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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Lottie. said:
It is great to see Chessington getting some refurb done on some of the old rides, and I'll have a little geek at it if I can tomorrow when I visit. It would be a shame if they did cut some of Zufari's budget to fund this refurb, but they clearly want to sort out some of their older rides (aside from Peeking Heights :p) Runaway Train was in desperate need of a refurb, especially when there was a gaping hole in the rock work the last time I rode it.
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Well... there definitly won't be a hole in the rocks anymore, thats for sure. I wouldn't be getting my hopes up for this work, thats for sure.
 
Has it been confirmed by Chessington that the budget was cut by £4million. That is a hell of a lot of budget from Zufari being removed, surely it would have been better to leave it till next year and do it on a low budget year... They seem to have really pushed it this year with Transylvania and all those rides refurbished! IMO that is a fantastic thing but the timing just seems a bit obscure considering they have had an entire closed season to do it and now just deciding to do so.
 
I'm glad that the Runaway Train is being fixed up as it really was in quite a state. It's a lovely little ride too with some impressive and immersive theming!

How much work needs to be done to Dragon Falls though? It looked fine last season. Are they adding the pieces of theming back onto it which has been lost over the years? It's a shame the flume at Alton Towers isn't like the one at Chessington.

Also glad to hear that Peeking Heights is being fixed. That was quite an embarrassment really. Thank goodness they didn't just give up on it and replace it as it provided some wonderful views. I'd still like to see them replace the sumo bungees next to it. There's more than enough space around there to accommodate a new flat or perhaps an outdoor climbing area, etc...


Saying all that, I'm still absolutely gutted about what Zufari could have been like. I haven't been on it though so hopefully it won't be as bad as the videos we've seen.
 
BigAl said:
I'm glad that the Runaway Train is being fixed up as it really was in quite a state. It's a lovely little ride too with some impressive and immersive theming!

How much work needs to be done to Dragon Falls though? It looked fine last season. Are they adding the pieces of theming back onto it which has been lost over the years? It's a shame the flume at Alton Towers isn't like the one at Chessington.

Also glad to hear that Peeking Heights is being fixed. That was quite an embarrassment really. Thank goodness they didn't just give up on it and replace it as it provided some wonderful views. I'd still like to see them replace the sumo bungees next to it. There's more than enough space around there to accommodate a new flat or perhaps an outdoor climbing area, etc...
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None of the above. Unfortunately. More like goodbye rockwork, goodbye gorgeous theming.
 
So that effectively eliminates all of Mexicana, as well as Mystic East. :/
 
mark9 said:
None of the above. Unfortunately. More like goodbye rockwork, goodbye gorgeous theming.
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Whoops, I feared this was going to happen. Do you know exactly what is being removed?

Sounds to me like somebody has condemned all the rotting fibreglass across the park. Dragon River, Rattlesnake and Runaway Train all have fibreglass rocks closely interacting with paths/rides, so if they were dangerous then I understand the concern. They were all looking awful anyway, they should never have got into this state. It seems like Tussaudes and the Chessington management from 2005-2007 are to blame?

I wish Chessington would magically find the money to restore and upgrade all its theme design with new construction techniques that don't rot within years. But that won't happen, from these rumours it seems they are going to pull a Logger's Leap and demolish without replacing.

It's worth pointing out that the last "two year refurbishment" that involved Mystic East was in 2005, which resulted in: the mountain being totally removed from lift 2, some new decoration (and loss of much old decoration) in the station, fibreglass repainted, and a terrible panning for gold game.
 
Roughly, according to my friend who works at the park, Falls looks awful. I asked about the Buddah, the Dragon and the remaining rockwork and he replied saying Buddah is fine but the rest is gone. He also said the runaway train rockwork is next to go. Considering the rockwork at Runaway hides the backstage area, I really, truly hope it isn't as bad as I'm imagining.

I can't help thinking Peeking and Rattlesnake are closed just so the areas can be shut off from the public as he said nothing about Rattlesnake and work to be done on it.
 
Ooh, err

If that is correct then it sounds rather naff. From a macro perspective, Chessington's sole merit as a theme park today is the 'unexpected' quality of its theme designs. Otherwise it might as well be Gullivers Land or something.

Still, the only solution for features like the Runaway Train caves is to demolish and start again, or strip the fibreglass and rebuild on top of the steel skeleton. But that won't work for more detailed features like the stone Buddha faces and dragon tunnel; they were genuinely great works of sculpture that cannot be replicated.

If it's true they have been removed totally and that they plan not to replace these features then [insert rant here]. But I would hope that this £4million is going somewhere. Chessington's statement that they deemed the rides "currently not up to their visual standards" suggests they do not want to just disappoint visitors with bare rides.
 
If they were just stripping the theming out that's become a bit run down and tatty surely it wouldn't be costing them £4 million?

I'm fairly certain that price tag includes stripping it and then reapplying new, fresher looking pieces. Well, one would hope anyway :/
 
LiamC said:
If they were just stripping the theming out that's become a bit run down and tatty surely it wouldn't be costing them £4 million?

I'm fairly certain that price tag includes stripping it and then reapplying new, fresher looking pieces. Well, one would hope anyway :/
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I'm pretty sure it would take longer then 3 weeks to build Falls rockwork back. They haven't even started on Runaway train. So unless they want Runaway down till May/June time, the rockwork wont return until next season.
 
Just to maybe throw some light on why these refurbishments might have been delayed a lot of winter projects have been delayed in the UK this year due to the bad weather. There's been lots of rain, high winds and quite a few snowy periods. The Smiler is not the only project behind schedule, neither is this limited to Merlin or even theme parks.
 
mark9 said:
LiamC said:
If they were just stripping the theming out that's become a bit run down and tatty surely it wouldn't be costing them £4 million?

I'm fairly certain that price tag includes stripping it and then reapplying new, fresher looking pieces. Well, one would hope anyway :/
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I'm pretty sure it would take longer then 3 weeks to build Falls rockwork back. They haven't even started on Runaway train. So unless they want Runaway down till May/June time, the rockwork wont return until next season.
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I didn't allude to the time frame for replacing the theming in my post, just that I don't think they'll leave them bare/with parts removed for the rest of their time ;)

Whilst I agree that stripping theming off, leaving it and then coming back to it later on in the season or after the season has finished isn't ideal, the £4 million price tag indicates that they're not going to be left like that :)
 
Tim said:
Just to maybe throw some light on why these refurbishments might have been delayed a lot of winter projects have been delayed in the UK this year due to the bad weather. There's been lots of rain, high winds and quite a few snowy periods. The Smiler is not the only project behind schedule, neither is this limited to Merlin or even theme parks.
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This would be viable if they had been seen doing work on Runaway over the winter (as you can see the ride from the Children's Zoo)... Unfortunately, it just doesn't hold up as on my two visits nothing was happening there...

Fury was also down today, let's pray this isn't the case on the weekend...
 
Benzin said:
Tim said:
Just to maybe throw some light on why these refurbishments might have been delayed a lot of winter projects have been delayed in the UK this year due to the bad weather. There's been lots of rain, high winds and quite a few snowy periods. The Smiler is not the only project behind schedule, neither is this limited to Merlin or even theme parks.
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This would be viable if they had been seen doing work on Runaway over the winter (as you can see the ride from the Children's Zoo)... Unfortunately, it just doesn't hold up as on my two visits nothing was happening there...

Fury was also down today, let's pray this isn't the case on the weekend...
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But could the people in charge of this be the same people responsible for the improvements in Transylvania? Maybe that was delayed and as a result so was this? Or maybe the weather was so much of an issue they put off starting it?

That last one seems a bit far fetched but I wouldn't rule out weather having a significant effect.
 
Nah, this doesn't sound at all like a delay, there was no prior knowledge or evidence to suggest Chessie were even looking at re-doing the rockwork on either ride this closed season (whilst it was a semi-surprise that Refresh/Burger Kitchen were re-done to the level they were, there was knowledge that both establishments were changing), you would think that this kind of news which enthusiasts have been clamouring for years about would've made it out earlier if this was planned...

This definitely has the air of being told they have to do it, not that they wanted to right now... Why would any park close down 4 rides for Easter?

Chessie have dressed it up as improvement work that they've been planning, but why would it all of a sudden start days before opening? That is the telling factor that this has literally sprung up out of nowhere and it's suddenly having to be done by the park...

I don't buy it... Simple as... This is a sudden development that the park has had to rush to do because of the poor maintenance that has (or more accurately, hasn't) been done on both ride's rocks for years...
 
I can only see this being bad. It's probably come from the same jobsworths that insisted Rita had it's scafolding put back up. I'm bracing for the worst here. No doubt we have seent the last of the rocks on the rides in question. :'(
 
This park is nothing short of a failure. Can they do anything right?

As if all that rubbish in Transylvania wasn't bad enough, now it looks like the only decent theming left in the park is heading for the skip. Least we not forget all that business in Forbidden Kingdom last year either with that dreadful metal fencing.

Chessington really has become the runt of the litter. Instead of spending £8 million on a mediocre safari ride, the money should have spent sorting the park out to create at least a half decent themed experience.

It is an incredibly sad state of affairs when a park can only get funding to sort something out once it has been condemned. Truly awful.
 
For quite a while, I've really felt sorry for Chessie. Talk about a fall from grace, from being one the first, if not the first, themed park in the country, but lack of investment and lacklustre rides/theming had really made the place suffer badly. And I do agree with Merlin leaving this park in the corner alone and forgotten. And if that Paramount theme park takes off...well, if this keeps happening to the place, the less said the better.

With Merlin, they'd need not have bought if they were going to leave it like this with them focussing on Legoland, you know they could sell the place off to some consortium to run it themselves who would happily run the place if Merlin really don't want it then.

Euromillions winners anyone? :p
 
CoasterCrazyChris said:
Instead of spending £8 million on a mediocre safari ride, the money should have spent sorting the park out to create at least a half decent themed experience.
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Well, it can't be pure coincidence that £4million was cut from Zufari's budget, and now a £5million refurb has been announced. It's very possible that the extra money was diverted to this. Chessington were only granted the big budget because they planned to open a major new attraction that would justify the expense.

Although you could argue Zufari would have been much better had its budget not been cut... It's an awkward situation. In an ideal world they would have enough money to do both at once.
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I don't see why people are moaning quite so hard about this. Yes, a massive amount of original themework has been demolished (very sad in itself) but that had to happen soon and it wasn't necessarily Merlin's fault. It's not a question of a quick "paint job" or "spruce up" when you have enormous rotting fibreglass structures. Blame the non-existent maintenance when DIC Tussaudes owned the park, the tough planning restrictions meaning investment stopped for years, or even the poor durability of the material that allowed the rocks to peel so unattractively; those are the factors that caused Chessington to get in this state.

Whilst it does seem suspicious that the announcement has been made so suddenly, as if a forced decision, it's still a solid fact that Merlin have just invested £millions into the old rides at Chessington like I thought they would never do. Such a quantity of money dedicated solely to improving old infrastructure is far greater than what Alton Towers got to replenish X Sector this year.

It could go catastrophically wrong in so many ways, but so far it's a step in the right direction. Keep the rides shut all year for what I care, just make sure they are restored to brilliance after the refurbishment, not ruined! I say this assuming that the missing features will return in some form in the near future, so I will take back my words if they just intend to leave it bare forever.
 
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