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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

CoasterCrazyChris said:
Shame there doesn't seem to be any classic signage or props from 1990 as that would be worth having if the price was right.
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From the looks of things, the only item I think hasn't been touched are the giant feet. I originally thought the bookcase, but I noticed it was painted differently in it's original incarnation.

Sigh. I'm still looking forward to the day I somehow build a time machine and go back in time to experience rides such as the original and record it with a modern camera, then post it online and make up a story about finding a camera from Japan that happened to have footage of the ride from 1990. I'm still looking forward to it.
 
Most of the original theming was trashed in the refurb. Especially all the hand painted posters in the station, they were just painted over then a print-off glued on top. :(
 
Half eaten biscuits though. For all we know they were nibbled on by a mouse and that's why they are being given away.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Half eaten biscuits though. For all we know they were nibbled on by a mouse and that's why they are being given away.
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I changed my mind, the biscuits are too valuable. I'll give 10p and John Wardley's birth certificate. (Don't ask me how I got it, I have my ways).
 
Was there today, these bits of infomation may be old new's to some but I had never noticed before the sign on Dragons Fury that says maximum of three adults, I would be interested to know how much they act upon that as it seems pretty ridiculous. I have never known this to be a problem before on any spinning coaster, if its to do with weight what are they going to do if its three adults and a fat kid?

Another ridculous thing I noticed included being at the front of the queue for Rameses and after not counting the guests boarding the ride the ride op sends us down to get on the ride when there was no room (which I understand sh*t happens and its not a biggie), so we come back up, but instead of just closing the gate when we were back up at the front of the queue, they locked it with a a padlock!?! Talk about over kill! Can they really not trust their guests that much to not open the gate whilst they arn't there (especially on a ride like Rameses where you can't get to another section of proper queue as you are right next to the ride unlike something like Vampire or Dragons Fury which all have a gate which then leads to a further section of queue).

We also saw a couple infront of us on Rattlesnake have to sit one in one section each of the train because from what I could see the guy was bigger than her and they did'nt like the fact the restraint gave her some space to move, when they originally sat down next to each other the ride ops asks her to stand up when she was sitting in the train with the restraint down, which she could'nt because there was not that much between her and the restraint but they still made them take up the entire train but making her sit in the back, what a joke! All these things arn't going to help there bad throughputs and with their rides being less than relyable (Dragons Fury broke down twice whilst queueing for it and both Vampire and Rameses broke down at one point whilst queueing for them) this really helps beef up those queue lengths along with huge numbers of fast-trackers making today, in the heat more a test of endurance at times espeically with the near 2 hour queue for Vampire! (if it wasn't for the fact we were so close to getting on when it broke down I am sure we would of buggered off to do something else.

Queue time boards were all over the place saying things that didn't match the actual ride at all which I know can be common but it seemed to be happen a stupid amount with rattlesnake claiming to be 60 mins but being nearer 20, vampire 60 when it was nearer double etc. The heat as well was pretty grawling making the day far from my best at the park, infact probably my worst. They also seemed like they could'nt wait to get rid of us at the end of the day with Rameses only running a half cycle.

It wasn't all doom and gloom though some of the staff were very friendly especially the staff in the Mexicana Cantine and some areas of the parks had a nice atmosphere, especially mystic east although Dragons Falls looks terrible without a facade. Food was nice and the tickets I had were free so I can't complain too much, just a shame they had to be for such a peak summer holidays day.
 
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With dragons fury (and spinball), it is now limited to three adults, but only two passengers in bad weather, which is ridiculous. If there is a group of four adults, they are split into pairs, and a single rider goes with each.

I went on rattlesnake with my dad a few weeks ago (for reference, he's a massive man, whilst I'm a thin teenager), and the ops tried to sit us in the same row (no idea why they even try this, why do both people need to be in the same row?). It used to be fine like this, but last time they asked if I could stand, which I did with ease. They then pushed the bar down as far as it could go, to the point my dad could hardly breath, before giving up and putting him in the second row. This must kill the throughput - loading two at a time is bad enough, but then you get people changing rows and attempting to stand.
 
On the "generic wild mouse" at Holiday Park [Holly's Wilde Autofart], they have foam tubes they can slip over the lap bar to solve this issue of a large adult riding with a small child. The tube goes on the kid's side and means that both riders are held in tight.
 
I'm glad you've said that Benzin. I was going to say...

Marcus, I don't mean to be blunt, but you can't honestly tell me, hand on heart, that you think every guest can be trusted not to unlock a gate whilst the ride is going round? Particularly when the lock is so clearly visible. A lot of parks do similar things. They have a padlock on Toadstool too, and a lot of other rides, at various parks, have sensors on the gates to prevent anyone from being able to open them whilst the rides are going round. A padlock isn't overkill at all. Sadly not everyone in this world has as much common sense and you or me.
 
In a world where everyone was intelligent enough to know that running into the ride area of a large, fast-spinning, metal object was a bad idea, it would be overkill. Unfortunately, you will always get people who would run into the ride area given the opportunity. So while it is overkill as far as normal people are concerned, it sends a powerful message that the area is off limits and potentially dangerous.

Also, if someone did jump the fence and get killed by the ride, chessington can say that they did take measures to ensure it shouldn't happen and the person was aware they were entering a restricted area. If the only reason for it is to protect merlin from any potential idiots getting decapitated, then it's a good enough reason.
 
I must admit that, although I take massive issue with these ridiculous fences being erected everywhere at Towers, I actually feel more comfortable and at ease with some of the aforementioned precautions. Dragons Fury adult limits may be a little OTT but the Rattlesnake restraint precautions and padlocks on gates to ride areas seem perfectly reasonable common sense precautions to me.
 
I agree with you on why they do it as they need to cover themselves, however I feel in these examples they have gone too far espeically as there are other areas of the park that you could clearly do more damage to yourself far easier. It feels very untrusting in your guests to have those type of precautions. I understand the safety precautions need to be suitable for the stupidest of guests, not claiming to be any kind of brainiac, but these precautions come off as overkill if you ask me. Where do you draw the line with it?

I could be on dragons falls then decide I am just going to climb out and jump off because I can, splating in a heap on the ground, there maybe signs to cover themselves telling me not to do it but why wasn't there a net around the entire top section of the ride to catch me as it is so easy to climb out of? Or I could be on monkey swinger and decide "ow look Kobra has a short queue, bugger this I am getting off" (not that I would ever do that as I much prefer Monkey Swinger to Kobra :p) undo myself and splat in a heap, why was it that a guest could go on a ride and undo themselves like that? If these people are that stupid, you have to question how they function day to day, and what they are doing at a theme park as it sounds like they are about to meet their demise round every corner no matter what you do.

Precautions I am for, but you need to trust your guest with some common sense. Just my opinion though. :)
 
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