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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Obviously people will jump to petty 'gotcha!' posts, but I've not passed judgement on the ride experience at all. I keep saying I hope the ride experience proves my worries wrong.

Im mostly talking about how it looks, the whole point of spending £10000s on scenery is for something to look at and add to the experience right?

Plenty more fans saying it looks brilliant —they are judging just as much by the same photos. It hopefully looks better in person, but was a huge croc head worth it?

Benjsh said:
What are you not grasping? If you want a thrill based drop tower then go to a park aimed at teenagers and thrill seekers. It seems you're either a bit confused or just upset that you're probably a bit too old for Chessington now.
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As usual expressing an opinion annoys people for some reason, but who said anything about wanting a thrill ride or what my personal preference is?

My preference is for it to entertain the families going on it as best as it can

Seriously some people need to see how most family parks do things outside the UK bubble
 
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I think it's a pity that Chessington's first new ride in years is an ultra cheap SBF tower. It goes to show what Merlin's investment cycle is like these days while Legoland seem to bask in high end Vekoma, Mack/ART and Brogent products. Chessington have to go to the cheapest catalogue possible, Thorpe can't even get a catalogue and Alton pick up rides that weren't even designed for them.

The park deserves better quality hardware to replace an iconic ride in Rameses Revenge. Thank goodness Chessington have a nice piece of theming which will hopefully save it.
 
AstroDan said:
I think it's a pity that Chessington's first new ride in years is an ultra cheap SBF tower. It goes to show what Merlin's investment cycle is like these days while Legoland seem to bask in high end Vekoma, Mack/ART and Brogent products. Chessington have to go to the cheapest catalogue possible, Thorpe can't even get a catalogue and Alton pick up rides that weren't even designed for them.

The park deserves better quality hardware to replace an iconic ride in Rameses Revenge. Thank goodness Chessington have a nice piece of theming which will hopefully save it.
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With regards to the bolded, why would any rides built at Alton not be designed for the park? Surely anything they put in would have to be bespokely tailored for the location, especially with Alton’s unique constraints?

I think the reason that Legoland seems to get more prestigious rides than the RTPs, and quite possibly more often as well, is because the Legolands are key to Merlin’s growth strategy, and they are arguably one of Merlin’s key groups alongside the midways. The RTPs, on the other hand, are not quite as vital.

Am I right in saying that the Lego parks get new stuff more often than the RTPs? It certainly seems like it; Legoland Windsor has certainly had a hell of a lot of investment over the last 5-10 years or so!

The RTPs do also still get nice investment; I’d argue Wicker Man was a pretty prestigious investment, personally!
 
OilyWater said:
Obviously people will jump to petty 'gotcha!' posts, but I've not passed judgement on the ride experience at all. I keep saying I hope the ride experience proves my worries wrong.

Im mostly talking about how it looks, the whole point of spending £10000s on scenery is for something to look at and add to the experience right?

Plenty more fans saying it looks brilliant —they are judging just as much by the same photos. It hopefully looks better in person, but was a huge croc head worth it?


As usual expressing an opinion annoys people for some reason, but who said anything about wanting a thrill ride or what my personal preference is?

My preference is for it to entertain the families going on it as best as it can

Seriously some people need to see how most family parks do things outside the UK bubble
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You haven't ridden it yet !!!!

Jesus wept. How can you totally disregard a ride you've not ridden?

Also this is a rarity. It's a drop tower, albeit a family one, with theming. Do you know how many theme parks I have visited in my time where I have seen a generic tower with no theme whatsoever? Plenty. I'm sure you have to.

You also seem to be speaking for the public here too. You're telling us all they won't like it? Who put you in charge of Merlin's feedback team and who gave you a time machine? I'm curious.
 
The ride will be totally adequate. it's SBF Visa. They build ultra cheap spinning figure eight coasters for mini parks like Clifton Amusements and Cannon Hill Park and shopping malls in America. Below Zamperla in the "quality" charts. The public will probably think it's fine for their 8 year old, the target audience, but probably get frustrated they waited over an hour for it.

Keen to see what special effects and/or other things take place in the ride pit.
 
Do we have any idea as to the queue line for this? Is there a scenic queue line? I know that Rameses' original queue line, which was amazing quite honestly, was condemned and shut down several years before the rides eventual demise.

Is there a overlay plan?
 
Looking at one of those documents, it seems guests will be entering via the old Pharoah's Bazaar shop, before joining up with the existing ground level Rameses queue.
 
Benjsh said:
You haven't ridden it yet !!!!

Jesus wept. How can you totally disregard a ride you've not ridden?
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Why are you so annoyed about posts that you havent even read properly?


AstroDan said:
Do we have any idea as to the queue line for this? Is there a scenic queue line? I know that Rameses' original queue line, which was amazing quite honestly, was condemned and shut down several years before the rides eventual demise.
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It's round the back where the flying jumbos was squeezed for a few years apparently, entrance and exit in half of the old shop. Maybe something good will be inside there.

A missed opportunity to refurbish the Rameses queue and rebuild an entrance opposite the croc head, that was amazing park design
 
OilyWater said:
Why are you so annoyed about posts that you havent even read properly?


It's round the back where the flying jumbos was squeezed for a few years apparently, entrance and exit in half of the old shop. Maybe something good will be inside there.

A missed opportunity to refurbish the Rameses queue and rebuild an entrance opposite the croc head, that was amazing park design
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I'm annoyed because you're speaking on behalf of the GP when you have no authority to do so. I have no doubts it will be a huge hit with families minus the capacity issues which I have already conceded will be a slight concern.

The name and theme however won't make the slightest bit of difference. The GP aren't theme park nerds who will care that the crocodile is oversized. If anything they will probably prefer it to be so for dramatic effect.

Like I said there's so many drop towers out there in the world with no theming whatsoever so I don't think going after Chessington here makes much sense.

And I do think it sounds a bit like you're a bit upset the ride isn't as thrilling and tall as you'd like it to be for you personally rather than you're concerned for the GP too.

So to summarize it's a perfect fit for their audience for me. Do I want to ride it? Not particularly. I'm 35 and and probably not the market for Chessington anymore.
 
AT86 said:
I suspect Astrodan is referring to Gangsta Granny. The ride hardware was originally designed for a midway attraction I believe. That project was scrapped and the ride was repurposed for Alton Towers.
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@AT86 which Midway attraction was the Gangsta Granny ride system intended for?
 
The theming of Croc Drop looks very good. The ride won't be anything special (I feel like I've ridden enough rides to know that an SBF Visa tower ride is not going to be anything special) but I do accept that I am far from the target audience.
 
Benjsh said:
I'm annoyed because you're speaking on behalf of the GP when you have no authority to do so.
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Im speaking on behalf of me, so you'll be glad to hear you dont need to be so irritated if you stop projecting on to what ive said

It's not outrageous to think about how something been designed. Designers have to work out all the same stuff Ive been on about (and far more behind the scenes), they don't just hope for the best and wait til the ride's finished to see what it's like. They're not children either, but you got to have a good perspective on how to make a good ride for kids.

Im not a designer but Im just discussing it, on a discussion forum
 
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It's a shame really, as something more to the original scale would actually look much better. Hopefully that top piece is delayed and not just binned off as I imagine that'll help

Croc-Drop-Chessington-World-of-Adventures.jpg
 
Comparing images and videos I’ve seen so far to those plans it strikes me that they decided not to sink the building into the ground (presumably to save money), but then didn’t alter the scale and proportions? Hence why there now seems to be only a very small amount of the tower visible above the crocodile from the sides. As far as I can tell it looks like the building is on a level with the ground around it?

Didn’t a similar thing happen with Haunted House Monster Party at Legoland? That is why it ended up being giant, flat, exposed shed with a token facade on the front, and also why has staircases to get you up to and down from the level of the mad house gondola?

I wonder if the lack of a topper on the tower was partially to offset any height increase caused by not sinking the tower and keep to the originally stated overall height?..
 
Chessington have updated their opening hours to suggest they will open on 12th April.

Opening hours for the rest of the season actually appear to be quite good versus the last few years. Previously 6pm was the latest with one or two extensions in the summer. However all school holidays and even some weekends in June and September will be 7pm closes in 2021.

I hope other Merlin parks follow suit.

https://www.chessington.com/plan-your-visit/before-you-visit/opening-hours/
 
AT86 said:
Chessington have updated their opening hours to suggest they will open on 12th April.

Opening hours for the rest of the season actually appear to be quite good versus the last few years. Previously 6pm was the latest with one or two extensions in the summer. However all school holidays and even some weekends in June and September will be 7pm closes in 2021.

I hope other Merlin parks follow suit.

https://www.chessington.com/plan-your-visit/before-you-visit/opening-hours/
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That might well be the only good decision the park has made in years.
 
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