We have just returned from a week's holiday and we didn't even leave home soil. We have family annual passes for the Tussauds group so we thought we would spend a week touring round the places it lets us into free of charge!
Saturday 2nd August
We headed off in the morning destined for Chessington World of Adventures. We'd all been here before so there we no surprises and we knew we'd enjoy it.The kids had a great time on the rides and they have a new Sealife Centre there which they really liked. We had decided to stay at the various locations on our tour at Holiday Inns (no expense spared eh!) and the one at Chessington is actually on the grounds which was brilliant. They even had characters from the park at the hotel during breakfast - very Disneyesque!
Sunday 3rd August
This was another day at Chessington and much fun was had by all. it turns out that Ben is a bit of a daredevil and would ride anything that height regulations permitted. Even the Runaway Mine Train for which he could barely see over the safety bar!!Monday 4th August
We headed off for the next stop in our Tour - Legoland. The kids really enjoyed this one and so did we - but my goodness it's hilly and the queues were horrendous - still we had a very good time and Amy & Ben managed to both pass their driving tests!Tuesday 5th August
We got wise today on our 2nd day at Legoland and discovered something called Q-Bot - it's Legolands version of Fastpass and it works very well. We managed to get a lot more rides done with our Q-Bot doing all the hard queuing for us.Wednesday 6th August
We left our dwellings near Heathrow and headed to our next destination Warwick Castle. If I'm honest everyone was feeling a bit whacked by now and the long walk from the car park to the Castle (uphill) seemed to pretty much do everyone in so we left shortly after lunchtime and headed into nearby Stratford-upon-Avon.
This is one of my favourite places in the world and we took the kids to see Shakespeare's Birthplace (just from the outside) and had great fun in the gift shop.Thursday 7th August
After a one night stop in Warwick we headed onto our last destination - Alton Towers. It had been a bit harder to find a Holiday Inn close by as Alton Towers is in a village location but we found a nice on in Stoke on Trent.
Friday 8th August
We all really loved Alton Towers and did much the same stuff on both days - although Steve did buy a fastpass for the big thrill rides on the 2nd day so he could do then without us having to wait around for him all the time.
We all did the rapids and a new ride called Battle Galleons where you get completely soaked (I mean that!) and Ben did another Runaway Mine Train - twice!
Saturday 9th August
Our final day so we packed up and headed back home. We had toyed with the idea of going back to Alton Towers for the day and travelling home in the evening but our luck with the weather ran out and it was pouring with rain when we woke up so we decided to come straight home.Ben got a bit bored in the car on the way back and decided a bit of artwork would keep him amused!
We all had a really good time and are already planning another tour next year. I dread to think what rides Ben will go on when he gets a bit bigger though!
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