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Chessington World of Adventure is definitely the most old fashioned of the big London-adjacent theme parks. There’s something endearingly last century about the random bits of zoo you still find scattered around. It has, nonetheless, been investing in some very modern IP of late. Okay, 2023’s World of Jumanji area was relatively low stakes, given there probably isn’t such a thing as a rabid Jumanji fan. But it set the template for a rapid period of expansion that takes in two staggering thematic coups. Next summer Chessington will open the world’s first Minecraft-based theme park zone. And before that it’s done the same with a possibly even more successful franchise.
If you are somehow unfamiliar with the phenomenon that is PAW Patrol, it’s a cartoon about a group of talking puppies who fight petty crime in Adventure Bay, a San Francisco-alike town populated by harmless oddballs who get into minor scrapes that inevitably require a ‘ruff ruff rescue’ from the pups and their absurdly OTT vehicles (bankrolled by Ryder, an incredibly wealthy 10-year-old child).
Anyway, it is absolutely enormous with the under-fives, and now it has its own Chessington zone in the shape of World of PAW Patrol, which takes in four rides, a gift shop, a play area and themed snacks. Me and my kids went down to the press preview just before it opened and here are some thoughts.
To get the slight negative out of the way first, the thing to bear in mind is that it’s a Chessington zone on a Chessington budget. That is to say that while it clearly all cost a few million, it’s not as glossy, immersive or indeed big as an equivalent Disneyland area. The sense you’re ‘in’ Adventure Bay is somewhat limited, and while the pups’ iconic Lookout base is present and correct, you can’t actually go up the tower (there’s some unconvincing business with a pretend lift that’s probably not worth getting into). Also despite the constant background music you don’t hear the show’s theme tune once – whether because of royalty issues or because it would drive everyone insane, but it feels like a weird omission. Considering how lucrative the brand is, there is definitely the sense of some expense spared.
Anyway: the rides. The rides are pretty good! Well, two of them are great, and two of them are fine. As you’d expect, they’re all pitched pretty young in terms of audience. Marshall’s Firetruck Rescue sees you sitting in a small ‘firetruck’ that spins around vertically – gently, and close to the ground – in a nominal effort to rescue a cat from a tree. Skye’s Helicopter Heroes spins – horizontally, unhurriedly – and offers a nice view but is unlikely to increase anyone’s pulse.
Genuinely strong is Chase’s Mountain Mission (main image). Considering Chessington is largely aimed at a younger audience, it has of late lacked a rollercoaster for little ones with the likes of the Vampire, the Mandrill and Dragon’s Fury all a bit scary for the average primary schooler. But Chase’s Mountain Mission hits the spot perfectly: nothing too nerve-wracking but it goes at a fair zip and leans fairly sharply to the side a couple of times – about the right level of danger. It also comes the closest of any of the rides to having an actual story, a classic bit of PAW Patrol nonsense about Mayor Goodway and her pet chicken being stranded on a tightrope due to a baguette-stealing eagle (there are contributions from the UK voice cast, or some people who sound decently close to them).
Best of all is Zuma’s Hovercraft Adventure, which is – it says here – the UK’s first drifter ride. Basically your ‘hovercraft’ is attached to a central hub that rotates in a fixed circle, but if you pull the lever in the middle, yours will extend out and go into a fast, erratic spin that’s actually pretty damn thrilling: it’s like going crazy in a bumper car except with the full knowledge you can’t bump into anything. It’s a blast.
Toss in a very decent play area and you have a fine new zone for PAW Patrol-loving pre-schoolers and KS1ers, who are obviously the target audience, so job done. But older primary school kids will dig the Chase and Zuma rides, and indeed given Chessington’s generally gentler vibe then I’d say all visitors should check them out. Next year’s Minecraft zone might have to show a bit more in terms of techy gloss, but when all’s said and done World of PAW Patrol hits the spot.
World of PAW Patrol is open now.
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