We went to Chessington World of Adventures with Merlin’s Magic Wand!

Merlin’s Magic Wand is an international children’s charity that helps seriously ill, disabled and disadvantaged children have magical days out to UK theme parks and attractions such as LEGOLAND, Madame Tussauds, SEALIFE, etc. As Morgan is our little autistic trooper, we applied to see if we could get him a day out at Chessington World of Adventures.

Morgan’s disability is cognitive, which means that queuing for long periods of time can be very distressing for him. He doesn’t necessarily always fully grasp the concept of waiting and can become agitated if surrounded by groups of unfamiliar people for too long. Luckily many UK attractions now cater specifically to these kinds of disabilities and allow for quick ride access through special queues and ride exits.  The application of this can differ from ride to ride but generally speaking it works and allows Morgan to access attractions in a way that keeps him calm and happy.

We chose Chessington World of Adventures specifically because he has a HUGE love of Julia Donaldson’s books including The Gruffalo and Chessington have their very own Gruffalo River Ride Adventure! All the kids had an amazing time and Morgan was mesmerised when he was on the Gruffalo ride. His attachment to the themes and characters in the books is so strong that you could tell it was blowing his mind to be surrounded by all of it. Claudia, was far less impressed and found the 10 foot high Gruffalo head to be rather intimidating.

Chessington had a very personal relevance for me too as it’s the theme park I used to visit as a child. I’m old enough to remember when Dragon Falls was called Dragon River and used to love The 5th Dimension Ride and Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks! The park has grown so much since then and it’s amazing  to see how the place has evolved.

Later on we took a ride around exotic wild life with Zufari, rode the Dragon Falls log flume and went to visit the fishes in Chessington’s very own SEALIFE exhibit. Check out the gallery below to see what else we got up to!

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Merlin’s Magic Wand for giving us such a great day out and would recommend any family with a SEN child to apply for a day out themselves.

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