James and I were so overly excited when we heard this was opening, my boy loves cbeebies and although he doesn’t watch much TV Mr Tumble has become some kind of toddler god in our house!
So from the moment we heard about it we decided we would take him. Now I was not overly keen on forking out over £70 for one part of a huge theme park so I decided to collect the sun tokens way back in March/April time. We were lucky enough to get two adult tickets and as my boy in under 4 he got free entry.
If I’m honest I thought we would be there about an hour, hour and half tops as he would be far too young for it. As it happens we were there all day and I was really pleasantly surprised.
The weather was not on our side when we got there and being a novice mom and I was not fully prepared (no wellies, no rain coat for dad) but it soon brightened up to a beautiful day.
We started off with the Postman Pat ride. As we went on a wet Monday in June, it wasn’t too busy and we only had to queue for about 30 mins. It was a great ride. Loads of interatcition opportunities. As you drove past various stops with well-known characters, you could deliver whatever is was they were missing. OQ was a bit young for this but he enjoyed pressing the buttons and beeping the horn!
Next was the Numtums ride, which was essentially a merry go round. Didn’t have to queue for more than about 10 mins and my boy loved it. Only criticism was that the music stopped way before the ride ended, so the novelty kind of wore off pretty quickly after that!
Please excuse my hair, I was soaked!
Charlie and Lola house was fab. It was more of a play area than a ride but it gave boy chance to run around safely (and out of the rain).
Mr Bloom was up next. This was more of a show than a ride. Tiddlers had the chance to explore the garden to find food to feed Compo which gave a great interaction and learning side to it. Once they had fed Compo we went inside to meet the Veggies. The cast of this were great, they interacted with the children so well and kept there ( and mine) attention really well.
In the Night Garden was the best of the day. They had just introduced a timed ticket system for this, and after hearing stories of 90 minute queues I was really pleased about this. We still had to queue, but only for 10 mins or so. Really good thinking from Alton Towers, saving lots of screaming toddlers. You go on a little boat ride around the night garden and visit all the characters. My boys face lit up and he loved waving to all the characters. I imagine if I had queued for over an hour like a lot of parents had previously I wouldn’t have been as impressed but the ticket system makes it worthwhile.
Mr Tumbles Garden was also brilliant. Lots of plants and flowers to touch and smell and spotty bags to look inside. Boy loved this ( mainly because he could wave and dance with Mr Tumble, see video).
Few other things to note:
Queuing entertainment: In all the queues they have small games etc to keep the children entertained. Such a good idea but I though there could be a few more.
Buggy parks: Throughout the land there are places to leave your buggy. Now I was really nervous about this as they are not secure. However it works really well. Don’t think you won’t need your buggy…you will!!!! Just take it!
Picnic: As you can imagine the food there is horrendously overpriced. So take picnic with you. If it is a nice day there loads of places inside and outside the land to eat and even if it is a bit rainy there are paces to stop an eat inside.
Weekend/holidays: I don’t want to put any one off now but I can imagine that at the weekend or during the holidays it would be bedlam and the queues would be unbearable with small children. So take things to keep them entertained whilst waiting (smarties, iphone games, anything!!!)
Height restrictions: Just note there are height restrictions on a couple of rides ( Justin’s house and Tree fu Tom)
Admission: There is no getting away from the fact it is a lot of money to get it. I’d recommend finding a 241 voucher. I really hope Alton Towers introduce a way of just having admission for Cebeebies land, I think they would attract more return visits that way!
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