Our trip to CBeebies Land

We were lucky enough to be able to take George to CBeebies Land at Alton Towers in the summer. As usual, I did extensive research to plan for our trip as there were plenty of reviews available online on Instagram and YouTube which I found really handy for knowing what to expect. AccessAble [AccessAble website] have the most amazing guide online, with detailed information and photos of everything!

We went during the week (when English children were still at school), and on arrival it didn’t look that busy, thankfully! We headed to the ticket office to collect an 'Essential Companion' ticket which meant I got in for free as George’s carer. I just had to show proof of our Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and I was given the ticket – the whole process went really smoothly!

We headed inside, and wow… all three of us were in awe! George was walking around taking it all in, looking at everything, running about touching everything and looking everywhere for where the music was coming from. Throughout the park, they have music from different CBeebies shows playing, so George recognised it and was looking around for a TV!

One thing I decided not to do was apply for a Ride Access Pass. It gives you fast-track entry to rides, but you have to apply for it at least seven days in advance of your visit. When I looked into this, the form looked long and complicated, so I aborted mission without even trying. We were going midweek and not in the school holidays, so I didn’t think it would be too busy! However, this did backfire as for some of the more popular rides, such as Postman Pat, we were having to queue for 15 minutes. Not a long time for an adult, but for a two-year-old who hasn’t quite mastered the art of queueing yet, it wasn’t easy.

I had the app on my phone which showed live updates of what the queue times were for each ride, so we just headed to whichever rides had the shortest queues. George’s particular favourites were the In the Night Garden Magical Boat Ride and the Get Set Go Tree Top Adventure, so we had a few goes on each of them!

Mr Tumble’s Something Special Sensory Garden was brilliant. It's a small garden to walk around or sit and relax with plenty of signs teaching some Makaton. It was really nice to see the signs with Makaton as this is a great way for those who don’t sign to learn some!

At the Big Fun Showtime, we watched the Teletubbies Big Band Live Show. This was particularly busy, but George absolutely loved it. He had recently started to like the Teletubbies, so it was great to see him recognise them in front of him.

At the end, you could queue for a photo with them, which we did, but George had other ideas. He ended up having a tantrum and pulling his speech processors off by the time it was our turn. Luckily, the lady who worked there saw this and recognised that he was deaf. She was great at trying to communicate with him. Although she didn’t know any sign language, she knew to use visual cues, and we managed to get a nice photo together!

After the show, George was overstimulated, and it was a bit overwhelming for him, so we took him to the Sensory Space which is a calming environment with soft seating, interactive projections, bubble tubes, infinity tunnels, tactile panels, and soft lighting. There was a member of staff monitoring entry, and we ended up with the whole space to ourselves. It was brilliant that George had this space to relax when he needed some time out.

Overall, we had the best time at CBeebies Land, and we really cannot wait to go back.