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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Yep, even if you get Fury out of the way first thing there could be a whole bunch other rides with utterly miserable queues that you can't really avoid. The park just cannot cope on busy days. Vampire, Kobra, Rattlesnake, Tomb Blaster, Croc Drop and Dragon Falls can all get 75-90 minute waits and none of them warrant waiting anywhere near that long. Even "support" rides like Seastorm, Blue Barnacle & Monkey Swinger apparently get 45 minute waits, though I've never been tempted to check whether the advertised queues are anywhere near accurate.
 
Trooper Looper said:
I'm at the Hotel now!! I'd loke to thank everyone for the advice. I'll use it wisely Tomorrow!! Wish me luck!
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Update:
We're here now, just got out of the pool. Lots of people. Great view to the safari!!!

So, Hotel Guests are allow in the park early!!! They have 6 rides open then, them being:

Adventure Tree Carousel
Blue Barnicle
Elmer's Flying Jumbos
Room on the Broom
The Runaway Train
And Tiny Truckers!!

A really good selection if you ask me. Would've been better if Blue Barnacle was replaced by Tomb Blaster. Though I'm not complaining!
 
Tbh early ride time should provide access to the resorts most popular low throughput rides… but also cater for all age groups…

That should be the simple agenda when considering what rides should be on ERT, If 400 hotel guests get on in ERT that will help the overall days KPI’s keeping the key queues potentially shorter.
 
Hello People, just left the park and in the car on the way back home. I had a really good day, but unfortunately I think it's the weakest of the 3 main Merlin Parks, With Thopre 2nd, and Alton 1st. Don't let that say I had a bad time though, I had a pleasant time in the park, but BLIMEY it was overcrowded. Our first ride was The Runaway Train. That only had a 5 minute wait, this was around 9:30-ish. The ride was really good, had 3 laps, and the explosion effect was working!!

After that, we headed to Transilvania, around 9:45, Vampire already had a queue before the ride even opened, which extended to the entrance of the area, but thankfully we were by the waterfall. Vampire was great!! A bit rough, but absolutely adored the swinging sensation. The station felt immense in scale, lighting, theme (the non rap part) and Marcel himself!!

After that, our group split up, we went to Tomb Blaster then. You know what, I was pleasantly surprised by Tomb Blaster!! The shooting element was okay, the theming was excellent, and I think the story and music was really good. Definitely the better shooter than Duel, while that's a better Dark Ride without the blasters.

Later went of Dragons Fury, only waited for 40 minutes, and blimey that's loads better than Spinball Whizzer, shame it's a lot shorter though...

Then rushed to the Gruffalo River Ride, with a good 20 minute wait. And... wow, that was incredibly disappointing. I felt nothing while riding it, the whole ride just felt boring. It had decent scenery... and that's about it. Can't believe Melrin think that's better than Bubbleworks. Made me wish even more I could've rode it before its retheme...

Tried to do Tiger Rock, but that sadly closed just as we were about to go on it. Really Disappointed by that.

The whole Madri gras event was surprisingly annoying to me, the music felt repetitive, the stages felt really out of place, ruining the areas I think. The only Exterior audios I remembe hearing is Vampires queue audio, The Gruffalos Theme, and Madi Gras... quite limited if you ask me.

We managed to do Tomb Blaster again, which we ended on. But all on all, i had a good day.

The Runaway Train: 7/10
Vampire: 9/10
Tomb Blaster: 8.5/10
Dragons Fury: 9/10
Gruffalo River Ride: 4/10
 
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Double post sorry. Just wanted to say a few more things.

My trip overall was a solid 8.5/10

The park is actual really easy to follow, so getting lost is pretty hard. But who doesn't have their fair share of complaints.

Improvments they could do:

Either Make Mardi Gras more thematically appropriate for the themed areas they're respectfully in, or replace it with a different festival.

Something needs to be done to the Gruffalo. I really tried to enjoy it, I really did, but that ride left no lasting impression on me. This is gonna be a very typical request, but just bring back (the original) bubbleworks when the IP expires Merlin. The Gruffalo may be great with little kids, but it feels really lackluster and boring for the rest of the Family personally, in terms of its theme. People still talk about missing Bubbleworks, I heard a group of people in front of me talk about Bubbleworks with the ride attendant while queueing for the ride, so I can't see the revival of it being a failure.

More in house Merch. Just more pin badges, Jumpers, etc, to rides that exist or that use to exist. It seems that a lot of merch there is just off the shelf toys from other companies, which was a bit disappointing.
 
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Interesting review.

I'd be annoyed if I spent a day there and got on so few rides, although wait times don't sound too bad.

Interesting how opinion can vary. For me, Gruffalo is a redeeming feature at Chessington whilst Tomb Blaster in its current form is the absolute worst dark ride that I've done at a "major" park. The incoherent audio adds nothing.
 
D4n said:
Interesting review.

I'd be annoyed if I spent a day there and got on so few rides, although wait times don't sound too bad.

Interesting how opinion can vary. For me, Gruffalo is a redeeming feature at Chessington whilst Tomb Blaster in its current form is the absolute worst dark ride that I've done at a "major" park. The incoherent audio adds nothing.
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The only bad Queues there were was Dragons Fury the whole day excluding lunch and Vampire during the afternoon.

Yeah, I thought i was just gonna have a meh review of Tomb blaster, but life is full of Suprises.

Still don't like The Gruffalo River Ride that much, it has to be the 2nd worst Merlin Dark Ride I've done, with Gangsta Granny being 1st.
 
We had a great day yesterday, didn't know it was the Mardi Graaa event at the time of booking, but my kids loved it (5 and 2). Easily impressed at that age but they were absolutely fixated with the Carnival Spectacle.

The only thing my daughter was unimpressed with, on a big scale, was Zufari, and I had to agree with her. I assume back in the day something used to happen in the cave? But we essentially saw a few giraffes and that was pretty much it.

Overall though, it was a great day.
 
Islander said:
Very very little. Some strobing lights, couple of effects fans, and a waterfall-type effect. It was fairly mediocre from day one.
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Its always felt like the budget got cut to the bone for Zufari, but rather than doing the sensible thing of adding to the effects a year or two later for a new & improved ride, they just let it fall apart.

Feels like it would be much better money spent to get a decent company in to do some work on a "show" finale, instead of the current "theming" of nailing stuff everywhere.
While the new seaside area looks alright, it does seem like cheap ride hardware with some signage and stuff on every surface.


(link to Chessington Buzz Facebook showing Miss Bubbleworks signage on new "themed" buildings around the new area.)
 
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jon81uk said:
Its always felt like the budget got cut to the bone for Zufari, but rather than doing the sensible thing of adding to the effects a year or two later for a new & improved ride, they just let it fall apart.

Feels like it would be much better money spent to get a decent company in to do some work on a "show" finale, instead of the current "theming" of nailing stuff everywhere.
While the new seaside area looks alright, it does seem like cheap ride hardware with some signage and stuff on every surface.

(link to Chessington Buzz Facebook showing Miss Bubbleworks signage on new "themed" buildings around the new area.)
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Am I seeing Melrin pull out the nostalgia card?

Never imagine that would ever happen in my lifetime XD
 
I’ve always felt Zufari would have just been better to not have it’s silly story, and just concentrated on showing you animals. He rock carvings look awful and the finale is really bad, on my last visit we raced through it as it was broke. So your final memory of the ride is a rubbish fake cave with a black metal roof and some bad effects when they work.
 
jon81uk said:
While the new seaside area looks alright, it does seem like cheap ride hardware with some signage and stuff on every surface.


(link to Chessington Buzz Facebook showing Miss Bubbleworks signage on new "themed" buildings around the new area.)
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It's interesting to me how Chessington Buzz in particular always throws an extremely positive spin on... well, anything the park does at all. Even the tarmac wasteland of an entrance got praised for "lots of attention to detail, and incredible theming elements", or words to that effect.
 
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