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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Chessington is a strange one, because everything there seems to either be a slight improvement or fall flat on it’s face. As far as operations and progress goes.

The park’s cosmetic appearance had seen some notable improvements in some areas, however most of these are done on a low budget and look dilapidated just 2/3 years later. One just needs to look at Croc Drop, not to mention the state of Fury’s track which I would argue looks worse than Colossus.

Operations is a strange one. Back in the day, they were stellar then they got worse around the early 2010’s and then much worse after. I feel like there were some improvements around 2017-2019, but again these have slipped. It doesn’t help when throughputs have dropped substantially due to reduced trains/vehicles and/or longer loading times. That’s before discussing the RAP/fastrack situation, which is probably the worst park affected by these.

Whilst the park has received a reasonable amount of new/rethemed attractions in the past 4/5 years, most of these are either rethemes or “off the shelf” additions with low throughputs. With the exception of Gruffalo IMO, these additions are typically ok at best.

Chessington is a still a park I like and enjoy, but there needs to some serious modifications carried out to the operation and infrastructure, because the park can’t really cope anymore when It comes to peak days of operation. And you can go from having some of best or worst days out there depending on when you are visiting.

Paultons is superior on almost everything now in comparison. Only a dark ride is really keeping them from being better by a country mile!
 
Matt Creek said:
Chessington is a strange one, because everything there seems to either be a slight improvement or fall flat on it’s face. As far as operations and progress goes.

The park’s cosmetic appearance had seen some notable improvements in some areas, however most of these are done on a low budget and look dilapidated just 2/3 years later. One just needs to look at Croc Drop, not to mention the state of Fury’s track which I would argue looks worse than Colossus.

Operations is a strange one. Back in the day, they were stellar then they got worse around the early 2010’s and then much worse after. I feel like there were some improvements around 2017-2019, but again these have slipped. It doesn’t help when throughputs have dropped substantially due to reduced trains/vehicles and/or longer loading times. That’s before discussing the RAP/fastrack situation, which is probably the worst park affected by these.

Whilst the park has received a reasonable amount of new/rethemed attractions in the past 4/5 years, most of these are either rethemes or “off the shelf” additions with low throughputs. With the exception of Gruffalo IMO, these additions are typically ok at best.

Chessington is a still a park I like and enjoy, but there needs to some serious modifications carried out to the operation and infrastructure, because the park can’t really cope anymore when It comes to peak days of operation. And you can go from having some of best or worst days out there depending on when you are visiting.

Paultons is superior on almost everything now in comparison. Only a dark ride is really keeping them from being better by a country mile!
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Yeah, Merlin really need to up their game at Chessington, though I have little hope that the park will be as good as it once was back In the 90s.

IPs - okay, for now they're fine, but if we're going to have more IP based rides than original rides in the future, it'll be The final coffin for the park. It's starting to be aimed for Toddlers than Families now ever since the opening of The Gruffalo River Ride :/

Operations - As I've never been there myself, from other people's perspectives, the operations are dreadful. 2hrs and 30mins for Vampire? No chance I'm joining that.

Consistency - Either a hit or miss, great or meh. They really need new attraction designers there, bringing something everyone could enjoy, not some pier style log flume with near to no theming.

Lack of maintenance/care for older attractions -

By no means Merlin doesn't try, they definitely proved us wrong recently with Tomb Blaster refurbishment and Vampire given some new life, but apart from them, I really can't think of anything else like that on the past 15 years. Dtagons furys track looks like its more rust than steel. Not to mention they Removed Bubbleworks for an IP when they could've easily brought in John and the remaining Sparks Employees, to either take it back to Professor Burps Bubbleworks, or bring new life into the ride, such as jokes, special effects, etc.
If they wanna redeem themselves from Bubbleworks closure, at least give Vampire new trains looking like proper arrow Trains. Just give us something for everyone, young and old, not just 4 year olds that will forget the experience when they're a teen.
 
Trooper Looper said:
It's starting to be aimed for Toddlers than Families now ever since the opening of The Gruffalo River Ride :/
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The Gruffalo is written for children aged 3-7 not toddlers. Same with Room on the Broom.

Croc Drop and Tiger Rock - the other ‘significant’ investments at Chessington since Gruffalo have a 1.2m height restriction, which on average is a height reached at 7 years old.

For all its faults I don’t think Chessington has an issue with installing attractions that aren’t suitable for its intended family audience.
 
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Always thought Zufari should of been a River Rapids. Quite a long slow one with animal exhibits alongside the edge of the trough. Then a more traditional rapids section in the cave at the end for a proper finale.
The space available would of been great for a rapids, but Chesdington is simply not big enough to pull off a Safari ride.

The biggest sin is not letting guests see the animals from the queue. They are literally just on the other side of the fence. Were they afraid the queue would outshine the actual ride?
 
Tim said:
Always thought Zufari should of been a River Rapids. Quite a long slow one with animal exhibits alongside the edge of the trough. Then a more traditional rapids section in the cave at the end for a proper finale.
The space available would of been great for a rapids, but Chesdington is simply not big enough to pull off a Safari ride.

The biggest sin is not letting guests see the animals from the queue. They are literally just on the other side of the fence. Were they afraid the queue would outshine the actual ride?
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Apparently the original plans for the rapids at Disneys Animal Kingdom was to have animal viewing but they couldn’t get the sight lines right to actually be able to see tigers from a moderate paced rapids raft.
I don’t think Chessington/Merlin could have pulled it off any better. At least with human driven vehicles they can slow down or move depending on the animals to an extent.
I agree with the last point though and more should have been done to improve off-ride viewing.
 
Don't think they would've been allowed to build a "proper" ride on that land either due to Green Belt stuff.

I forgot to mention the awfully designed onload/offload situation when talking about Zufari earlier as well. It's like when they designed it they used people who had zero idea of how a theme park attraction should be made.
 
Benzin said:
Don't think they would've been allowed to build a "proper" ride on that land either due to Green Belt stuff.

I forgot to mention the awfully designed onload/offload situation when talking about Zufari earlier as well. It's like when they designed it they used people who had zero idea of how a theme park attraction should be made.
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What is the onload/offload situation?
 
jon81uk said:
Apparently the original plans for the rapids at Disneys Animal Kingdom was to have animal viewing but they couldn’t get the sight lines right to actually be able to see tigers from a moderate paced rapids raft.
I don’t think Chessington/Merlin could have pulled it off any better. At least with human driven vehicles they can slow down or move depending on the animals to an extent.
I agree with the last point though and more should have been done to improve off-ride viewing.
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I didn't know that.
Ah well, at least I can say I had the same idea as the Imagineers!
Benzin said:
Don't think they would've been allowed to build a "proper" ride on that land either due to Green Belt stuff.
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That's an annoying quirk of planning rules. Those trucks have got to be far noiser and more polluting than a simple ride, but I guess as they aren't on a fixed track it would have been easier to pass planning.
 
The original Zufari was built with definite intention, but failed in the worst way.

There was originally a ‘questionable’ pre-show with Chase & Goatsie (I think (anyone remember them)). It was like a cardboard cutout from one of those interactive Disney shows without the substance. I remember the voice/sync was always out.

Then, the loading/offload platform. Originally there were separate areas to get guests on and off the vehicles, but given guests leaving would have to crossover it made no sense.

The ride was generally alright, however the ending rather anticlimactic given it just ends. We go off into “this danger cave”, a few effects happen, we get found and then we leave.

There have been a number of budget ‘so so’ attempts to rectify these issues over the years, but none have really been largely effective sadly. We will probably never see a successfully polished Zufari operate. Ever.

Also in typical Chessington, one of the former vehicles has been mothballed as random theming.
 
Matt Creek said:
There was originally a ‘questionable’ pre-show with Chase & Goatsie (I think (anyone remember them)).
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I think it was Gozie. It was a lemur (which incidentally are from Madagascar and not mainland Africa). It would pick on people in the crowd and get them to do animal impressions and other such nonsense.

You're right about the other character, it was Chase Van Driver.
 
I genuinely think some people have a hard time coming to terms with being too old for a park. Chessington haven't been trying to attract thrill seekers for an awful long time. Maybe that's about to change with the wing coaster but there's definitely not enough there right now to make me want to visit except if it was for my 7 year old son who wanted to go.
 
Benjsh said:
I genuinely think some people have a hard time coming to terms with being too old for a park. Chessington haven't been trying to attract thrill seekers for an awful long time. Maybe that's about to change with the wing coaster but there's definitely not enough there right now to make me want to visit except if it was for my 7 year old son who wanted to go.
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There might be an element of that, but to be fair most of the comments about Paultons Park have been very positive. Also to be fair, the comments about Chessington on Trip Advsior often aren’t very complimentary.

A lot of the things that people are complaining about aren’t just niche things that only affect the enthusiasts. Things like the paintwork on Dragons Fury, or replacing the rockwork on Runaway Train with a 2D backflash, aren’t really to do with whether or not it’s a thrill park. There is a general feeling that many areas of the park are either looking tired, or looking cheapened after poorly maintained theming’s been removed and replaced with cheap alternatives. Then there’s the removal of Skyway, which took out a major ride that couldn’t be easily replaced. Or the portable Sealife Centre which was meant to be there for a couple of years and then became a permanent fixture.

Chessington hasn’t necessarily frittered money in the same way that Alton Towers arguably did with Sub Terra or Galactica. Some of the ideas at Chessington are actually quite good, like the backstory behind Scorpion Express. But the budgets have generally been a lot smaller than Merlin’s other three UK parks. Regardless of who the audience is, it feels like a park that’s in decline.
 
Out of interest, when would you guys say Chessington made the shift away from thrill seekers, from the perspective of anyone who was visiting? Was it when Tussauds bought Thorpe Park in 1998, or was it earlier?

To be honest, I’ve never thought of Chessington as a park aiming to appeal to people above a certain age. Granted, I wasn’t born when it was the “Alton of the South” it supposedly was in the 1990s, when it appealed to everyone, but to me, Chessington has always been a “young families’ and children’s park” in the same vein as Legoland.

Which is why I found the wing coaster a somewhat surprising purchase… I honestly thought Chessington had bowed out of building big thrill coasters after Vampire in 1990. Could the park be aiming to tap into that more universal market once again?
 
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I think the site itself doesn't lend itself to being a "thrill park" - in terms of size but more importantly its location and the planning misery that brings. The site was "chosen" because they already owned it.

The purchase of Thorpe by Tussauds certainly plays a role in it too.
 
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