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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Certainly build lower capacity rides at the family orientated parks more than the thrill ones.

Legoland and Chessington have had an awful lot of poor throughput rides added over the years so you can sort of understand why people think that way.
 
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Got a lot to say, not much positive but I'll hold back. This goes so much deeper for me.

This is just going to be used as an anchor point to lock in Mojang's stupid Minecraft 'house code' (like a fashion house such as Gucci would have).

That's all for now.
 
Is Vampire still Chessington's highest capacity ride despite not running 3 trains which it can do. Maybe Gruffalo but its crazy if Vampire still is after 35 years of operation
 
Hid said:
Is Vampire still Chessington's highest capacity ride despite not running 3 trains which it can do. Maybe Gruffalo but its crazy if Vampire still is after 35 years of operation
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It wasn't when I went. I would actually have said Mandrill was their highest capacity coaster when I last visited, which I found surprising!

Vampire, on my last visit, was taking nearly 4 minutes between dispatches of a 24-rider train and only attaining around 400pph. Mandrill was taking around 3 minutes to dispatch a 28-rider train, leading to somewhere in the ballpark of 550-600pph.

I don't know if this was a particularly bad day, but those Vampire ops were probably some of the worst I've ever seen in a Merlin park. The platform was utterly understaffed, with only 2 poor staff members running the entire show of batching, checking restraints and dispatching.

Understaffing was a theme at Chessington that day, with 1 poor man also running the entire show on Tomb Blaster on his own. That ride, which I would argue should be relatively simple to get a good throughput on with large trains and a simple lap bar restraint, was resultantly taking 3+ minutes to dispatch.

From my (admittedly only one) recent experience there, Chessington is definitely Merlin's weakest link operationally. If operations and throughputs there are still anything like they were when I went in 2023, where many, if not most, major rides were getting 1 hour+ queues on a not excessively busy Sunday in September, they need a serious rocket up their backside prior to the arrival of Minecraft!
 
Jb85 said:
I’m pretty convinced this was originally planned for AT and Universals announcement changed that
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I am 110% certain it wasn’t planned for Towers, I may be convinced the CAPEX budget might have moved but it’s nothing to do with universal.

Mick said:
A £50m single investment must be unheard of in UK theme park recent history. Imagine what Towers could do with £50m…
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I really doubt this land has a £50m capital budget, I strongly suspect the entire Merlin groups IP Minecraft budget has been included in this.
 
Jumanji, Paw Patrol and then Minecraft is not a coincidence guys. This is very much a response to Universal in my eyes. 3 IPs too of course.

I dont think theyd have invested like this otherwise.

I bet Merlin had heard whispers of Universal coming a lot sooner than we first heard about it too. Im pretty sure I read somehere that Mandy at PB let it slip that she'd heard they may be interested in building in the UK long before we found out. Clearly word gets around if you live and work in that circle.
 
Benjsh said:
Jumanji, Paw Patrol and then Minecraft is not a coincidence guys. This is very much a response to Universal in my eyes. 3 IPs too of course.

I dont think theyd have invested like this otherwise.

I bet Merlin had heard whispers of Universal coming a lot sooner than we first heard about it too. Im pretty sure I read somehere that Mandy at PB let it slip that she'd heard they may be interested in building in the UK long before we found out. Clearly word gets around if you live and work in that circle.
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More likely a response to Paultons, the new investment is coming too soon for a Universal response. What do guests care about rides you installed in 2027 in 2031 when they are buying tickets for universal?

Merlin know they can’t compete with Universal.
 
The idea that land of the tiger will be the next expansion for Minecraft is a bit icky to me. I’m all for the IP and the current planned land but we don’t need to get greedy here and make a good chunk of the park Minecraft. It will then make Chessington the Minecraft theme park just like paultons park is called Peppa pig world.

Do it right, do it once and give me other worlds to explore.
 
What I would like to see after Minecraft, is a remake of Professor Burps Bubbleworks with some new scenes and remastered soundtrack that would be incredible
 
MattL27 said:
The idea that land of the tiger will be the next expansion for Minecraft is a bit icky to me. I’m all for the IP and the current planned land but we don’t need to get greedy here and make a good chunk of the park Minecraft. It will then make Chessington the Minecraft theme park just like paultons park is called Peppa pig world.
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That worked out pretty well for Paultons, doubling their attendance virtually overnight.

Matt N said:
If operations and throughputs there are still anything like they were when I went in 2023, where many, if not most, major rides were getting 1 hour+ queues on a not excessively busy Sunday in September, they need a serious rocket up their backside prior to the arrival of Minecraft!
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What’s the motivation? People will come anyway. People queue for 3+ hours for the big IP rides at Universal. They might complain, they might buy fast track but they still do it.

Clearly Merlin aren’t bothered by trip advisor reviews and so on, as long as the money is coming that’s more important than the overall customer experience.

Minecraft will have very long queues and you will like it.
 
Hid said:
Will this minecraft coaster feature Single Rider thats biggest thing missing from most rides particularly on Dragon's Fury
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Not clear at the moment but plans show three queues at the moment

It could be possible with RAP and FT in one queue like on Mandrill

It might be a sensible idea to do that but with Uncharted, there was one initially but it went in the first year or so.

I don't believe Single Rider is a big priority for Merlin to be honest, it's more of a bonus really...
 
Jb85 said:
Given the tide is effectively the same as thirteen - do we think we may see a drop track element? I think this would fit in with the Minecraft theme somewhat
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High doubtful as the plans didn’t show one, if I remember correctly it has a motion turntable element and an indoor backwards spike like on uncharted, it’s a short coaster in terms of track length
 
Bowser said:
What’s the motivation? People will come anyway. People queue for 3+ hours for the big IP rides at Universal. They might complain, they might buy fast track but they still do it.

Clearly Merlin aren’t bothered by trip advisor reviews and so on, as long as the money is coming that’s more important than the overall customer experience.

Minecraft will have very long queues and you will like it.
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The motivation would be that this country is not Japan, and I think people would be less likely to stand for incredibly long queues than at USJ, particularly for things that aren’t Minecraft.

Admittedly, I know you’ve only visited the Japan park, which is seemingly different, but I feel your impression of Universal is vastly exaggerated on the basis of my own multiple visits to Orlando. The Universal resort in Orlando does not tend to regularly get 3+ hour queues for rides unless they’re brand new. I would say that 2 hours tends to be a usual upper limit from my experiences at Universal Orlando, with some things not often exceeding an hour. The other key difference is that Universal Orlando also absolutely throws trains out at a level that rivals the likes of Europa Park, a feat which Chessington does not currently come close to matching. They do get some long queues, but they move quickly and do not tend to regularly exceed 2 hours, even for the most popular rides, unless the ride is brand new.

To back my post up with some data, the only ride at Islands of Adventure that averages over an hour is Hagrid’s and 6 rides tend to max out at over an hour with only Hagrid’s maxing out at over 2 (https://queue-times.com/parks/64/stats). No ride at Universal Studios Florida averages over an hour (the attractions that do are HHN attractions), and 6 rides tend to max out at over an hour (https://queue-times.com/parks/65/stats). Epic Universe is practically brand new, so I’m not sure it’s currently a fair case study.

I admittedly can’t speak for Japan, but queues at Universal Orlando are not regularly 3+ hours as you imply and they move quickly, even if they can be long. I’m also not sure why you specifically call out Universal when Disney queues in Orlando can be every bit as long.

Minecraft itself getting very long queues would not be unexpected, but I don’t think people would be as likely to stand for waiting multiple hours in slow-moving queues for the other attractions at Chessington.
 
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owenstreet7 said:
Not clear at the moment but plans show three queues at the moment

It could be possible with RAP and FT in one queue like on Mandrill

It might be a sensible idea to do that but with Uncharted, there was one initially but it went in the first year or so.

I don't believe Single Rider is a big priority for Merlin to be honest, it's more of a bonus really...
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Plans show that the main and FT queues will run side-by-side past interactive theming elements, whilst the RAP queue will just be a stairwell and bypass all of those. If they wanted, they could easily combine FT and RAP and have single riders going up the stairwell.
 
The park map has been updated. Exciting to see lots of new things coming! 3 major new themed lands in a UK park in less than 5 years is quite something!


From: https://x.com/chessingtonbuzz/status/2035650343841780106


Matt N said:
I’m also not sure why you specifically call out Universal when Disney queues in Orlando can be every bit as long.
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I had a brain fart as I did mean to say Disney as well. That only reiterates my point that people will queue for many hours and it’s not just a Japanese phenomenon. They were queuing for several hours at Alton Towers yesterday for decades old attractions and they keep coming back to do so. The evidence suggests long queues are not a detracting factor on attendance when either the price is right or the desire is high.

Epic doesn’t get a pass for being new in my opinion because Minecraft will be new. Comparing it to any of the Nintendo World locations seems fair. It will be incredibly popular and the throughput of the main attraction will likely be dismal for the main queue. That won’t stop record attendance.
 
Bowser said:
The park map has been updated. Exciting to see lots of new things coming! 3 major new themed lands in a UK park in less than 5 years is quite something!.
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They’ve got the new map up across the park too - just happen to be here today:

IMG-8956.jpg


Paw Patrol does not look like it needs until the rumoured May opening date to start operating but no testing going on today.

Park generally looking in a pretty good state although Sealion Bay and a few of the kids’ rides (eg Sea Dragons) desperately need a repaint.
 
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