2 1/2 years old

Chessington World of Adventures - Azteca Hotel - Review

08:00

After our first visit to Chessington World of Adventures a couple of weeks ago (I wrote about it here) we loved it so much that we got ourselves invited to the launch of the new Azteca Hotel!  It was a great opportunity to see the new hotel before anyone else, to have a mini family getaway, and to get another day in the park!

The Hotel

The Azteca Hotel is attached to the Safari Hotel which was already on the resort.  They share a reception area and other facilities (such as the pool and soon to open splash area) between them. There are a few animals to see and huge giraffe statues in the reception area, to get you into the adventure spirit right away!


There is also a kids club in the reception area which can be accessed (but we didn't get a chance to try it out).  The hotels are in a great location within the park, close to the Wanyama Reserve, and Amazu Treetop Adventure which gives you lovely views from all the areas of the hotel, so you feel more like you're on a safari than in a theme park.

The Hotel Room


We stayed in a Discovery room of the hotel, they are less themed than the other rooms, but still fantastically decorated and fun.  All of the rooms in the hotel have a separate area for the children to sleep with bunk beds, and in our case a cot as well (more about baby and child friendly facilities later).  There's also a tv and a safe in the kids room, as well as a third mattress under the bed for another child to sleep.  It's really nice to have a separate area for the kids, it makes it much easier in the evening to have lights on and watch TV in the main area without worrying about waking them up or disturbing them.  The rest of the room is lovely, as you would expect in a good hotel, comfy bed, kettle, iron, bathroom with nice products, etc.  

Baby and Child Friendly Facilities


As I mentioned, the children's area of the room has bunk beds (which Ethan loved!) and we requested a cot for Ivy in advance so that we wouldn't have to bring our travel cot with us.  There is a TV in the children's area, as well as one in the main room, so you could be watching different shows at the same time (if you have any time to watch TV!)


The hotel provides a kids club and plays children's movies near to the reception area in the evenings, so that parents can have some time to relax as well.  The hotel is fully accessible and easy to get around with a pram, there are ramps everywhere as well as lifts to get to the various levels.  
Food

Each hotel has a restaurant, the new one in the Azteca Hotel is called the Temple Restaurant and serves a buffet dinner as well as a full buffet breakfast. 


The restaurant is jungle themed, with sights and sounds of the jungle surrounding each table.  There is a large fountain in the centre, which all of the children loved to look at.  There are screens all around, showing different animals moving around and interacting with each other.  There were sounds of the jungle, and every once in a while there was a big storm, with lights flickering and thunder crashing.  Ethan was very entertained by all of this (as well as a bit distracted from his food) but for Ivy this really wasn't ideal.  We had intended for her to sleep in her pram while we had dinner, but it was just so noisy that she couldn't settle, which meant we had to pace around with her and couldn't fully enjoy dinner ourselves.  I am happy to say that the restaurant was much quieter in the morning, while still keeping with it's fun jungle theme.

The food was very good, there was plenty of selection (even for a picky toddler) and we all found food that we enjoyed for dinner as well as breakfast the next morning.  Breakfast is also special because characters from the park come to visit!  When we were there Alex from Madagascar joined us for breakfast, and Ethan was very excited to meet him!

Perks of Staying in the Hotel 

As we stayed for the launch of the hotel there was a lot of wonderful entertainment in the evening, including tribal dancers and a fire show (which we missed as we were putting the children to bed).  They also had face painting and even caricature drawings being done!  


They regularly have animal meet and greets, evening access to the Amazu Treetop Adventure (you get to climb through different areas with monkeys swinging in the trees around you) as well as the Wanyama Reserve, where animals such as the meercats and zebras live.  


You also get early access to the park the next day, which is a huge bonus and you can get on so many rides before the park opens and the queues start to build up.  That in itself is reason enough to stay in the hotel!

Another Day of Play at Chessington World of Adventures

We were very excited to get another day of fun at Chessington, as even though we were just there two weeks ago, we didn't manage to do everything that we wanted to.  And I'm disappointed to say, that yet again we couldn't fit it all in!  


Last time we did loads of rides, so we said that we would spend the day doing the Sea Life Centre, soft play and animal areas (zoo and petting zoo) but Ethan is completely obsessed with the rides, so of course we had to do them all again, he is a serious adrenalin junkie!  We did get a chance to go to the aquarium this time though, and Ivy absolutely loved it, she could have just stared at those fish all day long.  Ethan loved it too, but that may have been more about the Octonauts themed areas!  


We loved being able to get into the park early, as it was a Saturday and lovely weather it was very busy, so getting onto a few of the more popular rides first thing was a real bonus.  We can't wait to go again, it's such a fun park and staying in the hotel makes it into a whole weekend of adventures!


* This is a review post, we were invited to the launch of the Azteca Hotel and provided with a night's accommodation and passes for the family to explore Chessington World of Adventures in order for us to write an honest review. *

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