A Complete Review Of Shrek’s Adventure In London 2024
You probably know what to expect from a visit to Madame Tussauds or the London Dungeons. They are some of the most famous attractions in London for families. But Shrek’s Adventure?
What’s that all about?
This is what we thought at least. We had no idea what it was all about and since we were visiting the London Dungeons next door, were intrigued to find out.
We visited recently and thought it would be helpful to write a thorough review of Shrek’s Adventure.
Our review covers all of the information you need to know about visiting Shrek’s Adventure in London.
It also gives some recommendations at the end for places to eat near Shrek’s Adventure and places to stay near Shrek’s Adventure.
If you are on Instagram, make sure to give us a follow! You’ll find more of our videos of our Shrek’s Adventure visit on our Instagram account in our Merlin highlight.
We were gifted tickets for the purpose of writing a helpful and up to date review of Shrek’s Adventure. This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one and book or buy something, we may earn a small commission but this is at no extra cost to you.
OFFER:
Shrek’s Adventure – Get an extra £12 off. Book tickets from £20.00. Offer runs on select dates for the rest of 2023. See here for tickets. Promo code: SALAFF2023.
London Dungeon – Get adult tickets for £25 and up to £10 off per person on selected dates. See here for tickets. Promo code: LDAFF2023.
What is Shrek’s Adventure?
In short, Shrek’s Adventure is a fantastical, immersive experience that takes you on a journey through a fairytale land on a quest to find Shrek.
Shrek’s Adventure and the Big City Saver
Before we give you all the information you need to a successful visit to Shrek’s Adventure, we thought it would be helpful to let you know about the Big City Saver and the Combo ticket deals.
Shrek’s Adventure is operated by Merlin Entertainments who also run a number of top attractions in London and across the UK. I’ve listed all of their attractions below.
The reason it is worth know about the other Merlin attractions (apart from the fact they are also great to visit) is that you can save money on your tickets if you combine a visit to one attraction with another.
In case you feel that you may want to visit more than one Merlin attraction, it might be worth looking at either a Big City Saver (for the London attractions) or a combo ticket.
If you are visiting more than one Merlin attraction, you will make big savings with one of these passes.
London Merlin attractions
- Sea Life
- Madame Tussauds – Want to know what’s new at Madame Tussauds? See here for an up to date review of Madame Tussauds in London
- London Dungeons – find out what is a good age to visit the London Dungeons.
- London Eye (see our London Eye review).
Other Merlin attractions in the UK
If you think that you may visit more than one Merlin attraction in the UK during the year, it might be worth considering a Merlin Annual Pass.
Here are some of the other Merlin attractions in the UK.
- Bear Grylls Adventure
- Blackpool Tower
- Sea Life (multiple sites)
- Legoland Discovery (Manchester and Birmingham)
- Alton Towers
- Warwick Castle
- Chessington World of Adventures (read our review of Chessington)
- Legoland Windsor
- Thorpe Park
By the way – if you are in London and planning on visiting other London attractions, take a look at the London Explorer Pass. It includes a large number of top London attractions. Add 2,3,4,5,6 or 7 attractions and make huge savings. See how it all works here.
It includes one of the biggest attractions in London – the Tower of London. See our review of the Tower of London.
Here are some quick FAQs about Shreks’ Adventure before we move on to our Shrek’s Adventure review.
Where is Shrek’s Adventure in London?
Shrek’s Adventure is located in the County Hall building on London’s Southbank near Waterloo station.
The address is: Shrek’s Adventure, Riverside Building, County Hall, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7PB.
If you are looking for other things to do near here, take a look at our guide to visiting Waterloo with kids.
Getting to Shrek’s Adventure
Closest tube station to Shrek’s Adventure
Waterloo is the closest tube station to Shrek’s Adventure. It is on the Bakerloo line (brown line), Jubilee line (grey), Northern Line (Black) and the Waterloo & City line (mint green).
It is then a 5 minute walk to Shrek’s Adventure.
You can also get off at Westminster and walk across Westminster Bridge where you will have great views of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. This will take about 10 minutes.
If you have a London Eye and Shrek’s Adventure combo ticket (or London Dungeons), you’ll be pleased to know that they are all right next door to each other. Literally less than 30 seconds walk between all three attractions!
Parking near Shrek’s Adventure
There is no dedicated parking for Shrek’s Adventure but there are car parks nearby.
A couple of car parks near Shrek’s Adventure are:
Bus to Shrek’s Adventure
There are a number of bus routes that drop you off within a 5 minute walk of Shrek’s Adventure. They are:
77, 211 and 381. You can find out more about the bus routes here.
Tickets for Shrek’s Adventure
Pre-booking online can save you money. At the time of writing this review of Shrek’s Adventure, standard tickets were £30.00 per person on the day or £24.00 if booked in advance (£19.00 per child from 3-15 years).
You can buy your Shrek’s Adventure tickets here.
However, there are ways to reduce the cost of your Shrek’s Adventure tickets.
How can I get discounted tickets for Shrek’s Adventure?
Other than saving 10% by booking ahead online, you could try searching for Shrek’s Adventure discount codes on the usual sites like Wowcher and Groupon. Hint – there are rarely any discount codes available.
For a guaranteed way to save money, you could look at the Big City Saver or buy multi-attraction tickets. There are savings of up to 40% to be had if you book more than one attaction.
The more attractions you visit, the cheaper it will be. You don’t have to visit all the attractions in one day with the Big City Saver. Your pass can be valid for up to 90 days from the day of your first attraction visit.
Did you know that the London Dungeons are right next door to (in the same building as) Shrek’s Adventure and opposite the London Eye? They are all located at County Hall near Waterloo.
Shrek’s Adventure 2 for 1 voucher
You can buy 2 for 1 tickets from DaysoutGuide – but you have to be careful about the small print.
Obviously, you need to purchase a train ticket but the most important thing to note is that almost every school holiday is excluded. This means you wouldn’t be able to use the tickets during February half term, Easter, May half term, Summer holidays, October half term and Christmas Day!
You also have to purchase the tickets in advance.
Shrek’s Adventure opening times
The opening times for Shrek’s Adventure vary depending on the day and the time of year.
During the school holidays and at weekends, the last entry to Shrek’s Adventure is a bit later.
It is best to check on their website to see the exact opening hours for Shrek’s Adventure for the day you want to visit.
How long does Shrek’s Adventure last?
We have been asked by quite a few people – ‘How long does Shrek’s Adventure take?‘
As you are part of a tour and can’t just visit at your own pace as such, it takes on average 90 minutes to visit Shrek’s Adventure.
There are opportunities at the end to have your picture taken with Shrek characters.
You can also spend a little time in the gift shop at the end. We were pleasantly surprised to find some reasonably priced Dreamworks merchandise here.
Best time to visit Shrek’s Adventure
Being one of the most popular attractions in London, weekends and school holidays can get very busy. If you can visit during the week outside of the school holidays, we would recommend that.
We visited at the very end of the summer holidays at 10am on a Tuesday and we did not find it busy at all.
If you can only go during the school holidays or at the weekend, we would recommend going early (at opening time) or later in the day.
If you are visiting London at Christmas with kids, take a look at special events they may be running. This year Shrek’s Christmas Grotto is running on select dates in December.
Also take a look at what’s going on at Halloween in London this year. Shrek’s Adventure sometimes run a special Halloween event.
If you haven’t yet managed to book somewhere to see Santa in London, this may be the one for you!
What age is Shrek’s Adventure suitable for?
People have asked us what age we think is suitable for Shrek’s Adventure. I would say kids aged 3 to 12 will enjoy the experience – although children aged 6+ will probably get the most out of it.
As an adult though, I really enjoyed the experience as it was quite different to anything we’ve done before.
You need to leave stollers at the start of the tour so please bear this in mind if you are visiting with very young children.
Review of Shreks Adventure
As mentioned above, we really didn’t know what to expect from our visit to Shrek’s Adventure.
Part of the reason for this is because there isn’t a great deal of information online. As we found out when we got there, it is all quite secretive. And you are not allowed to take photos for most of the tour.
What we can tell you is that you will spend around 90 minutes on a brilliantly fantastic immersive mission to find Shrek.
It goes something like this….
Your journey starts with a bit of queueing as you wait to be transported to Far Far Away.
Just before setting off, you will have your photo taken in front of a blue screen and will have the chance to buy it at the end of the tour.
You will be grouped with about 20 people and you will stay with this group for the whole tour.
The Shrek’s Adventure tour
The first immersive experience is an absolutely brilliant 4D journey on a flying magic bus to Far Far Away.
This was actually my favourite part. I wish I could show you videos because it was really so fun…but that would also spoil the surprise.
Along the way you will experience over 10 live shows where you will meet characters from the movie. Each of them will try to help you in your mission to find Shrek.
The actors stay in character and are excellent. There may be a little audience participation along the way too!
You can find out more about the live shows here.
If you’re looking for something a bit quirky and fun or even something to do in London in the rain with kids – why not try Shrek’s Adventure?!
We hope you found our review of Shreks Adventure helpful but feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Restaurants near Shrek’s Adventure
If you are visiting close to a meal time, we would recommend eating before or after because there isn’t a restaurant in Shrek’s Adventure.
It is very easy to find something to eat near Shrek’s Adventure. There are a few family-friendly places to eat near Shrek’s Adventure like Wagamama, Giraffe, Honest Burgers and Strada. They are all a few minutes’ walk along the river at Southbank.
There are also lots of street food trucks at Southbank for something quick and easy.
For something a bit special, OXO Tower Brasserie is very good. If visiting with kids, it’s best to eat in the Brasserie where there is casual dining and a children’s menu. The views over the River Thames and London are exceptional.
The Anchor and Hope is one of our favourite gastro pubs in London and worth the extra few minutes’ walk.
For general restaurant recommendations, take a look at our restaurants in London for families. We also have a guide to restaurants where kids eat free in London.
Hotels near Shrek’s Adventure London
Families visiting London might be interested in these London hotels for families. They are all within a few minutes’ walk of Shrek’s Adventure.
If you are looking for budget accommodation in London but the Premier Inn above is full, here is a list of other family friendly London Premier Inn hotels.
More inspiration for days out in London with kids…
Free things to do with kids in London
Best museums in London to visit with kids
Visiting London with kids on a budget
Christmassy things to do in London with kids
Christmas at the UK Merlin attractions