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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

My expectations from Chessington aren’t that high these days, bit it does feel like things have taken a disappointing turn.

There were a lot of reasons to feel optimistic about this season. Chessington have raised their game with the events. I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re the best they’ve ever been, but certainly the best in a long time with Mardi Gras and Wilderfest. Judging by Chessington Buzz quite a few buildings have been re-painted this year. There are two new rides, a new area and a new entrance. It all sounded really exciting.

The new events genuinely are a positive development, although we know from experience that these things are often vulnerable to budget cuts. The new rides are good up to a point, but if I’ve understood it correctly one of them’s a second hand Rockin’ Tug, when they already have a similar ride in Land of the Dragons. The other ride’s a cheap Zamperla roundabout? Still, a positive uplift in the centre of the park, but it is partly offset by them finally removing The Jungle Bus. The repaints and extra bits of theming in Wild Asia are good, but they’ve also held back on bigger projects that would have made a larger difference (repainting Fury and Vampire). The new entrance might be marginally better than what was there before, but it's certainly underwhelming. Not a terrible year, but hardly a great year either.
 
Been to chessington for the first time today, thought I’d note down some of my thoughts on this thread. On the whole we had a good day, my kids enjoyed themselves, but I can definitely see where the park needs to make improvements.

We started off with Vampire . I thought the queue line could do with some major tlc. There was some theming but not much and what was there looks like it has been left to rot, maybe that’s the look they’re going for with that ride I don’t know, but it looks a bit poor. I found Vampire to be an enjoyable ride, faster than it looks. My kids loved it. The family in front of us in the queue allowed one of their kids to climb the fence and mess around with the theming, couldn’t believe what I was seeing as I would never allow my kids to do that but they just let it happen and mouthed off at anyone in the queue who pointed out that maybe you shouldn’t let them do that. Bizarre.

Later in the day I went to do Rattlesnake on my own as my kids aren’t big enough for it yet. It was an okay ride, the breaks kind of ruined the momentum of the ride for me in places. I’m also not really sure why this is a 1.4 ride? It’s really quite tame and not much different from Cobra at Paultons. Guess it’s an old ride now.

I did croc drop, tiger rock and dragon’s fury with my 1.2+ child. Croc Drop was fun but it doesn’t rotate anymore which is disappointing for a ride that is only a year old. Not sure what’s going on there. .

Tiger Rock was alright. Can obviously tell where the old Dragon Falls theming was though, saw the famous rock covered Dragon everyone always mentions. It really is as bad as it looks in photos. Who are they kidding🤣 Nearly did my back in at the end being rear ended by the boat behind.

Dragon’s Fury was great fun, I think I prefer it to Spinball at towers, but the queue was excruciating to wait in due to fast track being let through in their droves.

Zufari - someone was sick at one of the gates before getting on (obviously they didn’t get on in the end). I kid you not it took FOUR employees to clean it up. Was ridiculous to witness, it’s a two man job at most. One person to hold the bag, the other cleaning up with a dustpan. It also took ages and no one was allowed on until it was cleaned but I guess that’s understandable.

The Mardi Grra entertainment was good. Plenty of people getting involved with the dancing. I had some ‘cheesy Cajun chips’ from one of the food vans. The cheese wasn’t melted though so this didn’t really meet my definition of cheesy chips. More like chips with grated cheese on top. Won’t be going for that again.

Didn’t see the new entrance as we came he through the lodge entrance, don’t think I’m missing much though.

Overall it was a decent day out but like I said there’s loads of room for improvement. We’ve got another day on park tomorrow. Currently sitting outside the chessington hotel with a drink, watching the zebras and ostriches which is lovely. Popped in to see the kids entertainment earlier but it was just loads of kids banging plastic tubes on the stage for the 10 mins we sat there which was incredibly annoying for us all, so we left. Might go back to see the tail end of the entertainment soon.
 
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Alsty said:
I recall they had lots of trouble with it not parking in the correct place when it came back into the station.
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Can confirm I've spent nearly 20mins stuck in my seat for this reason when it used to rotate. Not only does it fail to park, when it overshoots the gondola speeds up to get back round but gets faster and faster each time until someone estops it. It was screaming round and smelling of burning before they got it to stop!
 
BigShadowtinytree said:
Been to chessington for the first time today, thought I’d note down some of my thoughts on this thread. On the whole we had a good day, my kids enjoyed themselves, but I can definitely see where the park needs to make improvements.

We started off with Vampire . I thought the queue line could do with some major tlc. There was some theming but not much and what was there looks like it has been left to rot, maybe that’s the look they’re going for with that ride I don’t know, but it looks a bit poor. I found Vampire to be an enjoyable ride, faster than it looks. My kids loved it. The family in front of us in the queue allowed one of their kids to climb the fence and mess around with the theming, couldn’t believe what I was seeing as I would never allow my kids to do that but they just let it happen and mouthed off at anyone in the queue who pointed out that maybe you shouldn’t let them do that. Bizarre.

Later in the day I went to do Rattlesnake on my own as my kids aren’t big enough for it yet. It was an okay ride, the breaks kind of ruined the momentum of the ride for me in places. I’m also not really sure why this is a 1.4 ride? It’s really quite tame and not much different from Cobra at Paultons. Guess it’s an old ride now.

I did croc drop, tiger rock and dragon’s fury with my 1.2+ child. Croc Drop was fun but it doesn’t rotate anymore which is disappointing for a ride that is only a year old. Not sure what’s going on there. .

Tiger Rock was alright. Can obviously tell where the old Dragon Falls theming was though, saw the famous rock covered Dragon everyone always mentions. It really is as bad as it looks in photos. Who are they kidding Nearly did my back in at the end being rear ended by the boat behind.

Dragon’s Fury was great fun, I think I prefer it to Spinball at towers, but the queue was excruciating to wait in due to fast track being let through in their droves.

Zufari - someone was sick at one of the gates before getting on (obviously they didn’t get on in the end). I kid you not it took FOUR employees to clean it up. Was ridiculous to witness, it’s a two man job at most. One person to hold the bag, the other cleaning up with a dustpan. It also took ages and no one was allowed on until it was cleaned but I guess that’s understandable.

The Mardi Grra entertainment was good. Plenty of people getting involved with the dancing. I had some ‘cheesy Cajun chips’ from one of the food vans. The cheese wasn’t melted though so this didn’t really meet my definition of cheesy chips. More like chips with grated cheese on top. Won’t be going for that again.

Didn’t see the new entrance as we came he through the lodge entrance, don’t think I’m missing much though.

Overall it was a decent day out but like I said there’s loads of room for improvement. We’ve got another day on park tomorrow. Currently sitting outside the chessington hotel with a drink, watching the zebras and ostriches which is lovely. Popped in to see the kids entertainment earlier but it was just loads of kids banging plastic tubes on the stage for the 10 mins we sat there which was incredibly annoying for us all, so we left. Might go back to see the tail end of the entertainment soon.
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This is a very good point, why is Dragon’s Fury a 1.4m ride when Spinball Whizzer is 1.3m?

I know that whilst they are both Maurer spinners DF is a Xtended SC 3000 model and SW is a Xtended XC 2200 but is there any particular difference in the trains or restraints that makes for a difference in the height restrictions on them?
 
Shaggy_Dog_ said:
This is a very good point, why is Dragon’s Fury a 1.4m ride when Spinball Whizzer is 1.3m?

I know that whilst they are both Maurer spinners DF is a Xtended SC 3000 model and SW is a Xtended XC 2200 but is there any particular difference in the trains or restraints that makes for a difference in the height restrictions on them?
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Umm... both are 1.2m rides?
 
AT86 said:
I believe the height restriction is because of the shared lap bar.
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Makes sense, I never considered that.

I wonder if it’s days are numbered at the park. It just seems like the height restriction is a little high for the kind of park chessington are aiming to be, then again it’s always good to have something for the older guests even if it is just average. Drayton has shockwave at least for the time being so… but I’d argue that shockwave is more of a ‘1.4’ ride than Rattlesnake in the sense that it has inversions and gives you a bit of a thrill, the stand up gimmick helps too. As you can tell, I don’t rate Rattlesnake at all😆
 
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