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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

It's quite obvious,

Chessington just isn't good enough. The park lurches in quality wildly from one visit to the next, has too many rides with inadequate throughput which has never been rectified and feels old.

Three for a Merlin park is dire - I think it's the worst in the RTP division.
 
There's some dubious English in the responses from Chessington too.



My favourites so far are "I am sorry you was unpleased with your recent visit to our Resort" and "I am sorry you did not enjoy your day as much as you endured to"
 
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AstroDan said:
Three for a Merlin park is dire - I think it's the worst in the RTP division.
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Just had a quick look and Chessington is the lowest rated Merlin theme park worldwide (so the lowest across Legoland and RTP divisions), can’t be bothered with looking at all the midways, but wouldn’t be surprised that most if not all are higher than 3 stars too.
 
If everyone read trip adviser then no one would go to pontin’s for a holiday.
I not been to Chessington since 2008 but that’s been down to them not adding a attraction that’s been worth a 5 hr round trip for.
 
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Themeparksandy1981 said:
If everyone read trip adviser then no one would go to a pontin’s for a holiday.
I not been to Chessington since 2008 but that’s been down to them not adding a attraction that’s been worth a 5 hr round trip for.
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Yeah, the only worth attractions actually waiting for over an Hour was the Original Vampire, and Professor Burps Bubbleworks before that was botched up. Tomb Blaster is a close 3rd, definitely worth around the 40 minute queue mark.

Why would teens and adults wait for a water ride about the Gruffalo aimed for 5 year olds when before they had a ride that indeed wasn't in good shape, but everyone could still enjoy and have a laugh on.

Though I must give it, Croc Drop seems like a good investment. They have shown that they can preserve the Parks past attractions, with the recent update to Tomb Blaster, which looks miles better than it previously was the past few years.

In a short term if Chessington wants to get better, Remove most of the IPs, and buy it off Merlin, because they seem to only demolish things rather than fixing them at a relatively alright price.

(Looks at Vampire and Imperial Leather Bubbleworks)
 
My biggest complaints with Chessington currently are
1. The lack of investment, the last big investment was Zufari in 2013, since then we've had plenty of refurbs and shows (did anyone actually watch Pandamonium?) but limited actual ride hardware.
2. The rides they do have are often running on reduced capacity leading to stupidly long queue times (looking at Vampire, Tomb Blaster and Zufari especially), shame they don't seem to be learning any lessons with their new coaster.
 
Alsty said:
There's some dubious English in the responses from Chessington too.



My favourites so far are "I am sorry you was unpleased with your recent visit to our Resort" and "I am sorry you did not enjoy your day as much as you endured to"
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This is properly dire… how can anyone possibly take seriously a company that responds to reviews like that?!


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It’s amazing how inconsistent Chessington are with their additions. There’s brief glimmers of hope that they’ve turned a corner, only for them to then go onto not invest anything for five years or install a half baked concept.


Just take a look at the quality and design differences between the two hotels to see how they’ve lurched from promising addition to cheapest option.
 
Sorry if this seems like a slightly random question, but; how big is Zufari in terms of the actual number of animals on offer, as well as length, relative to something like, say, Kilimanjaro Safaris at Animal Kingdom? And speaking more generally, is it generally reviewed highly; do you guys like it?

I only ask because me and my parents were talking about it in comparison to Kilimanjaro Safaris at Animal Kingdom (the only other theme park safari ride of that style we've done) over dinner tonight (I'm not entirely sure how we got onto theme park safari rides...), and I was saying that I seemed to remember Zufari being less extensive in length than Kilimanjaro, but I couldn't remember by exactly how much. My parents quite happily described it as "rubbish" relative to Kilimanjaro, but in spite of having ridden it in 2014, I was struggling to remember too much about Zufari besides it having less animals than Kilimanjaro, and also that it had the danger cave at the end with all the water effects, but I couldn't really delve into specifics... what is it actually like, if you've ridden more recently than me or remember your ride better?

I do remember quite liking Zufari, in fairness, but I remember it being a bit shorter than Kilimanjaro, and I rode it only once 7.5 years ago (and before my first ride on Kilimanjaro, at that), while I've done Kilimanjaro twice, most recently in 2019. This has reminded me that I desperately need to revisit Chessington... I haven't been since 2014! I'll see if I can squeeze a visit in for Project Amazon in 2023...
 
Matt N said:
Sorry if this seems like a slightly random question, but; how big is Zufari in terms of the actual number of animals on offer, as well as length, relative to something like, say, Kilimanjaro Safaris at Animal Kingdom? And speaking more generally, is it generally reviewed highly; do you guys like it?

I only ask because me and my parents were talking about it in comparison to Kilimanjaro Safaris at Animal Kingdom (the only other theme park safari ride of that style we've done) over dinner tonight (I'm not entirely sure how we got onto theme park safari rides...), and I was saying that I seemed to remember Zufari being less extensive in length than Kilimanjaro, but I couldn't remember by exactly how much. My parents quite happily described it as "rubbish" relative to Kilimanjaro, but in spite of having ridden it in 2014, I was struggling to remember too much about Zufari besides it having less animals than Kilimanjaro, and also that it had the danger cave at the end with all the water effects, but I couldn't really delve into specifics... what is it actually like, if you've ridden more recently than me or remember your ride better?

I do remember quite liking Zufari, in fairness, but I remember it being a bit shorter than Kilimanjaro, and I rode it only once 7.5 years ago (and before my first ride on Kilimanjaro, at that), while I've done Kilimanjaro twice, most recently in 2019. This has reminded me that I desperately need to revisit Chessington... I haven't been since 2014! I'll see if I can squeeze a visit in for Project Amazon in 2023...
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From a POV, Zufari is 7mins 30secs station to station. Kilimanjaro Safaris is 22mins almost dead on.
 
Zufari is a fraction of the scale of Kilimanjaro Safaris, and I too would have no issue with describing it as rubbish.

The problem I’ve always had with it is you can go around the whole ride without seeing a single animal. Honestly, when I first rode it I felt cheated quite frankly, having only seen a couple of flamingos at the start and nothing else. Yes, of course the animals should have quiet spaces and areas to get away from the thousands of eyes that pass by then every day, but I personally think this is exemplified by the fact on Zufari the vehicles seem to roll pass the habitats on the same level and without much in the way of screening off. You don’t really feel like you’re making your way through a natural environment, trying to get close to wildlife. It just feels like driving down a bumpy lane and the animals will clear off to their shelters or further out of sight away from the track.

By contrast, there are bits of Kilimanjaro that feel like they keep you a little further from the animals, but as a result feel a lot more natural and afford you better views. Areas like the hippo lagoon you are almost passing by on a higher level, looking down into to habitats, but because the animals are perhaps less disturbed by this and the topology more carefully curated you see plenty of wildlife.

You only need look at a satellite view of Animal Kingdom to see how sprawling and vast Kilimanjaro Safaris is, with lots of different routes around. Crucially though, the main savannah area is almost encircled by the tracks and most of the other exhibits such as the lion rocks also have roads circle at least 180°. Again, this means you get plenty of opportunities to take in the wildlife, and there is the option to adapt routes if an area is a little short on viewpoints.

Zufari, by contrast, is very compact and has some areas where the road just skirts an area briefly, meaning unless the animals are in the right places at the right moment in time, you’ll often not see a lot.

You also then have the pitiful finale on Zufari. Kilimanjaro has show scenes, but they occur naturally as you make your way around the route. You stumble across a rickety bridge and have to cross it as it wobbles. It’s entirely plausible and feels in keeping with a safari trail. At Chessington, you roll into a dark shed while a needless and forced audio track plays someone on a radio telling you not to go into the cave (oh my, I wonder what will possibly happen next…).

It was nice to see Chessington trying to bring something a bit more unique to the UK theme park market, but personally I don’t think it’s ever really worked. It’s too small, has a lot of dead space, was created with a fraction of the budget needed for something of its scale and doesn’t feel all that natural (not surprising really given the fact half of the layout is just spent circling a shed). If you want the watch animals from a vehicle, get in the car and drive around WMSP, frankly.
 
Zufari is budget-cut laden rubbish. Writing it in the same sentence as Kilimanjaro Safari seems an insult to the AK attraction.

Prior to its demise for Cheetah Hunt, Busch Gardens' Rhino Rally in original form was also better.

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AstroDan said:
Zufari is budget-cut laden rubbish. Writing it in the same sentence as Kilimanjaro Safari seems an insult to the AK attraction.

Prior to its demise for Cheetah Hunt, Busch Gardens' Rhino Rally in original form was also better.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk
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The water section on that whilst clearly a gimmick worked well (when it worked).

Chessie unfortunately didn't have the space or budget to pull off a safari ride. Given that we have a few across the country I'm (not) surprised Merlin didn't look at them for inspiration for design.

Great views of the hotel mind.

And at least they got rid of the god awful "interactive" pre-show.
 
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