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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Rameses going looks like a big loss on paper but in reality the ride has been rubbish for absolutely ages. Mid scale drop towers are a very mixed bag though, any indication as to who's making this one?

This makes FOUR top spins removed from Merlin parks in 5 years. If you'd asked me back then I'd never have guessed Rameses would be the last one standing.
 
Should be a really good addition to the park! I had a feeling the removal of Rameses would ruffle a few feathers, but a thing that I think is worth pointing out is that I don't think Chessington is really a thrill park as such anymore. I think that they're pushing their family attributes more now in a similar way to parks like Paultons Park and Drayton Manor, and I'd say they arguably have been for many years now.

In fact, I'd argue that Rameses Revenge was perhaps one of the few true thrill additions ever made to Chessington. I know the park added Samurai back in the late 1990s, but that was very quickly relocated to Thorpe Park and replaced with Peeking Heights, a far more family-centred ride. I can definitely see a case for considering Vampire and Dragon's Fury thrill rides, but I'd personally class them more towards the upper end of family and the newest of those two was built 15 years ago. Come to think of it, I suppose there is Kobra, but even that was 9 years ago and I'd potentially even consider that a family thrill ride. The point I'm trying to get across is that I'm not sure if Chessington has ever been a park that's catered to thrillseekers in the same way that parks like Thorpe Park and Alton Towers do, at least not within the last 5-10 years or so. I admit that some of that has perhaps been forced upon them due to a combination of their planning restrictions and close proximity to Thorpe Park, but the point I'm trying to get across is that I personally think that this new tower ride will perhaps be a better fit for Chessington's current audience than Rameses is; I always thought that Rameses seemed a little out of place within modern day Chessington, personally.

As for manufacturer, could it potentially be an SBF Visa Group Drop'n'Twist like Magma at Paultons Park? I think that is also 25m tall and the seating design is similar; it's also quite a family-orientated ride.
 
Rick said:
Let's hope it's not Detonator...

How do they compare height wise?
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Detonator is 115ft (roughly 35m) tall. This tower is 25.5m tall (roughly 83-84ft), but will be dug into the ground so that it only stands 22m (roughly 72ft) above ground.
 
Rameses has been dying for years, and once the queue line was deemed unsafe, it's existence was pretty pointless...

Don't even remember the last time I rode it, but a drop tower is certainly a better alternative... Even in old style Chessie fashion it's a sensible addition to bridge that gap between small and big attractions...
 
Also, as a useful indicator of timescale for this development; Rameses will apparently be removed at the end of this season, with Flying Jumbos also being relocated for the 2020 season. Construction will take place during the 2020 season with the ride opening in 2021. At least that's what I've heard, anyway.
 
Worth noting that this is planned to open in 2021 (it's buried in the planning docs). Rameses will be removed and Flying Jumbos will be relocated (to the site of the old carousel) this closed season, then work will start on construction during 2020.

This seems like another drop in capacity for the park, top spins seat around 40 people I believe and the drop tower will seat 16. With fastrack and RAP allocation I would forsee a very slow moving regular queue. Especially as this ride will likely be more popular due to a lower height restriction and the fact it will be new and everyone will want to give it a go.
 
@AT86 Number of seats isn't a useful metric on its own, only with cycle time can you use it to judge capacity.

I've seen Detonator outpace Colossus on capacity before now.
 
In theory it should run more cycles per hour than Rameses typically manages (I've seen that take 15min/cycle in the past) but it's certainly not going to help with the park's chronic lack of capacity. It won't be fun to wait for if it's operated at 1/3 FT, 1/3 RAP, 1/3 main queue, which at Chessington is a distinct possibility.
 
RicketyCricket said:
Wardley's Chessington is finished, Vampire is our only hope.
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I think Vampire's current condition is a good example of how that period ended a looooong time ago sadly!

This has the potential to be fantastic. It makes a good change having good ideas coming into the park, but will it turn out to be good in reality as well? That's what let down Tiger Rock, Scorpion and Room on the Broom, great ideas that turned out mediocre.
 
Doublethink said:
If merlin were serious about capacity they would have put two in in parallel like Dr Dooms Fearfall
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It's not a huge site, but sure. If they were really really really serious about capacity they could put in a four tower S&S contraption.

The original plan was to have two Detonator towers, but it never came to pass because it just wasn't worth it in the end.
 
Bit of comedy for the endangered Merlin flat...

https://forum.maniahub.com/topic/11983-save-rameses-revenge-campaign/

Hi all,

I have been inspired to join this forum by the unprecedented threat to our nation's theme park heritage by Rameses Revenge being taken out of service.

As the UK's only top-spin ride, it is clear that it is an 'endangered species' in the theme park industry.

I propose we launch a campaign to save the ride. There are four steps:

1) We need to contact Historic England, and inform them of the loss to our culture and heritage that is underway. We should draw parrellels to historic rides that are already listed. Historic England have listed several already which creates an obligation on the owners to preserve them. Don't forget RR drew the largest ever crowds to Chessington when it opened and it has a distinctly post-modern architectural theme which it of national significance.
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1436080

2) We should also involve the 20th Century society who are leading the charge for the Listing of relatively newer buildings.

3) We should establish a petition. But first we need to consider who would be best to pressure? Local MP? Kingston Council? Historic England themselves?

4) One we have done this, we release a press release highlighting the issue and the formation of a community group (That's us!) to save the UK's last top-spin, explaining all the above, directing people to our petition. We can easily get into the Mail Online and other widely read online publications if we follow the steps above.

Who's in?
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