CBeebies Land Alton Towers Review
We had a great stay at the CBeebies Land Hotel at Alton Towers Resort this Summer. As part of our stay we had three days inside the actual theme park.
My youngest is three, so the perfect age for CBeebies Land. My middle child is 7, but a timid little thing and he preferred the more gentle rides at CBeebies Land than the more adventurous rides in the rest of the park. While my husband and eldest son sought their thrills over at the Wicker Man, me and my little ones spent our time with Iggle Piggle and friends!
If you’re not staying at the hotel and you’re buying the park tickets separately it can seem quite expensive. However there are plenty of ways to get half price entry – we’ve seen vouchers on cereal boxes, crisp packets and even hand wash!
I’ve heard a lot of people complain that it’s unfair for the park to charge the same price for kids only visiting CBeebies Land but honestly it is worth it. You can easily spend a full day (or more) in CBeebies Land alone.
CBeebies Land is located right near the park entrance which is convenient for those little legs. There are a variety of rides, activities and shows to go and explore.
As you enter Cbeebies Land you land upon the Something Special Sensory Garden. It’s perfect for younger children. There’s flowers for the little ones to smell, musical instruments including drums for them to play and even the opportunity to look inside Mr Tumble’s Spotty bag! Amongst the hustle and bustle, and rollercoasters and queues, it’s a lovely little area where the kids can explore at their own leisure.
As you walk towards the rides and attractions there’s a CBeebies Hall Of Fame which I thought was a nice touch. Everyone from Justin Fletcher to Mr Bloom (who FYI ladies, has quite small hands…!) had their own little spot.
This is probably the fastest of all the rides at CBeebies Land so one for the thrill-seekers! It’s not exactly the Nemesis but it does have dips and turns that even my nine year old enjoyed! It’s one of the most popular rides so be prepared to queue if you’re not there early. They did have a little TV showing episodes of the Octonauts while you wait which was great for preventing the kids getting too bored.
This is another popular one where there’s always a queue, but I’m not sure why! We found it the most dull of all the rides at CBeebies Land. The ride, as the name suggests, is high in the tree tops and to give it credit, it does give great views of the park. However all of our kids were underwhelmed with this extremely slow ride!
This is another slow ride, but keeps the kids entertained with all the characters to spot along the way. You sit in Postman Pat’s van and help him deliver his parcels. There’s buttons for the kids to press in answer to questions and so it’s interactive enough to not become boring.
This was by far my daughter’s favourite ride! We sat in Iggle Piggle’s boat as it gently moves along the water at a leisurely speed so we could spot all the characters. The boats play the In The Night Garden theme and all the character’s tunes and songs which my daughter loved! All the characters all moved, including the Pinky Ponk and Ninky Nonk! As you can imagine, this is another popular ride so the queues are quite long. However we found the queue moved quite quickly and there were little activities for the kids to play with while they were waiting.
We’ve been to CBeebies Land on three separate occasions and each time the Numtums ride has been closed! Perhaps we’re just unlucky!
This is an opportunity for the kids to put on a lab coat (if they want to!) and get educational! They can explore in their own time, and there’s a variety of activities and mini experiments for them to try out. It’s not overly busy in here in our experience, so it’s nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the park.
This is another area the kids can explore at their own leisure. It’s basically just a big playground with slides and climbing frames and various other activities. It was suitable for all three of our kids, even our nine year old enjoyed it when he was having a break from the bigger rides!
My daughter LOVES Go Jetters so was very excited about this one! The carriage you sit in has a lever at the front which enables to the kids to manoeuvre it up and down. It does go up quite high which allows a good view of the rest of the park. Again there were facts and information available for the kids to read as we queued to keep them entertained. The kids enjoyed this one because they loved having the power of moving the carriage up and down!
When we reached Mr Bloom’s allotment it was relatively quiet so I think it may get overlooked in favour of the actual rides which is a real shame because we thought it was brilliant. Mr Bloom has left his allotment and veggies in the capable hands of his friend and the kids (tiddlers!) were invited to help out. The whole experience was interactive, including a “video link” of Mr Bloom on his holiday! His “friend” was brilliant, complete with broad Northern accent! She was very engaging and excellent with the kids. The kids particularly enjoyed going inside and meeting the veggies! One of the days highlights.
Inside Big Fun Time is a large outdoor grassy area – perfect for picnics! They have regular shows on throughout the day; this time we saw Bing and Hey Duggee but in the past we’ve also seen Zingzillas and Tree Fu Tom. After the show there’s the opportunity for the kids to meet the characters.
There’s also a cafe in this area, along with kids activities, such as building blocks and bean bag throwing. There’s also an In The Night Garden meet and greet tent which does get very busy!
The Furchester Hotel is a new interactive show featuring favourite characters from the programme. It lasts around 15 minutes and my kids loved it! I won’t spoil it for anyone, but it’s definitely worth a visit.
If you like screaming kids and being pelted by plastic balls, this one is for you! The kids (and adults if they wish!) fill up bags with little plastic balls and then fire them across a huge room. There are ball shooters and slides and the kids absolutely loved it! It’s complete bedlam and our three year old ran around having no idea what was going on but it’s all good fun!
There’s lots of things to look out for when you’re walking around CBeebies Land. Postman Pat drives around in his van (with Jess the cat!) and my littles ones were excited to spot Ubercorn from Go Jetters! There were two performers with a truck full of animatronic dinosaurs who sang and danced to entertained those queuing for rides and we even spotted Mr Bloom’s baby veggies!
For more inspiration, check out our other days out with kids.
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We have been to Cbeebies land so many times now with our little ones as it's our closest theme park, and we love it! Great tips here, I find the food and drink is SO expensive there!
My friend took her kids here and they had such a fun time. I've not been to Alton Towers in absolute ages x
We loved CBeebies land last year, although we were a bit disappointed we didn't get to go on everything due to the horrendous queue times (damn my husband being a teacher and having to go in school holidays!). I'd love to take them back again, perhaps next year, but it's so far away for us.
Totally agree about the expensive food/drink - we took snacks and sandwiches in our rucksack! x
It looks great but we haven’t been as I wasn’t sure if there was enough to justify the price and travel x
This really is the ultimate guide, you've covered absolutely everything, We took Jack and Olivia to Alton Towers when Olivia was only a few months old, I can't wait to take them back especially to Cbeebies Land now that Olivia is that little bit older
We've never been to CBeebies Land, or Alton Towers in general. It does look like loads of fun and definitely something we would give a try at some point. It's just the high prices and travelling up there that's put me off. But nothing ventured, nothing gained :-)
Some really great tips, we just returned from Alton Towers and we enjoyed the visit but we didn't visit CBeebies land.
This looks fantastic and its great to hear Alton Towers have something for younger visitors too! My little girl is 4 and would love Cbeebies land!
We last went to cbeebiesland when it first opened and the kids are itching to go back