return. The fact that they won’t consider the additional costs we incurred for the day, especially as we live an hour away, makes it even worse.

They repeatedly referred to their terms and conditions, but this seems like an excuse to ignore the poor service and awful experience we had. After speaking to trading standards, we are now taking this further because they didn’t uphold their part of the terms and conditions and we want our money back.

This was a terrible end to our summer holidays, and we’ve had much better experiences at many other brilliant parks this year. Legoland, Chessington, Barleylands, Marsh Farm, Bewilderwood—all fantastic places.

As you can see from another review that I’ve added a photo of, we’re not the first ones to experience staff shouting at our children!!! Do not waste your time or money at this...

Absolutely amazing. A friend went on Saturday so I booked tickets for the Sunday for myself and 10 year old daughter.

Luckily my daughter is 142cm so could operate most things, but worth checking the height guidelines on their website to manage the little ones expectations. But when they can’t do it alone they can do it with an adult.

The food was great and a good price, all the food groups like burgers, kebabs, pizza and fish and chips. Freshly made sandwiches and salads etc. and unlike a lot of places no problem bringing in your own food. Great ice cream van as well.

The staff are all young, late teens to mid 20’s I think, and everyone was brilliant. Patient, helpful, funny and joking. They really helped make the day.

I won’t use the word rides, rather experiences, as this is what sets this place ahead of theme parks. Kids actually do it themselves! The look on their faces when they drive a ten ton JCB, operate a digger, is priceless. It is one the best father daughter bonding days I have had.

Also the extras you have to pay for? Well the dodgems are only a pound a car vs seven on mobile fun fairs. And they were fast and for the first time I’ve seen an optional padded protection bar that can be pulled down (why don’t they all have this?).

And the goodie shop is great value, a lovely T shirt to remember the day for seven pounds. The music blaring was awesome as well, classic likes Saturday night fever (showing my age).

Queue time for us was a few minutes on most things, the large diggers about 20 mins, and again unlike theme parks you get a decent amount of time when doing it, about ten mins.

The spin dizzy (granted a ride) lasted over 3 mins (it’s a massive Earth mover where you sit in the bucket and spin around).

The highlight. A ten your old driving an actual car. A Mitsubishi shogun or similar I think, by themselves with me in the back. The lady sitting in the passenger seat guiding and helping my daughter around the course.

It was seriously one of the best days I can remember and will stick more in my memory than Disney Paris, Chessington for not only the fun but as said the experience it...

Firstly when finding diggerland (unless you're local) don't be upset when you're driving down the motorway and the local roads and don't see any signs for it. You don't start to see them until you're nearly on top of it. Our route took us from the M26 and the first sign see was about 3 roundabouts before the site itself.

Although parking seems lacking, there are enough spaces to deal with the amount of people the park permits. This is actually one of the benefits of diggerland, it only gets 'so busy' as there is a limit to the numbers allowed in. If driving a decent distance to get there, as we did, it would be advisable to book in advance. The queue to get in didn't last long.

I was actually shocked how small the site is. If you think of places like Thorpe park or Chessington world of adventures (these are what I compared it to in my head before going) it's not even close to the size. Not saying there is a good or bad thing but just something I noticed.

You get a very good turn on all of the attractions. This is great when you're on but, some of the queues seem to last forever when you're waiting. Height limits are generally 90cm to 140cm. I was absolutely gobsmacked my 5 year old was able to drive a skid steer around a course all by himself! This place blew both my boys minds.

Food is fairly expensive but decent. You can take your own food or buy there. There is an ice cream van and burger van plus a main cafeteria near the entrance. See the pictures for some idea of the prices when we went.

Generally staffed by fairly young people when we went. Most were nice if not a bit confused by the sheer excitement of young children. 2 were a bit dismissive and rude but they were in the minority.

The shops isn't too badly priced actually. I thought there would be a higher selection but it wasn't terrible.

Overall we had a great day as the children were completely obsessed with construction vehicles. If yours aren't, it's probably a waste. By the way, there were lots of adults there having a good time without children so don't think it would be an issue if you just fancied a go...