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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

The truck looks nice but there doesn't seem to be very many animals for a safari?

Kilimanjaro Safaris has around 35 different types of animals, and people will only ever go on this sort of ride for the animals (there is a reason why the story was removed from Kilimanjaro Safaris)

Not convinced about this attraction yet.
 
The lack of animals does look very disappointing. As I said before I've not been following this really but that plan above suggests there are only going to be Flamingos, Giraffes and Rhinos? That's hardly a safari!

:)
 
BigAl said:
Also, is the Safari Trail Phase 3 section on the plans an area that Chessington would like to expand the Zufari attraction into in the future?
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Safari Trail Phase 3 is Zufari.

There will be White Rhino, Rothschild Giraffe, Blesbok, Flamingo's, Grevy's Zebra and Ostriches. There are also plans to add African Elephants, Buffalo and hopefully more. It's all about being patient, Chessington just don't have the budget of Disney.
 
Zak said:
Again my only concern is using petrol/diesel.. I really would have thought it would been more effective and beneficial for the park if the cars followed some kind of track based off electric, Obviously still having the attendant on board being able to stop the vechical if a animal gets in the way but surly this is more beneficial in the long run too?
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Don't forget, these vehicles will be unlicensed, and won't run on public road (they'll only be used in Chessington), so they can be fuelled with 'red diesel', or rebated diesel (diesel with a greatly reduced rate of tax), which is much much cheaper than standard diesel which a normal vehicle would use. In terms of diesel, I can't imagine the costs will be noticeably greater than that for a train, such as Legoland's Orient Expedition, or Thorpe's defunct CCR.
 
Or they could be run on LPG, LPG works wonders in larger vehicles that do some mileage , had quite a few come into the petrol station where I worked. Conversion costs a few grand but the milage the trucks would be doing it would be worth it.
 
Yeh, but then you'd have to look into the costs of storing LPG on site (as you'd want to keep these vehicles on private land, to avoid road tax etc.), which would be very expensive, whereas diesel's easy, and almost certainly already stored on site for the Landscape, Facilities and Zoo(?) teams (jet washers, wood chippers, Gators if they use them, etc.).

Plus, fairly sure the planning application detailed diesel vehicles :p
 
I think red diesel was never in question for Merlin but unthought that was for just agricultural vehicles and not anything off road?


-Sent from a mobile phone-
 
The HMRC website has a list of 'excepted vehicles' which are permitted to use rebated fuel, including the following:

8. Excepted vehicles

8.2 Unlicensed vehicles not used on public roads
A vehicle that is not used on the public road and has no licence under the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 is an excepted vehicle. If a vehicle has become untaxed since 31 January 1998 it requires a Statutory Off-Road Notification (SORN). Such vehicles will be eligible to use red diesel if a SORN declaration has been made. Unlicensed vehicles that do not require a SORN (including unregistered vehicles that have never used the public road) will continue to be able to use red diesel without a SORN declaration if kept off-road.
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Think that'd include these vehicles. Certainly red diesel isn't limited just to agriculture.
 
Aside from the diesel discussion, am I right to think that there's gonna be a cave scene as well? Or have I gone mad?
 
Tom said:
It Is interesting that the vehicles are for public use though.
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Yup. But the law doesn't exclude it from public use, just excludes it from being on roads.. as the fuel tax was designed originally to pay for the roads and roads only.

I imagine the cost will be rather similar to an electricity hungry ride really - like Sub Terra (think how many tellies etc it has).
 
This is going to be interesting operationally, then, as they won't just be able to rota standard R&A ops into it, they'll require staff with at least a standard driver's licence and quite possibly something more for driving a vehicle of that size with lots of members of the public?
 
Magrathea said:
This is going to be interesting operationally, then, as they won't just be able to rota standard R&A ops into it, they'll require staff with at least a standard driver's licence and quite possibly something more for driving a vehicle of that size with lots of members of the public?
Click to expand...

Merlin are advertising for Zufari Expedition Drivers so there will be separate drivers, and the R&A Hosts. I would assume that's how they are likely to run it.

I am very much looking forward to this - just the right thing that Chessington needs! Bring on March! :)
 
Oh goody. Clearly the depressing little prison enclosures weren't enough, now guests will get driven through these animals' personal space stinking them up with exhaust fumes just so little jimmy can scream at a scared rhino and mummy can distress a flamingo with her flashy camera. Good to know that Chessington have their captive animals' best interests at heart.
 
It's nothing different to drive thru safari's and experiences, which exist happilly worldwide

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