Chessington World of Adventures Resort

[Matt N]

This is something I hadn't thought of. If this is a tactic against Paultons will Paultons be adding a thrill coaster in the next few years. That could be brilliant and probably better themed than Chessington's.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Paultons did step up the thrills for their next investment, whenever that may be.

They seem to have gradually upped the ante thrill-wise with each of their successive investments following Peppa Pig World, so while I wouldn’t go expecting some massive hyper coaster or RMC to spring up at Paultons any time soon, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we did see some form of thrill coaster on a more intermediate scale pop up at Paultons within the next few years.

The park themselves said that the inclusion of Cyclonator within Tornado Springs was a litmus test for more thrilling rides at the park, and that seems to have gone down a treat, from what I can tell, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Paultons did plump for something slightly more thrilling for their next investment.

 

[JAperson]

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Paultons did step up the thrills for their next investment, whenever that may be.

They seem to have gradually upped the ante thrill-wise with each of their successive investments following Peppa Pig World, so while I wouldn’t go expecting some massive hyper coaster or RMC to spring up at Paultons any time soon, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we did see some form of thrill coaster on a more intermediate scale pop up at Paultons within the next few years.

The park themselves said that the inclusion of Cyclonator within Tornado Springs was a litmus test for more thrilling rides at the park, and that seems to have gone down a treat, from what I can tell, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Paultons did plump for something slightly more thrilling for their next investment.

I think they could do something like a duelling family and thrill coaster. I'm sure Vekoma can find something.

 

[jon81uk]

Chessington does already have a 1.4m coaster, Rattlesnake, of course and that isn't really particularly thrilling.

 

[jon81uk]

I think they could do something like a duelling family and thrill coaster. I'm sure Vekoma can find something.

This is what Chessington really should be building, something along the lines of Taron & Raik at Phantasialand. One family thrill, one slightly more thrilling but it doesn't need to invert, but above all full capacity coasters.

Whereas we are going to end up with a low capacity area with a boomerang with one lonely inversion and two small flat rides. They don't seem to understand they need ride capacity. Croc Drop should have featured two towers.

 

[Benzin]

Chessington does already have a 1.4m coaster, Rattlesnake, of course and that isn't really particularly thrilling.

That's more due to something that happened shortly after the ride opened though rather than it being a thrill coaster.

 

[Spark]

Guys

I am looking at taking the family to Chessington mainly due to the amount of rides both my children can go on. Looking at staying over somewhere close by do you have any recommendations?

 

[AT86]

Guys

I am looking at taking the family to Chessington mainly due to the amount of rides both my children can go on. Looking at staying over somewhere close by do you have any recommendations?

Premier Inn is literally outside the gates, you can walk from there in 5mins.

 

[Alsty]

I've stayed at the Chessington Premier Inn loads of times. Perfect if you don't want to stay in the resort hotels and it's significantly cheaper.

It's got the Money Puzzle Beefeater next door too for breakfast and evening meals.

 

[Danny]

Just taking a moment to appreciate Chessington's latest costume character.

The Pringles man.

 

[Plastic Person]

Seems rather insensitive to host this promotion at Chessington, no? "Once You Pop, You Just Can't Stop..."

Try telling that to Professor Burp.

 

[Funcone]

I know we all joke about Merlin, but that photo of the Pringles Man is absolutely hilarious. It's like Chessington is turning into a pastiche of itself. Its head is like a big ping pong ball.

 

[Rick]

Even he looks like he is regretting his choice of a day out.

 

[jon81uk]

I would assume the costume is owned by Kellogg's (or their PR company) though not Merlin.
Its basically just one of the parks sponsors doing some advertising. Its happened before with Kellogg's Krave giveaways and Now TV and plenty of others.

 

[Plastic Person]

Yeah, I'm sure it's not Merlin's, but his dejected looking face is superb. The expression of a man about to wait 75 minutes for a children's Log Flume.

Incidentally, to ensure this joke worked, I had a look at CWoA's current queue times. You lot aren't kidding when you say that the park struggles these days with capacity, are you?

 

[jon81uk]

You lot aren't kidding when you say that the park struggles these days with capacity, are you?

I think its struggled with capacity for the last 15+ years. Poor operations on the few classic high capacity rides they have (Vampire, Tomb Blaster and Bubbleworks) combined with adding too many low capacity things. But it was the big push on Annual Pass sales in the mid-2000s that really killed Chessington, too many guests visiting as the pass made it cheap, but not enough income to make it worth investing and improving the park.

 

[Benzin]

I think its struggled with capacity for the last 15+ years. Poor operations on the few classic high capacity rides they have (Vampire, Tomb Blaster and Bubbleworks) combined with adding too many low capacity things. But it was the big push on Annual Pass sales in the mid-2000s that really killed Chessington, too many guests visiting as the pass made it cheap, but not enough income to make it worth investing and improving the park.

I might be slightly biased but it didn't struggle too much when I was working there 2007-09. Beyond the odd ridiculous day anyway (and often sometimes was down to something happening outside the park). Fury was the worst part of anyone's day really.

Once 3 train Vampire went it's been a terrible increase in queue times across the board. 45 minutes for Seastorm or Buccaneer? On a standard weekend? Madness.

 

[JAperson]

Just a general question but as Merlin and Chessington's management must know of the capacity issues why don't they start running vampire on three trains again? Why did they stop? Would it take that much effort for them to just start doing it again? Would it actually help across the board all that much?

 

[Alsty]

The Pringles man was there at the weekend, but I was more disappointed that the Glitter Bar wasn't an actual bar.

 

[Benzin]

Just a general question but as Merlin and Chessington's management must know of the capacity issues why don't they start running vampire on three trains again? Why did they stop? Would it take that much effort for them to just start doing it again? Would it actually help across the board all that much?

Think one of the main issues with running the 3 trains was that if the staff weren't great (or people were being burdenous) the trains would constantly be stuck either on lift 2 or potentially just before the brake run (which would happen on 2 trains anyway, same for going onto lift 2).

I guess they decided that 3 trains was too rushed (it went around the same time guest interaction was being pushed at the expense of dispatching) so got rid.

3 trains could get 1100 odd pph so definitely an improvement over the 2 trains.

 

[AT86]

Just a general question but as Merlin and Chessington's management must know of the capacity issues why don't they start running vampire on three trains again? Why did they stop? Would it take that much effort for them to just start doing it again? Would it actually help across the board all that much?

I am not sure they even have three trains anymore? I think the third was stripped of parts to be used on the other two when replacements were needed.

For Vampire to run on three trains despatches need to be quick, otherwise the system shuts itself down as far as I understand. So they would need at least two more members of staff on the platform to check restraints to speed things up. As always I guess it comes down to money.