Chessington World of Adventures Resort Reviews 

Disappointed is an understatement. £150 to basically stand in queues and walk round a park the kids couldn’t even enjoy. Nearly every ride had a 90+ minute wait, so we ended up walking straight back out because there was no way the kids could handle waiting that long all day.

We asked for a refund — refused. We even asked if we could pay extra to upgrade to fast passes and were refused again. Absolute waste of money and a really poor experience from start to finish.

We stayed at the Chessington Resort Hotel. The hotel might have been 4 star, 30 years ago but is now tired and needs a make over. At best I would give it 2 stars but paid the price for 4 star. Could have stayed in a 4 star hotel in central London for less. Food was awful and a rip off price both in the hotel and in the park. Breakfast was cold even though we had it at 9 am. I think they must run the hotel on a very slim budget which is not what I would have expected from a so called 4 star resort. I would not recommend anyone to stay in this hotel. Complete rip off and rubbish hotel

Daylight robbery! Chessington have become incredibly greedy letting in far too many people. Charging a fortune to stand in a queue for majority of a day. We were there from dead on open to close for 7 hours and got on 5 rides. We didn’t even stop for lunch. Complete micky take, paying a ton of money to see a fraction of the park because you spend so much time in a queue. Paw Patrol land was rammed. Staff also watching on cameras any children that leave the queue for the toilet with a parent, you then get thrown out the queue and are not allowed to rejoin your other parent back in the queue. Totally unacceptable when you’re queueing for an hour and a half it’s normal a child will need to wee. Staff also don’t seem bothered in getting the queue down quicker - no urgency from those on the ride gates to fill the ride carriages and get people on board. Safari absolute waste of time - we queued for 45 minutes to an hour to see one rhino. Giraffes were inside hidden and ostrich and flamingo not even on the park.

Firstly, the hotel room was dirty upon arrival and, most concerningly, there were exposed electrical cables within the room. This presented a serious health and safety risk, particularly as we were travelling with young children and a toddler. I am shocked that a room in such a dangerous condition was considered suitable for guests.

The restaurant experience was equally unacceptable. I had clearly noted my son’s allergies at the time of booking, yet no appropriate accommodations were made. There were extremely limited allergy-friendly options available and at breakfast my son was forced to eat dry bread because there was not even dairy-free butter available. This level of negligence towards a child’s dietary requirements is deeply concerning, especially when this information had been provided in advance.

In addition, we were not provided with suitable cups or cutlery for our young children and toddler. Instead, we were given glass cups, which is entirely inappropriate and unsafe for small children.

The food quality and organisation in the restaurant were disgraceful and nowhere near the standard expected of an à la carte dining experience. My burger was served raw, the tables were not properly laid, and there appeared to be no organisation or management whatsoever.

Breakfast the following morning was chaotic and humiliating. We were informed there was no cutlery available, leaving the children to eat with their hands. Shortly afterwards, the restaurant also ran out of plates, meaning the adults in our party were unable to properly eat breakfast at all. This level of disorganisation is unacceptable for any hotel, let alone one charging premium prices for family stays.

Overall, I am appalled, furious, and disgusted by the standards of cleanliness, food safety, organisation, and customer care we experienced throughout our stay. Most upsetting of all is that my son’s birthday celebration was completely ruined by what should have been a relaxing and enjoyable family experience.

Arrival/parking - arriving at chessington, you’d think they’ve only recently opened and not what you expect from such a longstanding theme park. Turned into the main entrance to find it had been coned off and was closed. Car after car did this. Surely a sign before the entrance? Continue up the road and turn into the next entrance. No directions and when finally locating a staff member, told to go back on the main road and take the 3rd entrance. On doing so, we are directed around the car park passed loads of cones off empty spaces, only to not locate a space and end up rejoining the queue. Incredibly frustrating experience to start the day. To add insult to injury, on leaving you are held hostage until you pay £12 to leave. No clear signage on entry about this charge. Why charge for parking, especially such poorly organised parking.

The park itself was fine but not great. Lots of the food and refreshment counters were closed. There was no urgency at rides to get people on and offer to elevate queues. No tigers anymore either.

Such a shame as so much potential.

I then get an email asking me to complete a survey, only for the link to take me to the ticket part of their website. Laughable.

We visited the hotel and theme park on 9th–10th August 2025, and the experience was extremely disappointing and far below expectations.
A significant number of rides were closed or repeatedly breaking down throughout the day, leaving very few options available and causing excessive queue times. This was especially frustrating given the age of our children (5, 9, and 10), as many of the rides suitable for younger guests were unavailable. We waited over an hour for Tomb Blaster despite a stated 20-minute queue time, only for it to break down again when we were near the front. To make matters worse, other guests were issued fast-track passes, while we were not, which felt completely unfair and poorly managed.
The most serious issue occurred on Tiger Rock, where my son, nephew, and I were left stranded mid-ride for approximately 19 minutes. This was a distressing and frightening experience, particularly for the children, who were left upset and crying. The response from staff was inadequate, and the compensation offered afterwards—a fast-track pass valid for only a few minutes—was wholly inappropriate given the situation.
Overall, the day was chaotic, poorly managed, and did not reflect the standards you would expect from a well-known attraction. Between ride closures, long delays, inconsistent handling of guests, and a distressing safety incident, the experience was unacceptable.
When we complained after returning home the customer service was appalling and they had no compassion for the stress it caused us as a family .

Looks like being disappointed with Chessington is a common theme. I booked a room which included swimming access, to be told later that swimming wasn’t available, no apology, no refund, nothing 😂

We used the Melin 2 for 1 ticket. We have 2 kids of 1.25m and 1.1m. We went to Legoland on the Thuraday if the Easter Break and Chessington on the Saturday. We arrived for opening time and headed to the back of the park, walked straight onto our first 3 rides (Zufari, Tomb Blaster, Room on the Broom). Had a short wait for the carousel by which time it was 11.30am. The park was busier and rides longer. However this meant we could eat our packed lunch in our next queue, which worked well for us. We had opted for a silver fast pass (for 3 rides) as we wanted to go on the Vampire and our friends who we went with did not want to. We fast tracked gruffalo and vampire which saved time. We then went and saw the animals and did the playgrounds due to long queues. The only downside was queuing 1 hrs 15mins for Jungke Raiders, even though it stated a 35min queue- the car had no sound effects either. Luckily the capybara was out so it made up for it. As the day came to and end the queues got a lot shorted and my daughter could pretty much walk on a lot of the rides for Jumanji. We had a great day and found it quieter than Legoland.

Adam the sweet shop guy needs a raise because he is so helpful and nice and made my experience so much better and he helped my friend find his card and made sure we got out the theme park safely.

Awful work - queue time at front far from representative of actual waits times.

A normal weekend… rammed.

Daylight ROBBERY prices for basic food and drinks.

Staff rude.

1 ride broke down After waiting 85 minutes.

Toilets disgusting and clearly no routine cleaning.

A £270 daubing fuel and food…. ONLY 2 RIDES ridden….

Please….. spend a day doing something else with family!

Can anyone help! I have sent a complaint with absolutely no response. How do you get in contact with head office? Corporate greedcat it's best.

I experienced during my recent visit to the swimming pool facilities.

The changing rooms, lockers, toilets, and showers were extremely dirty and poorly maintained. The level of cleanliness was far below what I would expect, especially from a place that is also known as a reputable hotel and family destination. I was genuinely shocked and disappointed.

The conditions were so unhygienic that I am concerned it could potentially make visitors unwell. This is particularly worrying given that these facilities are used by families and children.

I have taken photographs as evidence of the issues and am happy to provide them to support my complaint.

Given the seriousness of this situation, I would like to request that this matter is investigated urgently. I would also like to raise a claim for compensation due to the poor experience and the unacceptable standards encountered.

Terrible from start to finish. Huge queues, badly managed, broken rides.. we eventually bought fast pass in an effort to speed up our experience and each time we tried to use it we were presented with more and more disappointment. We left after an hour or two vowing never to return.

Terrible! Letting too many people in! 2 hour queues for rides. Even queues all day for the toilets. No toilet roll or soap! Car park charges a joke, as is the so called car park! All together money grabbing and having a laugh at us all! No staff presence. Non of them knew anything about any other part of the Karl they weren’t working on. Come on Merlin sort it out!

Omg. Avoid at all cost. We had planned to treat our children to this dump. WHAT A MISTAKE. the pool and spa manager made called the security on our children because they wanted to have a little fun. They told the kids the terms and conditions clearly states you must pre book the pool for use but when you request the pool they dont any availability. You do the maths. Please dont come this place. We spent a fair amount money for no fun. Surely can spend your money in a better place

Chessington is potentially the least inclusive place on the planet for children with additional needs. I am a carer for a boy who has profound autism and learning disabilities and we take him to chessington regularly because he loves the rides but unfortunately the staff here are absolutely awful when it comes to inclusion. It is so obvious that none of them have any understand or awareness of disabilities, I assume due to a lack of training but also there is an overall poor attitude from the staff regardless of this. This means they are unwilling to make any exceptions or alterations to their usual protocols to accommodate for disabilities. I was put in an extremely dangerous situation on the Gruffalo ride when we visited on Saturday 4th April, the staff refused to stop the ride for even just 5 minutes to allow us to get the boy I care for off the boat. This can be a difficult process as he struggles with transitions, a fairly typical trait of autism. Because of their lack of any willingness to wait just a short amount of time, I ended up having to ride alone with the him whilst his mum went to get his dad to help us transition him off the ride. There was no signal on the ride for her to call him, so she had to go and find him. I told the staff explicitly this was not a safe situation because the boy I care for with is a 2:1, which is stated on his ride access pass. I was begging them to stop the ride but they told me this was not possible and sent me down even though how distressed I was I had asked them multiple times not to. Given that I'd assume safety is the number 1 priority for the rides, I was absolutely appalled by the actions of the staff that day and cannot believe such a lack of concern for me or the boy I care for. It is not very often that people have to make changes or adjustments to their days to accommodate for individuals with additional needs but the staff at the Chessington are completely unwilling to do this. They are too focused on getting as many people on the rides to stop for one second and have some empathy to what is clearly a tough situation with a severely disabled child.
The staff here are in desperate need of more training on how to interact with people with disabilities and their carers, as well as an extreme change of attitude to include empathy and concern for others in their priorities at work.

Currently stood queuing waiting for only our third ride of the day and we have been here for around three hours. Numerous rides are closed including Croc Drop and the Vampire and others have been temporarily closed whilst we are here such as Mandrill Mayhem and Tiger Rock. Just as you think you’re at the front of the queue they let a load of fast track customers on. The place is absolutely rammed full with far too many people and we will be lucky to have been on five rides by the end of the day. Why not limit the amount of people entering the park as opposed to cramming so many in meaning people/families who have paid in good faith get little to no enjoyment whatsoever? Oh that’s right, MONEY MONEY MONEY.

Upon leaving and after going on just four rides all day, I see a sign at the gate offering one last insult before we get in the car. Basically, if you’re a Merlin pass holder you get absolutely nothing and if this is your second complete dissaster of a visit (after having a previous one) you also get absolutely nothing. My view is, is that it seems far more profitable to overload the place to the point you have queue times of 1hr 40 mins and then stick a sign out at the gate offering a free visit (for which a substantial amount of customers will be ineligible for) than it is to just let a sensible amount of people in in the first place.

How hard can it be to limit the number of people entering the so that everyone can have an enjoyable day?

Disgusting customer service.

WARNING TO HONEST GUESTS! Make sure you ask for the room furnishings check list before entering the room. I have been changed for a cushion that was not in my room when we arrived. We didn’t know there was meant to be a cushion in the room as no list of items is provided. They charge your credit card without telling you and then say it was there before arrival and not on departure. Very very dishonest hotel procedure. I have been charged for something we don’t have and don’t know what it looks like.

Hotel was fab but park was shockingly bad! Let’s start off positive, we stayed in the paw patrol room and it was so much fun for the kids and very clean. We had a 2 day pass for park, we spent an hour in the park but soon noticed everything was shut. You couldn’t even walk round the park as they had shut all the gates. The only parts you can see is the aquarium and few animals. We booked not knowing everything else was shut. I asked at the reception about the rides which she informed me they won’t be opening until the end of March. I asked if there was anything close that we could do as we literally finished the park in a hour and have a 2 day pass and she said there’s nothing around the area and to google it. We had lunch in the hot restaurant as there was nothing else open and just to find something to do. Overall very disappointed as it was for my son’s 4th birthday. First time visiting and last

We went to the zoo today, theme park wasn’t open which we knew. Access to the zoo was via one of the hotels, no signpost to show where to go. Nowhere in the zoo to buy food or drink, only place to eat was the hotel restaurant which didn’t open til 12 and didn’t offer snacks. Only one baby change. No lions or tigers. Not worth the money.