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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

These things are more to do with supporting future planning applications than anything else. They're developed in consultation with the public and in theory state what "should" be allowed to be built and where.

As we know well though plans can change very quickly so details must be taken with a pinch of salt.

Glad to see that coasters have been mentioned, Chessie is in desperate need of a new coaster.

:)
 
Leah said:
Noticed bubbleworks isn't on the list of rides earmarked for removal.
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There is a reason why Bubbleworks isn't ear marked for removal and that's to do with 2017. I fear that if 2017 isn't pulled off well (which, with current Chessington management, makes this a very high chance) we could have some very angry nostalgic-loving riders visiting adventures' services. Or it simply could never come to light. Wouldn't be the first time the park has scrapped something late on in the game...

Enter Valhalla said:
Has anyone mentioned these improvements? Of course not, people would just rather focus on the negatives. I get that people don't like the appearance of those new fences but it's hardly worth two and a half pages of moaning is it?
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Now, Chessington is my favourite UK park and I certainly have a soft spot for it, but it certainly isn't going in the right direction. That fence around the tree in Wild Asia is just shocking - how could you get it any more wrong? The first year of Wild Asia where care seemed to be evident in the experience of the land. The music, nice re-design of scenery instead of an overlay and that magical talking tree for all ages. It began to show an era for Chessington that was promising.


2016.

Someone I know commented on the facebook post about Chessington's development plan and said Chessington is going to the dogs...and yes, as much as it pains me, they are true. If it continues in this direction, we'll be seeing the last parts of its heart ripped out from in it completely.

The problem is, this park really does take two steps forward and fifty back. No exaggeration.

Tomb Blaster - it was planned a couple of years prior include a handful of other attractions...but the park needed to delegate money to the fact so much of their theming and just general park was a state so it was pushed back.

Then they did it...it was their opportunity to do so much, fortify and resurrect such an amazingly themed ride...but they couldn't have got it more wrong. Tomb Blaster this year is, quite frankly, embarrassing. The new lighting is a complete mess, certain elements were focused and redone which weren't needed and the important thematic parts to improve were cocked up. However, I don't know why I'm shocked, it was only done to the bare minimum to ensure that the ride could re-open again from a H&S point of view.

So basically, Tomb Blaster, it seems like the team behind this went with the cheapest options possible and with an inexperienced team on the little they did do to improve the aesthetic. The new lighting doesn't 'sex up' the scenes, instead they destroy any detail that was highlighted and complemented. The scenes haven't been stripped back and carefully reworked, instead the effects have been hashed over because of laziness with no longing by the teams to divulge into the original plans or ideas to restore it...they just want the bare minimum in order to keep this running. Chessington are a laughing stock with this project.

Again, this is coming from someone who loves Chessington and really wants to see the park go in the right direction for development.

As @AstroDan has said, Wild Asia was a step into the right direction for the future of the park. This was when I realised the park had gained an identity and vision.

How wrong could I be? The original redevelopment of areas into continents and to instate a sense of adventure has just been lost. Chessington management don't care and it saddens me that this has become reality.

Azteca? Well they never cared with that from the outset. They had a "focus group" with families, the families all expressed more interest in another theme that wasn't Azteca or even Amazu...but MMM and Chessington management showed clear disinterest in their other options and well...what more proof do you want that this was the case? Look at what was built?

Glamping? Needed? No.

Park updates, enhancements, redesigns, investments? Needed? Yes.

Maybe I still have a huge soft spot for Chessington park because the entertainments team there have drive and passion...they only get the budgets because the park simply don't care on improving what they have or even the imagination to use it for something else.

This new development plan is exciting but out of all the plans we have for it, only two benefiting the actual park attraction experience? We also have two accommodation possibilities?! TWO?! That is the most ridiculous idea I've ever seen suggested for a park that is crying out for attention and isn't abundant with space! (Wild Asia is already rotting away! But let's get more accommodation shall we?)

This development plan has also asked for people's opinions because Chessington management care about the way they shape the future of the resort. Do they? Azteca already showed us the middle finger so let's move on shall we?

I've said in some of my other posts before, what is going to make more money for Merlin? A re-spruced ride area/land or a new form of accommodation/extra pay activities? It's Merlin. You know the answer.

I know I may seem like I'm moaning about Merlin but this is as much a fault of Chessington management too they don't get off lightly believe me. I can't believe they do not understand what a theme park is. They don't get what experience is at any level, from grandparents to toddlers. Why haven't they had a huge managerial shake up?
  • Falls will never have it's façade reworked or reinstated so long as this management remains.
  • Theming will continue to rot as long as this management remains.
  • New experiences will not be for the guest experience but to tick boxes.
  • The classics will be expected to limp on without any care or enhancement so long as this management remains.
  • The ride revitalisation of Tomb Blaster will be their reason to say "see, the public don't care and they think we've done nothing" so that certainly rules out any type of ride TLC or any improvement for Chessington with their current teams.
However, there are some within Chessington who truly care about the resort and really want to make it the best it can be. The park has some character and charm still left in it and there has been some great little enhancements, additions or overlays throughout the resort but mainly carried out by various teams passionate about the place.

However, with no pressure from Merlin I fear the disinterested Chessington management will continue to reign until the last bit of charm is destroyed.

Please Merlin, please.
 
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When they did a medium term development plan in the mid 2000s they proposed a 4D cinema. I guess that was too ambitious, so now they're trying their luck at a 3D cinema. If this one doesn't work out they can always see if there's a 180 degree cinema going cheap.
 
Haa, at least one other person sees it. Chessington is well and truly dead now. Its still a nice park, don't get me wrong, but they've more or less ruined the all the things that made it a special park. Its not the place it once was. You wait, next year that'll be clearer than ever. Its been Merlinised.

I want to like it, don't get me wrong, but they're just relentlessly giving me reasons not to. The management are confused. Bless them. They just don't know what they're doing. Haa, they're closing the Bubbleworks for god's sake.
Ta ta Chessington, see you later.
 
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When I went to chessington the other week, they seemed to be running operations really badly, even for chessington. Decided to join the queue for monkey swinger at one point, as the queue looked about four cycles long. looked like one of the more reasonable length queues at the time, but it wasn't until I'd waited 20 minutes that I realised that that the op was taking ten minutes plus to load/unload every time. Really not good enough. Though there was always a train in the station, and dispatches seemed quite reasonable (and at the time I rode, only four fastracks per train, though I was told that it was more than half a train of them later in the day), tomb blaster's queue seemed to be moving really slowly. I have no idea what caused this, because it seemed to be dispatching no slower than normal, but it was an unbelievably slow moving queue. On the subject of tomb blaster, I have to say that I'm not too impressed by the work done. The new targets just covered the scenes, worse IMO than the red targets, and the guns (though much lighter and more comfortable than the old ones) covered everything in red lights. Making this even worse was the fact that my laser wouldn't shoot anything closed than two meters away. It was nice to see most of the effects working again, though the boulder was either broken or turned off (I expect the latter). Daylight was leaking through the fire exits, and the new lighting highlighted that you were just traveling through a warehouse. The music in some of the scenes was uncomfortably loud. At least this was (arguably) better than in bubbleworks though; in some of the scenes there was no music playing at all, and some of them were playing the wrong music. At least it had the best operation in the park though - despite the queue board saying 45 minutes, and saying past the "half hour from this point", I was on within ten minutes. Fastest moving queue of the day, unlike counts cauldron burger kitchen, which was at least 45 minutes to the tills (decided to do fish and chips instead, which wasn't bad, but was still just over 15 minutes wait to order). Maybe it sad to say, but best ride of the day was certainly Ramses. Seemed to not be a very high demand for the fountain seats, and since it was a hot day, this allowed me to skip the queue several times (hint: unless you want to get totally drenched, sit on the back row). New trail of the kings was nice, though the animal enclosures were invested with rats (I suppose this is inevitable when food is left out all day for the animals, but it wasn't great when they were running around the paths too). New merch is alright, ended up buying seven pin badges unfortunately ;). They also had a new(?) Shop, just outside the park. I didn't go in, but it's actually themed to look like a shipping container. Didn't look to bad though, not compared to some other merlin shops.
 
If the shop you mean is the one by the explorer gate, then that's been there since last year at least!
 
Good news indeed.

In the interest of balance, since everybody (including myself) were disgusted by the blue fence around the interactive tree in Wild Asia, I am pleased to report it has been replaced by a themed fence.

Partaking in geekery since 1985
 
MattyH said:
Good news for Bubbleworks fans! Looks like the lift had some major work done over the last closed season, I doubt they'd be spending the money on it if they were going to close it like the rumours suggested at the beginning of the year. http://www.themeparkguide.biz/news/news-chessington/bubbleworks-re-engineering-refurbishment
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This is a very strange revelation, as I have ridden this season and the ride has never looked worse. It may be confirmation that the ride system is here to stay, but any and all maintenance on the current theme has long been stopped, so the ride in it's current form is clearly heading for the dustbin. A new lift hill may hint at a complete retheme/overhaul with the same ride layout. Probably an IP.
 
^ I think a new IP is quite likely and perhaps needed, in some ways. There's a fine line between providing something that is sentimental and something that is a museum piece. It might be time to give a 'thank you for the good times' speech and try something new.
 
More accommodation? Seriously! On top of the three accommodation choices the park already has. Even Warwick Castle is getting a 'glamping' site!! What next, The London Eye hotel? The dungeons Inn? Sea Life sleepovers? Blackpool Towerlodge?

I don't know why they bothered buying the parks off of Tussauds all those years back, they may have well just put in a bid for a hotel chain if that's where they wanted to do as a business. Can't they just, I dunno, build some more rollercoasters instead?
 
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