Worried to go to theme parents as a single parent with 2 children. It is even possible ? Legoland or Chessington maybe ?

[Notasproutbutagiantpea]

My DS wants to go to a theme park, but I’d need to take my 4 year old too. Although as we’ve never been I imagine younger rides would be fine for both. My children are 7 & 4 now, but I can’t work out if it’s possible to do on my own with 2 DC?

My parents are too elderly and aren’t about to cope with a theme park even for half a few hours. My sibling is childless, so no cousins to go with.

Are there rides we can go as a 3 at Legoland or Chessington?

Aibu to worry about how I do this ?

Are you near paultons park? That’s a good one for those sort of ages

Of course it's possible, I went with my now ex and I don't do rides so he took both kids on all of them alone I stayed with our youngest who was a baby. Kids were 4/5

many of the rides are for 2, which is fine if your eldest will sit alone. However, many gave a height restriction and they may both be too small to sit alone. Needs investigating.

Can you trust your 7 year old not to try and stand up mid ride? Most smaller rides would be fine with you next to the 4 year old and the 7 year old behind. I think both theme parks have rides where you can sit as a 3 but some where maybe it's got a car or a boat that holds 4 but ina 2x 2 formation.

Absolutely trust him
,but I’m sure he’d rather sit next to me, but he’s very well behaved but not very confident, the younger one is wild, so balances out.

I wonder if it will be insanely busy during school holidays?

I’ve done Legoland with 8 and 5 on my own. It was fine. You can check the height/age restrictions online. I think Chessington is better for older kids.

There’s often bogof on tickets with soap/cereal so you can potentially take an extra adult free. I’ve done this with childless friends/siblings.

I saw single adults with two children going on the ride twice, once with each child (the staff normally let you stay on) last time we went. It relies on you being happy to leave a 4 or 7 year old though. I was happy to look out for children I saw hanging around but appreciate it is a risk.

I used to live near Legoland and take two small children alone frequently as we had season pass so would go off peak for an afternoon.

Things like the boating and balloon school and submarines rides are fine as a three. It's the dragon rollercoasters which are paired seats. I would have thought it would be fine with a bit of investigation beforehand if different seating arrangements and measuring your kids so you know what would be ok for both.

Took mine to Legoland as single mum from birth.
Tons of great stuff to do as a 3. Lots of areas to explore and smaller rides to do together. The more extreme rides are usually for two max and are height restricted but probably ds too young anyway.

Could perhaps do a test run at Gullivers? Lots of smaller rides and wait times are short.

I would go to somewhere like Gulliver's Kingdom or Paulton's Park or Digger Land or Thomas Land where the park is set up for younger dc, rather than paying to get into Legoland and find I wasn't able to go on so many of the rides.

Or ask your sibling if they wanted to go.
Before kids, I went on various trips with my sister and my dn.

Sit them together and you behind where you can keep an eye on them. It will be fun!

How tall is your 7 year old?

I frequently took my two on their own to Legoland.

Absolutely fine.

They loved it, it was always a massive treat.

We mostly did it on vouchers

134cm just measured him 😊 Will it matter ?

Legoland is pretty focused on younger end.
Never been to Chessington but Alton Towers has quite dark theming on the bigger rides....ironically those with the lower height limit. Youngest DD was too small for the rides she wanted to ride, and either too scared of the rides she could ride in the main park, or thought cbeebies/other rides too babyish.

Given the ages I think you could do legoland or a smaller park....but taking your childless sibling sounds perfect tbh

could you go with another single parent or non parent friend? she/he could help you riding with your youngest or waiting with your youngest meanwhile you are in the rides with the eldest.

I took my then 3 year old to Chessington last summer - she was just over 100cm so got on most of the kid-aimed rides. But I did notice a lot of them were two-seaters (like the Elmer elephant ride, spinning pirate ships, mini log flume etc) but there were some that you could sit as a 3 - The Gruafflo ride, the safari ride-alongs.

If you're able to do it with buy one get one free vouchers from cereal packets ect then maybe you could offer to take one of older child's friends with you? Or if he has a friend that you think their parent would happily pay?. You could then sit with littler one and child and friend could sit together.

I found this awkward when mine were little as, whilst the eldest could technically sit on his own, he didn't want to. Would your sibling or a friend go with you?

Also, whereabouts are you travelling from? The bugger parks like Chessington and Legoland you can spend half the day queueing (admittedly the kiddy rides aren't so bad). I think Adventure Island in Southend is fab - far cheaper, still plenty to fill a day and you can get pretty much straight on most rides.

Legoland definitely used to let you swap. Like a PP, we had passes and I occasionally took DS and a friend when they were in primary school. I'd go on with one, leave the other one standing with the guy managing the queue, then swap the kids over.

But you'd be surprised how few of the rides are two person anyway - most you can go on as a three quite easily so it's a non-issue.

Yes, it’ll be very busy in school holidays.

I used to take our 2 to Legoland quite often on inset days at similar ages. They used to do good deals with 2 days park entry and a night in a nearby hotel.

for the rides see if they still do ride swap - on rides where a parent was needed I would ride with the first while the other stayed with staff at the front of the queue, then I stayed on and the kids would swap. Sounds bonkers but it worked.

stay late-ish and take advantage of the cheap meals for tea then put them in their pj’s in the car before driving home.

we had some great times! Once it was snowing during the day but we wore our ski gear and had the best time!

Went with dd and ds. Always on my own with them

yes there were rides for 2 but lots of rides for 3 or more. Also remember there were rides where they went on their own like the cars