12/08/2019

CBeebies land

Last month, Tom was gifted tickets for us all to Alton Towers so we could visit CBeebies Land.

Peyton loves CBeebies.


Her favourites are Teletubbies, In the Night Garden and Bing. She's also quite partial to anything with Justin Fletcher/Mr Tumble on.

I was confident that, even though she was only just one, she would enjoy the day. And she did!


She raced around all day, went on as many rides as possible (the height restriction on a lot was 0.9m, which Peyton was just underneath; even with her top knot!)

It's totally geared up for small ones, albeit 'smaller' ones who are bigger than Peyton. Nevertheless, she still had a great day.



We timed it perfectly to eat our picnic just before The Teletubbies Big Bang live show started. We took a picnic because we knew that food would be expensive; and we're tight. Most people had picnics, if I'm honest. Pushchairs were used, primarily, to push cool bags and picnic baskets around, with tired toddlers strolling alongside.


Peyton was ready for dinner after a morning on rides. The first ride we went on was the Postman Pat one. She sat in the drivers seat while I sat behind, holding onto her for dear life.


She was so perplexed, bless her. The whole way round she looked so confused. It wasn't until we were pulling into the bit to get off that she started shrieking, clapping and waving. I asked the guy if we could go round again, but there was a queue by this point; and I didn't want to risk her kicking off if we had to queue.


Queues are one thing that weren't ideal about the whole day; but were something we expected. The longest queue we waited in was just over 10 minutes. Now, for Alton Towers, you'd take that for a 'big' ride. But, for CBeebies Land, 10 minutes is a loooooooong time.

The park is really good in that it tailors for bored toddlers. Dotted at various points of the queue were little games/toys/things to keep the small ones entertained. This helped to a degree. Only snacks really kept her from having a meltdown, though.


The long queue was for the In the Night Garden boat ride. It was worth the queue, I must say. Peyton loves In the Night Garden. She loves the characters, the music - everything. She has some little toys of the characters from it and she carries them round so nicely (she's learnt to kiss recently and will give them all kisses and cuddles).


She loved the ride, seeing the characters. It was like a little episode. Although, it was so hard trying to get her to sit down/stay still. All she wanted was to dive into the water and get to the characters!


There weren't many other rides that she was able to go on, due to the height restrictions. But I was pleased we were able to go on the In the Night Garden one (not that she'd have known any different!)


The Teletubbies show was brilliant, I must say. I hate people dressed up as characters, it's been a phobia of mine since I was about Peyton's age.

My mum and dad always remind me of the time we queued for ages to meet Mr Blobby, only for me to lose my mind when I got near and scream the place down.


These Teletubbies were terrifying,  and I genuinely thought I'd spend the whole time comforting a screaming Peyton. But no. I had to hold the belt loop on he jeans to stop her running off and joining in the show!


There were children older than her hiding behind their parents (genuinely didn't blame them, and wanted to join them in hiding!) and she couldn't get enough.


It was kind of like a live version of an episode. I think it went on for about 15-20 minutes (although it felt a lot longer!) However, Peyton sat still on either mine or Tom's knee the whole way through. I asked Tom how much he thought it would cost to get them on our flight to and from Dubai in a few weeks, given the calming effect they had on her (once she was over the initial excitement and wanted to join in!)

After each show, you got the chance to meet the characters. My idea of hell, but I wanted to embrace the full experience for Peyton. She won't ever remember going, so I wanted to make sure we had loads of photos to show her when she's older; and no doubt moans we're mean for not taking her!




I don't know who was more excited about meeting them, Peyton or Tom!


As well as the rides, there's a lovely little sensory garden to walk through right by the entrance to CBeebies Land. Peyton had great fun in here!




It was one of the first family days out we've done where she predominantly walked all day. We took the pram as well, because she got a bit tired late afternoon, but it was mainly to push all our stuff around in.

We've loved family days out since she was born, but they're so much nicer now you can see her enjoying the things we do. I just wish that she would remember all the fun things we do now.


When she started to tire, we went for a walk around the main Alton Towers theme park. We toyed with queueing for some of the bigger rides, but given that we would've had to have gone on one at a time, so one of us could wait with P, we didn't think it was worth it. We had a lovely walk round the park, while Peyton enjoyed waving at everyone we passed.

We found one ride in the main park that she could go on - hurrah!


The carousel. She absolutely hated it at first. I was just about to spring over the fence and get her off when it started moving. Thankfully, once it was spinning she changed her tune and was loving life. Again, waving at everyone stood watching!


The entry to CBeebies Land isn't separate, and is included in the main Alton Towers entry. So it was a shame that we couldn't enjoy more of Alton Towers itself. Although, we didn't actually pay for our tickets so I wasn't too bothered about that.

Had I paid full whack, I would've been fuming!


We made our way back to CBeebies Land after realising there wasn't much out there for her to enjoy. There were loads of toys and games out for small ones to play with. She was enjoying stacking loads of rubber bricks on top of each other when all of a sudden she squealed super loud and bolted towards the stage. Before I had chance to even catch my breath, she was off!

I looked up, and her two faves from In the Night Garden had appeared. Peyton lost her mind, it was hilarious. She was so excited!


I think that was probably the highlight of the day; seeing the sheer joy in her face when she saw them.


We found another ride in CBeebies Land that she was able to go on. It was like the carousel but with small cars/bikes for the little ones to sit on, and a big bench in the middle for parents. It went really, really fast and I felt so dizzy when we got off.


In total, we were probably there for about six hours. That was more than enough for me - and Peyton - as we were both absolutely shattered.

It was such a good day, though. Anyone with a toddler who likes the characters on CBeebies, I would highly recommend.

It's definitely somewhere that we will go back when she is a bit older, and can enjoy everything a bit more.  I think, if we were to go again, we would probably stay either the night before or the night of being there. It's a long way just for a day, and we definitely lost a bit of park time due to the travelling.

The CBeebies hotel looks like great fun, so maybe when she's a bit older and can appreciate it all a bit more, we'll remortgage our house and stay in that, too! 


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