Chessington World of Adventures & Zoo and Sealife Centre
Leatherhead Road
Chessington, Surrey
KT9 2NE
About Chessington World of Adventures & Zoo and Sealife Centre
Chessington World Of Adventures & Zoo And Sealife Centre is 12 miles from London on the A243 and is a nationally-renowned family attraction, providing a perfect family day out whatever the weather.
A ticket to Chessington World Of Adventures takes in a host of top entertainments and rides, as well as a pioneering 77-year old Zoo and an impressive new Sealife Centre – just the ticket for a varied and enticing family day out.
The Mini Adventurers zone of Chessington World Of Adventures is oriented towards toddlers and includes Land of the Dragons, with its Dragon’s Playhouse soft play and adventure centre; the Dragon’s Tale Theatre in Caffe Nero, where parents can enjoy a relaxing drink and bite while a daily puppet show is staged for kids; and the Sea Dragons ride featuring monsters of the deep.
The family attraction has an amusing Sir Walter Squirtalot water ride in the Market Square; a Fun Fort Amusement Centre with many activities; and an old-fashioned Toytown Carousel merry-go-round, with horses and carriages.
For a family day out with plenty of laughs, Beanoland is just the ticket, boasting the Bash Street Bus, Dennis The Menace’s Madhouse, featuring a foam-ball firing frenzy, Billy’s Whizzer wave-swinger, where kids can enjoy a spin while getting wet, and Roger the Dodger’s Dodgems.
Also part of the ticket to Chessington World Of Adventures are Canopy Capers tree-houses and sky-walks; the Griffin’s Galleon water adventure; the Hocus Pocus Hall 4-D walk-through, taking in the park’s creepy mansion with a wacky wizard and ghoulish goblins and ghosts; and the Berry Bouncers ‘boing’ ride, where dangling kids see how high is up.
Further Mini Adventures at Chessington World Of Adventures include the pink elephants of the Flying Jumbos ride; Toadie’s garden and Toadie’s Crazy Cars driving excursion; and the Tiny Truckers bumper ride.
For kids of all ages, the Chessington World Of Adventures Zoo offers Animal Antics with resident Macaws Brindsley and Mojo, and ticket holders can meet their keepers and learn about the birds outside Hocus Pocus Hall.
Highlights of the fauna collections at the family attraction are many, not least the Children’s Zoo, where a ticket allows you to greet pygmy goats, pot-bellied pigs, sheep, ferrets and polecats. Then there are Temo and Pilli, the South American Capybaras – the world’s largest rodent – which have six babies at Chessington World Of Adventures.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Chessington World Of Adventures Zoo, in 2006 an interactive animal area, Creatures Features, opened with families of meerkats, wallabies, rheas, skunks, rabbits, guinea pigs and alpacas. Visitors can try to jump as high as a wallaby or run as fast as rheas with interactive play’n’learn features, while meerkats can be viewed via specially constructed underground viewing globes.
Another innovative and informative feature of the family attraction are the Creepy Caves, where the domain of reptiles is explored, making for a day out with a difference. As well as snakes like the four-metre long Burmese Python, Jade, there are monitor lizards, chameleons, frogs, caterpillars and the hairy Chile Rose Tarantula spider, Jasmine – just the ticket for those into Eight Legged Freaks!
Chessington World Of Adventures Education Centre actually dispels some of the myths about nature’s less cuddly species, and it welcomes school parties for animal-related talks.
Always a firm favourite on a family day out to Chessington World Of Adventures are the cheeky monkeys at the Monkey & Bird Garden, and ticket holders can follow a trail featuring Cheeky and Beaky, plus an array of exotic monkeys and birds, along with interactive play’n’learn elements. Additionally, there’s an interactive squirrel monkey walk-through, allowing visitors to the family attraction to enter the squirrel monkey enclosure and meet the ancestors!
Equally popular and curious are the Otters, notably Guinevere, Lancelot and their cubs, who swim and bask in their enclosure near the North Gate Entrance.
The Penguin Presentation always causes a flap as well, as the flightless feathered comics skitter about Animal Land during their twice-daily shows. Nearby, the Californian sealions and their trainers compete with two shows a day at Sealion Bay. Among the stars are Ocean, Harley, Boston, Dante and Hogan, plus the daddy of all seal-kind, King Boris, one of the oldest sealions in the world. Not something you’ll see at just any family attraction.
Chessington World Of Adventures’ other royalty can be found in the Trail of the Kings, a jungle experience that allows ticket holders to get up close and personal with one of the largest gorilla families in Europe, and rare and endangered big cats like Lions, Tigers and Leopards. Among the stars of this particular gorilla family attraction are Kumi, the youngest, and his sister Kumili. Then there are the resident Sumatran tigers, Ratna and Batu, with a brood of three cubs born in 2006. Finally, the King of the Jungle is an Asiatic Lion, Ashok, who presides over his domain, including a Persian Leopard family with its latest addition, the cub Sapphire.
Aside from the animals at Chessington World Of Adventures, a family day out would not be complete without getting aboard some of the park’s thrilling rides.
Tomb Blaster sees ticket-holders armed with laser guns ride traverse a labyrinth to do battle with mummies and scarab beetles. What a blast! Then Dragon’s Fury propels visitors on the dragon’s breath into a spinning rollercoaster of twists, turns, dips and dives – and a whole lot more spins!
Somewhat more sedate is the Safari Skyway, which gives riders a bird’s eye view of Chessington World Of Adventures Zoo and its animals, while the Peeking Heights observation wheel provides a bigger picture, and the Dragon Falls leisure boat offers a relaxing cruise down a winding river – only for it to hit dips, falls and a big plunge finale! It’s that type of family day out, and it can get even more adventurous with a ticket aboard the Runaway Train, which hurtles through a mountain mine at a rate of knots.
The Seastorm in Pirates Cove is a dizzying scream-fest, where landlubbers get tossed about the ocean waves by a pirate ship, and while you’re wet, Bubbleworks – Imperial Leather keeps the family day out fresh with a foam-fizzing, bubble-bursting, sweet-smelling indoor family water ride.
Based in the Transylvania zone, Vampire is a fright flight where the innocent zip like a bat out of hell across the treetops, their legs dangling and necks exposed!
Even more fearsome are Chessington World Of Adventures’ rides for Experienced Adventurers. These include Rameses Revenge, a monster ride where the brave are pinned back, spun upside down and plunged head first over water fountains. Rattlesnake is a twisty rollercoaster with a sting in the tail, the Black Buccaneer is a stomach-churning pirate boat ride, and the Mystic East’s Extreme Games Zone rounds off an adventure-filled family day out.
Chessington World Of Adventures hosts corporate family days, with exclusive use of the Park Side private patio, while exclusive evening buy-outs of the park are available too (details at the website).
With a host of commercial outlets and refreshment facilities, as well as disabled-friendly features, Chessington World Of Adventures is a family day out that everyone can enjoy.