MattyH
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- GIIBBB
So the day after Legoland, we headed to Chessington.
We arrived at the park about 9:30 and parked in the Merlin pass car park.
Straight in through the turnstiles once they opened, and nipped to the loos before joining the queue for Dragon's Fury, this opened about 10 minutes past 10, and we waited about 5 minutes before riding it.
We then headed around the corner towards Monkey Swinger and Kobra. I opted for Monkey Swinger, one of my favourite flat rides in the UK while a couple of others from my family went to do Kobra. I queued about 5 minutes for this and then decided on a second go on the Swinger.
Next, we wandered around to Tiger Rock for a ride on the refurbished log flume. It might have a couple of flaws but as an overall retheme the area was nicely done. The enclosure is bigger than I had previously thought and there's plenty of room for the tigers to move about. We queued about 40 minutes to get on this ride.
After this ride, we headed to the Mexicana area and queued for Rattlesnake, which advertised a 60 minute wait but we were on within 45 minutes, We then moved onto Scorpion Express which advertised a 30 minute wait and we queued 15 minutes. The themeing in this area is still looking great and I love the audio in the Queue for Scorpions Express.
Moving round to the Forbidden Kingdom area, the rest of the family decided to go on Tomb Blaster, but not being a fan of the ride, I opted to miss that ride out, instead I decided to try out Ramses Revenge, the first time I sat on the front row in the middle, the ride was running a sequence of 4/5 Invesions and then holding you in the fountains for an age before finishing, it felt a bit disappointing that there weren't more inversions in my opinion. Having loved this and found that the family weren't off Tomb Blaster, I went for a second go, this time on the back row in the middle, which got me unacceptably wet, so being the wise man that I am, I headed around for a third time in the same position.
By the time I came off I was absolutely soaked, but I had a lot of fun. I was hoping to purchase food from the Chicken place here but unfortunately there was a big queue so I decided not to bother. Once the family emerged from Tomb Blaster, we headed around to Zufari and queued about 20 minutes for this. I noticed that the camera point has now been set up just before the station rather than half way through the queue as it was last time I rode the ride.
We then meandered around the zoo areas looking at all the animals and saw some of the smaller creatures being fed, which was really good. Walking around through the Penquins and with time getting on, we decided to head to Gruffalo which was advertising a 60 minute queue, we queued for about 10 minutes before it had been announced that the ride had broken down, after a further 5 minute wait to see if it would come back quickly, we decided to abandon the queue, to find that another member of our party had been given Fasttrack for Vampire by someone who was leaving the park.
So we joined the Vampire Fasttrack queue which was a new experience for me, we joined the queue at the point where the queue time was advertised as 30 minutes, but within 5 minutes we were let through and on the ride, where the staff were working hard to increase throughput.
After our flight on Vampire we headed around to Gruffalo which had been fixed and we queued from pretty much the same spot we had left at and queued for about 30 minutes before getting on the ride. Once we were in the indoors queue, we noticed the queueline was getting rather dirty, but I suppose this is the result of several hours of people dragging dirt in from outside and there's not much else that can be done. This was a good ride, and the first time for one of our party on the ride, he noted how because of the way the boats turned, half the time you're sat looking at nothing.
A quick exit from this ride and down the hill to join the 100 minutes queue for Vampire, which was queued right the way back to the graveyard by the entrance to the queue. We made nice progress through the queue and when we reached the station, the staff were attempting to let the queue self batch, although faff insued. We got to sit on the back row, which was well worth the wait.
As we left the park I reflected on my time and why Chessington is one of my personal favourite parks to visit, the place has lots to see and do with the rides nicely spread out but not too spread out so that you have to walk for ages between the rides, there's enough for all ages to see and do. I hope the place gets continued investment from Merlin, one of the things we thought off as we drove away was that it's probably easier and quicker for people who live in Northern France to get to Chessington via the Chunnel then it is for them to get to places like Parc Asterix and Disney etc.
We arrived at the park about 9:30 and parked in the Merlin pass car park.
Straight in through the turnstiles once they opened, and nipped to the loos before joining the queue for Dragon's Fury, this opened about 10 minutes past 10, and we waited about 5 minutes before riding it.
We then headed around the corner towards Monkey Swinger and Kobra. I opted for Monkey Swinger, one of my favourite flat rides in the UK while a couple of others from my family went to do Kobra. I queued about 5 minutes for this and then decided on a second go on the Swinger.
Next, we wandered around to Tiger Rock for a ride on the refurbished log flume. It might have a couple of flaws but as an overall retheme the area was nicely done. The enclosure is bigger than I had previously thought and there's plenty of room for the tigers to move about. We queued about 40 minutes to get on this ride.
After this ride, we headed to the Mexicana area and queued for Rattlesnake, which advertised a 60 minute wait but we were on within 45 minutes, We then moved onto Scorpion Express which advertised a 30 minute wait and we queued 15 minutes. The themeing in this area is still looking great and I love the audio in the Queue for Scorpions Express.
Moving round to the Forbidden Kingdom area, the rest of the family decided to go on Tomb Blaster, but not being a fan of the ride, I opted to miss that ride out, instead I decided to try out Ramses Revenge, the first time I sat on the front row in the middle, the ride was running a sequence of 4/5 Invesions and then holding you in the fountains for an age before finishing, it felt a bit disappointing that there weren't more inversions in my opinion. Having loved this and found that the family weren't off Tomb Blaster, I went for a second go, this time on the back row in the middle, which got me unacceptably wet, so being the wise man that I am, I headed around for a third time in the same position.
By the time I came off I was absolutely soaked, but I had a lot of fun. I was hoping to purchase food from the Chicken place here but unfortunately there was a big queue so I decided not to bother. Once the family emerged from Tomb Blaster, we headed around to Zufari and queued about 20 minutes for this. I noticed that the camera point has now been set up just before the station rather than half way through the queue as it was last time I rode the ride.
We then meandered around the zoo areas looking at all the animals and saw some of the smaller creatures being fed, which was really good. Walking around through the Penquins and with time getting on, we decided to head to Gruffalo which was advertising a 60 minute queue, we queued for about 10 minutes before it had been announced that the ride had broken down, after a further 5 minute wait to see if it would come back quickly, we decided to abandon the queue, to find that another member of our party had been given Fasttrack for Vampire by someone who was leaving the park.
So we joined the Vampire Fasttrack queue which was a new experience for me, we joined the queue at the point where the queue time was advertised as 30 minutes, but within 5 minutes we were let through and on the ride, where the staff were working hard to increase throughput.
After our flight on Vampire we headed around to Gruffalo which had been fixed and we queued from pretty much the same spot we had left at and queued for about 30 minutes before getting on the ride. Once we were in the indoors queue, we noticed the queueline was getting rather dirty, but I suppose this is the result of several hours of people dragging dirt in from outside and there's not much else that can be done. This was a good ride, and the first time for one of our party on the ride, he noted how because of the way the boats turned, half the time you're sat looking at nothing.
A quick exit from this ride and down the hill to join the 100 minutes queue for Vampire, which was queued right the way back to the graveyard by the entrance to the queue. We made nice progress through the queue and when we reached the station, the staff were attempting to let the queue self batch, although faff insued. We got to sit on the back row, which was well worth the wait.
As we left the park I reflected on my time and why Chessington is one of my personal favourite parks to visit, the place has lots to see and do with the rides nicely spread out but not too spread out so that you have to walk for ages between the rides, there's enough for all ages to see and do. I hope the place gets continued investment from Merlin, one of the things we thought off as we drove away was that it's probably easier and quicker for people who live in Northern France to get to Chessington via the Chunnel then it is for them to get to places like Parc Asterix and Disney etc.