Well I woke up, kinda, on time at like 7:30 but only having something like 4 hours sleep I was glad to arrange with Benin a later meet time so I could grab some extra sleep before the long day at the park. About 4 hours later and I was on my way to Waterloo to catch the train to Chessington. A Benin and Nicky appeared when the Chessington train arrived at Clapham Junction and we continued our voyage to the World of Adventures.
On our arrival at the park I picked up the evening tickets from one of the ticket booths and then we headed in with no real sense of what we wanted to ride first etc we ended up, as always, at Vampire.
There wasn't much of a queue (15-20 mins) but inside the evil PA system was still stupidly loud, Nicky pointed out that it was so loud it was making the metal gates rattle, yeah, that needs to be changed and now. The ride as always was good though.
I think this is when we decided to chill outside the fish and chip place for a while. We then ended up doing Black Buccaneer as they needed more adults for the end of rows, oh silly rules are silly.
We then shuffled up to Wild Asia where we went into Lorikeet Lagoon and had an awesome time. All three of us got the little pots of nectar and the lorikeets were very hungry which caused lots of amusement for all. Note to self: get TWO pots next time
Oh sorry for lack of pics, it picks up a bit later on, I promise. We then walked round to Dragon Falls which didn't have much of a queue (the park was actually very quiet despite the cloudy yet very humid weather). Falls was good as always.
We then headed into Tomb Blaster which, even with my eyes wanted to close due to my tiredness I managed to get a really good score which can be seen in the below photo
We then moved on to Runaway train which Nicky decided to sit out of as she was feeling poorly. Not much can really be said about the ride but I tried to make it more fun by attempting to get a mexican wave started but to no avail
We then headed into Market Square for some Ben & Jerrys. WIN. Oh yeah and Annual Pass discount on Ben & Jerrys ice cream is uber win.
I think we then did Bubbleworks where some chavvy kids decided that throwing jelly beans at us would be a clever idea, urgh.
It was nearly 5pm so everything was starting to close up in preparation for the special event. We headed into the hotel bar for a drink while we waited for the park to close and then re-open. In the foyer of the hotel we came across little charlie the meerkat who we got to stroke, he is so cute and full of win.
Hard to get good pics as he constantly moves about lol
When we were at the bar we noticed this sign which just confirmed what Benin and I thought when we were last at the park and saw the fencing in Wanyama...
A new and rather cool ride height restriction board has appeared in the hotel too, I like it...
It was about 5:45 so we headed over to the park gate where a mass of peeps had gathered, all very eager to get in. The staff then did a countdown which was cool, added to the atmosphere imo. We opted to head into trail of the kings first. There were so many people watching the Gorillas because they were being fed, we moved swiftly past to the superior animal, Tigers Not before noticing and taking pics of the new conservation posters outside the Gorilla expansion...
Tiger goes...
<3
The Lions were just laying around not even bothered by the guests.
Back to the Tigers then who were very curious about the presence of guests after hours...
Derpy derp...
We then made our way to the random tent that was put up next to Sealion Bay which had two staff members who were showing off three owls they don't have on display in the zoo, which was rather cool and for a small donation you could stroke them which was amazing for the kids. Just a shame it was in a small tent and was uber hard to get anywhere near them.
Line up for the event
We then watched the Sealion show which is where we (finally) met up with AJ
I've never seen so many people try and watch the Sealion show and the staff were absolutely blown away by how many people had turned up too. What was really cool was that they put on a really special show, the sealions were constantly flipping about or clapping and showing off in whatever way they could, was pretty awesome. Afterwards they did an auction for the animal experiences.
Outside creepy caves they had a couple of snakes which kids could hold etc for a small donation, once again, kids were loving it and there was a massive queue.
We opted to go over to Wanyama next to check out what was going on up there. As we approached I said "I bet the porcupine isn't out AGAIN" and low and behold for the first time since it arrived a year ago we actually got to see it outside!!!! Benin and I were overjoyed
Yet within a mere couple of seconds our joy turned to confusion. The fennec foxes had been replaced by Charlie the meerkat's crew. WTF, where be the fennec foxes of joy?! Hmm, odd. Well we continued round seeing the lovebirds, dik dik and gazelle.
However we managed to distract ourselves from the feeding over by the Zebras, failz. But it was clearly popular...
I've never seen so many people in Wanyama, was great to see. Unfortunately only one of the Zebras was out (the other 3 were inside), but the other animals were out, including the three Ostriches.
All around the zoo they had stalls set up for the several wildlife trusts that are in partnership with the conservation fund. Here is the one in Wanyama...
They were doing some woodwork workshop for kids which was cool...
Back at the meerkats some staff were talking about Charlie and his friends, several times Charlie tried to escape much to everyone's amusement and at one point the guy tickled Charlie's belly which he loved...
I spoke to a staff member nearby who informed me that there are LOTS of plans for the zoo for the next 12 months but nothing is set in stone yet but I can have a pretty good guess as to what will be joining the Zebras etc. Oh she also informed me that the Fennec foxes are just in a back stage area at the moment as they want to change the enclosure a bit so they will prefer it to its current state. So they will be back in the near future.
Part of the Capybara enclosure viewing area is closed off at the moment due to rare bees setting up home under the floor lol
Throughout the evening various talks as well as the usual show were put on in the area in front of Hocus Pocus Hall...
They also had a tombola outside HPH. £1 for 1 ticket or £2 for 3 tickets. Me and Benin both got 3 tickets and we won nothing, oh well, more money towards the conservation fund. They actually had some epic prizes up for grabs though including a decent phone, a camera, tickets for various attractions (including some non-merlin ones), chocolates and an adoption box.
And that was it, we headed home after a long, tiring yet great day. I hope Chessington raised a bucket load of money for the fund (even all money from sales of food went towards the fund from what we could gather). There were epic amounts of staff around and were really getting the kids involved in learning about the animals which I thought was really cool, there were plenty of animal meet and greets as well as all the shows and feeds. It was just a fantastic event and you could tell everyone in the park was enjoying themselves, well done Chessington!
All of my photos can be found HERE
On our arrival at the park I picked up the evening tickets from one of the ticket booths and then we headed in with no real sense of what we wanted to ride first etc we ended up, as always, at Vampire.
There wasn't much of a queue (15-20 mins) but inside the evil PA system was still stupidly loud, Nicky pointed out that it was so loud it was making the metal gates rattle, yeah, that needs to be changed and now. The ride as always was good though.
I think this is when we decided to chill outside the fish and chip place for a while. We then ended up doing Black Buccaneer as they needed more adults for the end of rows, oh silly rules are silly.
We then shuffled up to Wild Asia where we went into Lorikeet Lagoon and had an awesome time. All three of us got the little pots of nectar and the lorikeets were very hungry which caused lots of amusement for all. Note to self: get TWO pots next time
Oh sorry for lack of pics, it picks up a bit later on, I promise. We then walked round to Dragon Falls which didn't have much of a queue (the park was actually very quiet despite the cloudy yet very humid weather). Falls was good as always.
We then headed into Tomb Blaster which, even with my eyes wanted to close due to my tiredness I managed to get a really good score which can be seen in the below photo
We then moved on to Runaway train which Nicky decided to sit out of as she was feeling poorly. Not much can really be said about the ride but I tried to make it more fun by attempting to get a mexican wave started but to no avail
We then headed into Market Square for some Ben & Jerrys. WIN. Oh yeah and Annual Pass discount on Ben & Jerrys ice cream is uber win.
I think we then did Bubbleworks where some chavvy kids decided that throwing jelly beans at us would be a clever idea, urgh.
It was nearly 5pm so everything was starting to close up in preparation for the special event. We headed into the hotel bar for a drink while we waited for the park to close and then re-open. In the foyer of the hotel we came across little charlie the meerkat who we got to stroke, he is so cute and full of win.
Hard to get good pics as he constantly moves about lol
When we were at the bar we noticed this sign which just confirmed what Benin and I thought when we were last at the park and saw the fencing in Wanyama...
A new and rather cool ride height restriction board has appeared in the hotel too, I like it...
It was about 5:45 so we headed over to the park gate where a mass of peeps had gathered, all very eager to get in. The staff then did a countdown which was cool, added to the atmosphere imo. We opted to head into trail of the kings first. There were so many people watching the Gorillas because they were being fed, we moved swiftly past to the superior animal, Tigers
Not before noticing and taking pics of the new conservation posters outside the Gorilla expansion...
Tiger goes...
<3
The Lions were just laying around not even bothered by the guests.
Back to the Tigers then who were very curious about the presence of guests after hours...
Derpy derp...
We then made our way to the random tent that was put up next to Sealion Bay which had two staff members who were showing off three owls they don't have on display in the zoo, which was rather cool and for a small donation you could stroke them which was amazing for the kids. Just a shame it was in a small tent and was uber hard to get anywhere near them.
Line up for the event
We then watched the Sealion show which is where we (finally) met up with AJ
I've never seen so many people try and watch the Sealion show and the staff were absolutely blown away by how many people had turned up too. What was really cool was that they put on a really special show, the sealions were constantly flipping about or clapping and showing off in whatever way they could, was pretty awesome. Afterwards they did an auction for the animal experiences. Outside creepy caves they had a couple of snakes which kids could hold etc for a small donation, once again, kids were loving it and there was a massive queue.
We opted to go over to Wanyama next to check out what was going on up there. As we approached I said "I bet the porcupine isn't out AGAIN" and low and behold for the first time since it arrived a year ago we actually got to see it outside!!!! Benin and I were overjoyed
Yet within a mere couple of seconds our joy turned to confusion. The fennec foxes had been replaced by Charlie the meerkat's crew. WTF, where be the fennec foxes of joy?! Hmm, odd. Well we continued round seeing the lovebirds, dik dik and gazelle.
However we managed to distract ourselves from the feeding over by the Zebras, failz. But it was clearly popular...
I've never seen so many people in Wanyama, was great to see. Unfortunately only one of the Zebras was out (the other 3 were inside), but the other animals were out, including the three Ostriches.
All around the zoo they had stalls set up for the several wildlife trusts that are in partnership with the conservation fund. Here is the one in Wanyama...
They were doing some woodwork workshop for kids which was cool...
Back at the meerkats some staff were talking about Charlie and his friends, several times Charlie tried to escape much to everyone's amusement and at one point the guy tickled Charlie's belly which he loved...
I spoke to a staff member nearby who informed me that there are LOTS of plans for the zoo for the next 12 months but nothing is set in stone yet but I can have a pretty good guess as to what will be joining the Zebras etc.
Oh she also informed me that the Fennec foxes are just in a back stage area at the moment as they want to change the enclosure a bit so they will prefer it to its current state. So they will be back in the near future.Part of the Capybara enclosure viewing area is closed off at the moment due to rare bees setting up home under the floor lol
Throughout the evening various talks as well as the usual show were put on in the area in front of Hocus Pocus Hall...
They also had a tombola outside HPH. £1 for 1 ticket or £2 for 3 tickets. Me and Benin both got 3 tickets and we won nothing, oh well, more money towards the conservation fund. They actually had some epic prizes up for grabs though including a decent phone, a camera, tickets for various attractions (including some non-merlin ones), chocolates and an adoption box.
And that was it, we headed home after a long, tiring yet great day. I hope Chessington raised a bucket load of money for the fund (even all money from sales of food went towards the fund from what we could gather). There were epic amounts of staff around and were really getting the kids involved in learning about the animals which I thought was really cool, there were plenty of animal meet and greets as well as all the shows and feeds. It was just a fantastic event and you could tell everyone in the park was enjoying themselves, well done Chessington!
All of my photos can be found HERE
