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Original poster

Tips for Chessington World of Adventures

24 replies

KitKatastrophe · 26/07/2020 16:13

We are planning a trip to Chessington on Tuesday. Has anyone been during Covid and can give me any tips e.g. what time is good to arrive, does anything need to be booked in advance and so on.

I know we need to wear masks on some rides.

OP posts:

DaisyDreaming · 26/07/2020 17:07

I was just watching this Vlog there’s a part 2 later.
Super long queues and zero social distancing going on unlike others theme parks. Your tickets need booking in advance

underneaththeash · 26/07/2020 17:42

Get there before it opens - biggest queues when we were there were for Vampire - 90 minutes and the roller coaster that spins as well as goes up and down near the entrance.
Lots of things were closed.
A big sign that says ‘you’re standing too close to me’ helps too. seriously, I had to ask 4 people in the first few hours to step back.
Take a picnic.
Mask needed for a few rides.
Download the ap and it will give you wait times.
We still had fun.

Coffeeandcrumpet · 26/07/2020 18:46

Don't bother, sorry not helpful but it is not good even without having to try to social distance in an over crowded place.

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Original poster

KitKatastrophe · 27/07/2020 07:56

Oh that's disappointing to hear. We already booked tickets so have to go now really 😕

OP posts:

coffeeagogo · 27/07/2020 08:02

I went about 10 days ago - was a nightmare. Understaffed, no social distancing, massive queues for the toilets which were filthy (they locked every other cubicle!) we queued for 90 mins for the vampire which then broke down and didn’t reopen for the day, Kobra was closed all day, tiger rock was closed and the gruffalo broke down too. There was no social distancing in the queues, literally people standing on top of you.

I emailed Merlin to complain (in one do the endless queues) and when they responded a week later they basically said tough luck, you should have spoke to someone in the park but the queue for guest services was so long we didn’t bother.

FizzyPink · 27/07/2020 08:05

Take your own food. Last time we went we stayed at the hotel so had two days in the park. Lunches and snacks for two kids was ridiculously expensive

summersounds · 27/07/2020 10:12

I booked for a day in August after reading this thread and then after trip advisor I'm really regretting it

sociallydistained · 27/07/2020 10:19

I went the week before last and really enjoyed the day but as others have said, it was a bit worrying in a pandemic.

Once in a queue be vigilant as it's hard to social distance once others start coming closer. The staff weren't addressing people who weren't wearing masks on the rides required... but as we know they can't now so just be aware when you're in the queue for vampire etc and you're in the enclosed queuing spaces, others may not be bothered about you and safety so you're essentially trapped.

Take your own food and eat on the grassy areas, it's easy to distance then. We bought subway meals at the services beforehand and packed in our backpacks!

The park closes at 4 and one of the rides broke down which we were on at 3pm and we didn't get to go on another ride. So just be aware you may not get to do much!

The guy running the Gorilla area when we was brilliant at spacing people out. We spoke to him about the other areas (namely Vampire) and lack of social distancing and staff intervening and he said it's a real problem and staff feel unsafe too but nothings been done...

CookieMonster22 · 27/07/2020 10:24

Does anyone know what the situation is for disabled people there? Do they still have the disabled fasttrack queues and do you still go to guest services for the ride access pass?

Pinkflipflop85 · 27/07/2020 10:35

Take your own food. The offering there is massively overpriced crap food.
If you have kids that want to do the gruffalo ride then head to it first.

Original poster

KitKatastrophe · 27/07/2020 10:41

Maybe I'll just take the hit and not go, it's not worth it if the day will be stressful. It says you can email to rearrange if you have covid symptoms so I might just lie and say I've got a cough and see if I can rearrange to later in the year when it might be better organised or at least less busy. What a shame

We live near Peppa Pig world and have been there and it's great, well organised and hardly any queues. I just assumed it would be the same at Chessington especially as its run by Merlin which is such a big company!

OP posts:

summersounds · 27/07/2020 11:01

How was the toilets situation?? I read grim reviews on trip advisor

summersounds · 27/07/2020 11:02

Ok just re read another poster mentioning the toilets - apologies

blue25 · 27/07/2020 11:03

Don’t go-awful, super stressful experience!

Quartz2208 · 27/07/2020 14:17

Went yesterday and I think they are getting a little better than the others.

The toilets were fine yesterday

I live in Surrey and to be honest social distancing anywhere has gone off the boil so I didnt find Chessington that different to other places around here!

Masks were being made to wear on the (some) rides those that I think you would scream on seems to be the rules and people did

All the rides were open yesterday which helped

Definitely take on food

rainatnightlove · 27/07/2020 14:28

I went yesterday, very busy, masks 'compulsory' on pretty much all rides but no enforcing if you didn't wear one once on it. Limited food options (also v expensive!- £2.65 for a bottle of water in a gift shop).

Massive queues still- you're looking at 45-65mins for popular ones. We had a disabled pass to skip the queues so that wasn't an issue for us.

rainatnightlove · 27/07/2020 14:28

Oh yeah, and no distancing

rainatnightlove · 27/07/2020 14:30

Oh and the toilets were fine yesterday too.

Original poster

KitKatastrophe · 27/07/2020 18:04

We would definitely take our own food and drinks anyway, those sort of places are always a rip off.

We have already paid for tickets and unable to get through on the phones so I think we will just go. Daughter is only 3 so she wont be able to go on the biggest rides anyway, but maybe we will get to go on the carousel and a few smaller rides, go round the sea life centre and the zoo.

OP posts:

Quartz2208 · 27/07/2020 18:07

Sealife centre is masked
The zoo tends to be easier to social distance on

The queues in the childrens rides I found more SD and space between

holymosquito · 27/07/2020 18:11

Is the sea life centre back open? We went a few weeks ago before the rides had started up again and it was just the zoo - but the sea life was still closed? It might be worth checking if this is something you really want to do.

Quartz2208 · 27/07/2020 19:25

Yes it opened up with the rides (it wasnt open on Zoo days).

Under 11s dont need a mask for it (inline with the shop guidelines)

Its under 6 on rides

RealJudas · 27/07/2020 20:18

Well I went a few days ago and it was absolutely fine. If anything, the queues were less than normal so we got on quite a few rides. We had lunch at the pizza place which was table service rather than buffet, but worked quite well I thought. We didn't pay as last year's annual pass was extended so anything was a bonus for us, but even so, we had a nice day out!

Original poster

KitKatastrophe · 29/07/2020 10:04

Well we did go in the end and it was fine. We got to go on almost all the rides that DD wanted and the look longest queue for those was about 20 minutes. The app said queues for bigger rides was 60 to 75 minutes but I think it was actually shorter than predicted for most.

We arrived later at about 12 and stayed til 5. No queues to get in and by 4 most of the rides you could more or less walk right on.

Social distancing wasnt great. Fine in the zoo and sea life centre, and most queue lines. Not so good while walking around - people seemed a bit oblivious. But since you usually just walk past someone for less than a second it was less of a concern (for me at least).

A shame that all the play areas were closed as well as the Room on the Broom walkthrough. You have to wear masks on the Gruffalo ride because its indoors even though you're in a boat with just your group, so actually further away from others than any other ride!

OP posts:

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