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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

I'm expecting flooring similar to this. Source
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It seems the Blue Light Day at Chessington was pretty much a disaster on Saturday.

They are taking a hammering both on Twitter and Trip Advisor. Usual story of closed rides, one train operation, poor efficiency, staff who don’t know answers to basic questions, bad food, parking in a mud bath etc etc.

The person responsible for replying to Trip Advisor reviews doesn’t help matters, it’s a rather passive aggressive response to multiple complaints across various reviews, and will do nothing to help recover the guest experience.

For example multiple people have reported waiting three hours for Vampire in separate reviews and the response is that ‘we don’t recognise this queue time’ - effectively calling your guests liars is not a strategy to improve customer service. It actually makes their point about poor operations even clearer - you run your park so badly you don’t even have a clue how long people are actually waiting for rides.

Imagine all the Blue Light Card holders going back into work this morning and being asked by their colleagues how the trip went - word will spread how awful the day was along with the recommendation never to bother visiting.

They can throw up £17million new rides all they like, but unless they seriously concentrate on getting the basics right it is a waste of money, as long term you are causing yourself a massive reputational issue.
 
jon81uk said:
Particurly on days like Blue Light and Annual Passholders only where its meant to be "low" numbers of guests for "exclusive" access, the queues will stand out even more.
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Indeed, with the Blue Light Day specifically they do themselves no favours in the way it’s advertised.

Pushing the narrative of ‘an exclusive day with reduced price tickets as a thank you to all emergency service teams’ becomes almost offensive when in actual fact it’s essentially a rehearsal day for the staff and most things don’t work.

Personally I feel instead of seeing this as a cheap way to get staff trained they should go the other way and make the day special - e.g include things that make it obviously different from a regular day, perhaps hire in some extra roaming entertainment, give out a small piece of merchandise to everyone on their way out etc. It might knock a bit of the profit margin for the day - but when everyone gets back to work and raves about how good Chessington is to their colleagues it will encourage more bookings for the main season - totally worth it in the long run.
 
They are staff training days. Not sure what the staff turnover is like these days but you always had more newbies that needed shadowing and training.

I'd imagine that the MAP days especially are too popular for their own good, and have been for the last few years.

However the parks never seem to be ready for these days. So it's just... weird.
 
Alsty said:
Might not be the final surface. They might lay some of that coloured one once they know there won't be loads of works vehicles driving over it.
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havaska said:
That’s a base layer of tarmac you can tell as it’s quite coarse.

I’d let them finish it first before passing judgement.
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I don’t think it’s the final surface, I’d be very surprised if it is. Tarmacking is actually more expensive than laying blocks which would look much smarter. Besides, that surface is currently very dirty and needs a good jet wash.
 
RyanUK said:
I don’t think it’s the final surface, I’d be very surprised if it is. Tarmacking is actually more expensive than laying blocks which would look much smarter. Besides, that surface is currently very dirty and needs a good jet wash.
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As others have said there will almost certainly be a layer of smooth coloured resin bound stones like they’ve used in other areas.
 
After the success or Alton Manor do we think we could be seeing a revamp of Tomb Blaster, maybe a similar retheme to a new version of Terror Tomb without the blasters so the story can be enjoyed over just looking at LEDs?
 
After listening to it a couple of times, it's really grown on me! Its brilliant! If this is what was Vampires new soundtrack instead of the techno version, It'd be a genuine improvement drastically!! Imagine listening to this in the station!
 
zeock said:
Please give them ideas...
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If only... I've always dreamt of being part of Merlin Magic Making and adding my own small ideas on currently existing attractions, or making new attractions. I've got a few ideas. Better get going with my portfolio then XD. Wish I could show you all, but it's best not too as I'd rather keep them secret.

But on a serious note, no joke, I'd love for @Matt Creek to get Merlins attention and hire him. He seems to know how to introduce new things to the ride soundtrack while not making the difference too 'out there'... it has the tone and feel of the original vampire feel. Foreboding, a LITTLE creepy, but not scary for young kids. Whatever, but Merlin, hear me out. get that 2020 remix out of there and get Matts version booming from Marcels organ!!
 
A good blog from Theme Park Guide on Chessington’s first full opening day of the year. We’ve seen over the closed season about a lot of repainting and refreshing of various parts of the park, and now the extent of their work is bigger than others may have previously realised - so much so that Chessington, in parts, could be a brand new park!

The Chessington Arcadia refresh is great, as is Rattlesnake’s tower round the corner. One thing I have always liked is the statue that looks over Croc Drop. This year it has been given a repaint, but many will recall this stood there throughout Rameses’ time and remained after it was removed in 2020. The fact it lives on, refreshed, pleases me.
 
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