A Winter’s Tail | Day Out at Chessington World of Adventures

You may have seen my Insta Stories a couple of Sunday’s ago, we went on adventure in the snow! In September I booked for the four of us to go to Chessington World of Adventures Resort a Winter’s Tail, to visit Father Christmas in his Grotto. The kids were very excited, especially as when we woke up on the day, we saw the masses of snow we had had over night! For the kids, this was all magical and festive but for mummy and daddy, it was more like, oh crap! Thankfully the only issue we had was that it was extremely cold but we wasn’t going to let that stop our family day out!

The visit to Santa was booked for the 12.15-12.30pm slot so we had no need to rush around in the morning to get there, and with the surprise snow down in Kent, our first thought was the traffic. We know how we all get in the UK when we get a little snow, the whole country seems to stop and chaos hits! We left the house at 10.15am and we arrived just before 11! We were very lucky not to hit any traffic or congestion anywhere, and what was even better, we were able to do the same on our way home! So the worry of travelling in the arctic conditions was actually not an issue at all!

When we arrived at Chessington, the car park was fairly empty but the queues had started. We paid £3 to park there all day which is cheap if you compare to what other car parks charge these days!

As I booked online we had to go to the ticket office first to get our paper tickets for the day as well as a map of the part of the resort that was open to the public, because during the winter months, the main theme park is closed. The tickets cost £60 (inc. tax) for the 4 of us (2 adults and 2 children) which included entry into the Winter’s Tail (the part open for Christmas), the Sea Life Centre and Chessington Zoo. The ticket price also included a free Hot Drink and a Cookie for the adults and a Free Cookie Decorating Pass for the children. Considering we paid about £35 to see Father Christmas at our local Garden Centre last year, which lasted around 30 minutes, £60 for a day out was pretty good!

Once we got our tickets the first thing we did was to take advantage of our free hot drinks as it was so cold! From there, we had an hour to kill before our visit to Santa, so we decided to visit the Sea Life Centre first. As it wasn’t busy we didn’t queue for anything and got front row to view everything! We saw all the Penguins, Seals, Sharks, Stingrays, Starfish and even Shrimps. The kids loved the underwater tunnel as we got to see a variety of different sea life swimming over us, the Stingrays and Penguins were my favourites.

We then found the Gruffalo ride, which we couldn’t miss out on! We didn’t have to queue and got straight on the ride. It was so entertaining and both the children loved all the lights, sounds and sights. Even our ride photo came out amazing and will be one for the family photo album.

This ride was great for the whole family, the kids loved it!

At this point the weather turned and the sleet began to fall and we all got very wet as we waited in the queue for our visit with Father Christmas. We waited for about 15 minutes in the cold and at this point we were all wet and frozen as the queue to enter the grotto was outside. When our turn came, an Elf took us on an exciting walk through a mini forest of fake snow covered trees until we came to a cabin. As he escorted us inside we were greeted by the man himself, Father Christmas. He was sat in his chair by the fireplace surrounded by lots of presents and Christmas decorations. Both the children, typically, were very shy as he asked them what they wanted for Christmas and then gave them a teddy bear as a gift. We had a photo taken with the children and father Christmas and then we left. Short and sweet, the kids were very happy meeting Father Christmas this year!

Once we finished in Santa’s Grotto we went in search of warmth and food, which is where we found Zafari Bar & Grill, based in the Chessington Safari Hotel area. The main restuarant was closed but the bar area was huge and full of tables and chairs so we grabbed a table next to the window, where we had a lovely view of a family of deer that were grazing. At this point the snow was coming down and the view was so magical. I was very grateful at that time that we were inside ordering lunch as we needed a break and a place to warm up.

Once we finished eating, we wrapped ourselves up again and headed back out to the resort and found the Trail of the Kings, which is a part of the Zoo. It had not long been feeding time so all the big animals were out and eating which was so fascinating to watch. I love the big cats and I was in awe!

From here we took a stroll around the rest of the Winter’s Tail attraction and decided to call it a day and head home, in case the snow had caused any major traffic. On our way out, we stopped off at the Donut Shack where we bought some fresh sugar donuts and a hot drink for the road.

We had a magical day out in the snow at Chessington’s Winter Tail and can’t wait to go back in the summer to the main resort to enjoy what else this theme park has too offer.

Have you and the children been to see Father Christmas yet?

If you haven’t seen the rest of my Christmas inspired posts check them out here!

6 more sleeps to go!