Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Apologies if this has been shared before, but this video of Chessington in 1991 has so much great footage of the park.

Vampire, Bubbleworks, Count's Cauldron, Circus World, Calamity Canyon, Dragon River and lots more. The park seems so clean and fresh. The Runaway Train theming looks fab, certainly different to my memory of it during its later years.

 

Amazing footage. The park looked stunning back then. Three staff on Black Buccaneer! Those were the days, even if one of them’s standing on the offload platform and would no doubt give any safety inspector a heart attack. Near the end, there are also kids wandering around on the roundabout while it rotates. For better or worse, it was a more ‘care free’ time back then.

I’d never seen inside Black Forest Chateau before. Brilliant name, although the ‘animatronics show’ is slightly less exciting than I’d imagined it to be. I also spotted various flower beds. These have long since been replaced with low maintenance shrubs. A few of the roundabouts look a bit tacky, but on the whole, it looked a lot smarter and more ‘magical’ back then.

 

I knew Counts Cauldron wasn’t right when I typed it! Black Forest Chateau is a great name. Now we get the likes of ‘Vampire’s Burger Kitchen’, urgh how bland.

 

Black Forest Chateau is what eventually became McDonald's right?

While I have huge nostalgia for that Maccies and loved eating there on my trips to Chessie, it is a shame in a sense to see a restaurant like that removed and replaced with a high street brand (although that wasn't nearly as bad as what happened after the Burger King was removed...)

 

Black Forest Chateau, McDonald's, Burger King, Vampire Burger Kitchen. The latter being a Burger King in all but name.

 

+ Profit Share
+ Quality
+ Consistency
+ Lack of headwear

 

I can't say I agree with you. Vampire Burger Kitchen from my experience is expensive rubbish.

 

I agree - you said it was Burger King in all but name, I pointed out some additional differences.

 

An actual theme park, which enticed you in from the car park as you waited for the ticket counters to open, with the monorail trundling around. The park entrance signs giving a sense of excitement. Then inside the little details, and the bigger set pieces.

Essentially nothing from that time exists any more. Train long gone, it only noticeable from a small section of bushes near the first aid centre. Monorail gone - bar the small stretch of track they didn't get rid of. Dragon tunnel gone - replaced by grey concrete blobby mess. The fastrack ticket distribution points that are still used at Disneyland and Disneyland Paris - long gone and replaced with staff walking around trying to sell them.

But hey, they've got a lot more laminated signs dotted around.

 

Chessington has virtually no laminated signage whatsoever.

 

I'd also say we virtually have no patience left with the park whatsoever - a debate about the cardboard burgers? Oh boy.

 

If the MAP didn't exist then I don't think Chessington would still exist, somehow that keeps people going to the park with zero investment.

 

So following the government's (odd) announcement on 24th December that zoos and wildlife parks in Tier 4 can open, Chessington have now announcement that they'll be open for zoo days from tomorrow.

 

I think they have reopened for the same reason as why they opened early in lockdown 1, zoos cost a lot to operate regardless of whether they are open or not so many zoos were complaining that they were running out of money.

 

They should only be soliciting for local visitors though, much like Alton Towers did with their Christmas events. They shouldn't be encouraging long distance travel.

 

Here is a real treat for the eyes. I found these photos lying on an old hard drive.

I present the 5th Dimension, probably in ways very rarely seen by many. These are not my photos, just some acquired about 15 years ago. They could be from the now gone Reride website. Either way, enjoy!





Lets start with the image of this audio tape, which was apparently sold by the park.





Next we have some promo shots used by the park in the opening years of the ride.










Next we have some photos that were taken by the Farmer Studios team in the 90's, these were taken prior to the installation of Terror Tomb and were used as a sort of reference to what they were dealing with.



















Finally, we finish off this photo dump with 2 official plans of the rides transit system, plans as used by Mack Rides. The exact same transit system that exists in the Tomb to this day, the plans are split into two, due to the ride being on two levels.

Click on the plans to view the higher res versions, they do not seem to have scaled well on the forum.




Hopefully these will ease some of those closed season blues