CHOC-full of adventure
AMY BROWNE enjoys a sweet treat of a day at Birmingham’s Cadbury World in Bournville
THERE are two things the summer holidays are made for – days out and sweet treats. So telling my children we were off to ‘chocolate land’ won me some serious mum points. On what was the first day of the school holidays we made our way to Birmingham’s Bournville by train.
Arriving just after midday, the reception area was packed full of excited children waiting to start their tour – you get to choose a timeslot when booking, so entrance is staggered.
We were given an activity sheet with things to spot on the way, and a huge handful of chocolate bars. We’d arrived!
The tour is self-guided so you go at your own pace. The first part takes you through an Aztec jungle where you can discover the history of the cocoa bean, before moving on to learn about how the Cadbury enterprise began.
There are interactive video stations, a sensory experience where you can play in ‘chocolate rain’ and tons of photo opportunities.
There’s chocolate on display at every corner – we spotted chocolate teddy bears, a huge chocolate dog and chocolate shoes. Remember the huge gorilla who drummed along to Phil Collins in the Cadbury advert a few years ago? He makes an appearance too.
If your kids aren’t camera-shy, there’s a fun area where you can have your picture taken in front of a green screen with different backdrops and props to choose from. Pretend you’re in the Cadbury flake bubble bath or surf on a bar of Dairy Milk. The pictures can then be printed on your own chocolate bar wrapper to take home.
There’s also the Cadabra ride, which is gentle enough for little visitors, and a 4D cinema experience where you ‘fly’ in a Creme Egg airship and ‘ride’ the Crunchie rollercoaster.
As well as the huge bundle of chocolate bars we were given on arrival, we were handed another half a dozen during the tour.
We also stopped by the ‘chocolate making’ area, where you can see chocolatiers hard at work. In this zone we were given a pot of melted Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate and could choose two fillings, such as marshmallows, popping candy and jelly sweets.
Once you’ve finished the tour, there’s a large outdoor zone to explore, including a three-storey adventure play area with rope bridges and huge slides, for kids aged five to 14. For the under fives there’s a separate area with a smaller climbing frame. And there are lots of picnic benches and seating if you’re ready for a sit down.
We also went to see Freddo’s Treasure Trove stage show after our Cadbury World tour, but you can do this first if you prefer as it’s on throughout the day.
The 20-minute show teaches kids how to be a pirate, complete with a singalong to Baby Shark and lots of audience participation. Our kids loved seeing Captain Freddo and learning a piratethemed dance routine.
To finish off our day, we had a Character Afternoon Tea in the glass conservatory, which is separated from the main café. We tucked into sandwiches and sweet treats – with a chocolate theme, of course – including rocky road, macarons, and chocolate dipping sauce with fruit skewers and mini-donuts.
During the feast we got the meet some of the Cadbury characters, including Freddo and the Cadbury bunnies. Each one came to the table and posed for pictures with the kids, who were delighted by their appearance. A character afternoon tea is £9.50 for children and £13.50 for adults, and you can also book a character breakfast.
We started our Cadbury tour just after 12.30pm and by the time we’d finished our afternoon tea it was nearly 5pm. If you want to get more for your money you could spend longer than we did in areas such as the outdoor play zone.
It felt like we’d had a full day of fun and the kids were worn out, just in time for the train journey home which, of course, we’d saved some chocolate for.