Chessington World of Adventures Resort Reviews 

Booked a visit to chessington for my daughters birthday. Drove 4hrs to chessington on arrival was told no rides and attractions were open. This wasn't made clear when I booked the stay.
Our stay got a lot worse. Our swimming was cut short after waiting for our 7pm time slot which is scheduled for a hour we were asked to leave the pool after 15 mins?
Food at the hotel is so over priced it's basic and not really to any standard. At the bar a member of staff knowingly tried to charge me 10 pound for a small slush didn't advice me they were charging a extra 5 pound I noticed on the card machine they'd charged me 10 pound this was a deliberate "mistake".
Bar area was so rowdy toddlers were running around throwing stones across the area whilst parents sat drinking. No chance of sitting to relax in the area.
Whole experience was a disappointment chessington have offered no compensation for misleading me with regards for the booking.
I'd advice people to save their money and avoid this place.

Unfortunately we had a very bad experience with this money making organisation who don't deal with complaints in an appropriate manner. We are a couple with a young baby and made a complaint regarding our experience to which we were out right refused any appropriate action in dealing with our complaint. To name a few Sea Life was closed without any information when purchasing our tickets and we were misguided by staff hence missing events. They are a typical profit making resort. Don't waste your money!!

I booked 3 zootastic tickets at £14 each plus parking at £8: This is the top line of the description:
"One day entry to Zootastic"
At NO point in the booking process does it make it clear that it will be shutting at 3pm. Yes, the opening hours are on the website if you look for them, but really, a one day ticket on a saturday, most people would expect to run to 5pm, so they should make it clear as you book. There were alot of unhappy customers at 3pm and the young staff had to cope with alot of complaints. We arrived at 1pm expecting a good 4 hours of fun with our daughter and got barely 2 hours. Also all the food and drink kiosks were shut and many of the animals were hidden from view - lots of empty fields. I didn't expect much for a £14 ticket, but come on at least be clear about the short tickets.

Rubbish rubbish my mum and dad payed £180 for what debt there only a couple of animals and the theme park was shut we went around 3 times and then my mum and dad were trying to get a refund after the 11 time on calling and emailing and talking we only got £8 back DO NOT COME TO CHESSINGTON GO TO A NOTHER THEME PARK!

overpriced, poor service and generally a waste of time. You pay for parking in a field, pay for entry to get into the park, then in you want to get on to a ride without standing in a queue for over an hour you pay to book a slot (£8 per person), if you can find find one which isn't broken. The food and drink are over priced. If you are a family of 4 and want do more than just get on to 4 rides over an 8 hour day prepare to spend a £200-£300 in a run down theme park

My experience with Customer Services was really bad. Whereas they have always been very helpful in the past, it seems to be drastically declining. They were not willing to appreciate my point of view or meet even half way in resolving my issue. It’s a real shame!

Been to chessington so many times over the years and it’s always been a great day out! Food is over priced because it always is at these places. The queues are too long because they just are. Hundred of people wanting to go on the same thing is going to cause a queue. Wish they had the bubble works! The gruffalo isn’t as good. We visit every other year or so

Sadly this is not a good review. This is the first time we have booked Chessington for our annual Santas Grotto. We only do one per year as of course there is only one Santa! My children look forward to this from the begining of December. Unfortunately we have all been disappointed and would not book this again. The time of our Santa visit was scheduled for 2.45pm. We arrived on time and had a look around at the reindeers and had some food. At no point were we informed we had to hurry as the park closed at 3pm. Why would you offer a visit at 2.45 knowing we also had to visit the toy factory and Santa all within 15mins? We got to the grotto and were told Santa was not there. We were then not able to vist the toy factory as this had also closed. Numerous staff members were around the village and not one person explained what we needed to do or where we supoposed to go. I have written to the park to express my disappointment and whilst they are apologetic they have denied any form of refund. My children were extremely disapointed.
I would not book this again.

We booked tickets today based on your website, which clearly states the park is open from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. We arrived the carpark at noon, only to find the gates locked, no staff, no visitors—nothing but an abandoned area. Even now, your website still says the park is open. This is completely misleading and unprofessional. Selling tickets and failing to notify customers of closures is outright unacceptable.

I would say this is probably the worst experience I’ve had in a theme park. We went to the ‘Winters tail’ and it was pelting down with rain (which I understand is uncontrollable) but about 70% of the rides were closed due to this. There were only two places to eat open and we chose the pizza place. £33 for an adult and a child to eat frozen pizza! As it’s a buffet we went for pizza but found a lot of them were completely cold on the inside and the cheese was still frozen/chilled on top. The food was disgusting!

Now for the winters tail - the “pantomimes” are complete rubbish. One of which was a screen with the words for Christmas carols with two women in colours hopping around. They didn’t make any provisions for rain so everyone was outside fighting Gail force winds whilst sitting watching these two women jump around whilst Christmas songs were playing. The santas grotto was a let down, the children loved meeting Santa (very awkward exchange as he didn’t have much to say and was asking a baby questions and seems to be awkwardly waiting for a response before moving on) . But Santa was nice overall, however the photos were extortionate. You can’t just buy the photo, you have to buy a package and the lowest price is £25!

The reindeers looked quite slim and sad with sticks clearly stuck on their heads. The elf toy shop was literally walking through an alley with toys stuck to the wall - no activity whatsoever for children.

I don’t think this review is half of the mess we encountered and the rainy day thing is a waste of time as it doesn’t include the Winters tail. So we paid £47 each for walking around in the rain with most of the rides closed and seeing Santa like you could in a shopping centre. So don’t waste your money! Could be better in the summer but not worth it to pay for the Winters tail, especially buying tickets in advance when you’re not sure of the weather.

Only plus point was the elves staff were nice

We visit chessington today 30/11/24 for the Christmas village and winter trail, we were not disappointed, the village was beautiful set out and had lots beautiful trails and opportunities for pictures, while we waited for Santa we had headphone
s for a silent disco. The elves were fantastic so enthusiastic, really stayed in characters and made my 6 year old daughters experience extra special. The jumanji rides were open, no ques only 10 min wait max. We went on the Mandrill 4 times! Never be able to do that on a normal day. There were a few other rides open pirate ship, room on the broom, grufalo, carousel and other ones for the younger kids. Panto was entertaining, zoo was open we had a really excellent day. I've been to Chessington at christmas previous years. This was by far the best!

Stayed at the Safari hotel on a blue light deal £189 for a family room had x2 charges £194 blocked on my card was told even though it was their error it would take 5-10 days to release. The additional £5 on advertised rate is an admin charge. It was not clear that breakfast or the swimming pool had to be pre booked. When we eventually saw this the pool on day of arrival was fully booked and we could only get 7am for breakfast in the adjoining hotel. Neither tvs worked in the room. We were told we would have to wait for someone to look at it when they weren't so busy . They came up hours later ..still didn't work. Both occupants of the bunk beds couldn't stop itching? Breakfast wasn't a bad selection but the hot selection was cold. Managed to go swimming before going into the park itself. Water was cold. The shower lock was broken. The shower itself was on a very short timer and every time it came back on was freezing. The park itself was really disappointing . Really expensive sub standard food. What rides that were open had huge waiting times . The park entry was in addition to the cost of the hotel add on to that the ULEZ charge and the cost of food it was a really overpriced experience. The final killer for me was I know this is animal park but as someone who has a real fear of rats I didn't expect yo see them running on the paths. Never going back. Such a disappointment.

We Visited chessington on the 09/11/24 through the blue light away day. We booked this months ago on the 23/01/24 so 10 months in advance as a birthday surprise for our daughter . The booking was made using my blue light card and the occasion was for our daughter’s 19th birthday. One day in the park and a night in the chessington hotel.
The stay went downhill from the time I booked.
We could not access any WiFi on this day in the park.

We got to the chessington park and I had to collect my ride access pass so I went to book vampire ride I use a walking stick and was sent around the houses walking for ages because of poorly signed directions of where I go to get the Q code scanned and because 3 crew staff had no idea where we go for this so they sent me all over the place.

Finally we find where to get it stamped but the queue was 30 minutes standing wait with NO staff around to ask any questions or guide me to a seated area apparently they would be inside before I got on the ride so after 20 minutes standing and leaning on my walking stick not sure if going straight on the ride or after such a long wait of o would have to come back at an appointed time because no one around to ask. Anyway we came out of the disability access queue due to my pains.

We went to buy food in the park but were told all card machines were down so couldn’t buy anything we were advised to go back outside the park to the cash till get money and come back to buy food for cash. This was a long walk for me already in pain with my disability. We get there and the queue to withdraw money was huge for obvious reason. We agreed to leave the food at least try to get on another ride as we have a 6pm dinner reservation at the Aztec restaurant and I put that we are celebrating a birthday. We figured let’s look forward to that.

So hungry and tired and me in pain we all walk back into the park my family agreed to go to dragons fury ride while I sat down but dragons fury just broke down they came out the que and went to cobra waiting 50 minutes only to be told that ride has stopped so they had to come out of that que. They tried a couple more rides ALL were down.
I contacted chessington to say I wanted my entry money returned as I informed them we would not be returning to chessington park so visit again tickets were of no use to us. They refused.

We then went to chessington hotel and had such poor customer service we ended up cancelling the rooms and driving back home the same day. Absolutely terrible experience at both places.

This review is for the Blue Light Card Weekend. NEVER AGAIN.

Please do not book this thinking you are getting a bargain because ‘Home Bargains’ will offer a better resort & hotel service than this place. Having looked forward to this trip for months we have been left completely deflated by the very poor service, rude management and immature park staff who breached safety rules on a children’s ride and said “Ooh well I didn’t send it so I don’t care”.

ULEZ - We arrived at the park to find out from our Google satnav that Chessington is in the ULEZ zone, a nice extra charge you’re not informed off by the park when you book despite the fact they have your address and know you’ll be travelling from some distance. Why not pop it on the bottom of the booking email?

Cashless - Chessington makes it very clear how their park is CASHLESS ONLY. But no, they had a minor WiFi connection issue (clearly no backup) with thousands and thousands of people attending the Blue Light Card event. So food was pretty much unobtainable (and unbelievably expensive - £9.50 for a hot dog which came from the bottom of the Aldi freezers). The queue for the Cash Machine was longer than most of the rides.

Staff - Staff were simply too young for responsibilities, walk around with head down to avoid eye contact with you, scruffy as hell and more interested in chatting about their nights out than engaging with guests. On the Safari Cars ride a car came back with two many people inside it and the young, rude, swearing, immature lad working (15:10 hours) said “Ooh well I didn’t send it so I don’t care” when challenged by his other staff member. Right in-front of my two year old. No interest in safety of riders, this is a children’s ride. Staff throughout the park are also very VERY slow at everything. The food, making a coffee, getting guests through to the rides, just the lot.

Hotel - This is NOT four star, do not be fooled. Bar and grill booked up completely so got take out for our room, no room service at all. Whilst the girl was taking our order a rude manager came up, got right in between us and started talking to her about something else. You could see how embarrassed she was as she was serving customers. Awful managers, rude to customers, rude to their own staff.
Price - booked a room for £119, arrive and it’s gone up to £124 for no reason.

DONT BOOK - Please spend your money elsewhere. This place truly isn’t worth spending your hard earned money on!
Will never return.

Was amazing experience and had a reasonable location for me and my kids to park.

Appalling. Ridiculous queues and filthy facilities. Everything is tired and needs renovating. Without doubt, the worst theme park I’ve visited.

What a waste of a day! The queues are ridiculous and not just on the roller coasters. 4 hours in and we only made 3 rides 2 of which where family rides. There is no ride management. Sapes left on the rides, not lined up before the carriage pulls in. All very frustrating when queuing with children who have no idea of time

What a disaster- expensive to get in, £10 extra for parking…are they expecting people to walk there? Unsure why this is extra. Over an hour in the rain without shelter waiting for all rides, even the ones for younger children. Disabled people in wheelchairs unable to park with no one stewarding the car parks. Limited signage and no mobile phone reception so we lost our group several times and had no way of contacting them. Filthy toilets. I’ve no idea why people come here to be honest- a money making company with no interest in customer experience. This is just about ramming more and more people in and making profits. A real shame.

There was a real issue that I'll get to in a moment but as a bit of background we have taken the kids to Chessington every Halloween since our 15 year old daughter was a toddler and it's always been great, we all have a great time, spend an absolute fortune on the day and the kids can't wait for next Halloween to go again.
Yesterday (Sat 26th Oct) we were all as per usual enjoying ourselves and as per usual we went for dinner around 5pm (dinner time for most).
We wanted to eat at the Pizza Pasta buffet but was told it was takeaway only as there was a safety problem with the gas, ok no problem we thought but looking through the window there was approx 6 families happily eating inside!
So we go next door to Smoke House BBQ & Bar but thought we'd have a look at the Vampire Burger Kitchen, we told the lady on the door we might be back in 5 mins if the kids didn't like the menu, she said ok - no problem.
Well we immediately walked back out of the Vampire Burger Kitchen as it was filthy with most of the tables taken up by half eaten meals.
We walked straight back to the Smoke House only to be told by a younger lady on the door that they're closing (it's 5.05pm!)
I said we were just here a moment ago and asked why they were closing at dinner time and she couldn't give me an answer, she just repeated I'm sorry but we're closing.
We asked to see a manager and she said there was not one available so I asked where customer services was, she didn't know and went to find out for me.
At this point a manager arrived, he went indoors and had a chat with them and arranged for us to be allowed in for dinner, he was extremely apologetic and very helpful, he also did not know why they were closing at dinner time.
He gave us a discount on the food as an apology which we're very grateful for and I'm sorry I never got his name but thank you so much for arranging this otherwise the kids would have gone without dinner.
The negative rating I've given is to hopefully get noticed by the relevant persons as we were very close to not returning ever again and you'll find the same review on Google reviews.

What's happened to Chessington!? It's tired and run down looking. The price of food in there is beyond a rip off. It's literally just taking the p*as with the prices. Overpriced and crap. Loads of the rides weren't working. The staff on the rides seem bored and unmotivated.

Shame.