Chessington World of Adventures Resort — Hotel in London

Once you get past security, it was like standing in the middle of a maze. We ended up grabbing a map, but it was absolutely pointless because it doesn’t help you one bit. Also don’t bother asking staff for directions because they haven’t got a clue on that neither. Trying to navigate your way around the theme park, with or without a map is just a nightmare even with the signs on the post, which aren’t accurate in the slightest.

We originally paid for standard passes which meant we had to queue in normal lines. The park had been opened 7 minutes by time we got the first ride, and the waiting time in the queue was 50 minutes. We looked on the app, and most wait times were between 35-50 mins. So we decided to pay an extra £30pp for the virtual reserve and ride, but what a complete waste of money! Even with the reserve and ride, you still got to wait between 35-50 minutes before you can go on the ride. After waiting so long, the app brings up a barcode which must be scanned by the ride operator as you’re getting on the ride. Once it’s been scanned, you can then book the next ride, but it’s only one at a time with another 35-50 minute wait until you can ride again and can’t book your next ride until that barcodes has been scanned.

Stood in line for the ride called “Mandrill Mayhem” for 37 minutes before an announcement was made saying they have temporarily closed the ride and they advised we find somewhere else to ride. Decided to try again later on in the day, another 34 minute wait before we could get on the ride.

Only 9 out of the 40+ rides were for adults, and 3 of them were closed on the day we visited. But in all honestly, even with the reserve and ride, you would never get through all 9 rides because the waiting times for queues are just too long! In the 7 hours we were there, we managed to get on 7 rides

Took us over an hour to find the Zufari, we asked 7 different staff members for directions, 1 told us they have no idea how to get there and 6 sent us on a wild goose chase. We finally got to ride after waiting 17 minutes in the reserve & ride queue, and it was a waste of time because we only saw 3 animals out of the 7 and whole thing lasted roughly about 4 minutes.

The croc drop is a terrible ride, it lifts & drops you twice and then the ride is over. Waiting in the queue for 35 minutes with the ride & reserve for the ride to last 1 minute or less. Normal queue time for this ride was 55 minutes, can’t imagine how angry the people must have felt to wait all that time for such a pathetic ride.

The best part about the whole theme park, was how incredibly trained the Sea Lions were, it was amazing to watch but wished it was a bit longer and wish they would have talked to us about the Sea Lions. They also have lion talks and gorilla talks, however they’re all on at the same time which we was unaware of so we managed to watch the sea lions but missed the Gorilla talk and the lion talk wasn’t open due to them being so unwell.

We was looking for somewhere to eat but none of the menus had prices on so you had to queue up inside the restaurant and once you get close to the front you could see the prices, so again you’re wasting your time waiting around queues. I highly recommend bring a packed lunch/picnic because at least that way, you can eat whilst queuing for a ride.

Most of the staff were quite rude and spoke to you with terrible attitude, made us feel very unwelcome.

Good luck trying to leave the theme park, as there’s no organisation at all from the staff. You have hundreds of people trying to all leave several car parks are one time, it was horrendous, everyone trying to push there cars through, it was very dangerous. I didn’t think I’d be stuck in another queue trying to leave the site, 45 minutes it took for us to get to the exit.

Safe to say we will never be returning to this theme park again. We go to theme parks around 4 times a year and decided we would try chessington this time for a new experience but it was by far the worse one we have even been to. Just a complete waste of...

Visiting Santa at "The Christmas Village" . Great experience, apart from one individual.

Let's get the positive out of the way first.

So it's that time of year again and instead of taking the Grandson to the local Garden centre to see Santa, we decided to take him to Chessington for a change. All in all, it's very reasonable on price compared to what Garden centres offer by comparison.

The way the park had been dressed was great and was very festive with various decorations and lots of "snow" covered Christmas trees... Oh and a couple of real Reindeer.

We were given a time slot which was a little confusing, as when we arrived we had to join a long queue which took us the best part of 30 minutes to get to the front. In that time they give you Bluetooth headsets with three settings for 3 different channels which are all playing different Christmas songs.

Once you start the trail to visit Santa, you're greeted by one of the members of staff who is dressed as an Elf and they lead you to a small wooden cabin where you'll meet Santa. Can I point out that the staff are generally high energy entertainers who really do put in their best efforts to convince you they're actually Santas Elves. 🤭 They're all very friendly and clearly enjoy their jobs.

On the way to the Cabin, each side of the path  was a wall of Christmas trees and I couldn't help but feel it was similar to if we were walking through the woods in Narnia.

Once you're in the cabin, it's nicely decorated with Christmas trees, presents, lights and a fairly realistic faux fireplace with Santa sitting in the corner. He'll activate the camera on the wall and your picture is taken. Then off you go to collect your photo (which you'll have to pay for if you want it)

Then you're guided into the Christmas Grotto which is made to look like you're walking through caves with members of staff greeting you at every turn.  It's good for the kids and I was impressed with how it had been done. At the end you're given a little stuffed Reindeer teddy which was a nice little extra.

Sounds like you had a nice time, so why the 3 star review?!

Well, as we were leaving there was a tent on the right (near the exit) next to a Sleigh being pulled by a giant Rhino decoration (an odd alternative to the usual reindeer that you would imagine but I'm guessing it's more a symbol of their zoo). Outside were a fair few members of staff , again, all dressed as elves but carrying wicker baskets with Christmas decorated Gingerbead men.

(Any Managers of Chessington reading this, please take note)

So we approached them and asked how we got a Gingerbread man. This is how the conversation went with one of the ladies there:

Me "Hello, how do we get a gingerbread man?"

Elf "You need a blue leaflet"

Me "Where do we get one of those?"

Elf "Oh they are meant to give you one when you come in at the main gate"

Me "They didn't give us one of those!"

Elf "Oh, it's been happening all day I'm sorry about that!"

Me "That's ok, so can you just give us the biscuit then?"

Elf "No, I'm sorry, you need a leaflet!"

(Can I point out that these are free biscuits that are given out to basically every paying customer who's bought a ticket to get in)

Me "So just to confirm, you need a blue leaflet, everyone is meant to get a blue leaflet when you enter,  you're aware that the leaflets haven't been given out all day and yet you won't give us the biscuit even though it's not our fault we haven't been given the leaflet in the first place?!".....

Elf "You need the leaflet, sorry"

Me "WOW! Happy Christmas!"

I have to say that put me in a bad mood.

The conversation should have gone:

Me "How do we get a biscuit?"

Elf "have you got the blue leaflet?"

Me "no, We weren't given one, where were you meant to get that?"

Elf "Don't worry, they've probably run out.... Here.....Have a biscuit and Happy Christmas!"

Simple!

Apart from Biscuit Gate, would I recommend it?. YES, just make sure you get your leaflet so you can claim your free Gingerbread man from the Elf themed biscuit...

Car Park: Having experienced this theme park before, I knew to book ahead for the car park just to be sure. The On-The-Day price is £8, booking online I had to take the option for £7 despite there being a £6 option (but the website wouldn't let me book). The price without context isn't that bad. But when you add the context that you are parking in a field with a dirt track, that barely looks like it's been maintained, you start to wonder where that money is going.

Security: The security guards that met us just before the entrance were friendly but didn't seem to know what was happening. Whilst myself and my mother were stopped and told to wait, others who had followed us from the car park were let through. They hadn't come from glamping so it was just pure confusion. We were let through immediately afterwards.

Toilets: The toilet situation throughout the park wasn't great. The toilets didn't feel clean, and the hand wash was installed so close to the sink you couldn't get your hands under it to get soap.

Queuing: Though we were warned by an employee whilst queuing first thing for Dragon's Fury that it was going to be busy, the park felt a normal amount of busy. Not an overwhelming amount. Though some queue lines were long, it didn't feel like time was dragging on because the immersion in some queues had been improved. The queue for Tomb Blaster, for example, claimed to be 60 minutes but we got through in 30.

The one major disappointment was Jumanji. The Virtual Queue system for Mandril Mayhem was beyond abysmal. There were a handful of people in the queue line, and a hoard of people outside the queue desperately trying to scan QR Codes to generate their own to be able to be let in. But all day (and I checked frequently) the Virtual Queue said the queue was closed and no reservations could be made, despite the queue being mostly empty and the ride being functional all day. There was clear sinage to say Virtual Queue and Main Entrance, indicating two separate queue systems. But the Main Entrance wasn't being used, only the Virtual Queue, excluding a lot of visitors. I heard so many different people complaining throughout the day about that ride's queue.

Rides: Despite the annoyance of Jumanji, we managed to get on a good few rides. Dragon's Fury, Kobra, Vampire, Zufari, Tomb Blaster and Room on the Broom. All of the rides were got on were just as good as always, though it felt we were slightly ripped off on our £20 unlimited photos deal because we weren't told the camera for Tomb Blaster wasn't working and only found out when the flash never went off and the system at the exit was blank and empty.

Food: We visited the Vampire Burger Kitchen for the first time ever and the food was lovely. I had the chicken tenders and Mum had the double cheeseburger, both with fries. So good. A little pricey but definitely tasty.

Staff: A mixed bunch, but mostly brilliant. The security and gate staff were welcoming and great. The entertainers roaming around for Mardi Grrrra were fabulous - all smiles and positive energy, really engaging with the kids, and most of the ride attendants were friendly. The girl who was attending Kobra first thing in the morning wasn't good - she was very rude, frowned at people a lot (like full on scoffed at people), yelled at people to move and just made everyone feel like we were wasting her time. A similar (if not the same) girl was in the Vampire Kitchen and she started yelling someone's order number like she was going to throw their food in the bin if they didn't hurry up and come to the counter. Like, I know working in hospitality can be draining but these two (if they weren't the same girl, because they were identical) were borderline...