Last Updated on 5 January 2023 by Colette
This post features gifted experiences
New for 2022, The Chocolate Factory is a colourful candyland which originally was billed to be held in a secret location in Manchester city centre but actually turns out to be based in the Trafford Centre! This is an indoor experience for the whole family and is described as “an immersive candy-themed photo experience”. Hopefully there will be more to the event than photo opportunities though from what I’ve read about the event in London, it wasn’t overly positive so you might just be shelling out a fortune for a few insta snaps and some sweets . . .
(12.03.22 See below for an update now we’ve tried the experience for ourselves!)
What they say:
“Discover the magical world of The Chocolate Factory and dive into a universe where your sweetest dreams come true! During your stay in this unique wonderland, you will visit a variety of rooms with all kinds of instagrammable themes: there’s Chocolate Town, the Cupcake Room, the Ball Pit, Cloudland, and, of course, the Chocolate Factory. But you won’t just be able to admire the magical sweets: you’ll be able to eat some, too! Surprises await you in this theatrical photo experience—grab your camera and join the waitlist!”
What we say:
Ahead of visiting The Chocolate Factory, I can’t say I had particularly high expectations – the marketing seemed to focus very much on the photo opportunities and not a lot else. I’d also not read especially great things on social media – but we decided to pop along and see for ourselves.
We arrived at The Chocolate Factory shortly before our booked slot at 10.30am – at this point The Chocolate Factory hadn’t opened and there was a bit of a queue snaking across the mall. I was surprised that The Trafford Centre hadn’t insisted that this was better managed as they are normally super hot on these things – all it would have taken would have been a small roped off area to keep the queue organised. I imagine this isn’t a problem later in the day as once the shutters were opened, the queue moved inside and was no longer causing an obstruction. Once we were in The Chocolate Factory, the queue moved quickly so we weren’t waiting around for long.
We were given colour coded wristbands – guests are moved through The Chocolate Factory in waves according to wristband colours to manage the number of people in the experience at a time. We had to wait about ten minutes from arriving to being told we could go through but this time seemed to go quite quickly so it wasn’t an issue.
When it was our turn, we were guided through a curtain of silver ribbons and into the first part of the experience – The Enchanted Forest. Unfortunately the people before us hadn’t quite moved out of the way so it felt a bit hectic for a moment and I think that the crossover could have been managed better. We were greeted by Baron Von Bon Bon who talked to us about the special chocolate trees (which take one hundred years to grow!) as well as the special secrets of chocolate making that we would learn along the way. We picked lollies from a hedge and then had to collect some chocolate rocks and soil to grow our own chocolate trees – the Baron explained that most people don’t have the patience to wait one hundred years for the tree to grow and tended to eat the ingredients instead! These were in a really small, lidless plastic pot which, to be honest, was a bit of a pain and I ended up spilling the contents of one of them further on in the experience as I just had too much to carry. (The kids enjoyed the chocolate rocks, Dave and I were less impressed – the quality was akin to cooking chocolate).
Moving in to the second room – Cloud Land – we were greeted by a lady and her tasting station. Unfortunately the tasting experience wasn’t great as we struggled to hear what she was saying thanks to her mask (her prerogative of course), the noise coming from another group in the next room and the fact that people were too excited to get on with taking photos so weren’t really listening to her. We gave up in the end and concentrated on getting some snaps! The room contained a number of different photo opportunities including some ice cream horned unicorns, sweet clouds and a pair of brightly coloured bird wings. (Unfortunately due to a bit of a tech failure I’ve lost some of my best photos from this space – I may have had a bit of a sulk about this!)
The next room was The Ball Pit. It turns out that our kids are definitely not too old for a ball pit and all three of them said this room was the highlight of the experience for them! While they were playing, they were challenged to find two cocoa pods hidden inside the ball pit to take into the next room. Top tip – make sure your pockets are empty if you’re getting in the ball pit – Ben only realised as we were leaving that he had lost his phone! Luckily he was able to head back through the event and dig it out of the ball pit!
Having collected all the ingredients – a strawberry, a sugar lump and two cocoa beans – from the various rooms, we were taken through in to the factory to “make” the chocolate. All the ingredients were added to a machine and we had to “turn it on” by changing all the buttons in the room green. Once we’d done this, we moved in the “Chocolate Town” which was a mock up supermarket (and another photo opp) to collect our chocolate samples.
The final part of the experience was a room packed with swings, a seesaw, a free-to-use Haribo grab machine and more staging for fun photos before you exit out back into the Trafford Centre.
Our experience took around 45 minutes – and I must admit I did feel a bit herded at points – but I appreciated that accessing the various rooms in groups meant they weren’t over crowded and we were able to take any photos we wanted without too many people in the way or too much waiting around. All three kids said they had enjoyed themselves – Ben (12), said he was in a silly mood so enjoyed it but could have easily found it a bit lame if he wasn’t feeling that way out!
We were constantly encouraged to take photos by all the staff – which cynically I felt was for the sake of us promoting the experience on social media for them! I should say, for an event that markets itself on photo opportunities, it was a shame they hadn’t thought about the lighting better but this is probably something I’m super picky about!
What do you need to know about The Chocolate Factory – Manchester
Where is The Chocolate Factory Manchester?
The Chocolate Factory Manchester is on the ground floor of the Trafford Centre in the old Hamley’s store near Marks and Spencer. In terms of parking for The Chocolate Factory Manchester, it’s pretty simple – parking at The Trafford Centre is free and reasonably plentiful (though you might regret rocking up in the middle of a Saturday afternoon). For the shortest walk to The Chocolate Factory you want to park near John Lewis and come in through the John Lewis store – however we tend to park at the Regents Crescent end where Debenhams used to be and it’s about ten minute walk through the centre to get to The Chocolate Factory.
When is The Chocolate Factory Manchester open?
The experience opened on 4th March 2022 and will be open Fridays – Sundays through till Sunday 10th April 2022. We were booked on to the first slot of the day at 10.30am as we had no desire to be in the Trafford Centre on a Saturday afternoon!
How long does the experience take?
The whole experience is billed to last between 45 minutes and an hour – our experience was probably closer to 45 minutes. As you are guided through the experience, this managed very much by the staff so it’s not like you can make it last longer if you want to.
Who is The Chocolate Factory for?
The Chocolate Factory is open to guests of all ages! Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. No pets are allowed. Pushchairs are not allowed in The Chocolate Factory and guests were asked to leave this in a designated space near the exit – these weren’t secured so if you can, I’d be inclined to leave the pushchair in the car!
How can I get tickets?
Tickets for The Chocolate Factory in Manchester were released on Wednesday 22nd December so you can book online now! Tickets start at £13.50 per person and there are package deals available for families. I think the total cost for the experience for us as a family of 5 was over £60 – now I don’t usually comment on “value for money” as I do think this is subjective however I think it’s worth mentioning that although we did enjoy ourselves, Dave and I both said we’d have felt pretty miffed to shell out that much money for the experience.
Why not read these posts next:
What’s on in Manchester this Easter
What do in Manchester with the kids this May half term
Cool things to do in Manchester this summer
Things to do in Manchester for Mother’s Day
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£60 for 45 mins! That’s madness!
Its a weird one isn’t it. It almost feels like it should be along with something else – santa, or a show maybe? As a standalone it isn’t really enough of an event. I’d be annoyed at 60 quid for a family for that, but as added value for something else, it would be epic.