This year at Cadbury World, the Christmas Celebration Weekends run from the end of November until Christmas, and all extra activities are included in the ticket price.
Our tour was booked for 2pm, but we arrived a little early to fit in some of the other attractions. We started our afternoon with a visit to Father Christmas. We had to wait for about twenty minutes in a small waiting area outside a cottage with reindeers, then we were given chocolate and led in to meet him. He was lovely, he had a long chat with the children and reminded them to go to bed nice and early on Christmas Eve and stay in their beds all night - very welcome advice! He also gave them each a nice teddy.
Then we headed for the pantomime - Snow White and the Chuckle Beans. It was pretty busy but there were still spaces just before it began. You can go to any of the shows and they take place every hour throughout the afternoon. It was a typical pantomime with plenty of cheesy jokes and audience participation, and the children loved it.
Then it was time for us to start the tour which takes you through the history of chocolate, the beginnings and development of Cadbury chocolate, an insight into the chocolate making process and plenty of nostalgia with a look at Cadbury advertising throughout the years. There were a few seasonal touches - all the staff were dressed in festive costumes and there were plenty of Christmas decorations, many of them made out of chocolate like the amazing Christmas tree at the top of this post! I find that some parts of the tour are more suited to older children but there was still plenty to entertain ours, and they particularly liked the Cadabra ride through a chocolaty land.
Although Cadbury World is not a tour of the chocolate factory itself, a section of the tour does take you through the Packaging zone where you can see chocolate being wrapped and packed. Unfortunately, as on our previous visit, the machinery wasn't running and so there was nothing to see. I've heard from others that this is often the case, which is a bit of a shame as the machines look really interesting and I'd love to see them in action!
Our favourite part of the tour is the Demonstration Area, where you are given a pot of melted Cadbury chocolate with your own choice of treat to add. While you eat it you can watch real chocolatiers at work and admire some fantastic chocolate creations like this beautiful chocolate Christmas village.
A new attraction has opened at Cadbury World since our last visit - the 4D Chocolate Adventure show - which is separate to the tour. Unfortunately on the day we visited the queues were just too long for the children to wait (upwards of an hour) so hopefully we'll be able to visit another time.
We easily filled our afternoon at Cadbury World and had a great time. If you are planning a visit it's definitely worth seeing if there are any special activities on.
I received our family ticket in exchange for my previous blog post, although with no obligation to blog about this visit.
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