Ad – On the weekend we headed to Surrey for the Howl-O-ween special event at Chessington World of Adventures.
Myself and my husband worked out that we haven’t been to Chessington in at least 19/20 years (that was scary enough frankly!) so we were really looking forward to going. Our niece, Mia, also came along with us. Mia goes to Chessington quite often but had never gone for Halloween so she too was very excited!
Our first impression as we entered, was just how well decorated the park was! Spooky music was playing and the girls were trying to spot all the skeletons hanging around in various places. I have tried to capture this in a little video that I have clipped together and will upload over on Instagram.
As there are over 40 rides here, we had planned a list of rides that we definitely wanted to do; the Gruffalo River Ride, Room on the Broom, Seastorm and Toadies Crazy Cars.
Planning what rides you can all do in advance means the day is not wasted by indecision. There was only a few that Ita couldn’t go on and to be honest, I don’t think we would have had enough time to fit in every ride anyway! Any excuse to go back…
This is the link to the rides where you can find height restrictions etc.
https://www.chessington.com/explore/theme-park/chessington-theme-park-listing.aspx
Ita’s favourite ride was actually Tiny Truckers which we managed to go on twice! Mia’s was Sea Dragons which is a little boat ride.
We also, some how, managed to go on the Gruffalo ride twice. The queue for this ride was undoubtedly the longest but after going on the ride, both girls were happy to queue again – that says it all!
I’ve received some messages asking whether it was very busy on the day that we went. We thought that although it seemed busy, we didn’t feel that we were stuck in long queues. Everything seemed to flow quite well!
As per any day out with Ita, she found the opportunity to have her face painted. This cost about £10 each. The face painting is managed and run by an outside company rather than Chessington so although we found it a tad overpriced, it’s understandable. They do accept card though which was very handy.
Sealife is also included in your ticket price as well as the Zoo so we had factored in these too. Ita is quite obsessed with aquariums and loved touching the starfish. We found this to be the perfect way to end our visit.
We also planned to head to Trick or Treat Wood and we used the spook rating guide to help us. Ita is a bit of a scaredy-cat… as is Mia! This was such a highlight of our visit and I’m so happy that we managed to fit this in!
Along the enchanted woods we met some fawns, fairies and an elf. At the end the children played a naughty trick and earned themselves a sweet treat!
There is also daily fancy dress competitions as well as live shows. If you are attending Chessington for Halloween then I would strongly suggest that you dress your children up in their spooky costumes! Ita and Mia has so many compliments and thought the fancy dress parade was really fun. During our visit, we received quite a few questions in response to the stories posted on Instagram. In particular, whether fancy dress was allowed – it’s encouraged for sure!
The park is also open late on certain dates so you can ride in the dark! Just imagine how scary that would be. If we didn’t bring Ita and Mia then this would definitely be the time we would choose to visit!
In terms of places to eat, there is loads to choose from. The restaurants are all spread out too in different areas which was handy and we loved that there was a Costa coffee stand in the queue for Room on the Broom!
If you book in advance you can save some money.
Children under 3 are FREE
Link below.
https://www.chessington.com/halloween/#bookTicketsJump
There is also a rainy day guarantee!!
This means that if it rains continuously for an hour or more during your visit, then you can visit again for FREE!
Garcia Family UK 