Chessington World of Adventures Resort Reviews 

Went to Chessington after almost two decades with my wife and 5 year old daughter. Absolutely dreadful experience. Had to endure my daughter seeing a lion that looked injured and completely out of its mind in a confined space. Spent close to 200£ in total for just 3 rides (and some pretty ordinary and really expensive food) due to wait times in excess of an hour. Honestly, I write this review knowing full well that noting will change as the Parks owners couldn't care less. I will say one thing to Merlin executives and shareholders who run the Park: ‘there is only so much you can milk from a cow before it stops producing any milk at all’. Eventually, I hope Chessington will die a natural death and the natural habitat around it takes over. It’s an absolute travesty and should not exist !

I did not even go yet (my booking is for the 23rd of October 2025), and after I booked the hotel, I found out there was no slot available for booking my breakfast. The breakfast is included in the booking I have already paid for. The hotel is the Aztec. I'm supposed to have breakfast at the Temple restaurant in the same hotel. I have phoned Chessington, and they told me I have to book my breakfast in the other hotel, Zafari. This is absolutely disgraceful since I tried to book one month before. And now I will have to have my breakfast in a different hotel I am not staying at. So if you want to have your breakfast in the same hotel you are staying in, do not go to Chessington. Find another better resort and park.

Took my son espcially to meet the Paw patrol. We head to the que and Rubble was being escorted through the park. The person in the coustume was obviously under strict orders not to engage with kids unless at the meet point. My son was so excited to see him, but he just refused to even acknowledge or wave to the kids. I had to explain to my son why he was being so rude. He had an entoruage of 17 year old bodyguards barking at people you can only meet him at the agreed point. Fair enough, atleast he could wave or something.

What a joke half the food outlets was closed due to staff shortage and I had issue with Unlimited Pictures I had to go looking for a member of staff and she pointed me in the right direction I lost my time due to that today and did get me started on the Lockers they're was a nightmare due to work out to open them I thanking Southend had issues with they're lockers this park is nightmare for they're lockers plus the screens kept flickering it did stop in the end they're need to get staff when the park is open as it a joke half the food outlets closed

The only reason I give 1 star is because 0 isn't an option.
We arrived as a group of 9 and 3 of us went onto Mandrill Mayhem. After queuing for about an hour the ride broke down. It happens so we wait for about 30 mins for them to fix the ride then finally it gets going again and we wait nearly 2 hours in total. Followed by the same group of 3 of us trying to get onto the Vampire - what a joke that was. Firstly, the queue was insane, we were queuing 90 mins and were only "close" to the front before it broke down (2/2 rides so far now broken down). This time we get the message that it wont be fixed anytime soon as we would all get a fast pass. Turn around and there is ONE PERSON standing in the middle of the normal pathway giving out a fast pass to any person walking past. Doesn't matter if you queued 30 seconds or 2 hours for the vampire - or even better - you just happened to see the guy as you were nonchalantly walking past him, he gave out hundreds, if not thousands of fast passes. The consequence? Well if you queued ages for the vampire then you got to queue ages for any other ride as the fast pass queue was now rammed on every ride we tried to go on.

Oh - this isn't a unique experience. While this happened to us, another 4 of our party were on Tomb Blaster and the ride broke down with them on it - taking about 30 mins to get them off and no fast pass or anything issued which means they queued to do half the ride.

So I march into the i kiosk and ask for a refund, we had been there all day and had managed to get on 1 ride and I was furious. Apparently, they dont do refunds so basically once merlin get your money you can pi** off as they couldn't care less. We did Thorpe park (great day out) and Chessington this year but as a result, I will never touch a Merlin resort again and would discourage others to do so either, absolutely disgusting and you have literally wasted a day of our holiday. Vile attitude and daylight robbery.

1 star because I can’t do 0.

Horrible attraction. No care for kids with extra needs. Ran by teenagers.

2hr 45min drive to go on no rides and barely see any animals at the “zoo”

The rides and attractions are good but no, no and no to the queues for the rides (often 45-105, yes 105 minutes!!) and staggeringly expensive food.

Absolute waste of money. If they would cap the amount of visitors so rides had maximum 15 minute waits, it would be a decent day out.

With a family you will end up paying close to £300 for tickets and food, yet be lucky to get on 5 or 6 rides.

Abysmal.

Dreadful experience! 8 hours for 2 rides! Que times ridiculous! Rides constantly breaking down after you have been queing for over an hour! Do not waste your MONEY !!!!!

good rides except dragon fury shut because of the weather but we got fast passes

Children went on one ride as all the queues were over an hour and a half - some up to 2hrs. They are quite resilient kids, but they gave up wanting to do this (understandably). We could have paid for fast track - at £60 per person for 8 rides or £100 for unlimited. A week away in the sun would cost less. Every corner you turn there are arcades and stalls for the kids which you have to pay even more money for.

Trying to explain to your children that although we have paid for park tickets (expensive at that) that they can't go on the rides. We arrived at 10.30am which is half an hour after the park opened. Throughout the whole day they managed to go on three rides, that's it. It was 3 rides which had the best queue times and not necessarily the ones they wanted to go on. Wait times in excess of 45mins and even up to 90mins. Rides closed due to being at capacity, toilets closed and having to walk frantically halfway round the park to find another one. The queues for drinks were just as long as the rides. It truly was an awful stressful day, never to visit again!!!

We bought tickets for our family and when trying to book ride access for our child with disabilities we were told we were unable to as there was a limited amount of tickets. They won't offer a refund and we aren't able to use our tickets as my son is physically unable to stand in a queue. Since when is there a limit to disabilities. Totally discriminatory and the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Will not be returning.

Not for people with adhd and autism. Had all proof but said no to any help. So I paid all that money for 2 days to sit in a sensory room cause queues were 60 to 90 mins long. So had unhappy children.
Then you have children that don't no how to work that run the place. A woman ordered a beer which they done but then when she asked for drink told her she couldn't have it cause no one aged over 18 in there.
Food a rip off and then they won't even clean the tables so u can sit down without having the last persons crap all over it. I ended up taking a bottle of cleaner and a cloth to do myself.

Rubbish. Queues 80 plus minutes. Dirty. Staff rude, broken rides, terrible experience

We visited Chessington World of Adventures as a family of five (two adults, two teenagers, and a young child), and what was meant to be a fun day out quickly turned into one of the worst experiences we’ve ever had at a theme park.

The queues are excessively long (usually an hour or more), with hardly any interactive features to keep children occupied in the heat. The prices inside the park are also shockingly high, especially for food and drinks. Still, we tried to make the best of, until the real problems began.

While waiting for a children’s ride, one of our teens briefly stepped out of the line to fetch the park’s overpriced drinks bottle from our buggy in case it gets stolen while we waited, which was parked only a few metres away. She returned to where the rest of us were waiting, only to be rudely confronted by a literal grown white woman in pigtails in the queue. This individual invaded her personal space in a very rude and disrespectful manner and accused her of “queue jumping,” which was completely untrue. She had been in the line with us from the start and had only stepped out for a matter of seconds. She had even resorted to calling security on us for this little thing. I find it absolutely appalling that a grown woman would do this to a family with a little 6 year old who was just excited to go on a ride. May I add, if she had been a little more respectful and kind to us, we would’ve let it go. But this clearly wasn’t the case. The woman had shown extreme attitude to a child a quarter her age from the very beginning. I really hope she enjoyed her little kids ride. Truly so shameful.

We had already seen plenty of other (white) families rejoin queues after toilet breaks at this park or even more ridiculous situations without issue, but unlike us, they were not targeted. The entire confrontation felt STRONGLY racially motivated, and instead of defusing the situation, the staff and security handled it appallingly. They showed zero empathy, professionalism, or fairness, siding with the aggressor and forcing our teenager to leave the line so the rest of the family could go on. In the end, we weren’t even allowed on the ride despite being told we could if she left, meaning they had lied to us. We were going to let this be a learning experience for us at least, despite their lie, but when we asked for proof of this policy, they suddenly went quiet. Absolutely ridiculous. They should be ashamed.

This was humiliating, deeply unfair, and ruined the day for our entire family. It is unacceptable that a child should be intimidated by an adult stranger in this way, and it is even worse that the park’s staff failed to act appropriately or protect its guests or even show a little ounce of empathy for the little kid who had stood in the heat for ninety minutes.

Beyond this shocking incident, the resort itself is hugely disappointing. Many areas and rides close well before the stated 5pm closing time, as do several restaurants, meaning you don’t even get the value for the already overpriced tickets.

Overall, the park is poorly managed, overcrowded, and offers terrible customer service. Families from ethnic minority backgrounds should be especially cautious, as our experience made it clear that fairness and inclusivity are not priorities here.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. There are far better theme parks in the UK where you’ll be treated with respect and actually get your money’s worth.

Paid £92 for 2 people
The queues are long
I only went on one ride
Food and drinks are expensive
Tried to get a disabled pass via email
They rejected it because they said I didn’t attach proof but I did.
I didn’t get in free as a carer I had to pay
Awful experience
I can’t wait to get home
I will never go there again

Have not visited yet but contacted them about the Express Parking ticket I purchased via their app. and that I have not receive any confirmation.

I provided full details including proof of purchase via my bank, the reference number, date etc plus last digits on my card and car reg. They said no record was found on their booking system so they are not able to help. I had to dispute payment with my bank, and buy another ticket.

No other offer to help even though they could see that I had paid.

After reading some of the reviews I am not looking forward to visiting. Wish we had booked another trip to Alton Towers instead of Chessington.

Awful experience. The park is overcrowded so que times are ridiculous. People que hoping, being rude and abusive and security do nothing, they are disinterested and rude. Staff running rides clearly couldn't care less. Rides continuously breaking down and being closed. Disabled toilet was filthy,no toilet roll and barely a drip of water coming out of the tap so couldn't even wash hands properly. Lots of litter chucked everywhere when queing for rides (some of the rubbish had clearly been there a long time). I would urge people to avoid this overpriced, overcrowded stinking mess and the appalling security staff who clearly have no interest in the job they are being paid to do. Avoid,avoid,avoid.

The park is in need of some desperate TLC, it’s dated and tatty. They oversell tickets so you can’t even walk around without being shoulder barged due to the sheer volume of people. This has a knock on effect to the park experience. Can’t get on rides without over 60-90 minute wait, can’t see sea life or the animals due to the sheer amount of people. It was literally ridiculous you couldn’t even get through areas without grabbing on for dear life.
Hygiene in the toilets was appalling. Urine all over the floor and you could literally smell the toilets before you got to them.

Gave 1 star because 0 wasn’t an option. Absolute rip off, staff are rude and tbh I don’t think I saw one adult staff member, the whole place is basically run by school leaver age kids to about 18/19! Too much effort being put into building new areas while the old areas which you do have access too are looking old, tired and in disrepair, most of the rides are breaking down through the day, usually after you have waited for an hour or more for nothing! Food and drink a joke, I got a coffee and a donut when I got in there and it was over £20!!! Absolute liberty tbh, wish I’d gone another 15 miles down the road to Thorpe park, at least the rides are good there!