Chessington with 5year old & 5 month old

[Loulou2kent]

Evening all. I am planning a trip to Chessington World of Adventures sometime this week with my boys. My only concern is that I'm on my own. I know my 5 yr old will need me to come on rides, but I will also have my 5 month old baby in his buggy.... It's going to be impossible isn't it?? Shall I beg someone to come with me??

Ps - I'm sorry I have no idea where to post this so if there's somewhere better let me know please!

Eek yes its going to be tricky! Either someone to have the 5 month old for the day or someone to take with you...

There won't be much the 5yo can go on without an adult.

(am biased as really dislike chessington)

I don't think you can do it with the 5 month old, can you leave him with someone?

I haven't quite done this but I have done it with a 4.2yo and a 12mo by myself.
The key thing to do is to get onto their website & go through all of the rides & work out which ones your 5yo can do by himself (teacups for example) and which you can do with him & the baby (various train rides etc). You will need to know your 5yo's height to do this as, for many rides, that is more important than age.
As well as rides, there are all of the animal bits that you can easily do with both of them by yourself.... the aquarium, monkey enclosure, sea lion show, zoo.
Is your 5yo a good walker? You will cover a lot of distance so I would be tempted to take a pushchair & a sling so that, if necessary, you can let the 5yo hop in the pushchair and put the baby in the sling. That may be a controversial view on here but you will probably all be a bit tired & crotchety and being able to push DC1 from one place to another may help.
Write down the times of all of the various shows and try and time feeds to fit in with watching those (easier said that dome but that means DC1 will be entertained rather than demanding to go on a ride).
Take your own food & loads of snacks.
Brief DC1 beforehand that he won't be able to go on the "big" rides.
It will be much easier if you take another adult as one of you can look after the baby & one of you do all of the rides bit it is possible to have a good day put with a 5yo and look after a baby.

There's quite a lot of zoo animals, and the sea lion show, and bubbleworks and the haunted house and the acquarium and the high level train, maybe the Ferris wheel as well? Maybe a few gentle rides your 5 year old could go on on his own as well, jumbo planes maybe. I don't think it's impossible as long as you plan carefully to give yourself a full day's activities and as long as he's not a frustrated thrill seeker who will spend the whole time looking longingly at the big rides. DS doesn't do heights or thrills at all so when we go I go round with him while DH takes DD on roller coasters - and we manage to have a decent day's entertainment.

Wow! Thanks so much for all the advice everyone! We went a lot last year so I am familiar with the park & I would say he's allowed to go on quite a few things. Just not the vampire,rattlesnake, Rameses revenge, big ship thing & log ride. But we've pretty much done all the other stuff . I've talked my brother 11 & sister 13 to come with me to take turns to watch the bubba. It doesn't cost anything as we all have the Merlin passes but I just needed to know I wasn't being pathetic & that's it's more or less impossible on my own. Thanks for advice about making a note of the times. That's s really good idea & I will defo take a lunch X

I took my three year old and four month old by myself and actually it was fine. DS (4 months) came on various rides with DD and me. There wasn't really anything DD could do by herself.