CBeebies Land

I know I haven't been here for ages but let's not dwell on that! Today, I want to talk about CBeebies Land, so this is really one for the Mums and Dads - feel free to tune out now if that's not you.

We are all big fans of CBeebies in our house, even our 6 year old will still watch the occasional programme when there's nothing on CITV. Our 2 year old loves Night Garden and Teletubbies but will also have a glance at most things that pop up. With this in mind, I booked a trip to CBeebies Land at Alton Towers way back in January.  We took advantage of the special offers available which included 2nd day free and 35% off an overnight stay.  I had also found out about the indoor water park, which I knew my daughter would love - so for just over £230 we got tickets to Alton Towers, the Water Park and a stay at the Splash Landings Hotel - not bad considering our holiday this year would mainly consist of a staycation.  

For some, theme parks can be hellish.  Whilst at Legoland last year, I overheard plenty of complaining from parents moaning about queues and prices.  My thoughts? If you're going to go, do your research first.  Find out where the queues are likely to occur and what you can do to save money.  Easily done with Legoland but not so easy with CBeebies as it's quite new and there aren't a huge amount of reviews so far; I hope my review will help a little.

We arrived at our hotel on a Thursday morning in July at around 9.30am.  As an overnight guest you can get early access to some rides in the park but even without that, my first tip would be arrive early.  Kids are usually up at the crack of dawn anyway, so take advantage.  At this time the roads were quiet and the car parks easy to get into.  It was also an 'off peak' day and this really helped with cutting down the crowds.  Checking in was really easy and the staff were helpful, meaning that by 10am, we had dropped off our bags, collected our tickets and were heading to the park on the monorail.

Once in the park CBeebies Land is easy to find. It's quite near the entrance to the right hand side, so no long walks.  Access with a pushchair is easy (although you cannot take it into queues) and there are plenty of 'buggy parks' where you can safely leave it.  If you're wondering whether to take your buggy, I would say yes - it's a good place for little ones to nap and a good place to hang coats/picnics/souvenirs.  CBeebies Land opened in May, so it was all lovely, shiny and new. I imagine it has taken a bit of a battering over the summer, so it will be interesting to see how well maintained it is.  One thing to mention here is that there is not a lot of shade, so take plenty of sun cream, hats and water, for yourself and for little ones.

Our first ride was Postman Pat's Parcel Post.  We did this because it was the first ride we'd come across and the queue was still fairly short.  There are a few games to play whilst queuing and the ride can board 4 at a time (or one family) so it moves fairly quickly - beware if you are a family of 5 or more, you won't all fit into the little van that travels around the track, so be prepared to split into two groups.  This was a big hit with the children.  With two front seats with steering wheels, they could both drive and press the buttons as we went around.  We had another go on this at the end of the day and it still proved popular.

Our next stop was the Night Garden Boat Ride.  This was the one we'd all seen advertised on the telly and although it's not right next to Postman Pat, it was the one we wanted to get on before it got busy. We need not have worried, the queue took no more than 10 minutes and again there were games and even a video clip to keep us entertained.  I would guess that the boats can fit 6 people but, as it was still fairly quiet, we had a boat to ourselves.  It was a lovely ride on a sunny, clear day and I was pleased to see both little ones pointing out the characters and waving and blowing kisses to Upsy Daisy.

I'm glad we got to this one early as it is one of the 'big rides' but we also came back later in the day and it was even quieter. By this time we were exhausted so a gentle bob in a boat was well appreciated. 

Next, we went to Justin's House Pie-O-Matic Factory.  For me and my husband, this was the highlight and really appealed to the big kid in both of us.  Unfortunately, our littlest one wasn't allowed in (there is a height restriction) and I was surprised at this because, after all, it's a theme park for toddlers.  However, once inside I understood why it was limited to slightly bigger children.  The room is full of soft balls which you collect up and load into air 'guns' to fire all over the place.  The type of 'gun' varies and there are loads of things to explore and press as well as a slide which makes it quicker to get to the lower level and fill up again with balls.  You get a limited time in here and the change over takes a few minutes, so although we didn't have to queue, I imagine this would get quite busy at peak periods.

Whilst I took my daughter into Justin's House, my husband took our youngest on the Numtums roundabout. This was a very gentle ride and throughout the day, seemed to have a short queue.  This is probably because it can cope with lots of people at the same time.  It's a nicely designed roundabout with a place for parents to sit in the middle - no need to crouch down next to them which is a bonus.  The cars are cute and 'talk' to you when you push the buttons.  We had another go of this later in the day as it was so quiet.

Next was Charlie and Lola's house, which I loved.  It had magnetic dressing up of the main characters and an over sized kitchen to explore.  It was themed around the book 'I will never eat a tomato' and had a small ball pit made up of 'green drops' which the youngest loved so much, we had tears when we took him out.  Again this was quiet when we were there but I imagine it would get busy and be much more frustrating with lots of children about, just because you'd be waiting forever for a go on things.  I did think it was magical though and really brought the characters to life.

By this time we were starving and, in some cases, due for a nap, so we by-passed Mr Bloom's nursery and headed for Tree-Fu Tom's training ground for our picnic.  There is a place called The Little Explorer's Lunch Box which looked nice from the outside but I'm not sure what food it served as we had brought our own.  There are several places to eat picnics but once again, there is not much shade in many of the areas, so we were pleased to spot a shady bench near the climbing rope section.  Tree-Fu Tom's Training ground was perfect for our 6 year old as she is currently going through a stage of climbing and jumping.  Unfortunately, the zip wire was out of action but there was plenty to keep our two happy. It is an amazing playground and we could have spent ages here, in fact we did spend quite a long time, although if you're going to pay for a theme park, you don't want to spend all your time in one place.

We forgot about going back to Mr Bloom's place and headed towards what turned out to be our longest queue of the day - the Get Set Go Treetop Ride.  Again our littlest couldn't go on this, so my husband took him to the Something Special Sensory Garden, where he (finally) fell asleep.  Meanwhile, we queued for around 30 mins in the sun before boarding the two person pod for a gentle ride through the tree tops (I say gentle, as someone who isn't really into rides, I was a little nervous - no trips on The Smiler for me!). My daughter really enjoyed this ride and would have liked a second go but the queue put us off - my tip is to go to this ride first.  

Next we headed for the stage area to catch one of the character performances.  Our Big Fun Time event featured Mike the Knight.  It was a simple story about Evie's birthday which lasted about 20 mins.  Afterwards the children queued up for a photo with Mike.  In the Big Fun Time area, there are some quite nice mini games (knight themed), toilets and deck chairs.  Again there isn't much shade or shelter but the area is really nice to sit and eat a picnic or in our case, wait for a performance.  Later we also queued for a photo with Upsy Daisy, which our littlest one would have been thrilled with had he been awake.  However, who doesn't want a photo of a giant TV character with their child asleep in the buggy?

We did venture outside of CBeebies Land in order to make the most of the day but did notice that the rest of the park looks a little bit tired compared to the bright colours and well thought out layout of CBeebies Land.  We went to the Aquarium and had a quick look at the log flumes but these were too busy for us to want to queue for.  We also visited the Charlie and the Chocolate ride, which was very quiet, but a little scary for our Daughter who hasn't yet encountered the stories and believed that the glass elevator was really moving.  One of our favourite things to do was the water zorbing activity, which involves climbing into a giant bubble and trying to walk around on the water.  This did cost extra but our 6 year old loved it and it made us laugh very, very much.

Overall, CBeebies Land is a fantastic day out, especially combined with an over night stay and a trip to the water park the next day - more about that in another post.  You might just be able to fit in a visit before they close for the winter but if not, why not think about next year and look out for those bargain offers that appear from January onwards?