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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

When I visited Efteling in March, I was quite surprised that, despite it being a sunny day and all the other coasters being open, Joris opened late due to “ice on the track”
I thought this was odd for a park that opens throughout the winter.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
When I visited Efteling in March, I was quite surprised that, despite it being a sunny day and all the other coasters being open, Joris opened late due to “ice on the track”
I thought this was odd for a park that opens throughout the winter.
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It was -3C again at Efteling today, it was the last ride to open but got there around 2pm. Seems wooden coasters are harder to get going but still very impressive they can do so imo.
 
DistortAMG said:
I dont think it is impressive. It is the normal, expected. Standard operation.

The UK has just erroroded our expectations down so much however.
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Is it? I’m sure your second statement is at least partly true but I still find it impressive they can get them going so early in what would be considered hazardous conditions.

Coasters not operating below 6C is pathetic but I’m happy to give them kudos when you’re hitting freezing let alone below!

Tbf to Chessington I’ve yet to see Mandrill not open so the temperature threshold remains unconfirmed (and they’ve been fortunate with the weather this year at least). Being a B&M there’s seemingly no reason it can’t match Efteling unless they’ve chosen not to.

Minecraft will be a good investment in this regard, their first 365 coaster. I wonder if this will influence what replaces Tiger Rock…
 
Bowser said:
Is it? I’m sure your second statement is at least partly true but I still find it impressive they can get them going so early in what would be considered hazardous conditions.

Coasters not operating below 6C is pathetic but I’m happy to give them kudos when you’re hitting freezing let alone below!

Tbf to Chessington I’ve yet to see Mandrill not open so the temperature threshold remains unconfirmed (and they’ve been fortunate with the weather this year at least). Being a B&M there’s seemingly no reason it can’t match Efteling unless they’ve chosen not to.

Minecraft will be a good investment in this regard, their first 365 coaster. I wonder if this will influence what replaces Tiger Rock…
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We run trains, planes, cars and everything in between in what could be considered far worse hazardous conditions, granted, the reasons are more out of nessesity than for leisure, but the fact remains we (as humans) regularly run, much more hazardous machines in far more hazardous conditions. These are also machines that carry lots of people, but we manage it just fine.

When you look at it from that perspective, it is not that impressive really. It is something we are very well seasoned and experienced at doing. UK parks for whatever reason, seem to really struggle with.
 
Bowser said:
Minecraft will be a good investment in this regard, their first 365 coaster. I wonder if this will influence what replaces Tiger Rock…
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It'll still be weather dependent since it pops outside for a bit.

During the half term openings it was clear why the parks/rides struggled with the lower temperatures. 2ºC was the limit if I recall for the B&Ms and they felt like barely making it round.
 
I've done Air as it was when it was negative temps. The ride kept e-stopping as the train took too long to complete the circuit so the ride assumed it was stalled on circuit. Also with FHT openings at Towers, it was rarely busy enough to make it worth it.

Chessie and Lego are the only Merlin parks I can see it being worth opening properly at Christmas.
 
DistortAMG said:
I dont think it is impressive. It is the normal, expected. Standard operation.

The UK has just erroroded our expectations down so much however.
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It’s never been the normal standard operation in the UK, until recently theme parks closed end of October and opened in March.

To go closer to year round opening there would have to be huge investment in the parks. All coasters would need at least one extra train purchasing and somewhere to store it so you can have rolling strip down through the year. You also need the ability to change the wheels and oils on the coasters to be able to run in cold temperatures (it’s these that limit cold weather operations as different oils have different working temps and colder weather normally needs faster running wheels).

So no expectations have been eroded, in fact it’s the other way around, enthusiast and guest expectation on the operating calendar has increased and the parks would need some hefty investment to meet it.
 
I would agree that more rides should be opening in the cold, however I don't really think this is a merlin operating issue more of a manufacture issue, as the design of the rides

Take alton towers for example as that is the one I know best:

spinball has too short brake sections, meaning if ice were to build up it could be a serious risk,
thirteen has an uncovered tire drive lift hill along with quite a sensitivity to speed,
the smiler has stalling problems in high winds or low temperatures (could be helped by using harder wheel compound, but not sure how far that would go),
Rita probably could be best suited due to its use of magnetic braking, but has a mechanically complex launch and the cold could mess with it,
RMT may have ussues with ciing on its track, leading to the tire slipping,
and then there are the B&M's which probably could operate ( potentially better since nemesis has wheel warmers now) and as has been mentioned air has run (although perhaps some coding change to extend the timer for the stall warning at lower temperatures)

A lot of these issues are due to the design of the ride (probably mainly as they were never designed to run in winter conditions, as they expected a not 365 operations) and have similarities at other parks (such as the braking issue with dragon fury) and merlin not wanting to run the rides outside of operating parameters since the smiler incident.
 
Bowser said:
Coasters not operating below 6C is pathetic but I’m happy to give them kudos when you’re hitting freezing let alone below!
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It’s not pathetic at all. The manufacturers tell the parks that they can’t run the coasters in temperatures of 5c and below.

There are a small number of parks in mainland Europe who operate coasters in lower temperatures, but this is because they have specified to the manufacturers that they want their coasters to be able to run in lower temperatures, and presumably have paid a lot of extra money to allow for this.

Less than 5c is the standard temperature that coasters have to close in, and is far from pathetic. This is the case everywhere in the world. Phantasialand and Energylandia are the exception. Even parks like Polpsaland that open all winter also have the 5c restriction on the majority of their rides.
 
Am I the only one on here to see the wood from the trees.

As a nation, we tend not to do that many activities outdoors in the winter months, because our climate is both wetter and windier than our continental friends.

A couple of hours at a random "winter wonderland" maybe.

Whole days in theme parks in the UK winter are for dedicated thoosies and pass holders scraping out value only.

Not worth the pennies to put a major effort in when the market is small.
 
Taron in the snow was incredible, but yeah as discussed at length Phantasialand go above and beyond to get their coasters winter-ready. I can’t see Merlin ever going to the effort they go to with their winter operations.

That being said. Southern England rarely ever gets THAT cold, and out of all the non Legoland Merlin parks in the UK Chessington is the best placed for year round opening. If Merlin were going to make it work anywhere it would be there.
 
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