C Beebies Land and their Hotel is for 0-6 year olds. The hotel is situated behind the original alton towers hotel, and the park itself is within alton towers. Its location is actually really good and not too far to walk. Once through the main entrance it is a short stroll down and on the right hand side.
THE PARK
The park is just as you would imagine it, its bright, colourful & has happy cheerful music playing, you are greeted by a staff member who is dressed in the C Beebies uniform who as you can imagine is full of smiles for you and your little ones.
I cant tell you Harry's favorite rides as he had too many! He is 2 years old and not overly tall for his age and was able to go on all the rides with either Chris or myself. For most rides the height requirement even with an adult is 0.9 and they are strict on measuring so if you are unsure I would check your infants height to avoid any disappointment!
The park rides range from soft and gentle boat rides from in the night garden, postman pat's van infant's sat up front driving (on a track) and parents sat in the back, even Matilda liked this one :-), Go jetters flying aeroplanes! Octonauts roller coaster which was fairly fast for Harry being so young but he loved it and went on it 4 times! Tree top adventure which is a small tree house that goes along a track and gives a really great view of the whole park, its a good starter ride! This was the first one Harry went on, eases them in nicely.
As well as lots of rides, there is a fair amount to do within the C Beebies land itself, you have the LIVE stage area which has seating, shaded areas, games, refreshments available, toilets also live shows from Bing and Flop and other C Beebie characters. I think they have 3 shows a day but all the information and times is on the board when you head towards the stage giving you the full run down! I quite liked this area to just take 20 minutes out, it was really hot when we went so we needed shade, and a sit down every now and again. There is also a children's adventure play area to have some time away from the ques, it included everything from slides, to monkey bars to a seated zip line.
The park has a fair amount of benches to sit down on, as many of you will know who follow me I am breast feeding so I was always able to sit down and give Matilda a feed at the times I needed too. Toilets, vending machines all never had ques whilst we was there, but I am sure the weekends and school holidays may be different.
The area within the live stage area sold snacks, like crisps, drinks, water, popcorn, and ice creams! If you wanted hot food like we did for lunch you just need to take short stroll across the park to the ''Pirate'' area where food and drinks were available to buy. Most places did take card but pop up stalls like the chocolate fountains or ice cream vans only took cash, but dont panic there were cash machines in and around the park.
So how did we find it with a 4 month old and 2 year old in the park? Overall we had a smashing time, naturally for Harry like all toddlers, there of course was the odd melt down due to mixed emotions and feeling over whelmed. He actually done quite well in understanding we had to que, and these ques ranged from 15 minutes to 25 minutes for the days we was there. He was very excited and couldnt decide what he wanted to go on first and for that reason to get the best out of your time there I would definitely recommend the 2 days unless your child/children are slightly older. With Harry being so young standing and queing all day was never going to happen for us, knowing we was there for a second day allowed us to enjoy it and go at our own pace, we didnt feel the stress of him missing out or feeling like we wanted to get our monies worth. Nothing worse than making a toddler do something they dont want too, we all know how that would end up.
We got to the park at 11am on the first day as we was travelling up, and ended up leaving a round 4 so we didnt do too bad! On arriving to the park there is a bit of faff as to where/what you want to do with your car. So the best option we found was to park at the theme park, as its a 10 min walk to the park. Then once you have decided your done at the park and want to head over to the hotel, walk back to your car and drive to the hotel and leave your car there over night, it makes check in much easier! The next day we took the monorail to the park, then back to the hotel to collect the car once we had had enough and made our way home. Parking is FREE in both car parks when staying in an Alton towers/C Beebies hotel. Otherwise £6 at the park or £16 to park at the hotel.
C BEEBIES HOTEL
Aahhhhhh now this is where the magic begins for your little ones. Check in like most hotels is 3pm, so we arrived around 4pm after being in the park all day. When you first walk towards the hotel, you'll see the C Beebies theme and bright colours once again just like when you first arrive at the park. The music playing on arriving is so sweet and makes it really fun for your little ones! Harry ran in side with excitement as soon as we got close! You will be greeted by someone with a clip board who will be just out side the hotel and they will check your name and details, they are fairly strict and wont have non staying guests visit the hotel. Once you've been ticked off, you can go and check in to get your room card/number. We had a ''Bugbies'' Room which had a double bed, TV, tea and coffee facilities, fully equipped bathroom including a baby bath, infant toilet seat etc The toddler area was pretty cool! Double bunk beds, toy area, TV showing C Beebies channel (naturally!) a bean bag & some funky lights so it was safe to say Harry was delighted and in his element! So much so at dinner he kept saying ''I go and see my bed room mummy'' Lol
Entertainment at the hotel was really really good! I was surprised at how much they actually had going on considering you are there for the park really. But say for example its the afternoon, you've had too much at the park or its all got a bit to much for your toddler & they're feeling tired, you can come back to the hotel and there will be something going on to entertain them, anything from story time, to meeting post man pat. I believe these started from 3.30pm onwards and goes on right up until the evening, we had dinner and Harry got to watch a few shows which included bing and flop, andy's dinosaur adventure and then tots disco at 7.30pm! By 8.30pm we was back in the room bedding down for the next day!
Food & Drinks at the hotel were good, I wouldn't say amazing but good, plenty of choice and very clean. The bar had a good variety of drinks, soft, alcohol including mocktails cocktails etc Costa available and also costa food selection!
Restaurant wise you can book any restaurant within the resort itself so in the hotels such as splash landings, alton towers but within C Beebies is the windmill restaurant, you pick a time and then if you need to change it I am sure they will be more than accommodating as we came down slightly earlier for breakfast and they were fine for us to eat slightly earlier. Breakfast was included in our stay but dinner wasnt so we paid separate for that. There was a fair selection on the menu for dinner, starters, sides, sharing platters, make your own pizza, then standard dishes for adults and then the usual for kids, and a selection of puddings too! Most kids places only offer like 3/4 options but there was a good selection available for both adults and kids. Frozen yogurt machine was available and I believe free of charge. Breakfast was fab, lots of fruits, cereals, muffins, toast, yogurts, and then also the option to have hot breakfast, neither of us had the hot so can't comment but it was all included.
On walking into the restaurant all children receive a balloon which is then tied to their chair (dinner time) and the staff are all extremely friendly. Toddler seats are available and of course high chairs. The chef may even come over and have a chat for some feedback and then hands over a chefs hat much to my son's delight :)
TOP TIPS
Try and book an over night stay that INCLUDES 2 days worth of park tickets and breakfast, this is what we had and stayed Monday/Tuesday.
Bring a picnic for your first day to keep costs down as in terms of lunches! Alton Towers has the most stunning grounds so if lucky with the weather you can sit out on the green and enjoy it! Burger and chips was £8 for one person so picnic where possible.
When viewing your photos after a ride, write the number down incase the baby needs a feed or the toddler needs a wee! We didnt write the number down and when we went back to buy the photo it tooks agessss for her to scan through them all.
Comfy shoes! Don't wear new ones, lots of walking!
Go with friends if you like your rides, your park tickets aren't just for C Beebies, they're for the whole park! So you can go and use elsewhere! My hubby doesn't like the rides anyway's so wouldnt go on with me but if he did, we didn't have any one to look after the kids, but we was there for them anyway :-)
Bring extra clothes for the evening, I literally packed for bedtime and the next day and some spare pants/bottoms for Harry but I didnt realise about all the evening entertainment so luckily i managed to improvise but otherwise I would of had to wear the same clothes down for dinner/evening entertainment which I know isnt the end of the world but as I say it was very very hot when we went so I was covered in sun cream and ice cream etc
Take cash out before hand as ATM's charge you.
Pre book your table online for dinner and breakfast so you know you will definitely get a table BUT as I say we was ahead of time and they happily allowed us to eat earlier.
For babies/small toddlers in a travel cot, they do provide a travel cot but NO cot bedding and I don't mean quilt/sheet etc I mean the actual mattress all they provide is a wooden type base for the bottom of the travel cot. No way could a baby sleep on that.
Print your tickets off to avoid ques on your first day, they will scan the bar code and you will walk straight through. There was easily 200 people queing at 9 am in the morning!
The park on your second day opens one hour before for hotel guests so you get it to yourselves!
If you win any big cuddle bears, the stall will not hold them for you, you have to carry them around the park! Luckily for us, we won ours at the end of the day but the girl working told us someone didnt realise he would have to carry it, & seeing a lad with a hug pink bunny in his back pack tanking around the park was hilarious!
For your meet and greet with the characters and once the show (in the park) has finished, a line will begin the middle of the floor area, therefore to ensure you dont have to que for ages, try and sit in the middle at the front so once they say to stand and form a que all you have to do it stay where you are and huddle together instead of having to go to the back
They provide buggies for hire for toddlers/small children, they arent fancy but handy if you dont want to bring your own! They wouldnt be suitable for us as Matilda is still a baby and way to small but say we just had Harry he could easily hop in and hop out, they have single ones and also double! Plenty of them as well, for £10 hire fee. A lot of people had these, do not worry about taking your own buggy though and where to leave it as every ride as a buggy park right next to it where lots of people left their buggies whilst they went on the rides.
Obviously try and go in the week! We visited Monday and Tuesday, tuesday was the quieter day!
If there is anything I haven't covered and you want to know just message me, I would definitely recommend it, and we will 100000% be going back next year!
Enjoy x
