• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Speaking of Chessington, I actually found out that towards the end of the Tussauds era, DIC actually pondered selling Chessington due to it not being overly successful, and also due to the cost of maintenance and level of investment required (into things like repairs and decaying rides and theming) quickly ramping up to a level that DIC weren’t willing to pay for a struggling park. The park was only retained because of the Merlin takeover/the MAP and installations like the SeaLife centre proving that a success could be made of the park.

One does have to wonder where we’d be at by now had Chessington been sold back in the 2000s and Thorpe been Merlin’s sole London area RTP…

Also, what was 2000s Chessington actually like? I’ve heard some cite the 2000s as the park’s lowest period, but it did receive things like Dragon’s Fury, so I’m confused…
 
@Matt N - For me it was best in the late 90’s. There was a clear design and plan, much like AT. Early 00’s, it lost its way somewhat like AT. Ironically this is probably when Thorpe was at its best.

it’s almost like DIC chose Thorpe as the park to invest in as it’s close to London and has less planning restrictions to Chessington

for me thought he biggest looser of those years was AT. I do t feel the park has ever truly recovered in terms of experience since then
 
I'll take my daughter to Chessington when it opens next season now that she's tall enough to ride things she's never ridden before. Then, when she's done this, we'll just stick to Paultons and come back to Ches when they have something new and decent with a good capacity to offer us.
 
Matt N said:
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?
Click to expand...

I remember going to Chessington around 1999-2000 with school - it certainly didn't feel like a "family park" then - I remember how exciting Samurai was (was always better at Chessington than it's been at Thorpe), and then with Rameses Revenge, Rattlesnake, Vampire, Dragon Falls etc it had plenty to offer teenagers and up for a full day out. I think for me personally, it was when they removed Samurai at the end of 2003, opened Land of the Dragons and spent quite a few years investing more in the zoo side, when at the same time Thorpe got Colossus, Nemesis Inferno, Samurai and then Stealth (2002-06) that Chessington slid into the decidedly "family only" market it now feels like it belongs to today. At the same time, as new, better rides continued to open elsewhere, what had been its signature rides like Rattlesnake and Vampire felt more and more tame.
 
Another bit of TripAdvisor gold from Chessington:

"unfortunately during our winter months we cannot have all our rides open as they cannot all operate during this weather, to keep our guests and staff safe we close them and they will re open again in the main season when it is safe to do so,"

SCORPION EXPRESS, RATTLESNAKE, DRAGON'S FURY, KOBRA, SEASTORM, TOMB BLASTER are all just UNSAFE to run in December! UNSAFE I TELL YOU! Our STAFF may DIE. Our guests may COLLAPSE.
 
I know there's a funny side to this, but using health and safety as an excuse for things that aren't related to health and safety does have a serious downside. It fuels the idea that 'health and safety's gone mad'. There are a lot of genuine safety policies relating to loose articles, height requirements etc, and the staff often face a lot of resistance from the public. When health and safety gets used as an excuse for anything and everything, the public can start to feel that they're being fobbed off. It's like 'the boy who called wolf'. Guests stop taking health and safety seriously, and that's a very dangerous thing.
 
I think Merlin are missing a trick not properly opening Chessington at Christmas and February Half Term.
Most of their lineup can run in reasonably cold weather as can be seen at Blackpool and Europa, their rival to the south opens through Christmas and February Half Term with only minor ride closures and the zoo is open so even if a few rides due to weather there is still easily enough to make a day trip of.
 
The "not all rides can operate in colder weather" is largely true. But they should have just left it at that. A simple, "sorry due to our maintanance schedule and the fact not all rides can operate in colder weather we are unable to open the whole park at Christmas" would have been far better. There was no need to mention safety at all.
 
Hi does anyone else think that Rocky Express,Timber Tug Boat and Lumber Jump will open at Chessington this year? I wouldn't be surprised if Rocky Express is added to Chessington's line-up. My basis for this option is that Rocky Express underwent a major mechanical and cosmetic overhaul,during the last Closed Season. Bearing this in mind I am 80% sure that Rocky will turn up at Chessington.
 
Prof Burp said:
Hi does anyone else think that Rocky Express,Timber Tug Boat and Lumber Jump will open at Chessington this year? I wouldn't be surprised if Rocky Express is added to Chessington's line-up. My basis for this option is that Rocky Express underwent a major mechanical and cosmetic overhaul,during the last Closed Season. Bearing this in mind I am 80% sure that Rocky will turn up at Chessington.
Click to expand...
Where do you actually get your theory’s from? Or do you just pluck them out of thin air?
Why would Chessington have Rocky Express when they have Sea Storm?
Why would they also have Lumber Jump when they already have two of this ride already? Again the same principle with Tug Boat. It’s not even wishful thinking? I think it’s just common sense?
 
He is a professor, they are allowed to theorise, it is what they do.
That, and profess.
His theories are generated from life experience and previous events within the amusement industry.
Old rides get exchanged, traded and repaired.
He has developed the logical proposition that as the ride underwent considerable investment recently, the ride is likely to be kept in house, and sent on to a more appropriate setting.

Perfectly reasonable chain of logical progression to develop his hypothesis, but also likely to be complete ball locks.
 
Rocky isn’t going anywhere! And if it does, it will either stay at Thorpe or go to the scrap heap, with some parts cannibalised perhaps? The others would also make no sense as mention.

On the topic of rides opening/closing in adverse weather, it is pretty clear this has become increasingly worse over recent years. No doubt things such as H&S advisory and “The Smiler” have affected this. Not to mention the “claim culture” too perhaps.

It’s pretty clear several European parks can operate most/near all of their attractions in colder months. Whether this involves hardware and operation changes remains to be seen. I’ve visited Phantasialand and Efteling in cold/snowy weather and operations have been surprisingly good, given circumstances.
 
Sorry if this is a slightly random query, but; is it true that Rattlesnake & Dragon’s Fury have maximum weight limits, and that only 3 adults are allowed per car? And if so, why does it exist and how does the park go about enforcing it? I feel like I’ve definitely heard that somewhere, but I couldn’t remember if I was correct or not.

I can see why things like height restrictions exist, as riders below a certain height may be too small to be adequately secured by the restraint, or might not be able to brace themselves adequately, and riders above a certain height may be unable to comfortably fit into the car, or unable to get onto the ride without breaching a safe level of clearance. However, weight restrictions surprise me a little more, and make less immediate sense to me; maybe it’s something to do with the ride throwing riders around with too much force if their weight is too high? Or maybe it’s something to do with restraints, although surely fitting into the restraint is more important than fitting within any arbitrary weight limit? I don’t really know, to be honest…

They also seem like they’d be very hard to enforce compared to height restrictions, because I think identifying people/groups who look to breach the limit by eye and weighing them would be considerably more taboo than measuring people for numerous reasons, and if you enforced it by age as opposed to weight, that opens up many loopholes that render it a bit redundant… for instance, 4 teens over 6ft tall with big builds would almost definitely weigh more than 4 fairly slight adults barely surpassing 5ft, but enforcing by age would let the 4 teens on, yet forbid the 4 adults in spite of their lower combined mass… thus rendering your policy somewhat redundant in the context of things like forces.

Are there weight limits on Rattlesnake and Fury, and if so, I’d be interested to know; why are they there and how do they work? I’ve never known any other park have weight limits on coasters before… although I’ve admittedly seen group weight limits on things like waterslides a fair amount.
 
They had a scale in the Fury station. Instead they load 3 when it's wet now I believe? It's easy to do, just say 3 adults per car
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top