Chessington Adventure Park

Have you seen 2 grown up kids … here lemme introduce you to the 2 gorgeous ladies who are game for almost anything when together … I mean come on ... who wants to go to an adventure park all dolled up to test adrenalin rush …
Yeah, its ‘US’ again … me and my girlfriend H … imagine we getting up at 6:30 on a Saturday morning to get ready for rides!!!!
And esp when we say we don’t enjoy rides and all that heart racking effect they leave when ur on them …
but well well … it’s the annual Diwali meeting from my company and it’s a perfect excuse for a great get together for all its UK employees!!!
I was allowed to get a family member with me and H is the only family I have in UK … She comes as a package with me and I am inadvertently her package !!!!
So we being the sport and perfect team players decide to go.

Now, let’s walk into our house at 7:00 on this saturday morning … its chaotic …. Both of us at the mirror with our mascara, Blush-on, gloss and all the works … Half of the wardrobe is out and we are still not sure on what each one is wearing. The Hair straightner is sitting in the corner and is flicked to ON.

Okay the UK weather is quite unpredictable so we planned to carry our big bags stuffed with umbrellas and shawls … Its better to be overdressed than underdressed … that’s the first thing you learn to beat the UK weather.

Took a while but then dressed up in the best girlie outfits with our flats and overcoats we were all set to rock the Chessington Adventure Park.
Oh and did I tell that we were supposed to be there by 10:30 … that’s why we had to get up at 6:30 !!
Whats that strange look on your face for now ?
We were supposed to be there in a presentable way so we had to get up a bit early like some 5 hrs in advance to get ready !!
Phew!
Now all ‘presentable’ and ready to enjoy the rides we reached at 10:15 to collect our tickets and lunch pass (we had already decided we wont do many rides and leave around 1600 hrs. The park closes at 2000 hrs)

The fun begins now …
Let me introduce you to the Park before I begin writing any more about our adventure in the fun filled park
http://www.chessington.com/plan_your_trip/chessington_map.asp?css=2

As you can see from the map link above, the whole park is divided into some ten parts/zones which have rides and refreshments.

At 10:15 we were amongst a few excited souls to enter the park and so we decided to begin by taking a stroll of the park: SAFARI SKYWAY – a simple train ride which takes us around the whole park and gives us a good overhead view of all the rides in general.

So like many others we decided on a few rides and marked others as IMPOSSIBLE!
Our starting point was a decent and lady like ride called SEA STORM – a boat ride which goes up and down like waves in a circular fashion quite close to the ground. We didn’t realise that it does spins once in a while to add that extra effect!

That’s the last I remember about the sophisticated ladies in us!
Shouting (decibel reading was well above the recommended levels) and Giggling (enough to give any kid a tough competition that day) we entered into the world of adventurous rides.

That’s us H & me … Two naughty fun loving pals for life!

A little fast forward required here … So while I roll the reel let me tell u we managed to finish all THE 25-30 rides and did many twice or even thrice!

Oyeeeee … Stop the reel … yeah that’s the BLACK BUCCANEER – a long boat which goes from one point to the another in the air to cover a complete 180 degree – I hated it to the bits … with gurgling stomach, jumping heart, tears rolling down my cold and numb face, the intermittent shrieks, laughs, shouts and donno what not!
I was d first to jump off it vowing never to try that again ever in my life
(A very ironical statement I made!)

Next ride was VAMPIRE RIDE – a ride which takes u round in the air with you strapped to a chair and legs hanging loose … well, it looked scary but we picked it up because it had d longest queue, which means its popular, and we thought it will give us enough time to recoup from the previous Buccaneer experience!
My heart was doing more than the regular lub-dub at that moment!

Wow … I loved Vampire ride and H hated it .. she was in d same state as I was when I got off the Buccaneer … so we both had a ride we vowed not to repeat ever in life .. H loved what I hated and vice versa …
We then did quite a few other rides here and there … enjoyed most of them and had developed a tough heart by then!

It was past 1 o’clock in the afternoon when we decided to lunch which wasn’t worth mentioning about except that we loved the Profiteroles and our tea!

Now we knew we had to give rides a break with our stomach full so we went towards the animal zoo followed by the SEA LIFE CENTRE and CREEPY CAVES … all was fun and quite educative. Most of the fishes were mating and the Pythons were all in pairs! Learnt about the display of affection !
Lions, Tigers, Panthers, Orang-utans, Seals, Insects, Reptiles, Lizards – you name it and we saw it … really enjoyed the walk and learning about so many different species, their habitat and the sheer pleasure of looking at them.

HOCUS POCUS HALL was Halloween special : A 3-D scary dungeon where u enter with the 3-D glasses (sitting comically on ur eyes covering most of the face) in a group of 6-7 people made to walk through the hall in a line. Your hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you like school days, the only thing missing was the teacher shouting ‘Finger on ur lips children!’
We were d last in d line so u can imagine we got bored to death in there. The effect of all the excitement and fun was over by the time it reached us!

We now were ready to start with our remaining rides – RUNAWAY TRAIN(we almost fell off to sleep), RATTLESNAKE(which rattled H’s entire body) and all the others. It was almost 4 pm when we took a break for our green tea dose; after washing down 2 cups each, we felt rejuvenated to check the map for left over rides before we wind up and leave for the day.
So we started with BUBBLE WORKS – a cute safari through bubble making process which ends beautifully under a canopy of water fountain, CUTE is the word!

It was 5 and we decided to leave after doing the last ride which was the Elephant Ride … yeah a kiddies ride on elephant going in circles with an option to force the elephant to go up and down … our elephant didn’t go up even after repeated tries on the push button! I guess to remind us it was a kiddies ride!!! So we just ended up going in circles … that still didn’t stop us from enjoying and laughing the ride…
That’s us – full of life!
H what will happen when we go for our Europe backpacking trip!
Oh! I am sure when the 2 of us are together it will be fun....a definite rocking safari!

Its 6 in the evening and we decide its time to head home …. We are going towards the exit when we pass Vampire ride … my eyes flicker and H is all NO NO
Next we remember being in the queue … isn’t H a sweet heart
H came in against her wishes because I wanted to do the Vampire ride one more time and ofcourse we have to do everything together!
But then its H after all … just when our turn for the ride came she put her foot down and the Akashwani (H’s golden words) goes ‘We do Vampire then we do Buccaneer as well’
Valid enough – if she does a ride she hates I do the same!
That’s us … either it’s a NO from both of us or it’s a yes from us!

So it was fun with vampire ride but when the ride ended, I wanted to elope somehow …. Made enough attempts to loose r way to buccaneer but you have to know H by now!
After all d convincing & pestering into doing something against my will, she had me say YES for the Black Buccaneer
Quote “Get that fear outta you babe!” Unquote
We sat at the extreme end of the boat and I remember my shouts and squeaks but when it was all over... I couldn’t believe what I did!!!
I actually requested for a second round and H had to force me from going for the third round.
I guess the fear went away a bit too quickly … I love Buccaneer and H loved the Vampire by now
Aren’t we cute little kiddies!

Now what, we were back in the spirit and so we started again … Sea Storm here we come...
Did that for 3 times back to back and left when the ride closed. It was 7:30 now and most of the rides were closing. It was getting dark and we were laughing on our achievements of the day; the thought that we had decided to leave at 5 ….
Anyways, we still had 30 min before the park closed and guess what we did … a few more rides …. H & I together are always a deadly combination, and I can vouch that most of the People working at Chessington Park knew us towards the end of the day. Who wont with all the excitement bubbling out of us, the smiles to try a difficult ride, the enthusiasm of achieving the target ride!

The day came to an end happily @ 9:30 when we reached home. Sunday was a lazy one as our bodies needed rest but our dreams were full of Chessington rides for the whole of next week!

God, thanks for introducing this beautiful heart into my family.
H, thanks for being my family.