Chessington World of Adventures Resort Reviews 

Don't bother - queues for any of the decent rides were 75 minutes. And a fast pass for 3 rides was an eye watering £39!!!! The park looks really run down in places, food outlets closed, not many staff working. Queued 30 minutes for Safari and then it closed so we were told to leave the queue. Not chance of trying again later in the day as the queue had gone up to 75 minutes. The car park is daylight robbery at £15. Just don't bother wasting your money

Last Saturday we visited Chessington World of Adventures and the experience could not have been more disappointing.
​We had to endure long waiting lines under the blazing sun with children, and many of the rides kept breaking down or were stopped due to technical issues after we had already been waiting for a while. Furthermore, there are very few water refill stations, and the ones that were available had extremely long queues.
​Honestly, I don't know if the park is just not equipped to handle such huge crowds on such a hot day, but there was very little shade to be found—especially in the ride queues where people are stuck and unable to move.

We had a terrible experience on our recent visit. We bought a Digital Photo Pass at 2:15 PM after being told we could scan the QR code for photos across 7 rides. It worked at Sea Life, but when we went to Dragon’s Fury, the Photo Booth was completely unmanned with no staff around to scan our code.

Things went from bad to worse on Tiger Rock. The ride broke down and we were stuck at the very top for over 30 minutes in boiling hot weather. My children had zero shade and were burning in the sun with bright red faces—it was a genuine safety concern, and we were terrified they would faint. We had to be evacuated down by staff, missing the ride and photo completely.

When we went to Customer Services to explain that we couldn't use the Photo Pass properly and spent half our afternoon trapped on a ride, the staff member completely dismissed us. They claimed it was "not their responsibility" because the photo pass is run by an external company. Passing the blame when you buy a service inside Chessington is completely unacceptable.

Extremely disappointed by the lack of care for child safety and appalling customer service. Would not recommend.

Arrived at 10am to be told no hot food being served until 12/1pm the waiting time was 70 minutes for most rides and the park had just opened and the prices are ridiculous for food and drink. So many Rides were closed the zoo was a joke (basically wasnt 1) and whenever you can find a staff member they all had a attitude and was very unhelpful or didnt have a answer to anything I asked.....NEVER AGAIN WASTE OF MONEY

Booked accessible room but was told they were not available. The beds were like a concrete bench couldn't use shower because I was afraid of slipping. The breakfast was disgusting as was other meals. The theme park was full of dips and slopes making it difficult for wheelchair. The queuing was horrendous and food again was substandard especially the captains fish and chips. More like mush and chips .The vampire ride not available half the animals were closed off. All in all it was a horrific 3 days
I will never go there again. Stay was 2nd August to 4th 2026
Also hotel is card only which they didn't let me know aswell as you have to book everything like pool which only part was open.

I had very bad experience with the extremely rude staff especially chase’s mountain mission. I queued up as everyone very long and so tiring and exhausted especially with 2 years 1/2 old crying then my turn came and wanted to stay in number 7 & 8 end carriage then the rude girl name : Rosie came and said: I need you in number 3 and 4 me my wife and little girl, I said to her I’m here and I can choose the end carriages 7&8 then she replied no you have to come out then I said to her I like to stay here it’s our turn then she said either you take or go out, I said to her then I can wait for other turn carriages to take number 7&8 she said no!!!! U have to leave then..,I get so angry and they called cocky idiot security then he said why u want number 7&8 I said because I want to as simple as that. and escorted us outside the bloody chessington..very bad experience. I never forget this idiot girl name Rosie and her attitude. I hate peoples looking as they don’t know what happen and always favourite some stupid idiot staff behaving like that and we’re paying them….never again never, better spend money abroad not in the uk

Chessington is not that bad if you have patience to wait and let you enjoy what you paid for. Some of the rides it depends on the employees attitude they let you choose your seat as long as you’re ahead of the queue or if you wait for the next batch but when it comes to the paw patrol chase mountain mission the coaster those people who’s in charge on the day we visit they never let us choose our seat even if we wait after the next ride they will not let you cause her reason is “cause I told you so” for me I don’t think that’s a relevant reason. I wish they have more friendly and considerate staff for the park so that everyone will really enjoy.name of the rude staff : Rosie
She’s so nasty

i mainly go just to look round the zoo but it seems it has gone tothe dogs they are replacing animals with caged birds the prices are just a micky take i will not renew my cwoa pass after this year im sorry to say it seems share holders come before customers.

The review is short - don’t come here as you will be waiting very long times for all the people going ahead of you with fast path tickets. If you have a fast pass you will be waiting ages as the queues are horrendous no matter what you do. Food is expensive and horrible. You have been warned.

Chessington is a world of disasters.

What has become of Chessington, it’s so run down and extremely overpriced, rides keep closing as they’ve maintenance issues, queue lines over 2 hours long, managed just 3 rides the whole day, major attraction the vampire was closed on the first day of the school holidays.

And since when did it ever cost £2.60 for a callipo ice lolly.

Chessington is a scam don’t waste your money.
When universal studios eventually opens in a few years this place will close.

Chessington uses dynamic pricing across tickets and Fastrack passes, and in my experience it isn't tracking genuine demand — it's structured to extract more money regardless of how busy the park actually is. I booked Silver Fastrack, advertised at £29pp. By checkout, I was charged £75 — the same price as their unlimited Gold tier — on a day that wasn't especially busy. There was no visible link between the price shown and any real-time capacity signal; it simply went up.
I raised this with Guest Experience (Case #13515934) and asked directly how a £29 advertised price becomes £75. The response was that they are "fully transparent throughout the booking process" and there's "no obligation to purchase." That's not an answer to the question asked — it's a way of avoiding it. No refund was offered, and the case was closed as their "final decision," with no explanation of the pricing logic itself.
This is the real issue: dynamic pricing only works as a legitimate model if it's transparent and tied to something the customer can understand — genuine demand, remaining capacity, time of day. What I experienced was a price that moved unpredictably and steeply, with no way to verify it was tied to anything real, and a customer service process that treats "we can charge whatever we want" as a sufficient answer to "why did the price triple." If a business can't explain its own pricing when directly asked, that's not dynamic pricing — it's just opaque pricing with a friendlier name.
I'd think very hard before buying any Fastrack or add-on at Chessington in advance — the headline price advertised is not a reliable guide to what you'll actually pay.

We were really disappointed with our recent three-night stay at Chessington for our son’s birthday. We have been Merlin Annual Passholders for more than ten years and spent over £1,000 on this trip, including an expensive safari experience, so we expected much better.

The most concerning issue was inconsistent height checking on rides. Our five-year-old daughter was measured and allowed onto Mandrill Mayhem several times, despite its stated 1.2m minimum height requirement. About an hour later, she was refused entry to the Tiger water ride because she was said to be around one centimetre below 1.2m.

This left us with a serious safety concern. If she was below the required height, we do not understand why she had been allowed onto a major roller coaster. If she met it, we do not understand why she was refused later. The explanations we received, including that the measuring equipment was unreliable and that she had somehow become shorter, were not credible and did not reassure us.

The wider stay was also poor value. The paid safari experience was very short — essentially a drive, feeding giraffes, and then leaving — although the staff running it were pleasant. On one evening, we waited around two hours for food after repeatedly being told that somebody else would take our order.

What should have been a special birthday trip was overshadowed by poor service, a lack of accountability, and an upsetting experience for our daughter. We are raising the ride-height issue formally because it deserves a clear and serious response.

The staff is incredibly polite and helpful, and the paw petrol is fantastic.

The ride queue s were horrendously longer than advertised. 30 min queue s took over 55 mins and 40 min queue took even longer.
The food was highly priced and not worth half the price.
Although it was school holidays we did not anticipate the time it took too get on even the smallest rides !

Went to Chessington last weekend and im not kidding, bought an expensive hotdog took one bite and spat it out, it was cold, hard and had a disgusting taste, straight in the bin. Then tried vampire burgers, also absolutely vile, cold, like rubber, bun was so hard and stale and chips cold. Dont eat here! Also make the sensory room for exclusive use of disabled people please, maybe only let in if you have rap pass? or access card, my profoundly autistic daughter couldnt regulate in there as typical families were in and out, people with babies. Its an actual need for special needs people to regulate so it defeats the whole object of a sensory room

My family were visiting from Scotland, so we decided to spend a day at Chessington World of Adventures. Overall, we had a good day and the experience was largely what we expected, including the long queues for rides during the school holidays.

However, given the extreme summer temperatures the UK has experienced in recent years, I feel Chessington could do much more to help guests stay cool during periods of hot weather.

For example, we took my 5-year-old nephew to the PAW Patrol area, which is clearly aimed at younger children. Unfortunately, there was virtually no shade in this part of the park. The entire area is very exposed, and with temperatures reaching the mid-30s, it became uncomfortably hot. Installing large canopy sunshades would make a huge difference, allowing young children to enjoy the rides while giving families somewhere to escape the direct sun.

The same applies to many of the ride queue areas. This certainly isn’t the first heatwave the UK has experienced, and it won’t be the last. Many queues leave guests standing in direct sunlight for extended periods, which can be uncomfortable and potentially unsafe, particularly for young children and older visitors. Investing in large canopy covers over queue lines would provide much-needed shade during hot weather and also offer protection from rain when the weather inevitably changes.

We still enjoyed our visit, but I do think Chessington needs to adapt to the hotter summers we’re now seeing. Better shade provision throughout the park would significantly improve the experience for guests and is something I’d expect a major theme park to be considering.

More broadly, I think this is something all Merlin attractions should be looking at. With hotter summers becoming more common, investing in permanent shade structures and better heat-mitigation measures across their parks would improve both guest comfort and safety. It would also show that Merlin is adapting its attractions to the changing climate rather than relying on facilities designed for weather conditions that are becoming less common.

Security treated us customers as cryminals, they searched our phones and asked us to show them if we have any pictures so perhaps to remoove evidence. We were taking pictures of broken ride and children traped on the ride shouting for help earlier
Please avoid.

What a truly awful experience!
To start there was no clear blue badge parking signage or anyone at all on the gates on entry to the park.
My disabled access pass app was not working and told by the ticket office on entry just to keep trying the app.
No further help whatsoever, the first ride (Tiger rock) we queued for broke down and had to be evacuated with 2 children!
We were left sitting at the top of the ride for ages, my husband is now sunburnt!!!
A really scary experience for everyone in our family.
We were offered a rapid access pass as some kind of apology, which we then had to wait another period of time to receive while the member of staff was rude rattling on about the ride issues to staff members. When we just wanted to LEAVE!!!
The access pass app was still not working.
So we used the fast track on one ride no issues or told we couldn't keep it.
Stopped for lunch, they got our food order wrong!
Then queued under fast rrack access on Zufari where some rude young women with long brown hair decided to take the fast track pass off us. Even though I was under the understanding thst was ours for the day, after what we endured on tiger rock!
As we had now had no fast track pass and I was still disabled!!! I tried to get some help with the rapid access pass, the guest services just said there was no availability for today. If I'd known that when booking I wouldn't of booked for today!!!
What good is an access pass if I can't use it when I need too!
As i sadly my health condition doesn't have the luxury of being fully booked for the day!
She refused to offer me an alternative card I could ise instead of the app.
I asked if could use my rapid pass ID which was sent on my email.
Some rides accepted it. With empathy and Grace.
Others were damn right rude.
It is not my fault that your app isn't fit for purpose.
Posting or emailing a qr code with tickets would be far simpler.
It seems like the app was desugned to fail on purpose.
I do not want to endure this experience again.
I would question how many breaches of the Equality act 1991 were made today.
I would appreciate a full refund.
Would not reccomended anyone visit this absolute shit show of a "theme park"

£157 for 2 adults and a child to get in. £15 to park!!! Queued for 2 hours to get on a ride for it to breakdown. Then waited an hour for another for guess what. It to breakdown!! Went to the Smokehouse for lunch. £87 for absolute gopping food that would play a dogs guts up. All in all 3 of the rides we waited for broke down and they were unsure when a technician would get them fixed but we were welcome to wait by the exit and take a “gamble”. Went for my son’s 6th birthday. All he had to say was Chessington has ruined my birthday. For the price this place is an absolute joke. All that money to not go on a single thing and attempt to eat food that definitely isn’t suitable for human consumption. Never again and would not recommend to an enemy.

Complete waste of time and money children should not be subjected to the disappointment this money pit causes 1.5 hrs Que then the ride breaks as they get on it kids had 1 ride as all the others broke down food is a joke basically £30 each for food you wouldnt give a dog then after robbing us all day and the kids literally having no rides you have the audacity to charge £15 to park. Didnt see one happy family there all day. Hope the place goes busy.