Chessington World of Adventures

This trip was booked as part of a 3 day family trip (2 adults and a 5 year old) - 1 day at Legoland, 1 day at Chessington and a day in London with 2 nights at the Holiday Inn Windsor all booked as a package through the Legoland website (L250 in total inc. breakfast in the hotel - pretty good value.

On the day we went to Chessington within an hour it started raining and didn't stop for the rest of the day. Having said that (and having spent the previous day at Legoland in queues for everything) we had a great time. My little girl got on most of the rides with only a few being outside her height range. She loved Vampire (definately her favourite). Becasue of the rain there were hardly any queues and this is what made it better than our previous day. Also there was a better mix of rides for young and old. I would definately recommend this park although would probaly give it a miss on school holidays as like everywhere else it probably becomes a bit of a nightmare with the queues.

I first visited Chessington a few years ago when I was a bit younger and what seemed adequate then didnt quite measure up this time. This place is good for the little ones but cannot compete with Thorpe Park or Alton Towers when it comes to catering for the rest of the family.

One of the biggest issues was the q-ing time, they have adopted some strange system of stopping people half way throught the q and then leaving a big gap which meant that it wasnt fleuent and you felt like you were standing still for ages. (there obviously is some reason for this but we couldnt work out what it was)

The other issue was food, intially we went into the greedy goblin pub but they had run out of chicken!! (which was nearly all of their menu) and then we went into a little cafe where we had to wait very long time for our food to be cooked

Overall we did have a nice time, the weather was good and the zoo and the new sea life centre is a bonus which the other parks dont have but the actual rides and main park are a bit dated now and for the same price and a few extra miles I would opt for Thorpe Park.

the last time i went to chessington world of adventures was two years ago.

i went yesterday as the weather was good.

it was L31 per person, on the gate, to get in.

two years ago - they had a FREE fasttrack pass where you would scan your ticket at some of the most popular rides and it would give you a time to come back - so you don't have to queue.

i asked two staff members about this - they didn't know what i was talking about.

third time lucky - one girl knew what i was asking about and she informed me that now you have to pay on top of your admisson ticket L6 or L7 pounds to not queue.

Also the cash machines two years ago were barclays or natwest - so these were free of charge.

now there are cashline machines where is charges L1.50 per transaction.

i was waiting in line at the fish and chips counter service for over 15 minutes and there were 5 people in front of me and only one had been served. there was one person serving the other three just standing around.

very expensive and very bad service.

the rides look shabby and in need for a new paint job.

not impressed.