Chessington report and some tips

[Jamie99]

We went to Chessington Sunday as part of my 9 year olds extended birthday celebrations. We had a great day and thought i would post some tips.

Getting there - thanks to the Dibb I was made aware of the m25 closures which was handy, moral is always check before you go for weekend road closures etc, especially if you are planning to hit rope drop.

Parking - we went for the £15 premium parking which puts you at the back of the park nearest Gruffalo, vampire ride. we did 10am park opening, queue for bag check was small and in the park just after 10.

Ride priority I had monitored the queue times and I had assumed that mandrill mayhem being the newest ride would have the worst queues but that award went to Dragons fury and the vampire ride. Vampire peaked at 75mins and Dragons rarely dipped below 50mins so if entering the back of the park head straight to vampire and if the front then prioritise Dragons Fury.

Jumanji Land - Mandrill mayhem peaked at 45mins but was often at around 20-25mins and at times dipped to 15. Its quite a short ride but was amazing. really smooth and quick loading and unloading along with being a short ride meant it was not as long a queue as vampire or DF. We rode a couple of times and a team member said row 7 was best as it is the only row that faces backwards at the start and you are almost hanging upside down on the initial take off part. A great ride and definitely worth doing more than once if queues permit.

The other 2 rides in Jumanji Ostrich stampede and mamba strike were also good but not as good as mandril. Ostrich strike seemed to hover at 15mins and Mamba was 5-10 most of the day.

Gruffalo ride tip The seats always get wet so we take a couple of carrier bags in our bag and sit on them as who wants to walk around with a wet bum. Still a fun ride but i still prefer and miss professor bubbles bubbleworks.

Rides in general Disappointingly tiger falls was down all day and had been all Saturday as well. Sunday was the first day this year i have seen the sun so a water ride would have been great. First time we had done croc drop and we enjoyed that but could have been longer in my opinion, its a very short ride. Was a 15-20min most of the day. There were a few downtimes but most rides went back up. One watch out is rattlesnake. It has an unusually high minimum height requirement of 1.4m which meant my 9 year old couldn't ride as just under but ironically she can go on velocicoaster which seems bazaar.

FoodWe usually get the pizza buffet which is ok but overpriced. We did consider trying somewhere different like the smokehouse BBQ but while researching it i discovered they received a zero food hygiene rating on inspection Dec on 2023. Having worked in the industry you have to have very poor standards to received a zero star and most that do would be shut down on inspection. I found this quiet surprising that Merlin would let this happen and frankly put me right off dining anywhere in the park so we opted for a packed lunch which also saved me about £50.

Refillable mugWe purchased a refillable mug for £15. I noted someone with an AP reactivating for about £7, not sure if they had an AP discount but point being you can bring the cup back and reactivate it. I asked about this and they said it was park specific not merlin so couldn't take to Alton towers or Thorpe park and reactivate for example. There were freestyle machines located in most of the lands but we found that quickly as the day moved into the afternoon many were without ice and the drinks dispensed were not chilled and not nice. There is a station behind the room on the broom that seemed to be the best one and also one hidden inside the sweetshop in Adventure point.

Ice cream - biggest tip Unusually the sun was out so we went to the ben and jerrys ice cream stand in Adventure point. There was a queue but we figured it was just because of it being a hot day. The staff were so slow. You queue to pay which took about 5mins but then you queue to get the ice cream. We timed it from our receipt and it took 34mins from paying to getting our ice creams. Everyone in the queue was moaning, it really was ridiculous. Not enough staff and the girl serving us was like the sloth in zootopia. It was painful. Anyway after losing 30mins of our day in the queue we went back to the business of rides and only then did we notice loads of ben and jerry stands plotted around selling the exact same ice cream but with no queue so biggest tip of the day, don't go to the big ice cream place in adventure point.

All in all though a very enjoyable day with highlight being mandrill mayhem, a great new addition to the park.

[jim jehosofat]

Originally Posted by Jamie99

We went to Chessington Sunday as part of my 9 year olds extended birthday celebrations. We had a great day and thought i would post some tips.



FoodWe usually get the pizza buffet which is ok but overpriced. We did consider trying somewhere different like the smokehouse BBQ but while researching it i discovered they received a zero food hygiene rating on inspection Dec on 2023. Having worked in the industry you have to have very poor standards to received a zero star and most that do would be shut down on inspection. I found this quiet surprising that Merlin would let this happen and frankly put me right off dining anywhere in the park so we opted for a packed lunch which also saved me about £50.

See more...

They got a 5 star rating in March 2024.