Chessington Christmas Tail
We had our first experience of Chessington when we went to their Halloween Adventure. We loved it so much and were thrilled to be invited back to the Christmas tail.
For those of you who haven’t been before Chessington is a wonderful mix of animals, marine life and theme park rides. Our Halloween adventure was such fun that we couldn’t wait to head back and see what they had in store for Christmas.
On the day we visited it was only the Christmas tail activities that were open; none of the rides were operational. While this was a little disappointing, it did mean it was much quieter than our previous visit.
We set off armed with our map and headed straight to the elves kitchen for some cookies decorating. The tree in front of the beautiful house made it feel very festive indeed.
We soon found it and headed inside to get creative.
I think Ava did a really good job of decorating her cooking, although she was a little overwhelmed by the elves.
It was soon time to stop for lunch and we went into the Smokery to warm up. Ava had seen the ‘hook a duck’ game on the way to lunch, so that was the first place we visited when our bellies were full.
It took a few attempts and a fair bit of cash from Mummy and Daddy, but she finally ‘won’ her desired Zebra! She was so proud of herself.
She has named her Zoe.
We then headed to Santa’s grotto to meet the big man himself. At this point Ava was totally overwhelmed and refused to look him in the eye or go anywhere near him. Although she did perk up a bit when he gave her gift! She has never been very good with people in fancy dress and, despite loving it herself.
We met the reindeers and then it was time for a hot drink to warm up. The weather had definitely turned and it was freezing.
Ava made sure she and Zoe were comfortable, while they waited for the drinks.
We went to visit the children’s farm, but sadly it was locked. It did give us a good photo opportunity though.
Ava made friends with curious little monkey who wanted to share her hot chocolate. Thankfully there was a glass screen between them.
We were excited by the prospect of a Christmas market, however a little disappointed to see it consisted of only three stalls, two of which sold food. I did buy a couple of candles in the third though, Christmas Pudding scented!
On our last visit we had missed the safari animals, so we decided to visit them this time.
She had fun playing the bongos….
and testing how far she could stretch.
Before we set off for home we had a spin round the aquarium, which was so much quieter and more pleasant than the last time we came.
All in all we had a lovely day. I don’t think we could have stayed all day, as there wasn’t really enough to occupy us. We would have preferred the rides to be open, but we did enjoy our day.
I made a little video of our day if you fancy a peek.
Disclosure: We received entry in return for this review.