Chessington, Surrey, UK

Date of last visit: August 2005.

Age of kids at the time: 10 and 7.

Travel: We went there by car - the park is within reach of junctions 9 and 10 of the M25 (although as is traditional with British theme parks you have to travel down some hopelessly minor roads once you leave the motorway). You can get there by rail or bus, but there are good reasons why most people in London's posh suburbs travel everywhere by car...

The Scores… (details below):


Family Factor: 8/10

Rides for Kids:  9/10

Rides for Parents: 7/10

The Big Ride: 8/10 (Dragon's Fury)

Cleanliness: 7/10

Food: 6/10


OVERALL TPX SCORE: 8/10

A pleasant surprise, and the kids thought it was fantastic - far better for them than the frankly disappointing Thorpe Park nearby (which in its defence does try to sell itself as a "thrill-seekers" destination now).

Official web site

Chessington is aimed at young families. Take a look at their website and it's covered in cute dragons and has some actually quite useful family trip planning information. Take a look at the park and it has areas called Beanoland and Pirates' Cove. The park's history as a zoo is now squashed into one corner (probably unfairly ignored by visitors, including ourselves) but the animals are there to be seen if you can spare them the time. Although some parts of the park are looking in need of a spruce-up, it isn't untidy - it just looks a bit worn around the edges. Money has been spent recently - Land of the Dragons (and it's main feature and Chessington's signature ride, Dragon's Fury) is fairly new. You just get the impression that some major investment is waiting round the corner for when Tussauds decide it's Chessington's turn, and in the mean time the park is making do with what it's got.

Land of the Dragons looks great and has plenty for kids to do, but is quite compact and in the centre of the park so it felt quite crowded. Best part of the park, though.

Chessington has a "Fastpass" type system for busy days which gives you a package of pre-booked (and timed) tickets to get on certain rides through the ride exit lane without queuing. This actually worked quite well for us on the busy August day we visited as we got plenty of rides in, but it added substantially to the cost of the day. This kind of service should really be free.

Chessington suffered the same annoying problem as Alton Towers this year - ridiculous queues at the ticket booths. Something needs to be done to speed up the process of getting people into the park on busy days (not that it was that busy once we were in - the only big queue was for Dragon's Fury).

Rides For Kids 9/10

This park marked a bit of a watershed for our family in roller coaster-riding terms - I managed to convince everyone to go on the family suspended coaster Vampire (like a less-vicious version of Alton Towers' Nemesis). In spite of the thing being really pretty rough and a ridiculous pace-obliterating pause on the second lift hill, everyone enjoyed it. So we are now at the stage, with our youngest at seven years of age, where we can all go on a ride and enjoy it equally.

Tomb Raider comes into the same category (although smaller children might get a bit spooked), but Rattlesnake has a really pretty unnecessary height restriction of 1.4m which seems absurd for a wild mouse that can't be terribly different to Legoland's Jungle Coaster (1.1m). Presumably it's down to the age of the coaster and its restraints, in which case a re-vamp is in order.

Beanoland is very cute, but looks a bit faded now and you do wonder whether many kids have any idea what the Beano is these days. Nintendo DSland would probably go down better.
 
Some mini-reviews (remember it's up to you to look at each ride and decide what's safe for your kids; this is just our personal experience):

Canopy Capers/Dragons Playhouse  Extensive adventure area in Land of the Dragons, good fun for our seven year old but I couldn't squeeze myself into the place so he was on his own Adult supervision required

Dennis's Madhouse Lots of activities with soft foam balls for the kids to blast at each other Max 1.4m

Bash Street Bus A tiny magic carpet ride with a shrunken bus which flies around in a motion that you would hope none of Transport for London's full size Routemasters would ever reproduce. Nice enough 0.9-1.96m, under 1.1m must be accompanied

Professor Burp's Bubbleworks In deepest Transylvania lies the scintillating horror that is... a fizzy pop factory. In actual fact it has nothing whatsoever to do with the area it's in, but is completely innocent fun in a clapped-out gentle boat ride kind of way. Appears to be regarded as a bit of a classic by Chessington afficionados, but our kids just wanted to get back on Tomb Raider. Can't say I blamed them really  Under 1.1m must be accompanied

Roger the Dodger's Dodgems Some dodgems, sort-of themed on the Beano characters. Passes the time, but they have these at Barry Island so let's not get too excited Min 0.9m, under 1.3m must be accompanied

Runaway Train An electrically powered mine train like those at many other parks, with some suitably rugged but rather tired-looking theming. Enough fun for us to go on it three times in a row before moving on to other rides. These things are great for families and those that don't like big drops on coasters (I think it's underestimated how many people there are in that latter category) - the enjoyment is in the speed the train goes at and the smooth(ish) acceleration Min 0.9m, under 1.1m must be accompanied

Dragon Falls Flume ride with dramatic theming (carvings, statues, very good looking) and with two drops Not ridden Min 0.9m, under 1.1m must be accompanied

Griffin's Galleon Children's spinning ride, a quite recent addition to the park and OK for our seven year old. Quite gentle Min 0.9m, under 1.1m must be accompanied

Safari Skyway A monorail which we didn't get the time to go on - pretty high up so take your camera Under 1.1m must be accompanied

Billy's Whizzer This is a chair-o-plane ride of the type much favoured by my wife and daughter, but not by me. The height restriction will necessarily count this out for a lot of kids Not ridden Min 1.2m

Seastorm A fairground ride with little galleons that spin round on arms and occasionally change direction. I can't usually fold myself into this kind of ride, an the kids weren't that interested Not ridden Min 0.9m, under 1.1m must be accompanied

Black Buccaneer Pretty big pirate ship - OK if you like to swing, as it were Min 0.9m, under 1.1m must be accompanied

Toytown Rides There are several little fairground rides in the Toytown area which will keep the youngest visitors amused for a while. Our kids have outgrown these now Not ridden

Peeking Heights Take your binoculars and you'll be able to see into central London from this, a very high ferris wheel with a very impressive view. Punny name, though

Hocus Pocus Hall A fun walk through a gaudily-coloured three-dimensional maze which the staff provide special glasses for. Fab Must be accompanied by max 1.4m

Dragon's Fury See The Big Ride below

Rides for Parents 7/10

Thre isn't much her that's aimed at the thrill ride audience, apart from Rameses Revenge, and that's a good thing. If you want a park which is rubbish for young children, head for Thorpe Park up the road in Chertsey. I've put Tomb Blaster into this section only because it has a slightly spooky theme (it's actually great for families) and Vampire because it looks quite menacing, you can't get a good look at it before you go on and some family members may need a bit of presuasion to try it.

Tomb Raider Try to get your kids over the slightly scary nature of this ride because it's excellent fun for families once you're in it. You all get a laser gun and can shoot at the hundreds of illuminated targets dotted all over the superbly-designed sets based on ancient Egypt. Similar to Duel at Alton Towers, which also started as a much less interactive ride and was quite boring until the laser guns and targets came along. This one is much grander, though Under 1.1m must be accompanied

Rattlesnake A wild mouse roller coaster (where you go round in little individual cars), with the almighty problem of it being off-limits to those under 1.4m - like Nemesis or Colossus. An outwardly similar ride at Legoland has a restriction of 1.1m, so it must be down to either flimsy restraints or keeping the queues short Not ridden Min 1.4m

Rameses Revenge I have an irrational dislike of Huss Top Spins (two-row gondolas which spin you upside down and 50ft in the air). Sorry. They just shout "chav" to me. This one has fountains to wash off the vomit Not ridden 1.4-1.96m

Vampire A suspended family coaster - you hang in cars underneath the track, similar to Alton Towers' Nemesis but without going upside down. The ride looked a bit worse for wear, but all of us enjoyed it once the more nervous members of our party had convinced themselves they would survive the experience. There are two lift hills which makes you feel like you're getting your money's worth, but there's also a pretty rough section near the end which you just need to be ready for. Swooping past the trees is quite exhilirating. There should be more of this kind of ride on offer in theme parks - gentler drops but still exciting enough. They were running a few trains to keep queues down, but it appeared to mean a very long wait on the second lift hill. I suppose thinking the ride has broken down (you can't see the rest of it from where you are waiting) adds to the excitement 1.1-1.96m, under 1.3m must be accompanied

The Big Ride 8/10 (Dragon's Fury)

"Spinning coaster" makes you think of a hideous combination of a waltzer and a roller coaster, which would surely be a recipe for honk omelette. The reality is much better than that, though - the spinning coaster was a bit of a revelation. This was the first such device we had been on, and it was quite pleasant to experience something a bit different on a roller coaster. The seats are two pairs back-to-back per car with a handle to hold on to in front of you, and the sensation as we sped round the track was quite disorientating (in a good way). The cars span a lot, and a second ride could no doubt feel quite different as the car could choose to spin in a different direction each time. Our seven year old had a great time on it but I could see it being a bit much for some younger riders as the spinning could prove a bit disconcerting. Excellent, and better than the very similar Spinball Whizzer at Alton Towers (which seemed to spin less and had even longer queues - we made us of our timed ticket on this one as the queues were long all day) Min 1.2m

Not filthy, not spotless, but that's pretty much what you expect in the UK. Considering it was fairly busy they weren't doing a bad job

Food 6/10

We took a picnic, so the food was OK. The only outlet we tried on the park was a Caffe Nero, and we stuck to some coffees and chocolate. The 6 out of 10 is a reflection on the fact that we feel the the food at most UK parks is so average and overpriced that we feel the need to take sandwiches