Theme Park Tips

I work at a major themepark and thought i would pass on some tips for you all.

Firstly.... Never Prebook, ever, ever. You book a nice day in june and save maybe £2 a ticket, yet you spend £50 extra on food since it chucks it down and you sit in the restaurant all day.

Saying that, ring up the park and ask them to send you a map, say your thinking about a group visit and plan your day, military style if possible, it cuts down on screaming kids if you tell them in 20 minutes they will be in such and such. Remember to allow for queue time.

Nobody should pay full price to get in, there are offers in every newspaper, with 1/2 the supermarket stock, nectar, clubcard all of them, most of these vouchers last all year so if you see one, cut it out.

Another big thing is height restrictions, if the map says 1.3m then get out your meter stick (with shoes remember) if you've lined up for an hour only to be told someone is too short it's not fun.

If your relativly nearby then ring the park about an hour after it opens and ask them how many people are in (last sun we only had 5000 (empty) no reason why), then go and you will get round easily.

Check the operating calendar, arrive a half hour late, and you will breeze in the entrance, preferable spend this half hour in the car eating, which brings me to the next point.

Go to lunch after two, we have a huge rush 12-2 when around 3000 people come through our restaurant, 2:15 we have maybe 8 customers seated and none ordering.

Buy the special plastic cups, ours are £4, but contain ~£3 worth of drink, refils are £1.50 so just fill and then dish it out into cups, you can do this all year with the same cup (keep your reciept though)

If you bring your own baby food, don't ask for hot water we really can't give it out, we've been sued already. Most places have a microwave, ask.

If you can get the kids out a half hour early, its a money saving in the long run as you won't be in hours of traffic wasting petrol, and most of the kids are tired by closing time anyhow.

If you have a specific ride you or they 'need' to go on, then run to it, even if you arrive a half hour late you will prob beat most there, get it over and done with and your day is free to wander.

If your kid has certain restriction, such as no nuts/gluten/dairy you will really need to bring your own food, people expect us to have gluten free everything, i can't even find it in tesco, similarly with nuts, every product says "may contain traces", its unfortunate, but until they sort it out we can't either.

Look at the map and find which restaurant does what you want, every person coming to our restaurant expects us to do chips, we don't in fact only two places in the whole park do, save the arguments with kids and fuss by looking first.

If you trust them, split the age groups, let the 10+ go round on their own (with mobile pref), and mum and dad take the younger, you get to go on the tea cups, they get the super ride, these places really are safe, we haven't lost a kid ever, obviously up to maturity of your kids though...

Annual passes make their money back by you buying food and toys which i'm sure most money savers can avoid, though we give food discount with passes, work out the cost of the pass and how many visits you need to make and most people can easily earn it back, also if your nearby, you can pop in for an hour or two when you have the grandkids or whatever, couple of rides then home again for lunch, only cost is the petrol.

'Age' the park

Chessington and Legoland are for those under 10, ideally under 5

Thorpe and Alton for 14+ (heights change this somewhat)

If you have 14 year olds don't take them to Legoland, they will get bored, and 5 year olds at Thorpe will be confined to the merry go round. If you have an range of kids, then do two visits, leaving the other at home.

Above all else, remember when your server gets confused, don't think he's stupid as he is prob doing his Uni Course, or his A Levels and we can converse, and don't have a go at them for portion sizes, or price as this has nothing to do with us, and forms are usually available for compliments/complaints. We get bonuses when people fill in the comments cards saying we were good.

Above all have a great day, and try not to do everything all in one go, you can come back again!

Hope this helps

Petree