I was there for the opening of Chessington's new World of PAW Patrol – this is what I thought

I was invited to the media launch of the new £15million Paw Patrol experience at the Surrey park on Saturday morning, ahead of its official opening to the general public on Sunday.

With celebrity guests including Celebrity Traitors stars Joe Marler and Nick Mohammed, BBC The One Show’s Alex Jones, and Olympian Greg Rutherford, as well as a host of influencers and journalists, it was a great opportunity to try out this brand new family friendly land.

From the moment you enter this colourful world, it’s as if you’ve stepped into the popular children’s TV show. There’s bright colours everywhere, plenty of photo opportunities with statues of the much-loved characters – it really is like being in Adventure Bay.

My children went straight into Rubble & Rocky's Play Zone, which has a hands-on, climbable construction zone. They also loved the slide coming down from the huge replica of the lookout tower (although they were a bit sad it didn’t come right from the top as it looked like it might from further away!).

After an official opening ceremony, with a warm up from Rubble on the DJ decks, the rides opened.

Each ride is themed around a beloved member of the Paw Patrol pack, including Chase’s Mountain Mission, Marshall’s Firetruck Rescue, Skye’s Helicopter Heroes, and Zuma’s Hovercraft Adventure, the UK’s first ‘Drifter’ ride.

We went straight onto Chase’s Mountain Mission – a junior rollercoaster that loops around a brilliantly themed track twice. It’s just thrilling enough to be fun for all ages, but tame enough that even little ones could enjoy it. Even the queue is fun, with a pretend lift in the lookout tower as part of the experience, where you watch a video from the pups’ leader Ryder explaining the mission to you.

Although I thought the coaster would be my hands-down number one attraction, it was actually Zuma’s Hovercraft Adventure. When you pull up the hand-brake on your vehicle, you ‘drift’ on the track and it’s such a laugh.

Everyone had a smile on their face when on this ride, so I think it will be popular.

These days I’ve found I get dizzy more easily, and Skye’s Helicopter Heroes was actually a bit much for me. It turns quite fast in a small circle, but it does give nice views over the park. My kids thought it was fine, and couldn’t understand my need to keep checking the horizon!

I left the kids to ride Marshall’s Firetruck Rescue, but they said it was great and made their tummies drop a few times.

There are regular meet-and-greets with the pups themselves, and my son was delighted to get pictures with his favourites Marshall and Chase.

With another new land set to open at Chessington World of Adventures in 2027 – Minecraft World – this popular theme park that’s an easy drive from Sussex is clearly keen to make itself a real contender for best family theme park in the south.

There are already five PAW Patrol-themed hotel rooms – the first and only PAW Patrol accommodation in the UK. And you can read our review of a stay in one of these rooms here.

There is no news yet on whether Minecraft rooms will follow.

For more information about the World of Paw Patrol, visit https://www.chessington.com/paw-patrol/