Chessington World of Adventures Resort

[jon81uk]

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.

and I think the huge push in annual pass sales really caused a lot of this.
Particularly once it became a Merlin pass not just Tussauds and you could then get three theme parks, plus three midway attractions in London in easy reach for around £120 each pass.

I wonder what the percentage of guests entering Chessington with passes in 2000 compared with 2010 and 2019.

It affected Thorpe and Alton Towers too, but as they had more high capacity rides to start with I don't think the effect is as noticeable. Also Warwick Castle always coped well with a high number of passholders I think.

 

[Matt N]

An interesting thing to note about Chessington is that their attendance actually increased by around 50% when Merlin took over in spite of there not being tons of major investment until about 2010, and it seems to have steadily grown to around 1.5-1.6m; the park has actually now surpassed Thorpe Park’s attendance, which was probably an unthinkable prospect in 2007 looking at the parks’ respective attendance figures & trends at the time. In 2007, Thorpe was comfortably at around 1.5 million and growing, while Chessington was at only around 1 million and decreasing.

In the late Tussauds era, Merlin’s graph from the Project Amazon consultation (https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/uk-merlin-park-guest-figures-through-the-years.5778/) shows that Chessington’s guest figures hit a low of only around 1 million in the late Tussauds era, but spiked rather sharply in 2008, in spite of the only addition being a Sealife centre. Chessington’s attendance then showed a gradual upwards trend from 2008 onwards, eventually reaching around 1.6 million or so by 2019, the highest attendance had been since around 2000.

On the face of it, this substantial attendance rise is quite baffling when you look at the fact that Chessington hasn’t really grown much in terms of physical size or number of attractions since 2007; I certainly wouldn’t call them a growing park in the way that somewhere like Paultons is. However, while I could be wrong here, I did once hear it said that Chessington was one of Merlin’s most valuable assets due to the high percentage of annual pass sales and visits it generates. Does this sound correct?

 

[Funcone]

I am not sure they even have three trains anymore? I think the third was stripped of parts to be used one 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.

Yes, I think that's an important point. There does tend to be a perception amongst older enthusiasts/ex staff that the employees are getting slower. "The youth of today...", but as you say, a lot of rides used to have more staffed positions. Vampire used to have three staff checking each side at busy times. The official argument was that it's a safety issue, because restraints were more likely to get missed, compared to having someone starting at the front and the back and meeting in the middle. But I suspect cost might have been a factor. Either way, it's perhaps a little unfair to expect the same throughputs from fewer staff.

 

[Benzin]

and I think the huge push in annual pass sales really caused a lot of this.
Particularly once it became a Merlin pass not just Tussauds and you could then get three theme parks, plus three midway attractions in London in easy reach for around £120 each pass.

I wonder what the percentage of guests entering Chessington with passes in 2000 compared with 2010 and 2019.

It affected Thorpe and Alton Towers too, but as they had more high capacity rides to start with I don't think the effect is as noticeable. Also Warwick Castle always coped well with a high number of passholders I think.

Reminded me of the summer of 2009 when an AP perk was being able to the use the Fastrack queue in the last hour.

Cue hundreds of angry AP holders because the queues were suddenly full.

Yes, I think that's an important point. There does tend to be a perception amongst older enthusiasts/ex staff that the employees are getting slower. "The youth of today...", but as you say, a lot of rides used to have more staffed positions. Vampire used to have three staff checking each side at busy times. The official argument was that it's a safety issue, because restraints were more likely to get missed, compared to having someone starting at the front and the back and meeting in the middle. But I suspect cost might have been a factor. Either way, it's perhaps a little unfair to expect the same throughputs from fewer staff.

We had 4 on the busy days (plus an exit host). Though don't they have an actual batcher these days?

6 people platforming would probably be too much on Vampire. Maybe we had it once or twice but it wasn't a regular thing.

 

[jon81uk]

On the face of it, this substantial attendance rise is quite baffling when you look at the fact that Chessington hasn’t really grown much in terms of physical size or number of attractions since 2007; I certainly wouldn’t call them a growing park in the way that somewhere like Paultons is. However, while I could be wrong here, I did once hear it said that Chessington was one of Merlin’s most valuable assets due to the high percentage of annual pass sales and visits it generates. Does this sound correct?

Shortly after Merlin merged with Tussauds, the marketing of the annual pass really stepped up, most staff had an "upgrade your ticket" badge on, all tills asked if you had one for discount etc. It went from a small thing Tussauds offered to a major "must-have" because with the addition of Legoland and all the midway attractions the amount you could do with the pass increased massively but the price hardly went up at all.

I would agree that Chessington was the park that got the most AP visitors, its good to visit over and over as the animal attractions always offer something a little different.

But now when the pandemic hit they found the problem with having too many passholders paying a relativly cheap price.

 

[HermanTheGerman]

Very few (if any) of those old Arrow suspended coasters run all 3 trains anymore, not even the one at Cedar Point.

It is not surprising that Vampire doesn’t either.

 

[djtruefitt]

I guess annual passes do so well at Chessie because of its target market and location. You can have a pass at Chessie and you have Legoland and all the London midways right near by. All of which are aimed at the younger market. Towers is very much on its own in the midlands so I guess pass holder numbers are high, but not regular like Chessie will have. Plus you’ve got the zoo at Chessie which guests may just pop to visit if they’ve got a pass.

 

[Matt.GC]

It has to be MAP's. I always got the feeling that Chessington was Merlin's general RTP cash cow, the park that gets very little investment, both operational and capital, that just churns visitors through the turnstiles regardless day in day out no matter how they treat them. It's located in dense suburbia on the outskirts of the capital so if you have a pass you can just pop in whenever you like for free at point of entry so who cares if the queues are long, the quality is sub par and the food is crap to those visitors?

To think with Thorpe and how much more money has been spent (and almost totally wasted) over the years there compared to Chessington. Really goes to show how valuable targeting families can be to a park.

 

[Funcone]

If you’re comparing attendance at Thorpe and Chessington, it’d be interesting to know how many of Chessington’s visitors go during the main season, and how many go at Christmas, February half term or the Zoo Days. I do agree though, that on paper you’d expect Thorpe Park to get a lot more visitors than Chessington. Chessington does feel like a bit of a gold mine, although the zoo won’t be cheap. Even allowing for the fact it uses quite a few volunteer zoo keepers, there’s a big heating bill, vets are expensive, the animal food won’t be cheap - even if most of it isn’t fit for human consumption etc.

As for Thorpe Park, they seemed to get a good return on the early Tussauds investments. You could argue that things haven’t worked out so well with some of their more recent ones. All the technical problems with Slammer were unfortunate. Visually, it looked impressive. But technically, it didn’t work out for them. A few of the flat rides probably suck up quite a bit of maintenance budget.

 

[Benjsh]

If you’re comparing attendance at Thorpe and Chessington, it’d be interesting to know how many of Chessington’s visitors go during the main season, and how many go at Christmas, February half term or the Zoo Days. I do agree though, that on paper you’d expect Thorpe Park to get a lot more visitors than Chessington. Chessington does feel like a bit of a gold mine, although the zoo won’t be cheap. Even allowing for the fact it uses quite a few volunteer zoo keepers, there’s a big heating bill, vets are expensive, the animal food won’t be cheap - even if most of it isn’t fit for human consumption etc.

As for Thorpe Park, they seemed to get a good return on the early Tussauds investments. You could argue that things haven’t worked out so well with some of their more recent ones. All the technical problems with Slammer were unfortunate. Visually, it looked impressive. But technically, it didn’t work out for them. A few of the flat rides probably suck up quite a bit of maintenance budget.

Why would you expect more people to visit Thorpe out of interest? Theme parks are far more popular among families than thrill seekers.

Legoland is the most popular park in the country. And the big money spinners at some of the other parks are the children areas like Thomas, Peppa and Cbeebies.

 

[Funcone]

There are various things working in Chessington’s favour. It’s open for Christmas, February half term and Zoo Days. I believe these do get quite a few visitors now. It’s got a lot more accommodation than Thorpe. It’s also got the zoo. Chessington’s better connected by public transport, being within walking distance of a train station. I’m not saying that Chessington getting a similar number of visitors to Thorpe Park is some kind of great mystery. I agree that the family market’s bigger than the thrill market, although there’s more competition for the family market. Particularly from Legoland, but also from a range of other attractions, from Diggerland to Paultons Park.

Nonetheless, in terms of ride hardware, there’s a big difference. Look at the coasters, water rides and flat rides that Thorpe Park’s got. Over the last twenty five years, Thorpe Park’s had vastly more money invested into it. Thorpe Park also has a lot more higher capacity rides than Chessington. Thorpe Park probably has bigger events than Chessington. Certainly Fright Nights brings a lot of people in.

 

[Danny]

It's great to see that Chessington are looking after their theming and structures. Look at this remarkable repair work as posted in the MAP FB group:

I suspect it'll be painted over in the coming days, and continuously painted over for the foreseeable future.

 

[jon81uk]

To be fair that's fine as a "sticking plaster" repair until a contractor can come and redo it properly.
If its still like that in 2-3 weeks time then something is wrong.

 

[Matt.GC]

It's great to see that Chessington are looking after their theming and structures. Look at this remarkable repair work as posted in the MAP FB group:

I suspect it'll be painted over in the coming days, and continuously painted over for the foreseeable future.

I just saw this 10 mins ago on the MAP group. A tenner says it's still there next season

 

[Spark]

I'll update next week when i go lol

 

[djtruefitt]

It's great to see that Chessington are looking after their theming and structures. Look at this remarkable repair work as posted in the MAP FB group:

I suspect it'll be painted over in the coming days, and continuously painted over for the foreseeable future.

Pretty sure it’s been there all season.

 

[MaxPower]

I wasn't aware the ancient Egyptians used duct tape?

Maybe this explains how they built the pyramids...

 

[Alsty]

What was the hole for? Presumably there was something there that got busted off?

 

[Matt N]

You may remember that a couple of months back, I said about how Frazzle, the animatronic dragon outside Dragon’s Fury, was removed for TLC:

In other Chessington news, it would appear that Frazzle, the animatronic dragon outside Dragon’s Fury, has been removed for a bit of TLC:
https://themeparkguide.co.uk/news-p...pKczfzThm9JUpmfu9ahPJiiNouDLPis0TVo7a_RajKuug
Nice to see Chessington taking care of their theming; well done, guys!

Well, I’m happy to report that it’s now starting to be reinstalled, and has been repainted to its original red colour: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http...lofBDR28laF-0Uypr0O9QTiOpX0avol1Nv5L2b3-U&s=1

 

[John_P]

Weren't Chessington due to make the next announcement for the new coaster and area in July?