Toddler's Paradise in Peppa Pig World
There aren’t too many television programs that my son watches. He’s more likely to watch YouTube videos of hamster mazes or Rube Goldberg machines. The one show he does watch is Peppa Pig. My British father loves when my son's British English comes out! “Mummy, where is my swimming costume?” is definitely a line learned from Peppa Pig.
One day I discovered that a Peppa Pig World existed in England and I knew my son would love it! I was even happier when I heard that one was coming to Florida. We planned to visit the brand new Peppa Big World only a week after opening in the US, but a cancelled flight changed our plans and we missed the opportunity. We came to England for my cousin’s wedding so the opportunity to go to the original Peppa Pig World was an option.
We’re staying in London and Peppa Pig World is located in Southampton which is two hours away from the city. I considered taking the train to Southampton, but then we would be left with a journey from the train station to the park. I did some researching and found a motor coach bus that leaves from Victoria Station and takes you right to the park! This was a better option both financially and logistically.
My son and I began our journey to Peppa Pig World by squeezing onto the Piccadilly Line from the Gloucester Rd. Station located across the street from our hotel. Londoners have a phrase they use whenever they want to express where something is crazy crowded and busy. The phrase is, “Like rush hour in Piccadilly Circus.” Here we are, a mom and five-year-old boy with a stroller or buggy as they call them here and two backpacks. The train arrives and the doors open. It already looks like there is literally no room for anyone else, but we literally squeeze onto the train. At the next station, no one else can get on. The nice thing about staying in central London is that we are almost there for pretty much anything. We’re headed to Victoria Station which is a mere three stops away. My son has become quite the expert on public transportation!
We arrive at Victoria Station and our meeting point for our bus is located at Evans & Evans Tours which is the tour operator who arranged this bus. It’s located less than a five-minute walk from the tube station. We check-in and are given a brown envelope with our name on it with some goodies: one park map, one Peppa Pig activity booklet, and a box of crayons. It’s so thoughtful and honesty more than I was expecting! There is a comfortable waiting lounge where we’re asked to wait. We go down the stairs and the first thing I think is that the majority of the people here don’t look like the right demographic for Peppa Pig World. We find out later that two tours had the same departure time. I’m pretty sure the other tour was for Harry Potter and it was a rather full tour. Our tour has only four families on a giant motor coach bus with a bathroom.
We board the bus and immediately I know we’re on the right one. Peppa Pig and George Pig stuffed animals are cutely buckled into the first two seats of the bus. This excites my son! Then, the bus starts to move and they have Peppa Pig playing on the TV screen and it’s one of my son's favorite episodes! He’s really excited now and keeps telling me to watch what happens. It’s an episode where it’s winter and they can’t jump in the muddy puddles because they’re frozen.
The novelty of the bus and Peppa Pig wears off after about 30 minutes. I take a nap and my son plays his Nintendo Switch. I’m occasionally woken up to help him past a harder part of the game. He’s really into Mario Odyssey right now and I’m seeing a trip to the new Nintendo World in our future! The bus ride is a whomping two hours long.
Peppa Pig World is located inside of Paultons Park which turns out to be a pretty massive park. We of course go straight to Peppa Pig World. We queue up for Daddy Pig’s Car Ride. There are only a handful of people in front of us in line which will be the second longest line of the day. My son really wants a blue car, but it becomes obvious pretty quickly that our car will not be blue. A meltdown bubbles to the surface as he sees the people in front of us load into “his” car. I reluctantly get him into our pink car and then he seems to be okay. That is until we have to get off the ride. Meltdown city. I guess we’re not doing lines or rides yet.
I pivot and we move to the playground instead. There is a small Peppa Pig themed playground and my son is almost immediately better. While he’s playing, I notice a splash pad themed to jumping in muddy puddles. It’s a little cold for this so I don’t bring attention to it! We then move over to the Tornado area of the park where there are two additional playgrounds.
It’s kind of odd being in a foreign country inside of an amusement park themed to your home country. Tornado Springs is set in 1950s Midwest desert according to the website. It feels and looks more like Route 66 Seligman meets Tornado Alley. There is a car ride called Al’s Auto Academy. Maybe it’s because I worked for Disney once upon a time, but I see a lot of things that made me question if they were “inspired” by Disney. Tornado Springs reminds me a lot of Radiator Springs in Disneyland and could the Al in Al’s Auto Academy be inspired by Al in Al’s Toy Barn? I should mention I also saw a billboard for Dole-WHIP. Anyway, we get in line and then watch a short video introducing us to the ride. Al is American and my first thought is, “So this is how the British think we sound.” Anyway, two main takeaways from the video. 1) The cars are not on a track and it’s a free-for-all. 2) In the “American” town of Tornado Springs you drive on the left side of the road. I guess it will be driving school for both of us!
My son loved this ride so much that we road it three times in a row and I bought him the “Drivers License.” He’s actually a pretty good driver and got used to driving on the left quicker than I did. The best way to describe this ride is an enlarged Safety Town where the kids are driving small electric cars. Parents basically sit on the back of the car and can reach over to take over if needed. I’m almost 100% sure this ride wouldn’t be allowed in the USA and if it was, there would be a lot of collisions. I’m basing this on my experience of working at Speedway in Magic Kingdom which is kind of similar to this ride. And by similar I mean you drive a car. Almost everything else is different.
We head back over to Peppa Pig World and it’s even emptier than this morning. We face the longest line of the day, which really wasn’t long, to wait and see Peppa Pig and George Pig. My son was so excited to see them and meet them! Although, he did tell me they weren’t the real ones just people dressed in costumes.
Despite the park being nearly empty and not having to wait in line, we barely make a dent in the park. There are five lands in the park and we only make it to two of them. Granted, we did ride some rides several times. George’s Dinosaur Adventure was another fun one! Also, one I don’t think would be allowed in the USA.
We’re nearing our pickup time and I realize we haven’t eaten much. Several of the food stands are already closed for the day, but I think the one by the entrance should be open. Wrong. It turns out only one place is open at this ridiculously late hour of 4pm. The one place is the American themed restaurant in Tornado Springs which is not my ideal choice. We order some milkshakes and a kid’s chicken tenders and French fries. It doesn’t taste like what we have back home, but I can see how one would thing it’s authentic if they didn’t know.
We then head back to the bus for our two hour drive back to London. We eat dinner in the Knightsbridge area of London which is much more lively at 9pm than Gloucester Rd. It’s a nice change of pace. We then hop onto a double decker bus that drops us off steps from our hotel. We’re public transit gurus now.
About the Author
Amaris is the owner of the Ohio-based travel agency, Adventures by Amaris. Her love for travel began at a young age when she traveled to her parents' home countries of England and Mexico. She continued traveling in High School by participating in a People to People program to Italy, France and Monaco. In college, she spent six weeks in Europe studying abroad and traveling. She visited Spain, Portugal, England, Wales, Ireland, Vatican City, and Italy in a whirlwind summer. Through her adult life she continues to make traveling a priority with her family. Her young son is autistic so navigating the world of traveling with an autistic child brings on new adventures. Her travel resume includes Mexico, Turks & Caicos, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica, Haiti, Jamaica, Colombia, and Cayman Islands. She is an expert in planning family vacations across the world from Disney World to Europe to worldwide cruises.
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