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My family and I were very excited to be offered tickets to review cBeebiesLand, Tree Top Quest and the Waterpark at Alton Towers in Staffordshire.
The Tree Top Quest is a great climbing experience for children (and adults!) - there's a choice high ropes for those with a head for heights and low ropes for younger children. 6yo DS - just about making the recommended age range - took to the low ropes with DH. After a 10 - 15 minute safety talk and strapping them both up with the harness, they were left to their own devices with an instructor keeping an eye from a distance. Despite DS1 initially being a bit fearful, he really built up his confidence throughout the course. He had to tackle a variety of obstacles, from walking on planks of wood in mid-air to wall climbing. He's quite a hesitant boy and likes to assess a situation before tip-toeing in, so for him this was a real challenge and achievement when he reached the end - flying back to the ground on the zipwire!
After that experience, we ventured into cBeebiesLand in the main park with 1.5yo DS2 and another family made up of two adults and two children (2.5yo and 1yo). There were lots of rides the young children could go on - a favourite was the In the Night Garden Magical Boat Ride, which sailed past their favourite characters. They also enjoyed the Charlie and Lola's Moonsquirters & Greendrops, where they were able to enter a ball pit and run crazy! My 6yo was a bit too old for both of these, however he thoroughly enjoyed the Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure along with his 2.5yo cousin, as well as the Justin's House Pie-O-Matic Factory - where they were able to shoot foam balls at other visitors!
We stopped for lunch at the Big Fun Showtime where we were able to have our picnic while watching the ZingZillas show. This was a nice little area where the kids could run relatively freely. They also had toilets and baby changing, so it was very family friendly. The adventure playground called the Tree Fu Tom Training Camp was around the corner so we ventured there after lunch for a bit of play.
In the afternoon, we made our way over to the indoor Waterpark. Both my boys love the water, so this was so exciting for them. The 6yo went to explore the Wacky Waterworks Tree House, which has over 70 interactive water features including water cannons, buckets, pull ropes and water wheels. I took DS2 over to the Little Leak play area for babies, where he could splash about in shallow water. We all ended up gravitating towards the Lagoona Bay where we could see all the action taking place - in particular watching the The Tipping Bucket pour 1000 litres of water over unaware swimmers!
We wish we had more time to explore the rest of Alton Towers, as we would have liked to try out the new Rollercoaster Restaurant (where your food tackles two loop-the-loops before dropping 8 metres down the tornado spiral to the tables!). I would definitely say two full days are needed to make the most of the entire park. We had a fabulous time, 6yo DS in particular, who said the Tree Top Quest experience was the best day of his life!
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