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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Sorry I meant in response to the idea that changing it into a theme park ruined the zoo in Matt’s post, didnt spot your post. The redevelopment did it a favour.
 
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TakeYourMedicine said:
Sorry I meant in response to the idea that changing it into a theme park ruined the zoo in Matt’s post, didnt spot your post. The redevelopment did it a favour.
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It wasn't actually me that said that the theme park ruined the zoo, as I don't actually think it did; areas of Chessington Zoo such as ZUFARI are particularly nice, and the other enclosures are definitely good for the animals that live in them. It's my Nan who's always been against Chessington becoming a theme park. She says that she thinks that the rides going round would stress the animals out; to be fair, the last time she visited was when Safari Skyway was being built, so she probably presumes that the rides and animals are very close to one another. Even so, I think she's a bit against the rides+animals combo in general, although that might have something to do with the fact that she's always loved zoos and animal attractions, whereas she's never been to a theme park and has never had any plans to do so.

Let's just say, she was slightly horrified when I described modern-day Chessington to her. When she said about the things she used to like doing there when it was still solely a zoo (which included seeing the elephants and other animals, riding the land train and getting tea & cake from the mansion in the middle, amongst other things), she wasn't very happy to hear that most of them no longer existed. The modern-day entrance fee also horrified her given that she apparently used to pay £3.50 to get in! The statement that perhaps sums up her opinion on modern-day Chessington came when I told her about how they were adding Land of the Tiger for 2018. She said, and I quote; "They're marketing tigers as an attraction now? When I visited, they were just there!"
 
Matt N said:
areas of Chessington Zoo such as ZUFARI are particularly nice,
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I rode Zufari for the first time last week and thought it was bloody dire as a ride experience. Pointlessly long queue, zooming past animals with barely a chance to enjoy them, audio out of sync with what you are seeing, show element that wasn't particularly worth the stop. The whole thing was a huge disappointment.

I joined the queue for Zufari last year, and about 20 minutes into the cattlepen I noticed we were still at the back, checking queue times revealed it had jumped from 30min to 90min, at which point we also decided to leave as the queue wasn't moving. I'm so glad we did, because having experienced the ride now it was barely worth the 5 minutes I queued for it, let alone the full 90 it can easily build up.

I didn't get a good assesment of the habitat in my fly through visit, but it seemed okay. Not the largest stretch of land by any means. But Chessington isn't the largest park either. One thing I did note was the rhinos enjoying the water on the track, which the truck had to drive though, is this the only water they have, so they get disrupted from their natural behaviour every few minutes when they are drinking and bathing to make way for the vehicle.

The idea of locking away a non-queue attraction attraction such as a Savannah exhibit behind a queue for truck ride is so disappointing.

I wouldn't give Zufari as an example of something done well by Chessington, and there are things I would say are particularly well done.
 
Lurker said:
One thing I did note was the rhinos enjoying the water on the track, which the truck had to drive though, is this the only water they have, so they get disrupted from their natural behaviour every few minutes when they are drinking and bathing to make way for the vehicle.
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They should have drinking troughs.

Our cat is the same, he will drink from puddles and anything that has dirty water in as oppose to drinking from out of his water bowl
 
RoyJess said:
They should have drinking troughs.

Our cat is the same, he will drink from puddles and anything that has dirty water in as oppose to drinking from out of his water bowl
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For sure, rhinos seem to like a good mud bath! Which is why it seems odd to have the truck need to go through it. It disrupted them a lot on our ride, was a bit worried about the rhino getting aggressive with the truck which was rolling forward slowly to encourage it to move. I more meant i would've expected them to have some pond water to themselves where they won't be disturbed. Perhaps it's not a common issue, I've only ridden it once. (And know nothing about animal care).
 
Chessington have announced today that their Californian Sealion Dante has passed away after a recent illness.

 
Unfortunately I have nothing good to say about Chessington these days. Still, I’m fascinated by the park of yesteryear.

On a slightly related note, whilst watching @ElectricBill’s (pretty sure that’s his TS username) Bubbleworks Documentary, I saw this image of old Transylvania. In the background is a sign that mentions “the Hall of Names”. Does anyone know what this was?

Image: https://ibb.co/L1ZVm3c
 
Historic paper certificates giving the background history of surnames common in the UK...or engraved on a copper sheet...information that can be pulled from the internet in seconds these days.
We used to sell something similar in our family shop in the seventies.
Quid for paper, fiver for metal.
Ordered via phone at the shop, turned up in the post a few days later.
 
Hairobics said:
On a slightly related note, whilst watching @ElectricBill’s (pretty sure that’s his TS username) Bubbleworks Documentary, I saw this image of old Transylvania. In the background is a sign that mentions “the Hall of Names”. Does anyone know what this was?

Image: https://ibb.co/L1ZVm3c
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@ElectricBill has had a repaint and a scrub up and rebranded as @TakeYourMedicine, but unlike Bubbleworks, retains his original charm.
 
Bloody TakeYourMedicine, I remember when the bill was electric.

Thanks for the info @rob666. I considered that this might be the answer but it just seems so strange. We live in such a different era now. I remember before Transylvania opened there was a promotional poster/leaflet or something that mentioned that there would be... coffin fitting services?... something of that ilk... anyway, I figured this might have been part of that.
 
It seems that Chessington have submitted another planning application. This time for the addition of a mini log flume (the log flume that was removed from Weymouth Sealife a couple of years back), and alterations and retheming of Toadie’s Crazy Cars.
 
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