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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

It's been so long since all(!) of the effects worked... can somebody remind me if there used to be a shutter on the cave exit? Also when did the waterfall at the exit stop working?

I also think the palisade fencing at the exit really adds to the authentic African safari experience.
 
Alsty said:
It's been so long since all(!) of the effects worked... can somebody remind me if there used to be a shutter on the cave exit? Also when did the waterfall at the exit stop working?

I also think the palisade fencing at the exit really adds to the authentic African safari experience.
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I don't think there ever was a door on the exit.
 
Alsty said:
It's been so long since all(!) of the effects worked... can somebody remind me if there used to be a shutter on the cave exit? Also when did the waterfall at the exit stop working?

I also think the palisade fencing at the exit really adds to the authentic African safari experience.
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Here is a video from 2013 showing the original cave scene from 4:20 onwards. No exit shutter by the looks of it, but much darker lighting.

 
Skyscraper said:
I don't think there ever was a door on the exit.
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No, there definitely was! It just can’t have been working for the press night either…
Alsty said:
It's been so long since all(!) of the effects worked... can somebody remind me if there used to be a shutter on the cave exit? Also when did the waterfall at the exit stop working?

I also think the palisade fencing at the exit really adds to the authentic African safari experience.
Click to expand...
I believe they actually got the shutter working again after lockdown in 2020 (as seen in that pov), however it now hasn’t functioned since about mid 2021 onwards.

I can’t remember if there’s also a shutter to the entrance of the cave?
 
I know there's the problems with strobe lights and epilepsy, but it certainly looks better in the video that James posted, with the shutter working and a strobe light on the waterfall (or is the strobe light still there, and it just doesn't stand out with so much light in the building?).
 
The cave definitely had doors at the start and the end of the cave. And originally it had a waterfall which went across the whole of the exit. Which resulted in you getting soaked if you sat on the end. They then changed it so the waterfall stopped or just poured down the side of the exit. Making you not get so wet.

Even when it was brand new the whole finale was crap, and never anything amazing. As time has gone on it’s got worse and worse.
 
The ride would be better if it didn’t have a silly story and didn’t have the cave. Just a decent drive to see some animals (which I imagine 99% of the people who ride it expect to see and none care for a story on a ride like that). I would knock the whole cave down and just add some more animals there, then take out the story line aspect.
 
I found Zufari underwhelming when I went on it a few months ago, we only saw Giraffes and Rhinos which are both great but I expected to see a little more. It was the animals that made the ride for me, one of the Rhinos seemed to take great pleasure in blocking the vehicle and then there was a funny moment when a fox was in the enclosure who then ran for it’s life when it saw a rhino coming to investigate. It’s these kind of moments that are memorable on those types of rides, they don’t really need a story as such. I can’t even remember the story for Zufari, and as for that cave well I got second hand embarrassment from it. Worse than Galactica tunnel.
 
I went for the first time today in 5 years (I think) due to how unpleasant I've always found the place to be. So it's the first time I've seen everything from Tiger Falls to the present day change wise.

First impressions (after destroying my newly adjusted tracking on the awful dirt track car parks that are now worse than I've ever known them to be) - the entrance area. I've always hated being dumped onto a random path right in front of the entrance of Dragons Fury through what feels like a glorified access area. I much prefer the old entrance location. But first time I've seen it "tarted up". What's to say about it? It's a boring piece of flat tarmac with a Land Rover and a couple of AstroTurf animals in the middle. Dull, uninspiring and I don't think it'll be any better when the new area opens. Those suggesting the Monorail at Towers should be removed and the entrance moved to Galactica take note, this is the potential future.

Transylvania renamed Wild Woods is as laughably, jarringly bad as it was last time I went. It's clearly themed around Vampire. What's woodland like about it?

The new shipwreck area is much of nothing. If I hadn't been a member of this forum I wouldn't know they'd done anything to it. It's some basic maritime styled attractions on some plain tarmac with light theming and sky blue paint everywhere. What they've done is fine I suppose, nothing wrong with it but hardly inspiring or "phenomenal" as I've seen it being called. I didn't catch a glimpse of the new "neutral design" fag area though so perhaps I didn't get the full experience of what the area had to offer.

Tiger Rock is just Dragon Falls with a new name, a new theming structure and some orange flags. It's still boring and tired looking. The tiger bridges though were awesome. Saw them being used twice in fact by our feline friends. Great spectacle to behold with the same tatty old flume hid behind it.

Croc Drop was one of the worst queues I've ever waited in. Parking issues aside, what the hell where they thinking putting this in? 16 riders per cycle only. Advertised wait of 25 mins. Short looking queue. Around 4 - 6 people being batched from main queue per cycle with an absolute necessity it seems from both batching hosts (they changed half way through) to have zero RAP queue at all costs. At one point, 4 parties from the RAP queue were batched for one cycle and not one person out of the main queue at all. Us and families with frustrated kids stood there for 75 mins as we watched people waltz up the lanes for RAP and whatever they call fast track these days and straight on whilst we stood there either not moving at all or moving about 6ft per cycle. That experience alone makes me want to never visit the place again.

In fact, that goes for the whole place altogether. It's like they're actively trying to **** people off with woeful capacities and operations. Worse than even I remembered it to be. I probably deserved this by being foolish enough to give this place another shot. To think that they're busy spending a fortune as we speak building yet another low capacity main attraction. It's almost like they are attempting to be this way as a park.

Tomb Blaster only faired marginally better than the Croc Drop queue experience wise but only because the non moving queue line is a much more pleasant place to be.

I couldn't stomach waiting half hour + for Zufari since I heard the revelation that the cave scene is even worse since I last went.

Food and bev faired little better. No Churros and hardly any ice cream at Tiger Treats (so half the menu), but everything was available elsewhere in the park so clearly not a supply issue. The crappy looking refreshment stand by Fury, no bottled water, small selection of drinks. The Burger Kitchen by Vampire, had to stand waving my bank card around for over 10 mins whilst 5 staff stood there chatting just because I wanted to order a burger without cheese that for some reason not known to me cannot be done at the self order kiosks.

I really don't understand the strategy behind this place.
 
Not on Project Amazon from what i can see. Work started on Sealion Bay a couple of days ago. And Jungle Bus also has something happening to it.
 
Matt.GC said:
I went for the first time today in 5 years (I think) due to how unpleasant I've always found the place to be. So it's the first time I've seen everything from Tiger Falls to the present day change wise.

First impressions (after destroying my newly adjusted tracking on the awful dirt track car parks that are now worse than I've ever known them to be) - the entrance area. I've always hated being dumped onto a random path right in front of the entrance of Dragons Fury through what feels like a glorified access area. I much prefer the old entrance location. But first time I've seen it "tarted up". What's to say about it? It's a boring piece of flat tarmac with a Land Rover and a couple of AstroTurf animals in the middle. Dull, uninspiring and I don't think it'll be any better when the new area opens. Those suggesting the Monorail at Towers should be removed and the entrance moved to Galactica take note, this is the potential future.

Transylvania renamed Wild Woods is as laughably, jarringly bad as it was last time I went. It's clearly themed around Vampire. What's woodland like about it?

The new shipwreck area is much of nothing. If I hadn't been a member of this forum I wouldn't know they'd done anything to it. It's some basic maritime styled attractions on some plain tarmac with light theming and sky blue paint everywhere. What they've done is fine I suppose, nothing wrong with it but hardly inspiring or "phenomenal" as I've seen it being called. I didn't catch a glimpse of the new "neutral design" fag area though so perhaps I didn't get the full experience of what the area had to offer.

Tiger Rock is just Dragon Falls with a new name, a new theming structure and some orange flags. It's still boring and tired looking. The tiger bridges though were awesome. Saw them being used twice in fact by our feline friends. Great spectacle to behold with the same tatty old flume hid behind it.

Croc Drop was one of the worst queues I've ever waited in. Parking issues aside, what the hell where they thinking putting this in? 16 riders per cycle only. Advertised wait of 25 mins. Short looking queue. Around 4 - 6 people being batched from main queue per cycle with an absolute necessity it seems from both batching hosts (they changed half way through) to have zero RAP queue at all costs. At one point, 4 parties from the RAP queue were batched for one cycle and not one person out of the main queue at all. Us and families with frustrated kids stood there for 75 mins as we watched people waltz up the lanes for RAP and whatever they call fast track these days and straight on whilst we stood there either not moving at all or moving about 6ft per cycle. That experience alone makes me want to never visit the place again.

In fact, that goes for the whole place altogether. It's like they're actively trying to **** people off with woeful capacities and operations. Worse than even I remembered it to be. I probably deserved this by being foolish enough to give this place another shot. To think that they're busy spending a fortune as we speak building yet another low capacity main attraction. It's almost like they are attempting to be this way as a park.

Tomb Blaster only faired marginally better than the Croc Drop queue experience wise but only because the non moving queue line is a much more pleasant place to be.

I couldn't stomach waiting half hour + for Zufari since I heard the revelation that the cave scene is even worse since I last went.

Food and bev faired little better. No Churros and hardly any ice cream at Tiger Treats (so half the menu), but everything was available elsewhere in the park so clearly not a supply issue. The crappy looking refreshment stand by Fury, no bottled water, small selection of drinks. The Burger Kitchen by Vampire, had to stand waving my bank card around for over 10 mins whilst 5 staff stood there chatting just because I wanted to order a burger without cheese that for some reason not known to me cannot be done at the self order kiosks.

I really don't understand the strategy behind this place.
Click to expand...

This is a perfect synopsis of most of my visits to Merlin parks over the last few years.
 
That looks as though it’s shaping up to be the big tiger-shaped rock from the new Jumanji films.
 
Matt N said:
That looks as though it’s shaping up to be the big tiger-shaped rock from the new Jumanji films.
Click to expand...
2017_Jaguar_Shrine_Colossus.jpg
 
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