Dickens World

I am a total Dickens fan and for my birthday I was treated to 2 tickets to Dickensian world!! to be honest it wasn't what I had hoped for as it is defiantly for children and it was really for kids to interact.. the set is great as really does look like you have stepped onto the set of a Christmas Carol and you think Ebenezer Scrooge will come walking round the corner at any moment!!! I think in the past it was amazing but feels a little run down now. I cannot fault the tour guide he was funny and absolutely great with the children .. I wish they would in the future design an adult Dickens world and I would be a happy bunny.

We enjoyed the guided tour , our guide " Tiny Tim " was excellent he talked to the children and help us feel we had stepped back in time . Just one point if he could slow his speak down a fraction as he talked a little fast we both have a hearing loss I feel it is very educational and helps everyone realise the life and times they had in Dickens that era .

We didn't know what to expect when we booked a visit to Dickens World but we had a pleasurable, information packed few hours and we weren't disappointed. It was good value for money, and our tour guide made the experience more enjoyable with details of how it was to live in Victorian Britain, and he really got into character too.

Visited on Saturday 6th April

Tour guide ( redhead Pam ? ) was very good and very funny and it made for an extremely informative tour

Would definitely recommend it if you are unsure having read previous reviews

Bad customer service, bad attitude, inability to resolve problems.

Spoke to one member of staff who saiid one thing only to turn up and be told something completely different meaning a 3 hour wait for a tour. Spoke to somebody reported to be he manager only for another staff member to tell me the manager wasn't in..

Take you chance, but I won't be again.

Best of luck..

Went on 24th Nov 2012 to use up some Tesco Days Out tokens that we going out of date. Had no Great Expectations, which was just as well - it was very poor. The set was quite well laid out and obviously cost a great deal to build in the first place. Even the characters walking about added some life to the place although it soon became apparent that they were not just characters but they did everything else as well. The haunted house was closed and one of the characters asked us if we wanted to go in. We thought it might be fun so he opened the doors especially for us and told us to wait in the foyer ostensibly, it seems, so he could go and switch on the various hologram features in the attraction. There were supposed to be live actors in the haunted house but we basically walked through a few dark corridors watched a couple of hologram displays and came out again. The boat ride promised you would get wet, very wet, maybe even soaked. Not quite! Very tired and dated river boat ride through dark scenes which looked as though they could do with some Polyfilla here and there. On reaching the end of the ride there was a queue to get off - surprising really as there was hardly one in the place at all. The actor seeing us safely off the boat was clearly bored out of her skull. She was sat reading a book! It seemed an inconvenience to have to point us towards the exit. We then went into the theatre for a show which was being set up by the same characters we had seen walking around the place earlier. These stagehands then suddenly became the actors although they weren't entrusted to speak for themselves and had to mime to a recorded spoken soundtrack telling the story of Scrooge. It felt like being back at school as we were sat behind Formica dinner tables (no food provided though!) watching a very second rate production that wouldn't have looked out of place if it had been acted out by the local secondary school. In fact I have seen many more enjoyable plays at schools. By this time we found the experience boring and so bad it was funny. There was another show going on in the boatyard but we we rather tersely told in very best Estuary English that a show was going on and it would be another ten minutes before we could go in. Why run a show at the same time as the play? We'd had enough by then so went through the compulsory gift shop with half-empty shelves to get to the exit. I wonder whether the shelves were half empty because people had bought souvenirs to remember the place by or whether they had pinched stuff to sell on ebay to make back some of the entrance fee they had wasted getting in.

Do yourselves a favour, don't waste your money, your time or your sanity going to Dickens World. The future for this attraction is not bright unless some serious work is undertaken to improve the customer experience.

Visited during the kids half term week (oct 2012) It was brilliant, the kids dressed up in Halloween fancy dress and were admitted free of charge, which was part of the Halloween festivities. There was a street theatre show about to start as we arrived, which was very good, it was A Christmas Carol, the children then after the show were entered in to a Halloween fancy dress competition. There was a pumpkin trail which when completed the kids all got a sweet each. There were Halloween arts & crafts whereby the kids made halloween badges, masks etc. Everything was clear on the website before we arrived, the price was good, the value for money was excellent. We will be returning again this year for their Winter Wonderland and pantomime.

My family and I visited Dickens World about 4 years ago – and were wowed by it – it was truly lovely. Unfortunately, my husband couldn't go that day due to ill health so with the family and I ranting and raving about it – yesterday we decided to visit again (it would have been sooner but we live 60 miles away and of course it isn't cheap to get in.

I checked the website before we left and saw that there would be Halloween activities (up until today the 4th actually) – with free entry for our 2 kids dressed in Halloween costume (even cheaper entry )

So we get there – get in at a reduced price – as the Britannia Theatre isn't working - - couldn't really say no after promising the kids a day out, so in we go.

My husbands first impressions at the scenery were WOW – it’s like Disney – but it turned out very different.

Haunted House – some of the effects weren't working and no member of staff around at all.

The School House – the interactive screens were broken and not working – no member of staff (teacher) visited as apparently they had been sent to jail.

4D Magic Lantern Show – wasn't even in 3d – I mentioned this to the member of staff and she said it hadn't been 3d for years (after talking to another member of staff, it turns out you need to replace a bulb for the 3d effect to work!!!!!!!!!!!!).

No Halloween activities at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No pumpkin trail, no arts and crafts as the boxes couldn't be found – and the Halloween fancy dress only went on because we reminded the staff (and was won by a toddler wearing a minnie mouse dress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – lots of kids went to the trouble of dressing up for Halloween and must have been disappointed).

On top of that upstairs toilets were out of order.

Children's play area was filthy around the edges – dirt under the climbing frames (so not today’s dirt).

The Boat ride was the best bit – but you could see the lack of maintenance – banks at the side crumbling into the water showing the metal mesh structure underneath.

Apparently, it was closed for filming on Friday – so to a member of public – Dickens World likes taking the money in – but appears to have spent little since it first opened.

Terrible! Nothing worked, short staffed and not much to see. If it was a quid to get in it would still be a rip off!

Interesting to see the last review of this place is dated August last year. We went the other day and it has not improved. It is exactly as described in the previous review. The staff looked mostly embarrassed, which is entirely understandable. There was a performance of A Christmas Carol which was very unenthusiatically mimed by a few bored looking employees. There was some kind of haunted house which consisted of dimly lit corridors and displays of chairs, with recorded voices muttering at random intervals. There was a poor excuse for a ride which consisted of 5 minutes of floating around in the dark in a boat and at one point getting soaked when the boat drops down a slope. There were random dummies in display cases. One consisted of a head on a stick. (What? Why?). The most puzzling part is that there is absolutely no information about Dickens or how any of the "displays" are related to him or even to Victorian times generally. The only informative bit was a "4D" (which means 3D plus you get drops of water spat at you at appropriate moments) animated film which lasted about 10 minutes.

This was without doubt the most useless excuse for a tourist attraction I have ever seen. And they have the nerve to make you pay to go in ! If you want to see some interesting Dickens related displays go to the Guildhall Museum in Rochester which is free.