I’ve been visiting Adventure Island in Southend for many years now, it’s always been a fairly good place to spend a day, or an evening (the cost is halved after 6pm). Yesterday we ventured down there with Dan and his clan to celebrate G’s Birthday. The blistering heat yesterday attracted the whole world and his wife to the coast, and Southend was HEAVING. The queues for all the normal places I’d park were obscene and I was getting a little stressed wondering where we’d go. Thankfully more through luck than judgement I found a car park near the high street (map here), after a 10 minute walk we’d arrived at Adventure Island.
First job when we got there was procuring the wristbands, the total cost for all of us, £185. It sounds steep, but considering there were 6 adult wristbands, 1 child wristband, and 1 baby wristband, it’s pretty good value. Instead of paying cash, I was able to use my Tesco Vouchers to pay, £5 in Clubcard Vouchers equates to £20 spend at Adventure Island.
With that the children were all good to go, and were debating what rides they wanted to go on, the selection of rides there are very good, it’s actually incredible how much they have squeezed in! Pretty much everyone in the family is catered for, we even managed to drag Dan (who hates rides) on a couple. I was amazed that G brave ‘Rage’, I think it helped having Dan’s kids with her egging her on. It did terrify her, but I’m happy she at least gave it a go and she was buzzing afterwards at being so brave! 🙂
We had lunch in the ‘Jungle Jive Cafe’, it’s almost like their take on a McDonalds, so Burgers and Chips in varying forms, and smaller meals for the kids. The food is fairly priced, I think the kids meals were £3.50, Adult Meals around £5. If fast food isn’t your thing then the ‘feelgoods’ Restaurant is BRILLIANT, we went there last year. For more details about eating at Adventure Island, they have a mini-site here.
Also I was amazed how quiet it was there, nearly all the rides, even the biggest one – ‘Rage’ had tiny queues. It did start to get busier from about 3pm onwards, but even then, it was bearable. I did cringe at the amount of flesh on show, obviously a lot of people had been on the beach and then walked down. I still can’t believe so many people don’t bother with sun cream, there were some really burnt people there!
I think the most satisfying element of the day were just how nice and friendly the staff were, they have obviously been taught to engage with guests. Everyone I spoke to seemed very bubbly and happy to help. I think the only negative was one staff member who wasn’t really paying too much attention when were were on one of the rides, she was more interested in covering her body with mineral water (?). Very strange! On the whole though, the staff really are a credit to the park.
We left feeling exhausted but pleased we’d had such an awesome day out, despite the heat, and it getting a bit busier near the end of the day, Adventure Island really is worth a visit.
