Shrek’s Adventure London – Review

There are so many good new attractions in and around London now it can be hard to choose which one you should do. However, I can certainly say that one of the attractions that you and your kids should definitely not miss is the amazing and so entertaining Shrek’s Adventure London which is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames beside the London Eye, opposite the Houses of Parliament.

We were so delighted to be invited to visit this new attraction in London which has only recently opened during the Summer.  We didn’t need to travel far as we live in London so it was just a short journey on the Tube. The nearest Tube Station to the venue is Westminster, on the Jubilee Line (although its also a similar distance from Waterloo which may be better depending upon the rest of your journey). From there you only need to walk across Westminster Bridge and you will see it is just next to the London Aquarium – it’s very easy to find.

You can book your tickets online beforehand or at the door but I would always recommend to book ahead as you can’t be sure you will get in if its busy and the price at the door is usually more expensive. The prices online are £23.40 for Adults (16+) and £18.72 for Children. You can find the latest information on prices here. This attraction is suitable for children aged 6 to 12 and they also mention on their website that it could be “for all younger knights and princesses feeling especially brave“. This latter applies perfectly to my 5 years old daughter Bella as she loves these kind of places as she was feeling very brave to go and be part of this great adventure. My youngest one Sienna is only 1 year old so it was definitely a challenge for her but she certainly enjoyed the whole show as she had her eyes wide open the whole time! The only problem is that she wanted to go around and touch everything because she is very curious so we had to keep her calm from getting overly excited LOL. Most of the time she was very happy and very engaged with everything that she was seeing.

Immediately after we went in, they took 4 family photos of us, asking us to do different poses for each, which was quite fun in itself (and started to get us in the mood for what was to follow). After our tickets were checked, Bella was given a bracelet with a code which helped later to identify our photos. We were able to buy these photos later when the show finished (but I will explain about this later). Shortly after this you do a short queue which is when the actual adventure starts and you should leave your pushchair at this point just before joining the queue if you have one. Once you pass this point and the adventure starts you are reminded that you are not allowed to use any cameras or mobiles to take photos or videos.

At the beginning we were given a welcome speech from one of the members of staff. He was very fun and his job was to give us a few instructions and to get people in the mood of the show. The whole decoration was amazing – I was very impressed with it. There were lots of suitcases around (to give the idea of going on a journey) and it was also quite dark with lots of green matching the theme colours of Shrek. After this, we were sent to the departure area where we were about to start our magic adventure. There we found Princess Fiona who explained that we needed to take the magical 4D ‘Dreamworks’ bus in order to get to the land of Far Far Away. Donkey was our mischievous driver of the bus so already things were starting to get a little bit scary LOL!!!

Babies were not allowed to go onto the Magical Bus so Sienna and Daddy were guided to the swamp area while they waited for us. Luckily they had screens so they were still able to watch what we were seeing on the bus too. OMG guys, this part of the adventure was extraordinary! I have never felt so much like I was inside a story before than when we were on that bus! It all felt so real. We departed very quickly and ended up flying above London and then passing through clouds towards Far Far Away but we had so many interruptions along the way. We saw so many familiar faces from Dreamworks films approaching us, such as characters from Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and How to train your Dragon as well as lots of witches too. Bella loved it, although at the end she was a little scared but it soon passed.

We landed in a strange location which seemed to be a smelly swamp where we found that Shrek has disappeared and that we needed to find him quickly before something bad happened to him. All was so exciting, isn’t it? We went through 7 different places in order to find Shrek.

Shrek’s Swamp: This is where we landed and it was very smelly. There was no sign of Shrek although we did meet Cinderella!

Rumpelstiltskin’s Carriage: Esmeralda invites you to look into her Crystal Ball.

 

The Poison Apple Pub: We met “Puss in Boots”!

Game Show: We met Pinocchio

Mirror Maze: Here we found the Magic Mirror

 

Muffin Man’s House: Sleeping Beauty helps us to find Gingy!

The Dangeon: We met again with the witch and Rumpelstiltskin and we finally found Shrek. Hurray!!

Dreamworks Arrival Hall

After finding Shrek we were taken to the Dreamworks Arrival Hall where we were able to take photos with Shrek and some of the other famous characters from Dreamworks films. We had a lot of fun taking photos here

Travel Journal / Photos

Finally we were ready to go and collect the pushchair and see our photos. We got a fantastic ‘Travel Journal’ album which included the 4 photos that were taken of us earlier plus the option of getting digital versions of the photos online. They also added some stickers. The total cost for this is £25 but you can choose to get just the photos for less. I thought it was a little bit expensive but in some attractions you can pay this amount for just photos whereas for this price you get a fun book to take away too.

The Gift Shop

On your way out you have to pass through the gift shop. They have a lot of lovely soft toys, mugs, chocolates, T-shirts, etc. Most of the items are related to Shrek but there are other things related to other Dreamworks characters – we bought Bella a Madagascar drink dispenser. The prices here were a little bit expensive but no different to what you would expect to pay in similar gift shops at other attractions in London.

Conclusion

It was a great adventure for our girls, especially for Bella as she really enjoyed it. The highlight of the whole adventure was the 4D Bus at the beginning as it was absolutely amazing – we loved it!!!! I felt like a kid again as everything seemed so real. I guess wearing the special glasses make you feel even more like you are part of the story. I thought this part was genius.

Each place or room that we were taken to was interesting and there was always something behind it that added to the story. Bella really followed the story and it was great to actually be involved in it rather than just watching passively. In every single place a member of our group (other visitors) was given a clue that would be needed later in the story. It was kind of link solving a puzzle.

The show lasts about 90 minutes with continuous interaction so you and your children will not get bored at all. For more visitor information, including opening times you can click here.

Also, to remind you, if you bring very young children or babies like my daughter Sienna (1 year) they will not be allowed on the magic bus so one parent needs to stay with them in a separate room for about 5 minutes. This is a shame as one parent will miss the bus ride which for me was one of the best but so my hubbie was the one who had to miss out :-(. Thank you babes!! Love you!

You can book your Shrek’s Adventure Tickets here

Our Video

We also edited a video of the day. It is before and after the show as we weren’t permitted to bring cameras. If you are familiar with our family videos we always start with an intro of where are we going and end up with a wrap up telling you our thoughts of the place, so I hope that you like it.

*Disclaimer: We were given a Family Ticket to Shrek’s Adventure! London in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks for stopping by,

Love you all ❤️

Franca  💋