Chessington World of Adventures Resort Reviews 

Such a waste of time and money which is a real shame as I used to visit as a child and it was my favourite day out. Not so much interested in providing a fun family day out anymore as it’s all about money grabbing. £65 for me and my child to visit! Plus £12 parking and tickets completely oversold so queues for EVERYTHING are at least 45-60 minutes even on a weekday. Absolute joke can probably get on about 20% of the rides at the park because you spend all day queuing. The only way to avoid is to spend more money on fast track! Additionally to this there is no control over whose on rides, I was queuing for things like the gruffalo, Skye’s helicopter all aimed at the little ones and you’ve got tonnes of groups of teenagers pushing 20’s in the queue it’s honestly one of the worst theme parks in the UK. Also very cheeky charging full price tickets when a lot of rides are closed everyday for ‘maintenance’ Visit paultons park instead absolutely amazing there.

Ride reliability is shambolic.

The rides are genuinely good if you can actually get on them. Unfortunately, Chessington seems to have based its entire business model on seeing how long people will queue before losing the will to live.

Expect to spend 60–120 minutes in line for a ride lasting about two minutes. Of course, there’s a solution - pay even more money for a Fast Pass. Nothing says “great value” quite like buying a ticket and then being asked to pay again to make the day bearable.

The signage is spectacularly bad. There are maps everywhere, but somehow nobody thought to include a simple “You Are Here” marker. It’s like being handed a treasure map with the X rubbed off.

As for the prices… wow. Food, drinks and pretty much anything else require a small bank loan. They seem to have mistaken “theme park” for “international airport.”

I’m genuinely glad we went because the rides themselves are excellent. But between the endless queues, laughable signage and eye-watering prices, I won’t be returning. Unless your idea of a perfect family day out is standing in queues while your wallet empties itself at record speed, I’d give it a miss.

Ive not yet visited but the phone customer service is really poor. Had an issues with website and ticket. Emailed and got no reply. Called and they seem unintrested and clueless with basicly no support.

Update - they contacted me and redunded some of the cost.

The day out its self was great. Food very costly so glad i took packed lunch. Ques a lot with very little shade. It was 30 degrees. Staff friendly. Upgraded review to be fair.

My daughter lost her mobile phone during the visit. I submitted a lost property form on the same day and have since contacted Chessington multiple times for an update, both by phone and through your online channels. Despite my repeated efforts, I have received no meaningful response for over two weeks.

Today, a member of staff informed me that several phones had in fact been found, but that someone would only “contact people next week” regarding this. This is simply not acceptable. A lost property process that takes this long to even confirm whether an item has been found is unreasonable, especially when it appears the phones were located some time ago.

I also understand that this process is now handled by an external company rather than directly by Chessington. If this is the case, I would ask that you clarify who is responsible for resolving this issue, as the outsourced provider does not appear to be performing this function adequately.

I was trying to get friends and a bunch of teenagers try to fight me and my friends I hate chessington so much

Please do not waste your time. We drove over 3hrs with three children to get here. We were in at 10:30 and managed to go on 3 rides, which were the ones with shorter queues! Most rides were over an hour waiting time. We even went on a Friday so god knows how bad it would be at the weekend! So disappointed absolute waste of money. A whippy tub of ice cream was just under £7! We shall never go again. Oversold tickets and inflated prices inside. I wish I could get a refund!

Really don’t know where to start, as in previous reviews there were a number of breakdowns on rides due to technical difficulties, hence longer queues on the other rides, food and drink prices were ridiculously high, pizza and drink buffet was shocking poor value for money, the drink was lukewarm tap water and squash not even chilled, one ride they squashed me and my two sons into into a space that was near on impossible to get into, to get queues down the 5 year olds running the rides, sorry teens with limited or at best little experience became argumentative when I pointed out myself and one son both 6ft ang my younger son 5ft 4 could not fit into such a tiny space, came off the ride with injuries to both knees. Having worked in the industry their premise is most customers only come once every year or two, so customer service is non existent but profit is paramount, they don’t give a damn about customer safety or value for money!

We have just returned from a day at Chessington-
Reading other reviews I can see alot where people are coming from. As it wasn’t yet half term yet the queues for the rides weren’t terrible. There is a distinct lack of signage though so it’s hard to know where the entrance is to a lot of them.
This also continues in to the car parks and main entrance- turning in from the main road you almost felt you had gone wrong as there was no signs to where we should be going for prebooked parking. They also opened the carpark furthest away first at the start of the day. Would have made sense to open the closest one first surely especially as the others had a handful of cars in on leaving.
Not sure how it is being advertised as having a zoo- most bits were closed and again poorly signposted. Walked all the way to the giraffe viewing point only to find it closed. No signs at the start of the long walk to say this. Safari also not open, meerkat viewing pods not open. Walked all the way down to the sea lions and further only to find it was either closed or being refurbished. Lions went a while back and we couldn’t work out how to get to the gorillas if they were even still there. We saw 2 enclosures in this area but with no signs I’m not sure there was even anything in them. Saw a very sad looking reindeer. And some sort of gazelle in its outside enclosure with a tranq dart hanging out its side. Owls looked very sad in their small cages with little to no enrichment and no where to really hide from the crowds.
Otter pen was dirty and unkempt- not even convinced there was any in there!
However aquarium was nicely kept with lots to see.
Paw patrol world was the highlight of our little boys day- we went there first before it got busy but even by 11 the queue for the Sky ride was 40 mins- no sense of urgency from the staff- took forever to get people off and on which wasn’t ideal when people are waiting in the baking sun. There was no queuing system either for fast pass holders to they were being let in via the exit as people were trying to leave.
Gift shop in paw patrol land wasn’t badly priced. Ice creams etc were a bit pricey.
Shout out to the lad working on the swinging boat ride though- he was fabulous with our little boy and even gave him a little toy at the end.
Fair day out but won’t rush to return

Disappointed that I had to pay for fast track passes otherwise my kids would have only been able to go on four rides due to queues. As it was, each ride cost £11.87 per child. The kids still queued for 40 mins using a fast track pass. Too many people are allowed into the park. It was very crowded. Not enough seats for parents/adults who have to pay to be in the park but do not go on any rides. Less people in the park would mean shorter queues and greater enjoyment for the visitors. More seating, especially in some shade would make waiting a better experience. The park looked very tired and unkempt. Having seen the reindeer and giant tortoise enclosures we decided not to see more animals as the enclosures looked miserable and dull for the animals. It is not clear why the animals are in the park. There was no information about the reindeer that we could see, where they are from, what they eat, their names etc. Chessington’s logo is sharp, bright and colourful and the park was lack lustre. I’d like to say we would go back but I don’t think we will.

Awful experience at chessington, took 45mins to get in the car park and another 45mins to leave it. Crazy long ques, mostly them between 40-60mins. Clearly they sell too many tickets which means the overall experience is very negative.

We waited like one hour and couldn’t ride because it was broken and 4 more rides were broken it was dirty and expensive i wish ı could give zero star

Had food at the smokehouse bbq bar I’m pretty sure they microwave their food. Absolutely horrible and no taste at all. The brisket burger didn’t even taste like a brisket was so oily and gross I had a stomach ache few mins after eating it. Pulled pork burger basically dipped in oil. Curly fries microwaved and lukewarm.spent 66£ on rubbish. Absolutely gross. Pack food and don’t eat there

Got worse every year since Merlin took over! Why they did away with Bubbleworks i’ll never know - everyone loved that ride! Gruffalo’s ok but got nothing on Bubbleworks 🙁 and why they got rid of McDonalds restaurant by the Vampire 🤷‍♀️ the food was ten times better!! Went yesterday had warm fries, the double cheeseburger cooked for too long and like cardboard, cost £15 and didn’t even get a drink with it!!! Tried to buy fish n chips in their fish n chip hut for a change but no, was closed 😳 then to top it all when we wanted to buy a pic of a few rides it was a big picture or nothing!! Used to be able to get a key ring or fridge magnet at least. Seem to be interested only in money and not customer satisfaction 😡

I am outraged by my visit. First of all, when you want to visit tiger Rock you get denied access because you are under age which isn't a problem it is how they judge you and make assumptions on how old you are just by looking at you, may I remind you that that is discrimination. 2nd my fast track was denied and had to spend the day queuing just because a member of staff said it was in valid but the fast track was In date. Lastly, my friend got denied her RAP just because she has a rap.

I am a coach driver who just dropped off 53 Passengers at Chessington World of Adventures.
This season they have decided that coach drivers do not get free entry to the park like it has been for years.
So no place to eat or use the toilet.
Absolutely a shocking decision providing all the business they get from coaches bringing large groups in...shame on the management

By far the worst customer service ever. Lost property process an absolute joke and no means of being able to contact Chessington directly. Managed by a third party Boomerang with the only thing not coming back is any item lost. Clearly neither organisation care and why would they they have already had your money and happy to hide behind a process that sends you around in a meaningless circle.

Every means of contact Chessington is by a web form which do jot get a reply just an automated message.

Poor is an understatement.

We visited Chessington World of Adventures on 04/05/2026 after a great visit to Legoland, fully intending to upgrade to Merlin Annual Passes before leaving. Unfortunately, the park's rigid approach to families with young children completely changed our minds.
After queuing for 90 minutes for Chase's Mountain Mission, my 3-year-old son desperately needed a toilet break. My wife took him while I held our place. When they returned at the boarding gate, the operator (Jamie) refused to let them board, citing "queue jumping."
Even though the guests behind us defended us and said they didn't mind, the operator refused to back down. I even offered a compromise: my wife would step aside completely, and I would take our toddler on the ride alone in the single row I had already waited 90 minutes for. This would add zero wait time to anyone behind us. The operator still flatly refused.
To define a 3-year-old's emergency toilet break as "abuse of the system" and deny a child a ride after a 1.5-hour wait shows zero common sense or empathy. Customer service has since emailed me to say they have "no leeway" on this. It is incredibly disappointing that a "family-friendly" park penalizes toddlers for basic biological needs. They have lost our trust and our future Annual Pass business. (Case Ref: #-13331923-)

What a disgusting example of commercial and corporate greed. You pay to get in, then queue for an hour to get on a ride which then basically forces you to buy the Fast Pass otherwise you'd get 3-4 rides in during the whole day, kids aren't going to have the patience for it.

Literally at every single turn there's an overpriced vending machine, low chance game or tacky gift shop to extract money from your wallet, of course "savings" are promised if you have the annual pass. Right.

The first ride we queued up for was the Ostrich Stampede in the Jumanji zone. Not being a massive fan of spinning rides I stood by, the kids and sister in law went on, queue wasn't horrendous but probably 25 minutes or so. The guy running the ride took his sweet time getting people on and off. The ride did its thing then stopped and was apparently stuck up in the air. Seems to be a frequent occurrence as there was a pre-recorded message with the Kiwi guy from the film apologising. 10-15 minutes later a tech ambled up and I'm guessing turned it off and on again and released the trapped riders. Great start. I was keen for a go on Mandrill Mayhem, but having stood by Stampede watching it, it was clear the changeovers were taking far too long and I was simply not prepared to wait 45 minutes for what seemed like a minute of ride spaced by 5+ minutes of changeover just wasn't worth it.

I went on Vampire ~30 years ago. They haven't changed it one bit, the ride itself is awesome if a little short for the hour wait. It's all slightly soured though by the fact that all the screens dotted around the waiting route don't work and the whole thing is a bit decrepit and dated. The control system could probably do with a bit of an update. On the way back into the station it does 3 whiplash inducing stops, seems unnecessary but you know, have to consider the shareholders over any improvements…

Anyway the crown of the whole shambles was lunch in the café. Self ordering on the terminal 3 meals (2 kids) and drinks for 4 people came to £65. Sixty five pounds! What the actual *?! The "half" chicken was a leg and small attached piece of breast meat that had been under a heat lamp for sometime. At least the security guards at the gate don't confiscate food you bring in, yet. Food price and quality is just disgraceful. There's no point telling the staff, they're not paid enough to care and it's not their fault.

So after that we went on Rattlesnake. Again like Vampire it had probably been there 30 years and in desperate need of a revamp. The ride itself was really good if short, but like Vampire, none of the screens in the wait area were working and when you get to the end the screens showing the photo op weren't working and just showed computer boot load error text.

The water in the otter enclosure by the sea life area was absolutely disgusting with green algae, no wonder they weren't out swimming in it. Probably an animal welfare issue.

Room on the Broom was just awful, should have guessed by the 5/10 minute wait….

We didn't have a whole day to spend in the park, got there around 11 and had to leave at 4 so didn't sample everything but the whole place was just dirty, tired and crappy and solely geared up to drain the money from your wallet. Don't waste your time going, go to Alton Towers instead. At least the rides are better.

No idea why people here moan about queues...its what happens any most theme parks geez, had no issues today parking, longest queue was 45 minutes and it was 32 temp and half term but still no issues not even getting through the park gate entrance (waited 3 minutes!) Took a star off due to the safari being an total waste of time it was the longest queue we had at 45 min and the safari was rushed and lasted 5 to 7 minutes and only saw 3 different animals and had only 1 truck going round hence it was rushed...apart from that we had a fab day!
Ps you are not held hostage on ya way out like someone said, you pay for parking like you do say alton towers as an example, pay at the barrier or pay online before you arrive its all on the website geez