Visiting Drusillas Park for Hello Kitty fun and play

‘Did you have fun?’
‘Yes, Mimmy!’

In the car home yesterday my name had changed from Mummy to Mimmy. It wasn’t a coincidence, but the result of a Hello Kitty-themed day at Drusillas Park in East Sussex.

Three-year-old Big Girl had learnt that Hello Kitty’s twin sister’s name is Mimmy, and it was suddenly impossible to have a normal conversation without her pretending that the two of us were twins. We had been invited to visit Drusillas Park, a zoo with several fun rides and large play areas, and we had enjoyed making the trip again since Big Girl is a Hello Kitty fan.

Drusillas Park is the home of Hello Kitty Secret Garden, Europe’s only Hello Kitty attraction, which boasts three cute Hello Kitty-themed rides suitable for young children. In addition to an Hello Kitty car ride, tea cup ride and hopper ride, little ones can enter Hello Kitty’s bedroom and see her dressing table and bed with Hello Kitty bed linen and other pink details.

For us the park makes for a good day trip from London because of the Hello Kitty attraction, which is spot on for Big Girl, and looking back we should have made the most of it and planned to go on a day Hello Kitty was in the park for meet and greets.

It struck me, however, that the queues were short for the three Hello Kitty rides despite the car park looking full when we arrived. Instead, the busiest area in Drusillas Park appeared to be the large outdoor playground.

The zoo features play areas split into sections for different age groups, and there are climbing towers, swings, slides and much more, including a brand new, colourful ‘Get Wet’ zone, where children under 12 can run around under flower fountains in their swimming costumes.

When entering we also walked through the zoo section of the park, seeing everything from meerkats to farm animals to endangered macaques.

And to make the day a bit less pink for Baby Boy, we also made sure he got to ride on Thomas the Tank Engine, an attraction in the tenth and final year at Drusillas taking visitors from Tidmouth Halt and passed the llama paddock and play areas.

The family-owned park has a lot to offer young children, and it’s a great destination for families holidaying near Alfriston in East Sussex this summer. It also makes for a good day trip from London, particularly if you can plan to go on a date when there is a character meet-and-greet.

It took around one and a half hour to drive to Drusillas from Fulham in no traffic. Hello Kitty is in the park for meet and greets on 20 days throughout the year, and her next appearance is on Sunday 26 June. There are also a number of other characters that will make an appearance in Drusillas on specific dates in July and August, including Peppa and George and Chase and Marshall from Paw Patrol.