room on the broom a magical journey photos

The making of Chessington’s Room on the Broom – a Magical Journey

Words:  Owen Ralph

| 10 min read

Chessington World of Adventures Resort has turned to celebrated author Julia Donaldson to help it reimagine a walk-through attraction.

Room on the Broom – A Magical Journey has been delighting families since the start of the season.

Ahead of the unveiling of Room on the Broom – A Magical Journey, a curious listing appeared on the property website Rightmove last Autumn. It read as follows:

Our magical property could make the perfect one-of-a-kind home.

Built in 1348, the 1,373m² hall has some unusual but charming features for a period property. Such as a farting chair, mirror maze and a whole lot of goblins!

Our seller has asked to reside in Hocus Pocus Hall until October 31, with the aim to complete the sale by Spring 2019.

The new ‘owners’, including a witch, a cat, a dog, a bird, a frog and a dragon, took up residence this April. The advert, however, was a PR stunt. The historic building was never for sale. Rather, Chessington used the property listing to highlight that it was replacing the spooky-but-fun Hocus Pocus Hall, which operated inside Burnt Stub Mansion in the heart of the resort from 2003 onwards. Its successor is an equally family-friendly walk-through attraction.

The Gruffalo effect

Room on the Broom – A Magical Journey follows the introduction in 2017 of The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure. Both were created in collaboration with IP owner Magic Light Pictures.

The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure replaced a former fan favourite, Professor Burb’s Bubbleworks, with a dark boat ride based on Julia Donaldson’s popular Gruffalo books, illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

Room on the Broom, another children’s story from Donaldson and Scheffler, gives its name to the new experience inside the former Hocus Pocus Hall.

“Chessington is all about animals and taking families on a wild adventure,” says Andrew Porter, creative lead at Merlin Entertainments ‘ Resort Theme Parks group. “Animals feature quite heavily in the narrative to Room on the Broom. So it just seemed like the right story for us to keep bringing in the younger family market that Julia Donaldson attracts.”

Whilst River Ride Adventure offers an immersive but essentially passive voyage through the Gruffalo’s world, Room on the Broom – A Magical Journey offers a more interactive experience.

“Rather than transitioning on a ride vehicle from scene to scene,” says Porter, “we wanted people to actually walk through the Room on the Broom story. As they do so, parents can talk their children through the story, just as they would when reading the book at bedtime to their kids.”

The Room on the Broom experience

The 10-minute experience begins with a pre-show inside an enchanted library, where guests are told the story of Room on the Broom. As the witch casts her spell, a cauldron bubbles and smokes before a secret passageway is revealed behind a bookcase. Guests follow the witch through a rotating tunnel but the wind is blowing so wildly it blows off her hat.

As families land in the forest, they meet the dog who needs help to find the hat. Guests jump up and down and the hat falls from the tree. Guests again follow the witch, who this time loses her bow.

The next scene is a sunny meadow. The bow is hidden in one of the haystacks and guests look to find it. A bird flutters from a tree onto the broomstick with the dog, cat and witch. In a whoosh, they are gone, but this time the witch loses her wand in the wind!

The guests then land in a swamp, but the wand has been eaten by a bullfrog. Everyone needs to work together to feed the bullfrog by touching the fireflies when they light up. Eventually, the bullfrog gets so full he burps and reveals the wand.

Families again follow the witch, but the broom snaps under the weight of the frog and everyone falls into a bog as the witch flies off.

A dragon encounter

Guests suddenly find themselves in front of a fire-breathing dragon who is hungry for witch and chips! They make it safely past the dragon and meet the bog monster who frightens the dragon into a mirror maze.

The final scene of the journey sees the witch and all of the characters encountered in the attraction reunited around a cauldron. She casts a spell and an animatronic broomstick rises out of the cauldron. The characters all board the broom and, after a tap from the witch, in a whoosh they are gone!

Wouldn’t it have been great to use a motion simulator to bring the broom flight to life? No, says Porter. “Motion simulators are more for an older audience. This storied walk-through is a more delicate experience for pre-school children. We wanted families to play and learn together and take their time to enjoy their surroundings and interactive activities.”

Storytelling in walk-through attractions

Michelle Hicks , Resort Theme Parks project manager at Merlin Entertainments , worked with Andrew Porter on both Room on the Broom and the Gruffalo River Ride, as well last season’s BIAZA award-winning Land of the Tiger exhibit at Chessington. She says the new walk-through experience offered an advantage over the dark ride when it came to storytelling and interaction.

“It really allows guests to engage and interact with the characters, and gave us the opportunity to be a lot more tactile.”

Hicks details how the cauldron effect was created in the pre-show. “It’s a steel cauldron filled with water. When you throw an item in, a splash of water comes up and the lights inside the cauldron change colour. It’s a really popular effect. We’ve also got oscillating water misters and smoke machines to create a low-level haze around outside of the cauldron. However, when the explosions occur there’s also an air blast to clear the smoke away. If we didn’t do that, then you’d see light rays from the projection behind.”

Animatronics are used throughout the attraction. “The first animatronic is the dog in the forest,” says Hicks. “It’s quite big and impressive in its own right, so only subtle movements were needed to bring it to life. The bird and frog animatronics are fairly small but have lots of small motors inside. The bird alone has six different movements.”

Being creative with the budget

Projection mapping is used to enhance physical props, such as the storybook in the pre-show. “Otherwise you’re just projecting onto a flat screen,” says Hicks. “Children and adults respond better to physical objects.”

Budget considerations forced the creative team to think smartly, explains Porter. “[On the Gruffalo] we needed to create a forest and a swamp area but didn’t want to use vinyl wrapping for the walls as this would feel very flat. However we could produce 3D trees to create depth, then cut them in half to double our props and add bushes and plants. With clever graphic design, we could create a false sense of perspective and add more layers of depth and detail. This all comes together to create the illusion of a dense forest environment.”

“Budget is a creative challenge,” adds Porter. “As creatives we push the bounds of reality and what is physically possible. By using a lot of clever techniques, we are able to create these lush environments. On Room on the Broom _ A Magical Journey, for example, I worked with the project delivery team to ensure there was a 3D animatronic and interactive in every scene.”

Another vital element is the attraction’s soundtrack. This was composed by John Sanderson at Pitstop Productions and recorded in Budapest by a 62-piece orchestra.

Music to move people

Porter describes the music in the attraction as “stunningly beautiful. You can hear people breathing into flutes, hear the depth of the trombones and trumpets. Even when the musicians make a mistake, we’ve included that in the soundtrack because it just really brings you into this immersive world.”

The music starts in the pre-show with a lonely flute and progresses to a full orchestral soundtrack with strings. Together with lighting, the audio is used to ‘push’ people through the attraction.

Porter’s experience of creating Screamfest scare attractions in his native Staffordshire each Halloween was useful in managing throughput and creating a sense of emotion. But here, of course, the goal was not to scare his guests.

“In the pre-show, we establish that this is a safe, comfortable place by making it quite light. Then we make it darker with the explosion in the cauldron, but then you go into quite a bright corridor. That opens up into a very bright forest, then you go down a dark corridor that opens up into a very bright meadow. Even in the darker scenes, we can make them lighter with the music. Nowhere in the attraction do we have anything suddenly appearing from pitch black. If you do that, you’ve just betrayed the trust of the parent and the child and probably terrified them for quite a while afterwards.”

Creating confidence in the next generation of theme park guests

For Hicks, Room on the Broom –  A Magical Journey challenges children just enough. “It’s confidence building,” she says. “So there might be that moment where they’re a little bit scared and hold a parent’s hand as they walk past the dragon, but they come out smiling and feeling they’ve achieved something.”

It was a similar encounter at Chessington that gave Hicks her first inkling that she might one day like to work in the theme park and attractions industry . “I remember going with my family when I was younger,” she says. “I queued for about an hour to ride Vampire [the roller coaster]. “When I got to the station, it was foreboding with an ominous organ being played. I thought: ‘I can’t do it’. But a year later I came back and conquered it. And from that point, I was hooked!”

Chessington regulars will certainly be curious to see the transformation inside the Mansion this season. The new experience uses the same route as Hocus Pocus Hall, although various corridors have been narrowed/widened in order to tell various parts of the story, and the mirror maze made shorter. Additionally, ramps have been added in order to make the attraction more accessible to wheelchair users.

Managing throughput

Guests are despatched in groups of 22 on a ‘Magical Journey’ up to every two minutes. After the pre-show, they are split into smaller groups. Each scene plays only after the group has watched the previous scene in its entirety.

Therefore, says Porter, “it’s impossible for a guest to run through the whole attraction and ruin the experience for everyone else”.

The walk-through is automated but has been created so it can be operated with actors inside, who manually trigger each scene with a button. This provides the flexibility to run it with either one or four members of staff. The hourly guest throughput is estimated to be around 500 at present but could be pushed higher by increasing group sizes.

Animated Movie Experience

After walking through the pages of Room on the Broom, visitors can now fly through the film in the new Room on the Broom – Animated Movie Experience. Guests can board Witch’s broomstick and star in their own magical journey alongside their co-stars the Room on the Broom characters. 

The experience was created by We Are Interact , an experiential technology platform for attractions. Movies are personalised with RFID technology and are automatically sent to guests by SMS or email to easily share on social media with family and friends. The package starts at £15 and is a separate experience to the walk-through attraction. 

Room for more Julia Donaldson attractions?

Guests at Chessington World of Adventures can immerse themselves further in Donaldson and Scheffler’s storybook worlds by staying in a Room on the Broom or Gruffalo themed room at the resort’s two on-site hotels .

Yet so far neither IP has found its way into any of Merlin’s other parks. Unlike, say Peppa Pig, which now features at Heide Park, Gardaland and a growing network of play attractions . Porter believes there is no reason why Donaldson’s stories wouldn’t work elsewhere.

“I remember working with Kung Fu Panda at Gardaland,” he says. “As a storyteller, it was about creating an immersive experience that works whether or not you are familiar with the Kung Fu Panda films. With The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure, we have already seen people who are maybe too old or young to have grown up with the stories, but still really enjoy the attraction.”

And now Room on the Broom and its whimsical characters have firmly taken up residence in Chessington’s Mansion. But, we ask Michelle Hicks, did any house hunters ever put in an offer for Hocus Pocus Hall?

“I think there we a few enquiries, yes. Whether they were serious, I’m not sure!”

The Team on the Broom

The project team at Merlin Magic Making would like to extend its thanks to Daryl Shute, Alex Sanson and Bridie Gibbs at Magic Light Pictures for their support throughout the development of Room on the Broom: A Magical Journey. Vendors included Merlin Magic Making Alton (theming fabrication and scenic construction), Sarner (audiovisual design/installation) Pitstop Productions (audio/animation), Ensee (animatronics) UK Loco (animatronics/special effects), FearFX (special effects) and Seeper (concept development).

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• Room on the Broom: A Magical Journey
• Chessington World of Adventures
• Theme Parks
• United Kingdom

Follow the story of a witch who invites a collection of animal friends to ride on her broom through a magical adventure…

Room on the Broom

After the successful launch of The Gruffalo a couple of years ago, Chessington is once again transforming one of Julia Donaldson’s children’s stories into a theme park experience with the addition of Room on the Broom: A Magical Journey.

The attraction features a walkthrough past several key scenes from the Room on the Broom book, and also includes the mirror maze from the former Hocus Pocus Hall which it replaces.

Merlin Magic Making was responsible for designing much of the attraction and the scenes inside, and they’ve done a very nice job. Those who remember Hocus Pocus Hall will appreciate the “upgrade”, while those who are fans of the storybook will doubtless recognise and delight in the interactive recreations of parts of the story.

One of the witch's animal friends

The story itself features a friendly witch whose hat, bow and wand are blown away by the wind. Luckily there are three helpful animals on hand to recover the lost items, and in return they get a ride on the witch’s broom … but will there be room on the broom for everyone? There better be, because the witch will need all the friends she can muster when she comes up against hungry fire breathing dragon!

Visitors are batched into small groups as they enter the Burnt Stub Mansion, the ancient building that plays host to Room on the Broom. The group moves from scene to scene together, although if it is especially large or slow moving than those at the back of the group can occasionally miss the start of one of the scenes. In that case you should hang back as the group moves on – the scenes are on a loop and will automatically begin playing again after a short pause, which will let you catch up with the story.

Room on the Broom’s scenery, projections and special effects bring the story to life, and the specially recorded music played by a 63 piece orchestra helps set the mood. Technically the attraction is a much needed refresh of the old Hocus Pocus Hall and, although the goblins will be missed, the enchanting new incumbent is certainly impressing the neighbours!

Photo Gallery

Room on the Broom main entrance

The queueline runs alongside Burnt Stub Mansion

The front door

Spinning tunnel

The magical finale

A photo opportunity with the witch

Other Chessington World of Adventures Attractions

Adventure Point Hot Dogs

Elmer's Flying Jumbos

Smokehouse BBQ and Bar

Adventure Tree Carousel

Pizza and Pasta Buffet

Tiny Truckers

Zufari: Ride Into Africa

Mandrill Mayhem

Blue Barnacle

Room on the Broom - A Magical Journey

• Walk-Through

Room on the Brook - A Magical Journey is a Walk-Through built by Merlin Entertainments currently located at Chessington World of Adventures in Chessington, Greater London, England, UK.

Merlin Entertainments

Room on the Broom - A Magical Journey

Originally published in 2001 and since translated into more than 20 languages, ‘Room on the Broom’, written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, is a book that has captivated millions of children across the world. In the new spellbinding immersive adventure 'Room on the Broom - A Magical Journey', youngsters, and their parents, experience the much-loved story vividly brought to life as they walk through the pages of the book and encounter a series of interactive challenges.

Client's brief

A magical family-friendly walk-through attraction.

‘Room on the Broom – A Magical Journey’ inherited the space of a previous attraction, ‘Hocus Pocus Hall’, inside an old mansion on site that has stood there for centuries. Key elements of the ‘Hocus Pocus Hall’ were so loved by guests that it was decided that they would be kept for the new attraction, which provided some unusual challenges to overcome. Merlin Entertainments turned to Sarner to undertake AV and show design, using its technical magic and a touch of spatial imagination to get the compact rooms within this historic building to work in a way that was both practical and maintained an element of immersion on a tight budget.

The brief was to to create a magical adventure where the story that is read to children is physically experienced, where families can play and learn together and take their time to enjoy their surroundings and interactive activities, whilst meeting the wonderful characters and creating that emotional connection.

Our solution

To bring a fantastical tale to life, we undertook creative and technical design, including the design, integration and programming of complex projection mapping, immersive multi-channel audio, theatrical lighting and surprise special effects such as scent, wind and fog/smoke, as well as full show control design featuring audience triggers, operator controls and automatic performance monitoring. The install took a total of three and a half months, completed on time and on budget. 

As one of Chessington World of Adventures’ most popular new attractions, ‘Room on the broom’ is visited by thousands of adults and children each day. 

A spellbinding adventure

The enchanted library

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Film Detail

Room on the broom.

Magic Light Pictures

An animated film based on the children’s picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, Room on the Broom is a magical tale about friendship and family from Magic Light Pictures, the producers of the hugely successful The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child. A story about a kind witch who invites a surprising collection of animals to join her on her broom, much to the frustration of her cat. The gang ultimately saves the witch from a fearsome dragon, and in gratitude she rewards them with a magnificent new broom which has room for everyone. http://roomonthebroom.com/

Production status

Last updated 5th March 2013

Production Company

Magic Light Pictures Limited 63 Charlotte Street London W1T 4PG +44 (0)20 7631 1800 [email protected]

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Room on the Broom review at Chessington World of Adventures

By Author Vicky Smith

Posted on Last updated: November 3, 2022

Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler is one of our absolute favourite books, so when we were invited to check out the new ride at Chessington World of Adventures it was very exciting. 

I hadn’t been to Chessington since I was a teenager, so I wasn’t sure how much there would be to do for our toddler and four-year-old, however it’s ideal for their age group!

It was a bit of a trip down memory lane for me as we arrived at the park, as I remembered so many childhood days spent there riding on the Vampire rollercoaster and the swinging pirate ship. 

Introducing my kids to a place that I enjoyed so much as a child was a lovely adventure for me as a parent!

Anyway, let’s talk about the new ride!

The Room on the Broom magical adventure is a really unique attraction. Instead of sitting in a vehicle and watching things unfold in front of you, you walk from room to room and the kids are encourage to interact with the scenes before them.

The ride is based in a large, old mansion. It’s the perfect setting for this supernatural story!

Chessington has used animated footage from the story, sculptures and moving characters to bring the book to life. 

In the first room the witch introduces herself, and you see her conjuring a spell with her cauldron. The witch speaks to you from a video clip, while physically in front of you is a cauldron bubbling with smoke and bright lights. As the witch throws items into the cauldron, water actually splashes up from the cauldron. It’s a brilliant pairing of animated and real-life action that really engaged the kids in what was going on. It was like real magic happening in front of your very eyes. 

Then a door opens and you travel inside the book, moving from page to page (or room to room) as the witch meets her new friends, the cat, the dog, the frog and the bird. 

What’s great is the interaction encouraged in each room. In one, where the witch had lost her bow, children are encouraged to search in the haystacks to find the bow. In another, they need to touch some fireflies to help the witch. 

The corridors taking you from one room to the next are covered in fairy lights to make it seem as if you are flying through the stars. One  corridor featured a revolving tunnel all around you that made us all feel quite dizzy. It’s touches like this that make you feel like you’re on an exciting trip through the magical world of Room on the Broom. 

It’s quite dark in places, so our two little ones wanted to stay close to us at all times. They were a bit nervous when we came face to face with the dragon, but they weren’t upset. It was just all part of the theatre of being involved with the story. 

As you move from room to room, the words from the book are read to you, so children who are fans of the book will enjoy hearing the story they are so familiar with read out loud. 

The Room on the Broom ride is suitable for all ages, and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone. 

What else is there for toddlers at Chessington?

After we enjoyed our adventure with the witch, we explored the rest of Chessington. 

It’s heaven for fans of Julia Donaldson’s books, as there’s also the Gruffalo River Ride to enjoy. This is in place of the old Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks which I remember well from my childhood. 

The Gruffalo ride is amazing, featuring some fantastic sculptures of the characters. The boat twirls all around as you travel through the story, and the colourful lighting makes it all feel as if you’ve been transported to a magical place. 

My littlest daughter had her mouth wide open with amazement the whole way around, she absolutely loved it. 

We took it easy for the rest of the day, enjoying a Room on the Broom Spooky Story Time at the outdoor theatre and exploring the Sealife Centre. 

It was also lovely seeing the animals, including the gorgeous family of gorillas. There’s a baby gorilla there at the moment who was so adorable. 

Toddlers can also enjoy the Flying Jumbos ride, Sea Dragons train ride, Toadies Crazy Cars driving ride, and a large outdoor adventure playground. There’s also a large soft play centre. 

We had a magical day at Chessington with the girls and I am so glad we took them at this age, when the Gruffalo and Room on the Broom are two of their favourite stories. 

If you fancy taking an adventure through Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s wonderful books, book tickets to Chessington.

We were gifted admission to Chessington in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.

Room on the Broom - A Magical Journey

The new family attraction based on Julia Donaldson's Room on the Broom is now open at Chessington World of Adventures.

Visitors to the theme park can watch the much-loved children’s story come to life as they visit the enchanted library and walk through the pages of the book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

Help the Witch as her hat, bow and wand are sent tumbling to the ground. Encounter the Dog, Bird and Frog on your journey. Search high and low in the trees, fields and reeds. You will then encounter the Dragon, who fancies ‘Witch and chips’ for his tea!

The new family attraction is located in the historic Burnt Stub Mansion , previously home to the Hocus Pocus Hall 4D walkthrough experience. A few of the features from the previous attraction have been re-used; such as the bookcase door, rotating tunnel and mirror maze.

Room on the Broom - A Magical Journey makes good use of a variety of effects including animatronics, projection mapping, smoke and water.

The walkthough includes a series of interactive scenes - children must jump up and down to fetch the hat, search for the bow in haystacks and catch fireflies to find the wand. These are simple ways to bring the story to life and make them feel part of it.

It is the second attraction at Chessington World of Adventures based on a children's book by British author Julia Donaldson, following the opening of The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure  in 2017.

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Room on the Broom: A Magical Journey at Chessington World of Adventures

Room on the Broom is one of our favourite books. When we saw last year that Hocus Pocus Hall at Chessington was being replaced with a new attraction – Room on the Broom: A Magical Journey – we looked forward to seeing how the story would be brought to life. We were very excited to be invited to the launch event and have the opportunity to try it out before it officially opened to the public.

We arrived at Chessington bright and early and were treated to a yummy breakfast buffet in the Smokehouse BBQ restaurant. Sophie loved the mini cauldrons filled with sweets and the witch’s wand with blueberries for the handle and a pineapple star on top.

Once we’d had some breakfast, we headed over to try out the Room on the Broom ride. Before we joined the queue though, Sophie spotted the Gruffalo. Naturally we had to stop for her to have a cuddle and a photo with the Gruffalo! He’s a very friendly one.

The first part of the queue took us to a photo point where we cast a spell – “Iggety, ziggety, zaggety, zoom!” – to create a Room on the Broom themed photo which we were able to view at the end of the ride.

After the photo point, we joined another shorter queue where we waited to go inside the attraction. We were taken inside in small groups and led into an entrance hall with pictures and a bookcase on the wall, and a storybook and cauldron. The children were encouraged to come up the front and the story started to come to life in front of us. The witch cast her spell and the bookcase swung open to reveal a corridor. Off we went on our magical journey to bring the story to life.

In the story, the witch loses various items as she travels through the skies on her broomstick. Each time she heads down to the ground to find them, she encounters another animal who joins her on the broom. When the broom suddenly snaps under the weight of all the extra passengers, a hungry dragon hopes to have witch and chips for his tea.

As we headed on our journey through the story, we encountered the characters that the witch meets along the way. We loved the way that the story came to life through a mixture of moving models of the characters, video, voiceover and some fun interactive points for the children at each stage – from having to jump up and down to help shake the witch’s hat out of the trees, to having to hit the fireflies to find the witch’s wand.

At each point, the start of the scene was triggered by the staff member taking us through. Unfortunately, the first time we went through we were at the back of the group and the scene was halfway through by the time we reached it. This made for quite a disappointing experience as Sophie missed out on some of the interactive elements. When we went around for the second time, we made sure we stayed near the front of the group and were able to enjoy the whole experience.

Overall, we felt that story was brought to life well and really liked the interactive elements. However, the queue was very slow-moving. Despite it not yet being open to the public, we queued for 45 minutes both times. Once it was opened to the public, queue times went up to over 2 hours. Other than the photo point, there is nothing to help entertain children in the queue (unlike the Gruffalo River Ride Adventure where there are some games and puzzles at points in the queue). Once we got inside, yes it was a magical, interactive journey through the story. However the queueing time was very long for a walk-through attraction. For us, the experience didn’t feel worth queuing so long for, especially the first time when we didn’t get to experience the attraction fully.

I would definitely advise making sure you stay near the front of the group in order to get the best possible experience. I’m hoping the queue times will improve and it will move more quickly later in the season. Although we enjoyed the attraction overall, it’s one we’ll only repeat if the queue time is less than 30 minutes.

We did enjoy another retelling of the story though with the Room on the Broom storytime. This was a staged version of the story with the witch, the dog and a narrator (who also played the dragon). They were joined by some of the children in the audience playing the roles of the other characters. It was a lovely way to bring the story to life. Best of all, there was no queue to get to enjoy this one!

We finished off our morning with a trip on the Gruffalo River Ride Adventure. This is still a firm favourite two years after its opening, and one ride that we always make a beeline for on every visit.

Visiting Chessington World of Adventures – what you need to know:

Chessington World of Adventures Leatherhead Road Chessington Surrey KT9 2NE

Opening times:

Opening times vary throughout the year. For more information click here .

I am a Chessington Blogger Ambassador, I was given a Chessington Annual Pass to do this review with my family and I was not paid to do this post. If anyone would like to confirm any details in the post, please email [email protected]

6 thoughts on “ Room on the Broom: A Magical Journey at Chessington World of Adventures ”

Ohh it’s a shame the queue was so long and you missed out on some of the story by being at the back but it does look like a magical experience and worth trying once, as long as you’re at the front of the group! I did giggle at the photo of you all by the cauldron, was Thomas being particularly truculent? Because you look like you’re about to drop him in!! Nat.x

Lol he was feeding at the time! It does look like I was about to drop him in though! 🙂

Oh wow this looks amazing, it’s great what can be created these days and Chessington always come up with some great themes. #TriedTested

They’ve done a great job with it. It does bring the story to life really well.

This sounds like a lot of fun, I do love Chessington! We are big fans of Room On The Broom & The Gruffalo too, although I must admit, I dont enjoy the ‘rides’ that you can to walk around as much!

It was a great way to bring the story to life.

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'Magical for little ones': Review of Room on the Broom at Chessington World of Adventures

The new attraction is a real interactive experience and is based on the children's book by Julia Donaldson

• 05:00, 2 JUN 2019

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There's a new witch with a cat and a very tall hat and she's made her home at Chessington World of Adventures .

Fans of the popular children's author Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler have been jumping on their metaphorical broomsticks, well, cars or buses or trains, to see what magic the theme park has cast on the new attraction, Room on the Broom - A Magical Journey.

Following much anticipation and an unusual marketing campaign, Chessington unveiled its latest addition to the theme park map in March 2019.

There's a chance to escape from the routine of day-to-day life and step into the fantastical world at Chessington from the deep dark wood of The Gruffalo and now the Room on the Broom.

Fun for all the family

It's located close to the entrance at the front of the park.

Let's get something straight first. Room on the Broom is not a ride, so don't expect to be getting on your own broomstick and flying into the night sky with a croaking frog behind you and a barking dog.

The individuals who work the creative magic behind the scenes have created what Chessington describes as a 'magical journey'.

It's a walk-through experience with twists and turns along the way to keep the senses alive and the children guessing as they go on their very own adventure into the books. It's a great way to bring the book to life.

Chessington is a great choice for a family day out so I took my husband, four-year-old son and baby son, who didn't have a clue what was going on but just kept smiling, so that's a good sign, surely?

The anticipation around what could happen during the experience starts from the minute you join the queue outside the mansion.

If there's a large wait time, which is expected on the popular attractions at Chessington, it's time to think outside the box to pass the time in the queue. What's good about the experience is you can't physically see anything until you enter the mansion, so it's not spoiled by your wait.

But you'll need to keep them busy so you can ask the children loads of questions about what could be happening inside. That will last about 10 minutes or so, depending how inquisitive they are, and then you will just have to patiently wait.

As a family, we were directed to a little room for a quick photo and handed a ticket to view the image at the end of the experience. More about that later. Let's just say it's a bit more magical than we expected - or wanted it to be.

Following the photo, we queued again before finally setting foot in the mansion.

There was a promising start to the experience. We huddled in the library around a bubbling cauldron, which billowed out steam as a video played on a screen above introducing us to the start of the story.

We then continued our journey through a host of rooms, meeting all our favourite fictional characters on the way.

For those who are familiar with the book, the dog is there to meet you with his big grin and beware of the dragon, as he might scare you!

There's plenty to keep the little minds thinking as they venture through the mansion. They need to find things and even search through haystacks for the lost items in the story. All this mixed in with the story being read aloud means there is plenty to keep their brains busy.

Even though there were a number of interactive features, I felt it was a shame the experience was heavily reliant on the mini clips of the book showing on screens. I was really excited for the end of the experience when the 'truly magnificent broom' was unveiled but instead we just saw it on a short video clip again.

That said, my four-year-old son had a great time and was chatting all about it afterwards. He loves the book and for him to see the words brought to life was a big adventure.

So after the broom whooshed off into the sky, we ended our experience by going to preview the photo which was taken at the start. Well, as if by magic, they made my eldest son disappear from the photo.

We were told where to stand by the ride operator when the photo was taken but when we viewed it, my son had 'disappeared' as a cauldron was in his place instead. Luckily he saw the funny side and thought it was magic but it's something for the staff to take note of so there aren't any sad faces when they aren't in the photo as they should be.

My conclusion

The experience was magical for the little ones and if they love Julia Donaldson's tales and Axel Scheffler's amazing pictures, they can continue the fun on The Gruffalo River Ride and then spend the rest of the day enjoying more rides, animals at the zoo and learn about some more real-life creatures at the Sea Life Centre.

The only pitfalls are the unavoidable queuing to get in (the same with any new ride) and the slight hiccup with the photo.

Tickets for Chessington can be booked online or on the day. Toddler tickets, which allow entry for one adult and a pre-schooler aged up to and including five years, are available online for £22. For more information and to book, click here .

Beth's trip was provided by chessington world of adventures..

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Room on the Broom Ride

A Magical Journey into the legendary children's book

We set out to design a new attraction that would immerse visitors in the magical Room on the Broom children's story.

Working with Merlin Magic Making and Magic Light, we developed concept visuals, the visitor journey and narrative, before moving into 3D where we designed the detail needed to bring the attraction to life.

Working with our 3D visualisations we specified the content, hardware and personnel needed to build the attraction. 

As Chessington World of Adventures new flagship attraction, Room on the Broom is visited by thousands of adults and children each day.