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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Here is a Theoretical question for you.

If Merlin were to offload Chessington, who do you think could potentially come in for it?

Who would you want to come in for it?

Do you think the owners of Paultons Park would have the money or desire to purchase a second park in the UK?
 
I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but I believe Chessington used to generate a very high proportion of the group’s annual pass sales and family tickets, making it quite a valuable asset to Merlin (not that you’d think it with how it’s maintained). It also certainly used to be (and may still be) home to a lot of the group’s administration facilities and I think was where all MAP operations ran from.

As much as it seems like a candidate for the chop, I’m not sure if they ever actually would get rid of it. If any London park was dropped I’d suspect it’d be Thorpe, but again I’m not convinced they ever would. There’s too much status attached to operating the RTPs, and at present they’re have a portfolio which offers something for all demographics in the area. Removing any of the London parks means you either loose the entire thrillseekers market from that area, or open up to family competition right on your doorstep.

Remember that Legoland really isn’t that far away. I’m not sure how Merlin would feel having a competing family park operating at such close proximity. They already seem tetchy enough about Paultons (and rightly so if you ask me) and they’re hardly local.
 
Sharko said:
Here is a Theoretical question for you.

If Merlin were to offload Chessington, who do you think could potentially come in for it?

Who would you want to come in for it?

Do you think the owners of Paultons Park would have the money or desire to purchase a second park in the UK?
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Looping group maybe?

Would give them a trio of UK zoo parks with WMSP, Drayton and Chessington.

Although I don't think it would help bring about more well-made dark rides again. Paulton might be more interested in that. But I think the Tussauds (Wardley) style of properly themed attractions might have gone.
 
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Sharko said:
Here is a Theoretical question for you.

If Merlin were to offload Chessington, who do you think could potentially come in for it?

Who would you want to come in for it?

Do you think the owners of Paultons Park would have the money or desire to purchase a second park in the UK?
Click to expand...

Do Looping group have sufficient funds to purchase another park too? I’d view any park being taken away from merlin a bonus, so long as it’s going to a company with serious intentions of improving and adding to it.
 
RicketyCricket said:
At one point we had our very own Efteling (I'm sure they even had the talking bins at one point too?), with unrivalled attention to detail everywhere and a lot of effort put in to ensure a positive guest experience.
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Yep, they had the talking bins and a couple of quite large ones. My favourite was the shack which if I remember correctly was on the path between the Terror Tomb entrance and Dragon River drop. A long tube sucked up the rubbish, and then I seem to remember it caused shouting from the shack and possibly some windows clattering.

The only surviving park animatronic is the dragon, which given the abuse those eggs have received over the years is quite impressive.
 
Connor98 said:
h serious intentions of improving and adding to it.
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and I don't actually see any company improving the park in the same way Tussauds did in the 90s and early 2000s. I just don't think any UK operator is installing that sort of dark ride attraction at the moment, although Merlin do deliver some great things occasionally. Maybe Paulton are close to that level. But I don't see any new owner making a Tomb Blaster better than what it once was.
 
Ian said:
It also certainly used to be (and may still be) home to a lot of the group’s administration facilities and I think was where all MAP operations ran from.
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This is actually a bit of a misunderstanding amongst people - Merlin Business Support (which has many of the group functions that you’re talking about) is based in an office block in Silverglade, a business park in Chessington the area, not the park - it’s less than a mile down the road from the park, but it is completely separate.

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Chessington is a tiresome place to visit now, it lures you in with the prospect of a bit of lighthearted fun but just disappoints in the worst way. The actual park experience is bad, and every year another little thing that used to make you smile now seems dead.

Do enthusiasts really just visit for the sake of nostalgia, what's the point when everything is just worse than before? Or is it totally reliant on MAPs?

What is your actual day experience at the park? Waiting hours for mediocre rides, fences as far as the eye can see, some blobs of token rockwork slapped on old attractions and the colour beige. It's bad value for visitors in my opinion.

Plus a mash of childrens storybook IPs, which is the strongest thing they've done for ages. They may as well rename it Chessington Storybookland and make that its whole identity. It's not the best idea but it's the only direction they're going in.

They are trying more these days than the last 20 years, but it's all so charmless. No matter how many times they rehash stuff and move the furniture around, it feels like a million plasters over the bigger problem. (Despite the cheers of enthusiasts claiming its the return of the golden era, which has been said for like 10 years now)
 
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It could be the next Pleasureland Southport. Or the next housing estate for hard working families who also happened to inherit a lot of money.
 
OilyWater said:
They are trying more these days than the last 20 years, but it's all so charmless. No matter how many times they rehash stuff and move the furniture around, it feels like a million plasters over the bigger problem. (Despite the cheers of enthusiasts claiming its the return of the golden era, which has been said for like 10 years now)
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There are people claiming that?

It's been 10 years since Wild Asia where I believe was the last REALLY good year. There was a buzz around the park, including new actors and the odd repaint. But between the general lack of upkeep resulting in the Tomb Blaster queue incident on top of generally poorly though out investments the opportunity passed them by.

2010 was the last peak (after a terrible 00s for the park, even with Fury's addition) for the park.
 
Benzin said:
There are people claiming that?
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Yeah every new tin of paint is put on a huge pedestal by fans and presumably inside the park too. I understand why, people want to be optimistic, I do too but I heard the same things year on year. It needs something more substantial and it needs real appeal again.

As a huge fan of the park in the old days, Id much rather see the old rides demolished and replaced with something really great, than the patchy remains get propped up another few years.

Gruffalo is the most successful thing in the last 20 years there, because at least it borrows some charm off the IP and does what it sets out to.
 
OilyWater said:
Yeah every new tin of paint is put on a huge pedestal by fans and presumably inside the park too. I understand why, people want to be optimistic, I do too but I heard the same things year on year. It needs something more substantial and it needs real appeal again.

As a huge fan of the park in the old days, Id much rather see the old rides demolished and replaced with something really great, than the patchy remains get propped up another few years.

Gruffalo is the most successful thing in the last 20 years there, because at least it borrows some charm off the IP and does what it sets out to.
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Gruffalo might be the most successful thing but it’s also so lazy of Merlin, a water ride yet instead of creating a waterfall they have a waterfall projection and soundtrack yet a real waterfall wouldn’t of been expensive nor would it need audio.

Chessington along with everything Merlin needs proper rolling maintenance as bare minimum but the problem is there is so much that needs doing how do you even get started.
 
I want to like this park but I kind of hate it. It feels claustrophobic and when it crowded people are virtually breathing down your neck.

Gruffalo is endearing but most of the park is charmless and meh. I guess it just has a feel of London "service" about it.
 
Throughputs are so poor at chessie these days we haven't visited for years, despite it being only a 20 min drive down the road.

Things will be interesting once the Vampire gets removed.
 
I couldn’t agree more about the park. The ads of the 90s really sold the park to me and I got 2 free tickets from the sun and got 2 coach’s there and back to Birmingham with a friend in 1998.
We loved Terror tomb that rock scene was excellent think we went on it 3 times.
Rattlesnake this was a great coaster back then with good theming and effects.
The Magic carpet was the best magic carpet ride I ever went on and I remember nearly coming out of my seat.
Rodeo was another good flat ride which was forceful if on a good setting.
The Vampire with the old trains was good did so many funny pics to the camera.
Rameses revenge was excellent and was way more forceful to Ripsaw.
Went back the following year with my same m8 and 2 others on the train to ride Samurai and with the theming it fitted well into the area.
Went back in 2002 and Tomb Blaster was the start of the downfall to the park to me. It was rubbish and all then led’s ruined it for me. I didn’t go back to 2008 and a mixed bag of rides opened I really enjoyed the Beano section of the park and Dragons Fury but not 1 since has made me think to go back to the park.
 
Chessington’s biggest problem is a total lack of direction. The 90’s began to deviate from the zoo, the late 00’s brung the zoo back to the forefront, and the 10’s seem to be going sideways with a book themed park. It’s a jumbled mess, but I still find it enjoyable, it’s just different. No where near as good as the park in the 90’s but way better than the likes of thorpe imo.
 
Hairobics said:
Chessington’s biggest problem is a total lack of direction. The 90’s began to deviate from the zoo, the late 00’s brung the zoo back to the forefront, and the 10’s seem to be going sideways with a book themed park. It’s a jumbled mess, but I still find it enjoyable, it’s just different. No where near as good as the park in the 90’s but way better than the likes of thorpe imo.
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Seems to be a theme with Merlin. No clear direction. Where do they want to go and how are they going to get there.
 
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