A Day out at Chessington

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The summer holidays can get expensive fast, especially if your children are like mine and feel the need to snack every 10 minutes from the moment they get up to the moment they go to sleep, so I am always looking for ways to save money and keep them entertained. I have a tiny thrill seeker and another child who had ‘visit an aquarium’ at the top of his summer holidays wish list, so we had been looking at taking a visit to Chessington World of Adventures Resort when we discovered the Coca-Cola Reverse vending machines.

You can take along an empty 500ml bottle and exchange it onsite for a 50% off voucher for entry into a Merlin Entertainments attraction. Plus, you can rest assured that your bottle will be recycled. Coca-Cola are working hard to make their packaging more sustainable and I usually opt for a glass bottle or can when available, but it is great to know when I do buy a plastic bottle I can make sure it is correctly recycled. They are planning on increasing the amount of recycled plastic used in their packaging by 2020 and are committed to continual improvement.

We visited in the middle of the summer holidays so I was expecting it to be busy (and it was) but we loved the variety there, which meant we could break up rides with the zoo, the SEA
LIFE centre and everything else there was to see and do. We loved the Julia Donaldson attractions which were perfect for mini adventurers like ours and generally found Chessington a great option for younger families. The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure was our favourite and the new Room on the Broom – A Magical Journey was pretty special as well as we walked through the story which is so familiar to us, watching the characters come to life. Even the queue was entertaining with little puzzles and games along the way (and a station to buy coffee!). Finn can’t wait to be big enough for Dragon’s Fury which is a twisty, turning rollercoaster that kept going over our heads – he couldn’t take his eyes off it! (This is definitely one I will be going on with him once he is a little taller!).

The SEA LIFE centre was set right in the middle of the Resort and we got to see stingrays swimming around as well as walking through a tunnel of fish. For all the children, their highlight was definitely being able to stroke a starfish though and they all got stuck in! Next door to SEA LIFE was a walkway with monkeys which Dylan came on with me whilst the other three acted like monkeys running through the playground high above the ground. There was lots of space for the children to run around and they loved being able to see the animals as they did!

Merlin Entertainments have plenty of attractions with reverse vending machines like Thorpe Park Resort, LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort and SEA LIFE Blackpool, so there are plenty of options whether you have little ones or bigger.

Which Merlin Entertainments attraction are you thinking of visiting next and do you have your Coca-Cola bottle ready to recycle?