• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Stuntman707 said:
Chessington must hold the record for the lowest throughput Mack ride in operation. (Tomb Blaster)
Click to expand...
Really? I'd have thought Tomb Blaster to be very high; I was under the impression that it was an omnimover ride, and Duel, which isn't an omnimover, apparently gets nearly 2,000 riders an hour!
 
Tomb Blaster is not an omnimover, it has several trains seating 30 people.
The target throughput of the ride (according to the A4 sheet of paper on display in the op cabin) is 500 if running 4 trains or just 400 if on 3 trains as it was for TST south. On that occasion they were allocating 1/3 RAP, 1/3 fastrack, 1/3 main queue. The main queue was therefore moving at a rate of less than 150 people per hr.
 
Oh wow, thanks for the info, guys; certainly a lower throughput than I was expecting! I did actually ride Tomb Blaster in 2014, but for some reason, I remembered it having a similar ride system to Disney's dark rides; obviously not!
 
Tomb Blaster is literally just a shadow of it’s former self, let alone when it was Terror Tomb or Fifth Dimension.

Ten years ago, the ride was generally being operated and maintained correctly with throughput likely reaching perhaps as much as 1000 PPH on five trains.

Nowadays the ride doesn’t run more than four and typically gets around 500 PPH and when you consider the current allocation of fastrack and RAP, the amount from the main queue is probably averaging around 250/300 per hour on peak/super peak days. All for what is now just a mediocre meaner around a metal shed building with delapidated Egyptian theming.

This ride used to be special but has been left to rot. And with redevelopment virtually next door it is likely the attraction is high up on the list of re-themed/replaced attractions.
 
They're now reaping the result of years of some of the worst park maintenance for a major park ever. For the scenic and effects I mean but some of the ride engineering too.

As well as the fact that Tomb Blaster's ride system is bespoke and the budget to keep it going healthily has probably been inadequate in the past, leading to a situation where it now needs 10x as much to keep it open. A bit like if you dont look after a car year by year, it will hit you with a bigger repair cost in the long run.
 
TakeYourMedicine said:
They're now reaping the result of years of some of the worst park maintenance for a major park ever.
Click to expand...


But that's the thing, tomb blaster is a result not of poor maintenance, it was poor choices and desions made when it was redone. They changed it from a good for younger children dark ride that was also pretty good at keeping the lines small, into well....a joke. Its poorly lit. And I dont mean oh theres a lightbulb out. I mean I can see half the bloody backstage stuff because you keep lights on with the brightness of the sun. The sets are just so so bad. I've seen dioramas made by children that look better. And to top it all off they even got rid of the challange of high score at the end of the ride. It used to be a season long thing. Then a week thing. Then a day now I dont even think it's used. I dont think it will be around in it's current form much longer.
 
I remember going on Tomb Blaster, many years ago, soon after it opened. I was blown away by the scale of the ride and sets. It really did feel like a blockbuster ride. Half of that impression was created by the lighting.

Nowadays, instead of enhancing the ride, the lighting actually makes it a worse experience.

It’s incredible to think that with 15 years of advancement, the ride operations, maintenance and presentation have all gone so far backwards. A sad comment on Merlin’s attitude to budgets and presentation.
 
Crawleyboy01 said:
But that's the thing, tomb blaster is a result not of poor maintenance, it was poor choices and desions made when it was redone. They changed it from a good for younger children dark ride that was also pretty good at keeping the lines small, into well....a joke. Its poorly lit. And I dont mean oh theres a lightbulb out. I mean I can see half the bloody backstage stuff because you keep lights on with the brightness of the sun. The sets are just so so bad. I've seen dioramas made by children that look better. And to top it all off they even got rid of the challange of high score at the end of the ride. It used to be a season long thing. Then a week thing. Then a day now I dont even think it's used. I dont think it will be around in it's current form much longer.
Click to expand...
The ride was still awful immediately before the 2016 refurbishment, only in a different way. The audio was still terrible, the lighting extremely poor, the scenes broken, all down to neglect. Everyone thought there was no way it could get into a worse state, and then they found a way!

When it first opened in 2002, it wasn't as good as Terror Tomb but it felt like a totally different ride to today. It was great.

The 2016 redo was another example of extremely poor maintenance in a way. It was supposed to be a refurbishment for the scenes, update the sound and lighting tech for longevity. But instead of restoring the ride (maintaining and improving it) it was shockingly poorly done. It managed to break more than it fixed and bathe the ride in glowing so-called "UV".

The sets are actually brilliant in the ride. Some of the best in this country, but like any dark ride it all relies on the right lighting and the effects actually working! It's had its time now after endless cheap refurbishments.
 
Last edited:
^ very reminiscent of Duel. Merlin seem to lack experts in this field and so we end up with poorly refurbished and maintained dark rides with excessive LED "UV", poor lighting etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top