I have written before about the ups and downs of our day out at CBeebies Land in the Alton Towers theme park. I thought it would be useful to give anyone thinking of visiting an easy quick reference guide to which CBeebies Land Rides are good and what to miss. If you want to read more about the other rides in Alton Towers for toddlers and young children I also have a post on that!
If you are planning your visit to CBeebies Land you will probably want to check out these two posts (once you’ve finished reading here):
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Top Souvenirs
I recommend buying souvenirs before your visit. There is a shop at the hotel and in CBeebies Lande but it is expensive. Here are some of my top picks for characters you will meet:
Beating the Queues for the CBeebies Land Rides
We went on a weekday during term time so it was busy but there were few queues. However, judging by the areas roped off for queues you could spend your day entertaining frustrated children to get onto a mediocre ride. The queues fluctuate quite a lot throughout the day. On the day we went the biggest rides had queues of around 15 minutes when we arrived at 11 am. By 2 pm they were down to 5 minutes. They can be 40 minutes plus.
The Alton Towers App is really helpful as it has real-time queue lengths on it. The CBeebies Land area is really compact so if you see a queue time drop you can hotfoot it over there. The queue times below are taken from the Alton Towers App between at 1.30 pm on a Saturday in July and are there as a guide only.
- Go Jetters Vroomster Zoom Ride
- Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure
- Postman Pat Parcel Post
- In The Night Garden Magical Boat Ride
- Justin’s House Pie-O-Matic Factory
- Peter Rabbit Hippity Hop
- Something Special Sensory Garden
- Charlie and Lola’s Moonsquirters and Green Drops
- The Bugbie Go Round
- Get! Set! Go! Tree Top Adventure
- Tree Fu Tom Training Camp
- Various Shows
- Quick Table of Ride Height Restrictions
- Would We Recommend a Trip to CBeebies Land?
Go Jetters Vroomster Zoom Ride
Queue Time: 30 Minutes
Height Restrictions: Must be over 0.9m. Children between 0.9m and 1.25m must ride with an adult.
We are big fans of the Go Jetters in our house so this was perhaps our most anticipated of the CBeebies Land rides. You got to sit in and control (up and down) a Vroomster so it delivered on that front. Ted enjoyed spotting Grandmaster Glitch, the Grimbots and Ubercorn. Having the characters out the front to pose for souvenir selfies with was a great touch too. The queue times are comparatively low so this gets a big thumbs up from us.
2019 Update: Miss May was tall enough to go on this year but she absolutely hated it. The same applies to the Octonauts Rollercoaster.
Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure
Queue Time: 35 Minutes
Height Restrictions: Must be over 0.9m. Children between 0.9m and 1.1m must ride with an adult.
On this ride, you join the Octonauts crew on a mission riding in one of the Gups. This is without a doubt the best of the CBeebies Land rides. It’s small but it moves at quite a pace and I don’t think Ted was expecting it to be so fast. As soon as it started to drop he clung on to me and squealed for it to slow down. It did two loops and he got into it the second time around. So much so that he demanded that daddy take him on again before we’d even exited our Gup.
Unfortunately, the best comes at a price as this roller coaster has one of the highest wait times in CBeebies Land. It is worth it but I would definitely head for your thrill ride either as soon as the park opens or wait until the end of the day. 40 minutes with a bored toddler is excruciating.
2019 Update: If you stay in the Alton Towers resort or have a season pass one of the benefits is early entry to the park (gates open at 9.15 am). Some of the rides, including many in CBeebies Land, run from 9.30 am. We used our early entry to head straight for The Octonauts Rollercoaster. Ted loves rollercoasters, May does not.
Postman Pat Parcel Post
Queue Time: 40 Minutes
Height Restrictions: Children under 1m must ride with an adult.
One of the best for small kids of the CBeebies Land rides. You jump into Postman Pat’s van and the two kids drive you around to help make deliveries to the good people of Greendale. As you go round you are prompted to press the buttons on the dashboard to deliver certain parcels.
This was more the type of thing we were expecting. Most of the rides are like this at one of our favourite children’s theme parks, Sundown Adventure Land. They don’t look like much but they work because there are no age or height restrictions so all children can join in. We liked the addition of the interactive buttons, although Ted didn’t really seem to understand them.
2019 Update: Ted (age 4) engaged with the button pressing thing this time.
In The Night Garden Magical Boat Ride
Queue Time: 30 Minutes
Height Restrictions: Children under 1m must ride with an adult.
This consistently has the longest wait time of all the CBeebies Land rides but we’re not sure it’s worth it. You hop onto a boat and float around the “Night Garden” where you pass all the characters from the programme. It’s fine. Miss May seemed mesmerised by the gently moving boat, music and characters and Ted asked to go on twice. I think we adults were expecting a bit more though. The animatronics were rubbish, broken or non-existent and the whole thing just looked a bit past it’s best and poorly maintained.
Two other annoyances to mention. Firstly, they could definitely have reduced the queue times by filling the boats. Both times we went on we waited about 10 minutes and both times there was room for another 4-6 people in our boat. Secondly, the exit from the ride takes you directly into the gift shop. I’m not paying £25 for an Ubercorn, no matter how much I want one.
The verdict from the adults is that it’s definitely not worth more than a 10-15 minute wait. The kids may disagree.
2019 Update: We may have been a little harsh on the In the Night Garden ride last time. It doesn’t do anything for us adults but the kids really loved it. We bought an Ubercorn on Amazon.
Justin’s House Pie-O-Matic Factory
Queue Time: 20 Minutes
Height Restrictions: You must be over 0.9m to enter.
Ring the doorbell and you’re in Justin’s House. Well sort of. The could probably have made a really cool soft play based on Justin’s House but instead, they chose to make a ball shoot area. When you enter you are handed a cloth bag to collect up soft balls from the floor which you then insert into various machines and watch them pop, shoot or do nothing (as far as I could see anyway).
I whizzed the 3-year-old around fairly quickly as the baby wasn’t allowed in and I felt we could all be having a lot more fun elsewhere. Ted did seem to like it but I think it was aimed at older children. Next time we’ll skip it and ride the Vroomster a couple more times.
Peter Rabbit Hippity Hop
Queue Time: 20 Minutes
Height Restrictions: Must be over 0.9m. Children between 0.9m and 1.1m must ride with an adult.
The new exciting ride in CBeebies Land this year (2019) is the Peter Rabbit Hippity Hop. I didn’t go on it by the review from David and Ted is that it’s OK. Not as good as the Frog Hopper over in the Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Something Special Sensory Garden
Queue Time: Not Applicable
Height Restrictions: None.
Not one of the CBeebies Land rides as such and we didn’t spend much time here so I may be giving it an unfair review but I was expecting more. It seemed quite small. We’ll try again next time we visit. There’s no wait time so maybe pop in when it’s busy elsewhere.
Charlie and Lola’s Moonsquirters and Green Drops
Queue Time: 0 Minutes
Height Restrictions: None.
I’m not entirely sure what the name is referring to. I’m sure if you’ve seen every episode and read every book the whole thing makes more sense. There are two rooms, the first is a mock-up of Charlie and Lola’s kitchen. The second room appeared to be a mock-up of their dinner. There was a cool interactive projection thing, a ball pit and a small climbing soft play type bit. Overall the whole thing was a bit underwhelming.
On the plus side, there doesn’t ever seem to be a queue and it would be a good place to keep the small ones entertained if the big ones want to go on one of the other CBeebies Land rides.
2019 Update: On our 2018 visit we spent some time in the soft play area and pretty much ignored the other area. Great news, we spent time in the kitchen and bedroom area and it was great. The bit where you dress up Charlie and Lola was fab. You dress them in magnetic clothing and get different responses for each outfit. The kids spent ages trying on every outfit. I feel a little guilty about how dismissive I was when I wrote the above!
The Bugbie Go Round
Queue Time: 0 Minutes
Height Restrictions: Children under 1m must ride with an adult (there’s a bench in the middle for grown-ups to sit on).
One of the better CBeebies Land rides for small children. This ride was rebranded from the Numtums Go Round in 2021. The Bugbies are having a race, jump in a car and join them. The kids sit in a car and go round in a circle while you get dizzy in the middle. Ted (age 3) got bored on this one very quickly but it was just right for May (age 12 months). She went around with a massive smile on her face.
It’s right outside Justin’s House so it’s another great place to entertain the smaller ones while you wait for the bigger ones to emerge. Wait times always seem to be at zero.
2019 Update: They both found it pretty boring.
Get! Set! Go! Tree Top Adventure
Queue Time: 50 Minutes
Height Restrictions: Children must ride with an adult.
Jump in a bug car and take a drive around the treetops of CBeebies Land. This skyride takes you through or over all the other CBeebies Land rides. Ted absolutely loved it and his little heart was broken when we couldn’t go on again due to a branch on the line. We waited by the entrance for a good 15 minutes before I managed to bribe him with crisps to walk away.
The downside is the wait times are long. The cars only seat two so the queue just doesn’t move very fast. My advice is to head there at 10 am, as soon as the park opens and be the first to ride.
Tree Fu Tom Training Camp
Queue Time: Not applicable.
Height Restrictions: None.
The training camp is actually a really good adventure play area. It was May’s favourite place as she was allowed to run free. There was a range of equipment suitable for a variety of ages. Since we were there during term time a lot of the stuff aimed at bigger kids was abandoned but I bet there’s a queue for the zip wire at weekends.
Various Shows
Queue Time: Not applicable for most.
Height Restrictions: None.
There is two interactive show which run constantly throughout the day in their own areas, Mr Bloom’s Allotment and The Furchester Hotel Live. There are also shows running at allotted times in the Big Fun Showtime arena. If you haven’t had enough shows by now, there is also entertainment in the hotel in the afternoon and evening.
The shows we saw all followed a similar narrative. The CBeebies character in question needs help with something. Items are hidden in the audience for the children to find. Activities need to be completed which involve pulling a few members of the audience onto the stage. The mission is completed, time to queue to meet a terrifying, giant version of your child’s idols.
I would recommend going to see at least one show. Especially if your child’s favourite character is in one and they might want to meet them after. Based on our experiences I wouldn’t plan your day around seeing several.
Mr Bloom’s Allotment
This show takes place in two locations. The first part (where you have to find things) is outside in the allotment. The inside bit involves the vegetables from the TV show and a Mr Bloom like character. It was fairly entertaining BUT Mr Bloom’s vegetables haven’t been on CBeebies at least for the 3+ years we’ve been watching so the room contained several fairly bemused children.
Furchester Hotel
2019 Update: We didn’t catch the Furchester Hotel show in 2018 some made sure to do so this time. It’s actually a great little show. It runs at regular times throughout the day and is central in Cbeebies Land so it’s easy to fit into your day. It follows a similar theme to all the other shows we saw during our time at Cbeebies Land and the hotel. There is a problem that needs fixing and it’s up to the audience to help out. In this case, that’s how the TV programme works anyway, only without the audience participation. Elmo and the Cookie Monster do make an appearance via TV screens. Phoebe and the rest of the Furchester family are there in person.
Big Fun Showtime
There are a number of shows running throughout the day in the Big Fun Showtime arena. They change to check times on the day.
I don’t think Ted really knew what to make of the shows. He didn’t like the big characters at all. We love Duggee with all our hearts in this house but as far as he was concerned the thing with freakishly long legs he was looking at was NOT Duggee.
2019 Update: We saw the Duggee show again. This time Ted (age 4) really got into the audience participation. He was much more up for all the character meets. We talked to him about it beforehand and asked him to help his sister if she was worried or scared at any point (she wasn’t). He was keen to see all the shows.
We had more time on this visit to Cbeebies Land so we were able to explore the arena more. We discovered a great fairground set up which works well to entertain kids if you need a break from the rides or you are waiting for a show. It was so fun that we ended up spending a lot of time here. We did a little investigating and found out that the tents are here because this was originally the Mike the Knight Showtime Arena. I don’t think it’s lost anything from the change of branding.
Quick Table of Ride Height Restrictions
| Ride | Ride Height Restriction | Ride with an adult |
|---|---|---|
| Go Jetters Vroomster Zoom Ride | 0.9m+ | Up to 1.25m |
| Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure | 0.9m+ | Up to 1.10m |
| Postman Pat Parcel Post | – | Up to 1m |
| In The Night Garden Magical Boat Ride | – | Up to 1m |
| Justin’s House Pie-O-Matic Factory | 0.9m+ | – |
| Peter Rabbit Hippity Hop | 0.9m+ | Up to 1.10m |
| The Bugbie Go Round | – | Up to 1m |
| Get! Set! Go! Tree Top Adventure | – | All |
Would We Recommend a Trip to CBeebies Land?
We loved our stay at the CBeebies Land Hotel. You can click here to book a stay or read about our stay first here.
Overall we had a fantastic visit despite the trials and tribulations of the day. It is underwhelming for the adults, it definitely feels like most things could have been done a little better. For the kids though, it is magic and not something they should miss out on.
Seems like such a cute theme park for little ones. It’s always important to beat the lines, otherwise it does become miserable for all!
THis place looks like a blast for kids! Love how you included the wait times – totally vital 😉
Great tips! It’s always nice having an idea before getting there for amusement places like this, and how to beat the lines is ALWAYS helpful! Thanks for sharing.
This place looks amazing! We have some similar fun parks in Germany. I love how they are tailored for tiny kiddos!
Awwww this brings back so many great memories! We loved CBeebies world when piper was little! I actually think she’d still enjoy it now!
How fun! those Garden Magical Boat Ride looks like a blast! I know my daughter would love it!
This is such an adorable day out idea! I’m sure all kids absolutely adore it there – no wonder the lines are long!
Aww I really can’t wait to take my children to Cbeebies Land! It looks like all of their dreams come true 🙂
It looks like really good fun. The app sounds like a great way to reduce waiting time by identifying the shorter queues.
What a fun place to visit with kids! A lovely post to help visitors enjoy their time in the park.
I love your tips. We have never been to place before.
We are going for a weekend in June. It really hadn’t occurred to me about the queues! Eek! I must check Kippers height too as it sounds like he needs to be 0.9 for the better rides.
We never got a chance to visit here before we left the UK and I’ll be honest and say we probably won’t. The wait times with little ones for some rides seem crazy, worse than some Disneyland Paris rides. I do think places like this need to implement better systems to cater for the young visitors!
Mine are a bit big for Cbeebiesland now but used to love it when they were little – great tips