legoland or chessington for a nearly 3 year old and 6 year old...

[Nointhemood]

or somewhere else that will be suitable for their ages??? Loooking to treat them to a good day out. Also what is it like for parking as will probably drive there.

Lego land. Chessington is better for older children than your three year old. Parking is easy at both places. Or Gullivers World Milton Keynes is good for that age group and cheaper.

Legoland is better than Chessington for your age group.

oh thankyou we are staying in fareham so lloking for places that are less then 2 hrs away. I will check Guilivers World

Chessington has the animal part as well though - with the Sea Life part. Less to do in the Theme Park bit (very little for DC of your ages) but the zoo part makes it, IMO.

What about Bird World then?

Legoland better than Chessington for that age, but what about Drusillas? That would probably be my preference for keeping both happy and would be about an hour and a half from Fareham (around the same as Legoland).

If you are in Fareham, then Poltons Park is down that way and would be suitable for those ages.

Depending on what sort of things your children like, they may be just as happy going to the Portsmouth Natural History Museum - it's quite small, so takes less than an hour to go around, and has butterflys this time of year. Nearly 3yr old and nearly 6yr old I took a week or so ago loved it. (There is often free parking along the road in which the museum is situated - can be a 5min walk or so as it's a long road).

You could then go on to Fort Nelson, which is usually free unless they have a special events day. Voucher for 20% off Event Days 2010
Parking at Fort Nelson is Free.

Oh, yes, Paultons Park is 5yo DS's favourite place in the world at the moment.

I went to Chessington yesterday and it was very very busy, to the point where pushing through the crowds was necessary in the main walk through areas. Queue times for rides were 45mins to and hour - even for Flying Jumbos!

Legoland is likely to be similar this time of year... these theme parks get so busy.

So consider what they would actually like to do... is standing in a queue for 1+ hours really what they want?

I live near Legoland, so we go often during term time. Thus we come South to Fareham / Southampton / Portsmouth area to get away from the crowds.

Steam Railway? This one is quite nice, at Eastleigh

chessington definetely, many more rides for both ages and the zoo. Also no lego shops!

forgot to say cheapest deal at the mo for Chessington and other theme parks is on lastminute.com

Keep in mind that for theme parks you need 1 adult : 1 child as many rides are 2 seater and your oldest will be able to do some rides that your youngest can't do. Check the sites websites for rides lists and height restrictions.

I took the dc to Legoland last week and DD missed lots of rides by 6cm she was 84cm and had to be 90! Cue lots of screaming from dd while ds rode the rides. Hadn't even considered the height restrictions as have previously been to Thomas Land and Disney and she rode everything there!

You have to pay to park at Legoland!

Lack of rides at both for under 90cm, Legoland usually busier with longer queues.

I would look at the maps and see what there is to do at Legoland for your 3 year olds height IYSWIM.

What about the priority passes Q-bot at Legoland, is it worth it?

We've been to Chessington and the kids 3 and 6 both loved it, yes you need 1 adult per child to keep the day running but it was a great day.

We want to try out Lego land now though, so any tips for going on a busy day would be great!

:)

Be prepared for a long day, preferrably go when the weather is iffy. If you get there at opening boating school, followed by little driving school (would do the opposite order for main driving school) and then round to which ride you want to do next.
Take food to eat in queues. We've never bothered with Q-bots.

Do work out if you want to watch a show and get there early. Maybe take towels/change of clothes for the wet area. They are probably too small for the dragon coasters, and we've only done the viking rapids once and couldn't be bothered again.

For fairybrook glen, just don't try to go on just after a shown on the nearby stage, otherwise it is minimal queueing.

Parking is £1. 365 tickets do cheap deals, or you can use Nectar points at the gate, etc.

Do spend some time, maybe when the queues get too long to look at the lego.

Do you think that you need 2 days at Legoland or as its very close should I get an annual pass or is 1 day enough?

I can't find a map of Legoland that I can download to work out which rides my 3 and 6yr old can go on, Does anyone know of one?

Thanks!

You don't need 2 days, you can always upgrade your ticket once you are there.

Go to legoland website, click on explore then the interactive map, then click on the ride you are interested in and the info will give the height restrictions at the bottom. (Scarab bounces btw only allows 1 adult per load.)

thanks!