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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

I just find it interesting that if we go back 2 weeks everyone was berating Chessi for closing so early.

I agree of course that it was closing ridiculously early for a night event but it could be that the reason they got away with so much lighting was because they told the financial department that they’d only be running it for half the time.
 
They owned the lighting well before the cuts to opening hours were even considered - not that electricity spent on lighting will be a thing.

Chessie just bought lighting at the right time when they had the right budgets. They were lucky, and their park looks gorgeous year-on-year now. Now, towers needs to take the hit and buy loads one year and they too can look gorgeous forever.
 
Not to belittle Chessington at all, but should also be remembered that Towers is much larger, so would require much more. Also, the infrastructure is all there at Chessie - they put a light somewhere, and can plug it in nearby. Not so at Alton, where generators galore would be needed.
 
Chessington does seem to have the smallest budget but they seem to stretch it very far. The decorations in the park and the lighting are the best at any UK park. Alton Towers are blessed with the fantastic towers but Chessington does a fab job to. I would hope that Chessington listened to customer comments and make the park open later on their Halloween event next year... That is one thing chessington does seem to do is listen to their customers!
 
It's all about budget allocation, Towers could run for one week and close at 7pm with one maze but have lovely lighting. Chessie could open longer have more attractions but less lighting and decoration.

Both Alton, Chessie and Thorpe could have amazing events if they where trusted with a budget worthy of one. It all gets back to Merlin, who will only give them good event budgets if profits are high.

For example in 2010 towers made £5 million profit and got a great all round event, in 2011 it struggled to make 1.5 million and had a mediocre event. Same happened this year and Towers choose mazes over lighting.

I honestly think both Towers and Chessie choose to spend their budgets wisely based on their demographics. Thorpe on the other hand seemed not to.
 
Based on those conditions Dave, I can imagine Thorpe being given 50p by Merlin, and told not to spend it all at once!

;D
 
With the most mazes (5, 4 of them being free) and the longest open times (whilst advertised at 9:30 - 9:00 the park often opened earlier / closed later) I guess thorpe must of had the biggest budget going by that? :p

In all seriousness i think each park spent their budgets in different ways, if it had been one big event it would of probably been near perfect!
 
simps100 said:
With the most mazes (5, 4 of them being free) and the longest open times (whilst advertised at 9:30 - 9:00 the park often opened earlier / closed later) I guess thorpe must HAVE had the biggest budget going by that? :p
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Thing about Thorpe is that their market (adolescents and young adults) will visit and stay very late into the night, riding rides at night, and doing the scare mazes with their mates.

Whilst Towers also have some of these guests, they have a much larger proportion of families, who are much more likely to leave earlier, though their opening times were still decent.

Chessie is the same, but with an even larger family market, though their times were just rubbish.
 
simps100 said:
With the most mazes (5, 4 of them being free) and the longest open times (whilst advertised at 9:30 - 9:00 the park often opened earlier / closed later) I guess thorpe must of had the biggest budget going by that? :p
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Thorpe have a team of Entertainments crew that work year round developing the park and ideas for Fright Nights. They also had a 2.7m budget in 2010. Not sure what it would be now.

Lets say Chessington get half the budget of towers, which considering it attracts roughly half in terms of visitor numbers, is a decent amount to assume. Chessington this year spent money on new gels for the lights, and then the rest of the new haunt in Transylvania, which had a hell of a lot of theming put into it! What did towers do with there's? A lot of flood lights that they could have put gels on and another new maze, seeing as they had the props from the other too. Seems to me that for it's budget, Alton did very little in comparison to Chessington who would have roughly half the budget...
 
It cost £40,000 just to put electricity into the West Wing of the Towers before you then factor in the costs of theming the maze. The flood lights are not allowed to have standard gels on they have to be glass which is expensive.

As I said I think Chessie did great with the budget they got given. I also think Towers did to considering they offer more of an event at a bigger park. As for Thorpe 3 of their mazes require no construction (asylum and Saw stay on park all year and Experiment 10 is craned in fairly fully fitted out). And Thorpe had no park lighting this year either. Mix that with the fact their mazes got terrible reviews.

I know you have issues with Towers Jarad but they produced 3 very well reviewed mazes this year, a Scare zone and family entertainment. Chessie produced great lighting and a very well reviewed scare attraction. Both did great with their budgets and I'm sure both will continue to do that.

Seems this is now just turning into the old rivalry debate between fans of each park.
 
I missed out on Chessie this year. Be sure to head their next year once I get my AP. It's decent. I think that's a good word to describe the place. Decent.

It has the best themes of all the Merlin parks I think. But the rides just let it down. Merlin should have put 13 in at Chessie.
 
Dave said:
Seems this is now just turning into the old rivalry debate between fans of each park.
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I resent this comment a little.

I'm not a fanboy of any park, and if I lean towards any, it would be Tower's being my most visited, and most local park.

I am also getting irritated by people forgetting that Alton charge extortionate amounts of money to even enter these mazes, some that will have more than made up for the investment they initially made.

Sanctuary was an investment, not some kind of benevolent gesture, and served also as marketing, very successfully I'd imagine for their new ride.

When you put them all head to head, sensible budget estimates against each other, for me I have to say Chessie do a better job.

You know why I became more of a fan of the park, even though it is 3 times as far away as Alton? Because it had a far better atmosphere, creativity, over all feeling of effort.

I also think that saying Alton's mazes got great reviews, well, that's using poetic license, whilst Thorpe seems to have been universally panned this year, Alton has also been given a lot of stick - but short of the opening hours nonsense (and it is nonsense, ludicrous decision), Chessie has pretty much once again been universally applauded.

I have no vested "fanboy" interest in Chessington at all (in fact, I was surprised how much I liked it, I expected to be bored by the place), AT is my "home" Merlin park - it annoys me quite frankly that Chessie does do a better job.

But.... and here's the kicker folks, it does.
 
TheMan said:
Dave said:
Seems this is now just turning into the old rivalry debate between fans of each park.
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I am also getting irritated by people forgetting that Alton charge extortionate amounts of money to even enter these mazes, some that will have more than made up for the investment they initially made.
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A point well raised. Can I also say, that not only does towers make money from the mazes, but there was some money put into the project by the heritage fund, which paid for power to be put in the west-wing of the towers, so, saying that that was part of Towers' Scarefest budget would be wrong.
 
I preferred this topic when it was a Chessington topic and not a Chessington Vs Alton Towers topic.

So, Zoo Days start tomorrow and run on weekends & (most) school holidays throughout closed season with the Zoo open from 10-3. Bubbleworks and Hocus Pocus Hall will be open too, but no mention of Seastorm this year. The Zoo days map also confirms that "The burger kitchen" will be replacing Burger King in Transylvania next season.

Opening times for next season are also available (though I very much doubt they're finalized). It's pretty much the same as this year really, 10-5 every day with an extra hour during school holidays.
 
Which was very much my point John, it gets tiring when these versus arguments progress.

And I never stated Towers did a benevolent anything TheMan, but neither do Chessington. their Halloween event is as much about putting money in the tills as Towers is and they both provide equal number of free attractions. Preference is fine but people need to stop comparing when the parks do not attempt to offer a comparable event. And I don't know why your bringing season based opening times into an debate that hasn't made any reference to closing or opening times. I refered to reviews about the mazes and Towers just like Chessington has had almost universal praise.

The Irony about all this is I actually posted to defend Chessington, though the kicker is it certainly doesn't get everything correct.
 
Dave I've been involved in this discussion since I joined, opening times were bought up numerous times. Something that was a frustration to those whom like to visit Chessie, their one major mistake. It was balancing the discussion.

I was on about the reviews of the Mazes also. The park lighting etc has been universally panned, mazes a more mixed bag - but certainly not as well received as you suggested. Chessies Halloween event is also free, and the misreporting about how the funds are A)Raised, and B)Spent were clearly not given a fair airing based on that Heritage point Jared makes (if true, not doubting, just don't have full facts personally).

Main difference - Chessies event is entirely free, Alton Towers apparently got heritage funding, a bigger budget, and invested in an attraction that will bring in significant extra revenue over a life span of a good few years - and that they charge quite exorbitantly for, as well as marketing the new ride, and having access to the most impressive piece of on location ready made theming of any park in this Country!

Alton Towers was a let down, and it should be hands down the best, as it has by far the best chance to make it so, of any of the other parks.

We should be letting both them, and especially Merlin know this in no uncertain terms, so that improvements can be made that will ultimately only benefit them in the long term anyway!
 
Again I'm not sure where this mixed bag of reviews has come from, The Sanctuary and TotT got great reviews both on and off this forum and Carnival was mixed.

Alton Towers provide at their event for free:
1 Scare Maze (often considered one of the best Scaremazes in Europe)
1 Scare Zone
1 children's activity area
1 show

Considering Thorpe increase the price of park entry for Frightnights and charge for one maze and chessingtons offering is smaller I don't actually think Towers charge all that much.

So can we stop with the altruism of Chessington, they did a good event, one to be proud of but not a saintly display of free good will to their guests. The powering of the west wing was not paid for by the heritage fund though I believe some of the emergency lighting was as it was needed for the area anyway.

Towers could and need to extend their park lighting, Thorpe need to improve their mazes and Chessie need to extend opening. Fair criticism for all parks I think.
 
I wont debate the reviews, as that's pointless, they're there for everyone to read and draw their own conclusions from, as I did, as well as my own less than impressive run throughs (it's been suggested, I had bad ones though, highly possible as a theme with AT mazes was most certainly, inconsistency).

Not being Altruistic about Chessie either, they had their share of criticism, but most on this thread believe they get an unfair set of rules - from locals, planners, and especially Merlin. I speak as I find with no prejudice or prejudgements.

With the rest though Dave, I agree, I enjoyed Thorpes mazes last year, but did not get there this - but they seem to have been panned. I enjoyed them last year, more than Altons this year, and it was my first time around any AT mazes, so they had no boredom or familiarity attached.

Chessies mazes last year, were very kids - but their atmosphere they generate, was amazing.

What is clear, Merlin squeezed them all this year, and as a result, each event suffered. For that I hope we can universally condemn Merlin's actions and the negative effects it had on all the parks showcase events, and hope next year we get to see all their parks at their best.
 
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