Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Here you go:
I think this image pretty much sums it up......
Picture from Coasterforce on Twitter.
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Islander
TS Member
Somehow photos manage to make it look far, far worse than it really is. Of course the fact that lovely theming has been plastered over rather than restored is terrible, but honestly, in person, it really doesn't look too bad, and if you didn't know what preceded it I think you'd be none the wiser...
ChristmasPud
TS Member
This is the ethos by which Merlin makes huge success out of mediocre entertainment
Their hotels are cheap N' nasty, compared to even something like the Splash Landings hotel 15 years ago. Their themed rides and areas underinvested in. But they will charge more & more because by now enough of the public are brand loyal and know no better.
Everything at Chessington is 'alright' and 'average', when it could easily be amazing and different.
Leaving rides/parks in a shocking state for a decade, then tarting up to feel good by comparison is a really lazy approach that I think should be called out
It's really not difficult to make a better tunnel than what was done on a low budget 30 years ago, these things add up and the ride on the whole is just patchy. Fantastic station, but poor area and an incomplete experience really.
ChristmasPud
TS Member
It was falling apart for about 15 years and the park had all that time to rebuild it, same with the rest the scenery. In its first season it was grey/unpainted concrete (rather like now) but was intended to be painted, ran out of time I guess since the whole park was being built in one go.
The area on the whole is just pretty cheaply invested in as usual. As a tunnel on its own it isn't horrendous, it's just.... nothing. Nice idea that a feature has been put back inside it but again isn't as good as what had been in there 30 years ago, which is just strange.
Tim
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Air / Blue Fire
The sad thing about Chessington is the parks design is basically the same as Disney’s Animal Kingdom... only Chessington did it first! There’s no reason why with the correct investment (and remember Merlin is second to Disney) that Chessington couldn’t be a smaller versions with all the charm and character that makes Animal Kingdom one of my favourite parks. All the resent investments since Wild Asia have clearly been heading this way but they’ve forgotten one of Animal Kingdoms core philosophy’s; fences everywhere does not build a believable environment.
The Lorikeet Lagoon did a good job of this but I’ll never understand why Zufari hid the entire animal exhibit behind fences when not on the ride. Just imagine how much better that ride would be if the queue was part of the experience, letting you spy on the animals before you got up close!
The Lorikeet Lagoon did a good job of this but I’ll never understand why Zufari hid the entire animal exhibit behind fences when not on the ride. Just imagine how much better that ride would be if the queue was part of the experience, letting you spy on the animals before you got up close!
Alsty
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Shambhala
Agreed. I've always found it crazy that the White Rhinos, a near-threatened species, can only be seen when you're on Zufari. People who can't or don't want to ride cannot see them, and also means throughout the winter you cannot see them at all during their "zoo days" either. That seems like an oversight for a park built up from its zoological heritage.
Smilertron
TS Member
I was generally impressed with the Park itself, it had been years since i had been. However, i was very disappointed with Zufari. Just didn't seem to be many animals at all.
Zufari seems to be one of the most ludicrous concepts I've ever seen. Add a path to the outside of the exhibit so you can walk and get a view of the animals. People can get a break from queuing. Helping Keep the capacity of other rides. The jeeps running through the centre for an up close guided tour, it's fun and should still attract a queue.
Sorted. Won't sell fast tracks though.
Sorted. Won't sell fast tracks though.
MaxPower
TS Member
Sorting out the mud bath that they call a car park has to be a major priority in the future if at all possible.
For a park the size and stature of CWOA to use a muddy field for parking and then have the nerve to charge you for it is nothing short of farcical.
I do vaguely remember being told years ago that the park either doesn't own the land or can't tarmac it due to green belt law, but I could be wrong.
Either way, there must be a better alternative.
For a park the size and stature of CWOA to use a muddy field for parking and then have the nerve to charge you for it is nothing short of farcical.
I do vaguely remember being told years ago that the park either doesn't own the land or can't tarmac it due to green belt law, but I could be wrong.
Either way, there must be a better alternative.
Yeah the car parks, in fact the entire site, is green belt, they only get away with developments inside the park because the park pre-dates the green belt designation, iirc. That's why there is that huge area by the South entrance that remains a big grassy undeveloped picnic area.
Bert2theSpark
TS Member
And yet they can keep building hotels? But they can't find anywhere to build a proper car park. Odd. 
Alsty
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Shambhala
I hate that grass car park. I normally finish the day with a drink in the hotel so I always used to try and sneak in the tarmacked car park, but they recently started clamping down on it and now you can only use it if you're actually staying in the hotel. On one of my recent stays I was forced to get out my car, get the paperwork out the boot and present it before the parking attendant would let me drive through!
Nowadays I just get the train unless I'm staying in the hotel - beats queueing in all that traffic too.
Nowadays I just get the train unless I'm staying in the hotel - beats queueing in all that traffic too.
I'm of that age where I take no notice of spotty teenager car park attendants who aren't even old enough to drive but still know how I should park my car and generally turn left immediately after the barrier in the South entrance and go into that unmarked carpark, or ignore their motioning and drive through the cones into Zebra carpark, last time I went they tried to send me into the mud pits and I told them to do one.
MakoMania
TS Member
I hate it when people are nasty and judgemental towards staff for no reason whatsoever.
So shoot me, when a kid tells me to go and park in a waterlogged field and nearly 30 years of driving experience tells me that is not a good idea because I will get stuck, I'm going to side with what my life experience tells me and not what the kid who isn't even old enough to drive tells me to do.
You know, it's called common sense, and who said anything about being rude and judgemental about it? If they actually speak to me instead of waving their arms in a dictatory way, I politely tell them I'm not parking in the waterlogged field and will park in the hard standing MAP car park, where I'm entitled to park normally.
So are you guys seriously saying if you were told to park in a waterlogged field by someone not even old enough to drive, you would? More fool you.
You know, it's called common sense, and who said anything about being rude and judgemental about it? If they actually speak to me instead of waving their arms in a dictatory way, I politely tell them I'm not parking in the waterlogged field and will park in the hard standing MAP car park, where I'm entitled to park normally.
So are you guys seriously saying if you were told to park in a waterlogged field by someone not even old enough to drive, you would? More fool you.