Chessington World of Adventures Resort

[John]

Of course my usage of Fastrack is far more limited these days to parks who don't offer a good disability system like Walibi Holland.

Walibi Holland currently give all guests free basic tier fast lane, presumably to avoid having long physical queues. Its a bit of a nightmare in practice as it means everyone is either queueing for the handful of half decent rides not on fast lane or just milling around waiting elsewhere. Standby waits seem longer than normal queues would be. I guess it might work for disabled guests who can't queue but I'm not sure how people with reduced mobility are currently accomodated.

 

[jon81uk]

The fact is, the years and years of under investment by both Tussauds and Merlin have left the place creaking behind the scenes and staff onsite have to deal with the ****, with no way to make the changes it needs.

and this coupled with the annual pass selling the park as a bigger thing than it is. If Tussauds/Merlin kept running it as a small to medium park, with the same high quality of investment they did in the 90s it would be a nice park, similar to Paultons.

But the annual pass system, hotel accommodation and the cereal box vouchers makes people think it is worth travelling a long distance to visit, when it isn't and the park can't cope with that sort of number of guests. Even if everything had all the trains and was run much more perfectly, Chessington really shouldn't be considered at the same size as Alton Towers, but the fact both parks are the same entry price and on the same annual pass, suggests they have the same capacity, when AT can handle more guests (the fact AT has also removed filler rides and shows is a different issue).

Edit to add, in fact AT suffers because its all headline attractions, with little filler. Chessington (and Legoland to an extent) suffers because the few headlines are badly run and low capacity and everything else is low capacity filler.

 

[Alsty]

With regards to Tomb Blaster throughput, I’ll just leave this here:



Frequently dispatching the trains when they should be ready to dispatch reportedly makes the whole thing cack itself.

So when they add the fourth train, the operators are expected to dispatch just over three extra trains per hour

 

[Orange Ribena]

I've been to Chessington before, its a bit tight in places and some of the staff are a bit surly but put that down to it being near London.

 

[AstroDan]

Merlin have not invested adequately in any of their RTP parks in the UK since 2010.

Chessington get almost nothing, basically.

Thorpe have gradually removed rides.

Alton have lost nearly every support ride.

It's quite simple: Merlin aren't a good operator.

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[imanautie]

Merlin have not invested adequately in any of their RTP parks in the UK since 2010.

Chessington get almost nothing, basically.

Thorpe have gradually removed rides.

Alton have lost nearly every support ride.

It's quite simple: Merlin aren't a good operator.

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This is why I say merlin aren't a theme park operator, merlin could quite easily stand with the RTPs being spin out (perhaps even individually)

 

[Matt N]

In fairness, I’m not entirely sure what Chessington could have built in terms of major rides, as the locals don’t seem best pleased with what they have, to a greater extent than most other parks on earth. I think ZUFARI is about the best they could have gotten away with.

I seem to remember something along the lines of “Vampire cannot be replaced by a ride of comparable scale” being bandied about in the past, and the sole reason Tussauds bought Alton Towers was because they weren’t allowed to build big at Chessington.

 

[AT86]

In fairness, I’m not entirely sure what Chessington could have built in terms of major rides, as the locals don’t seem best pleased with what they have, to a greater extent than most other parks on earth. I think ZUFARI is about the best they could have gotten away with.

I seem to remember something along the lines of “Vampire cannot be replaced by a ride of comparable scale” being bandied about in the past, and the sole reason Tussauds bought Alton Towers was because they weren’t allowed to build big at Chessington.

None of that changes the fact they could have continued to invest in existing rides to ensure they can run to their intended capacities.

 

[jon81uk]

None of that changes the fact they could have continued to invest in existing rides to ensure they can run to their intended capacities.

and making sure that what they do add is of a decent standard. The new mini log flume jungle boats seems to have theming by B&Q from photos I've seen. Even though its a small low capacity attraction, if it was themed better, maybe some actual rockwork or custom made buildings rather than sheds it would make the place look ten times better.

 

[AstroDan]

In fairness, I’m not entirely sure what Chessington could have built in terms of major rides, as the locals don’t seem best pleased with what they have, to a greater extent than most other parks on earth. I think ZUFARI is about the best they could have gotten away with.

I seem to remember something along the lines of “Vampire cannot be replaced by a ride of comparable scale” being bandied about in the past, and the sole reason Tussauds bought Alton Towers was because they weren’t allowed to build big at Chessington.

Chessington needs money to invest and enhance existing products. Mind you, the same can be said of all their parks.

Remember - such was the state of disrepair at Chessington, a 4 year old fell through a rotting fence queuing for Tomb Blaster.

RE: Chessington's 2020 development - it was based on existing budgets. Not a penny of Merlin capex for it.

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[rob666]

Things have been this way for years.
The park will be rammed regardless of what merlin do in peak season.
Why put the effort in when the sheeple come back despite the low quality environment, massive queues, and rip off extras.

 

[jon81uk]

Merlin have not invested adequately in any of their RTP parks in the UK since 2010.

Chessington get almost nothing, basically.

Thorpe have gradually removed rides.

Alton have lost nearly every support ride.

It's quite simple: Merlin aren't a good operator.

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Alton is the only one where it feels like there has been any decent investment, but even then its one step forward and two steps back.
Adding Wickerman, but removing all live shows and Ripsaw/Submission. Adding CBeebies but removing Charlie and Ice Age. Some additions at AT have been high quality, but as you say they have lost all the support attractions.

Whereas Chessington really gets almost nothing.

Thorpe has had a lot of money spent after bad ideas, ghost train is a bad concept, Swarm wasn't as good as it could be, Walking Dead the ride made a family coaster into something it isn't.

 

[venny]

One look in the MAP Group will give you an interesting snapshot of people’s views. There is clearly a large proportion of annual pass holders visiting these parks on a regular basis. Certainly far more than there have been historically, when the passes were much less heavily promoted.

Most genuine concerns appear to be jumped on by apologists asking people what they expected when they complain about massive queues and overcrowded parks. There’s an apparently prevalent attitude that you should just suck it up. That’s clearly not helping pressure Merlin to react in any meaningful way.

On top of that those people who are making complaints tend to be fobbed off with some sort of apology (fast tracks pre Covid). There doesn’t appear to be any real intent to improve the product to increase guest satisfaction - they’re just fire fighting.

 

[jon81uk]

One look in the MAP Group will give you an interesting snapshot of people’s views. There is clearly a large proportion of annual pass holders visiting these parks on a regular basis. Certainly far more than there have been historically, when the passes were much less heavily promoted.

Most genuine concerns appear to be jumped on by apologists asking people what they expected when they complain about massive queues and overcrowded parks. There’s an apparently prevalent attitude that you should just suck it up. That’s clearly not helping pressure Merlin to react in any meaningful way.

On top of that those people who are making complaints tend to be fobbed off with some sort of apology (fast tracks pre Covid). There doesn’t appear to be any real intent to improve the product to increase guest satisfaction - they’re just fire fighting.

On the park's side, there isn't a huge incentive to make things better for annual passholders, they already have their money. Will be interesting to see what the renewal rate will be like for next year. To some extent the park would be better off with fewer AP holders anyway. I'm not saying they shouldn't be running the park better (operations are definitely bad) just that there isn't really a huge incentive to keep AP holders happy.

On the queues, are they actually significantly worse than a year ago? Or are people just expecting shorter waits doe to the "reduced capcity for covid"? If the queues are under 90 minutes that seems what I would expect for school holidays, if they are over two hours regularly then there are problems and the complaints feel more genuine.
Yes Chessington needs more high capacity attractions, but is the product actually worse than a year ago?

 

[AstroDan]

There is a "MAP Banter" Facebook page which is full of people sucking up (particularly focussed around Chessington & Thorpe, where experiences recently seem to have been poorest). It's quite disturbing actually - in all my 15 years on websites/forums, I have never known anything like that.

They screenshot people "moaning" about 2-hour queues to get in etc. and then take the mickey.

 

[Alsty]

I don't understand the obsession with giving season passes away so cheaply. It completely devalues the brand and sells themselves short. Make it a reasonable price equivalent to two or three visits and then you actually have some money to invest into your attractions.

The cynic in me wonders if it's so cheap because people were complaining about their day visit not being good value for money. "I spent all day queueing", "I didn't get on anything", "waste of money" etc. Now people won't complain because there is an implication they could just visit multiple times to do the things they should've been able to do in a single day.

Perhaps also people are less likely to complain when it's cheap. The mentality being that I didn't pay much for it so I'll accept poor service. There's an expectation the more you pay the better it should be, so a bit of reverse psychology reduces complaints. Who knows.

 

[Benzin]

I know in my time I've had a laugh at people going to the parks and moaning about queuing for an hour in the height of school holidays. But that was when the park was run reasonably well (I.e. 3 trains on Vampire).

Nowadays it's just the norm. Which is sad to see. The day they ended up putting Fastrack on a 200pph (if you were lucky) attraction was the day it was clear operations weren't the main concern of those in charge.

Blind defence of the parks will only cause this to continue. The "better than nothing" approach will only go so far until Paultons (assuming it continues on the current trend) becomes a more spoken name in the general eye.

 

[dickie001x]

On the park's side, there isn't a huge incentive to make things better for annual passholders, they already have their money. Will be interesting to see what the renewal rate will be like for next year. To some extent the park would be better off with fewer AP holders anyway. I'm not saying they shouldn't be running the park better (operations are definitely bad) just that there isn't really a huge incentive to keep AP holders happy.

On the queues, are they actually significantly worse than a year ago? Or are people just expecting shorter waits doe to the "reduced capcity for covid"? If the queues are under 90 minutes that seems what I would expect for school holidays, if they are over two hours regularly then there are problems and the complaints feel more genuine.
Yes Chessington needs more high capacity attractions, but is the product actually worse than a year ago?

Yes: Black Buccaneer gone, and its replacement didn’t open. Ramesees gone and its replacement opens next year.

 

[Mr Pearse]

Personal opinion but I still don’t think merlin are cut out to be theme park operators. They are a large midway group stuck with a couple of theme parks. The midways are run decent enough and are kept up to date so to speak. This is the problem tho because nothing will change overnight and the problems are going to keep piling on. Next season will be more interesting far as I’m concerned, we have seen them carry on with events this year but that was already budgeted so next year will be the one to watch.

 

[Prof Burp]

Yes: Black Buccaneer gone, and its replacement didn’t open. Ramesees gone and its replacement opens next year.

@dickie001x the Black Buckaneer’s successor ,The Blue Barnacle,is opening next year for the 2021 season. Originally the plan was for the Blue Barnacle to open earlier this season on the 27th of March. The only reason for the Blue Barnacle not having its maiden voyage in March,is the unprecedented worldwide pandemic also known as the Coronavirus. On a happier note Chessington are expecting the arrival of the Blue Barnacle in November in preparation for a opening of March next year. As for Croc Drop the Drop Tower that is replacing Ramasis Ravenge construction is progressing swiftly so along with The Blue Barnacle Croc Drop is also going to be opening next year.