Dress
I'm never gonna turn down a fun day out, particularly after a week of feeling unwell. I'm definitely trying to be a bit more adventurous in life, I'm a real workaholic and feel as if somewhere along the line, I got 'too busy' to feed the adventurous kick in me so I'm trying to be more spontaneous and fun, rather than be glued to my laptop for the rest of my life. Life is for living! Last week we'd planned to visit Chessington World Of Adventures and I was SO excited because they have Go Ape (which is basically my favourite day out at the moment) and lots of fun forest walks with a few rides along the way. Due to SO much traffic the day before, it wasn't meant to be and we changed our plans and drove 40 mins down the road to Thorpe Park instead. Whilst Chessington wasn't meant to be (we will be back) it gave us a great excuse to visit Thorpe Park. I've never actually been to Thorpe Park before but we headed off for a day of adventure. In fact, I hadn't ever even researched Thorpe Park so the whole day was a total surprise, spontaneity at it's finest haha. Come join us. This is a partnership with Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola have launched a summer recycling initiative in partnership with Merlin so they invited me down to check it out. They want to encourage consumers to recycle more plastic on-the-go (which is so fabulous and something I'm very much behind). On-the-go recycling is very important but I am trying to adopt better recycling habits. I recycle at home with my bins but it doesn't seem as easy to do on the go. You basically get 50% off entry to the UK's favourite theme parks and attractions simply by placing an empty plastic bottle inside their specially designed reverse vending machines. So what did we do? Walked straight to the reverse vending machine (at the front of the park before you go in) AND got our 50% off ticket, it looks like we will go to Chessington next time after all!
We stepped through the blue arches and I was so shocked at how green and 'fresh' Thorpe Park feels, it's such a big space meaning it didn't feel busy or crammed. I was a little worried with it being the school holidays that we would be getting knocked over by kids and unable to move but in reality, it seemed empty, even though it wasn't! The atmosphere was buzzing. I used to be a BIG lover of the big rides but I've never been able to stomach the tea cups or a carousel for some reason haha!
I couldn't resist having a game on the fun little stalls dotted around the park. Did I win? Sadly, no but do I need a teddy larger than me? Probably not. It's probably a good thing I didn't bring one home!
We wandered around and obviously couldn't resist a ride on the river tubes, one of my childhood favourites. In the British heat wave, we all need a log flume in our back gardens haha. 
I was desperate to go on this too. See, age is just a number, I'm definitely still a big kid. 
I'm pretty gutted I didn't win a Pokemon to be honest. I've never seen such big Pokemon teddys before and 10 year old Em was pretty excited. I also wanna know how they get them up there?! 
I've always been a fan of arcade style games and loved how many were dotted around. It's safe to say, I was like a kid in a candy store.
When I was a kid, we'd always go on the grabber machines at the seaside and my Dad would always win (after 46 attempts). I used to have a whole family of teddy bears, I think my parents were pleased when I grew out of that phase. I was given £1 and told it's all I was allowed to spend so I had to choose wisely which machine I'd go on or would I spread my money across a few?! 
I could have definitely stomached this a few years ago but as I'd been ill earlier this week I gave this one a miss, it just gives me an excuse to go back and try it next time.
The Northerner in me is ALWAYS partial to some chips and mushy peas (of course food was on my mind) so we ate (after going on rides otherwise I'd have probably thrown up) 
I'd be lying if I said I didn't do this to try and win a doughnut, sadly I did not succeed 
After all the food, all the giggles and leaving the park a little bit damper than I arrived (log flume problems) we headed back to the Coca Cola reverse vending machines on exiting the park. We bought a bottle of Coca Cola inside the park and it meant we could go and use the reverse vending machine a second time round.
Before you even get into the park, so you don't need a ticket to use these, you'll see Coca-Cola's reverse vending machines. I was impressed with how many recycling bins there were throughout Thorpe Park too.
You can take your plastic bottles to one of four Merlin attractions (Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures, Legoland) and pop it in, you then receive 50% off entry so yay, we can go to Chessington after all! Basically, you do good and you get good back with a cheeky discount. I think I'll be going to Legoland too!
Chessington, I'll be back! Thorpe Park, I'll be back to ride those big rides!
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*This is a sponsored collaboration with Coca-Cola but as always, all views are 100% my own.
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