A day full of fury – visiting the dragons at Shrek’s Adventure London. (Ad)

There is truly nothing better than London in the springtime, and yesterday felt decidedly spring like on the Southbank. Even the fact that we were up at the crack of dawn to get there before 9am didn’t seem to matter. Everyone is just in a much better mood when the sun comes out.

I’m not normally one for being up and out early on Sunday, but we had been invited to attend a preview of How To Train Your Dragon – The Hidden World, the newest attraction at Shreks Adventure London, and the invitation said we needed to be there at 9am 😱

I was a little bit nervous, because the Kraken has become a bit dragon obsessed. She has also decided that Toothless’ babies are called Black Dave and Black Gary and she tells everyone she meets that these are their names (you can’t avoid it, she walks around with one of the little teddies on her wrist like some obscure bird keeper) She forgets to quantify it with the fact that she has christened the Light Fury, White Susan though, so I have to follow her around, watching her like a hawk, prepared at all times to explain her choice of names 😂

The boy is a huge fan too though, so for him, I accepted the invitation, and as always, braced myself for anything inappropriate that might come out of the smallest one’s mouth…

How to get there

We’re in Berkshire, so not too far from London. There is a direct train from where we live in Wokingham to Waterloo, and from there it’s just a 10 minute walk. However, I’ve got previous experience of trying to get a tired Kraken back to a train station and then sit on a train for an hour, it’s not the most fun. So, as it was Sunday and a lot of the parking restrictions are lifted in London on a Sunday, we drove. I use parkopedia all the time. It’s a great website that shows you where the closest parking is, from car parks to on street parking. With this we managed to park less than a 5 minute walk away for free. Yay!

What’s it all about?

Shrek’s Adventure is described as “Family-friendly attraction based on the film “Shrek” with a 4D movie & interactive fairy tale shows,” and that pretty much sums it up.

I won’t spoil it all for you, but I will say, there is audience interaction. I’ve got a husband that despises that kind of thing, so I kept that bit secret. Sod’s law, he’s the audience member that gets picked on. 😂 He was mortified but the kids thought it was the funniest thing ever. I was just disappointed he was returned to us at the end of it and didn’t really elope with Cinderella…

Be warned as well, it’s a teeny tiny bit scary for real little ones in places. The kraken is a lover of all things dark and spooky, but even she found a couple of the characters a bit too much. It’s not their fault, they’re great, but she decided after the fortune teller that she wanted to go home, and couldn’t be convinced otherwise. Obviously she didn’t go home, we didn’t want to, but she made her displeasure known at every opportunity 😂

It’s strictly no phones or cameras inside, so I can’t share any pics of that I’m afraid. You do get to meet Shrek at the end and take some pictures with him though (unless you’re the Kraken and refuse to go anywhere near him of course)

Night Fury and Light Fury

The main purpose of our visit was the unveiling of their newest attraction, How To Train Your Dragon – The Hidden World. We were treated to a lovely breakfast buffet, the kids got to make shields and interact with Viking’s, and they even met a baby dragon. There was a face painter there too, and whilst the other little girls got their rainbows and flowers done, the kraken decided she wanted a dragon. At least she got a pink one I guess…

This all led up to the grand unveiling of the new dragon display. A word of warning, if your children are as stupid as my youngest appears to be, you must make it clear to them before you go, that these are not real dragons. They’re not alive, and they never were alive. You can’t get round this, they don’t even move so you can’t pretend they’re real to cover your arse. They’re plastic statues of Toothless with Hiccup riding him, and a light fury. They’re in their own little area that’s beautifully lit and feels a bit magical, but that’s it. You need to set their expectations before you go 😂

If they like the films (and the tv series) like my two do though, they’ll absolutely love it. The dragons are life size so it kind of feels like you’re actually part of the film…and the light fury is sooo pretty (ok, I’m a bit of a fan too 😂)

There’s lots of other activities dotted around too, including some Kung fu panda bits. It’s all really well laid out, and the theming is just great.

You can buy your tickets here https://www.shreksadventure.com/london/whats-on/

All in all, it’s a great couple of hours out. It certainly wouldn’t take you all day to do it, but it’s surrounded by other attractions. There’s sealife London, the dungeons, and the london eye, so there’s plenty to fill a whole day if you’re up there. Or you could take a boat trip down the Thames. And obviously you’re right opposite Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament so could just go and do a bit of good old fashioned sight seeing.

We tied it in with a visit to boxpark in Wembley for a truly epic burger from nanny bills on the way home (another reason we took the car and not the train). I’m writing a separate post about Box Park, so I’ll tell you more about that there. All I will say is if you love food, you have to go.