Before the Easter Holidays hit us the News took three kids and their mums on the world renowned Shrek Adventure on London’s South Bank, to see if it was really worth the short bus ride – they were not disappointed.
Niamh and Tara aged eight and James 11 had mixed feeling when entering the attraction. Niamh was by far the most excited, Tara a little apprehensive as she does “not do scary” and James was worried it might be “too babyish” for him.
There is a long run up before the fun starts, but it is a queueing system that does keep the kids entertained, as they check out the familiar characters from the hit movies, are photographed and those with buggies can store them away safety.
The attraction really shifts into gear when you board the 4D bus ride to an enchanting world of magic dreams (and waffles). It is really realistic and sets the narrative, as we find out that we have killed a wicked witch. And be prepared to fill a little dizzy afterwards.
The actors do a tremendous job of taking you through to mammoth twelve fairytale-themed live shows featuring popular characters from the Shrek franchise, including Rumpelstiltskin, Sleeping Beauty, Muffin Man, Pinocchio and Cinderella, culminating in a meet and greet with Shrek himself.
The group is just large enough to make it exciting, but not too small that you might feel intimated or exposed by the actors. As the adventure goes along some real laughs are to be had as the occasionally adult is singled out by one character or another as a match on Tinder, or asked to doing a bit of a dancing, much to the kids’ delight. Fortunately most of the interaction is with the kids themselves and inevitably some are not too shy in coming forward – especially our Niamh. On a trip from her native Dublin Niamh proudly announced her name and was given a special task to deliver a potion to the next themed room, but was called John rather conveniently.
A maze of mirrors, the obvious villains and benches which suddenly made you think a creepy crawly had just run across you could well have had Tara running into her mother’s arms, but this little adventurer from Essex was too busy laughing and ended up extremely proud of her new-found bravery.
Niamh’s brother James avoided putting his hand up to feature centre stage, but loved watching the show and agreed that even as a near-teenager the fast pace, surprises on route and most of all the bus ride at the beginning made it well worth the visit.
New this Easter: Meet the Vikings, train your dragon and join the ‘egg-stinction’ watch!
Shrek Adventure is getting their young visitors to become ace dragon conservationists and help save them from ‘egg-stinction’.
In new fun-filled activities based around the popular How to Train Your Dragon franchise, visitors will be able to join Vikings Speedifist and Clueless to challenge their senses and discover all there is to know about dragons in order to save the species!
Those brave enough to take part in ‘Egg-stinction Watch’ will experience what dragon food, skin, eggs – and even poo! – feels and smells like.
‘Egg-stinction Watch’ is available from 2 to 24 April 2022 and is included in the standard ticket price
Pre-booking is essential. On the day tickets for Shrek’s Adventure! London are £30, book online and save up to 20 per cent. For more information and to book tickets visit www.shreksadventure.com