Chessington World of Adventures Resort

[Benzin]

Vampire can only get near 1000pph with 3 trains. Which it hasn't done in a long time.

Fury used to be 600-700pph but dread to think how often it reaches that with the new rules around loading.

Not sure on a water park. As said there's a few things within the park itself that probably need more attention.

 

[Trooper Looper]

At least the Park has high capacity rides like Tomb Blaster the The Gruffalo River Ride.

 

[JAperson]

At least the Park has high capacity rides like Tomb Blaster the The Gruffalo River Ride.

Paging @Thameslink Rail , he will not confirm this trust me....

 

[Dave]

Vampire can only get near 1000pph with 3 trains. Which it hasn't done in a long time.

Fury used to be 600-700pph but dread to think how often it reaches that with the new rules around loading.

Not sure on a water park. As said there's a few things within the park itself that probably need more attention.

How does Fury do so badly, Spinball isn’t exactly a paragon of throughputs but it pulls a higher throughput

 

[The Big Mack]

At least the Park has high capacity rides like Tomb Blaster the The Gruffalo River Ride.

Tomb Blaster runs on a reduced capacity these days, it only really manages to achieve about 500pph.

Sent from my motorola one vision using Tapatalk

 

[Trooper Looper]

Tomb Blaster runs on a reduced capacity these days, it only really manages to achieve about 500pph.

Sent from my motorola one vision using Tapatalk

Really? Blimey that's slow for a ride with 3 trains. When I went in June, the max queue was only 30 minutes, and the end of the queue was at the set of stairs you go down before the indoor queue.

 

[John]

I've waited 60min from there in the past, it was a total misery. The ride started out with 5 trains, 3 should be considered low capacity for that thing.

In terms of people in seats I'd be amazed if Fury goes much above 400/hr due to the weight limit. Rattlesnake is lower still. Main queues will be getting half that.

 

[The Big Mack]

How does Fury do so badly, Spinball isn’t exactly a paragon of throughputs but it pulls a higher throughput

It varies really, there are times that I've waited only 45 minutes for Fury. This year though they seem to only load a maximum of three people per car, so groups often get split into multiple cars. I'm assuming that the cars have been experiencing weight issues.

Really? Blimey that's slow for a ride with 3 trains. When I went in June, the mex queue was only 30 minutes, and the end of the queue was at the set of stairs you go down before the indoor queue.

Three trains would be considered reduced capacity for Tomb Blaster, It used to run on five trains. June isn't quite peak season, so I should imagine that would be why you only waited for thirty minutes.

 

[Mattie boy]

Vampire can only get near 1000pph with 3 trains. Which it hasn't done in a long time.

Fury used to be 600-700pph but dread to think how often it reaches that with the new rules around loading.

Not sure on a water park. As said there's a few things within the park itself that probably need more attention.

Is the third train still around behind the curtains?

 

[Matt.GC]

A park that already has shocking capacity issues and continues to invest in cheap drop towers and shuttle coasters to spread more queue line misery far and wide is getting a waterpark?

How very Chessington. Anyone who's been to Cariba Creek on even moderate day will see how poorly it copes with the crowds. Just imagine how much worse a waterpark at Chessington could be than that. I dread to think.

 

[Rick]

From what I am lead to believe the track is still absolutely fine. Again, with the subject of retracks it’s not a ride which is under immense stress and there are older Arrow designs suspended rides still in use abroad.

It certainly doesn't have as much stress as some of the US Arrow Suspended rides but the amount of inspection activity visible on the track (every single tie) would suggest that there is some concern.

 

[Matt N]

This might not be an investment into the park itself, but I'd consider any investment a positive myself! Given that Jumanji is opening in 2023, we surely can't expect a new major investment into the park itself for a good few years yet, no? Jumanji should surely be good enough to tide them over for a good few years yet, and I think it's great that Merlin are building them such an expensive new coaster and land in the first place!

Besides, an indoor waterpark is not an insignificant investment, and given that there are currently slim pickings waterpark-wise in the South East, I'd argue that it's also quite a shrewd one from a business perspective. As I said, there are few waterparks in the area, and the indoor factor will also give Chessington a second gate attraction with good year-round and all-weather appeal. Furthermore, a waterpark would considerably bolster Chessington's credentials as a family short break resort. It could have a lot of potential in this area given the considerable population in its immediate catchment area and lack of nearby competition! (While LLW has nice-looking hotels, it doesn't really have any second gate activities as such, and none of the other parks in the South East have an overly substantial, if any, accommodation and resort offering for families)

I should also note that Jared, the administrator on Chessington Buzz (who first dropped hints about an indoor waterpark a few months back), has suggested that there may be multiple attractions discussed in this consultation rather than just the one individual attraction, so the park itself may well see an additional investment to supplement this after all. Take that with as much salt as you like, but given CB's excellent track record for accurate rumours, I trust Jared implicitly.

 

[Matt.GC]

This might not be an investment into the park itself, but I'd consider any investment a positive myself! Given that Jumanji is opening in 2023, we surely can't expect a new major investment into the park itself for a good few years yet, no? Jumanji should surely be good enough to tide them over for a good few years yet, and I think it's great that Merlin are building them such an expensive new coaster and land in the first place!

Besides, an indoor waterpark is not an insignificant investment, and given that there are currently slim pickings waterpark-wise in the South East, I'd argue that it's also quite a shrewd one from a business perspective. As I said, there are few waterparks in the area, and the indoor factor will also give Chessington a second gate attraction with good year-round and all-weather appeal. Furthermore, a waterpark would considerably bolster Chessington's credentials as a family short break resort. It could have a lot of potential in this area given the considerable population in its immediate catchment area and lack of nearby competition! (While LLW has nice-looking hotels, it doesn't really have any second gate activities as such, and none of the other parks in the South East have an overly substantial, if any, accommodation and resort offering for families)

I should also note that Jared, the administrator on Chessington Buzz (who first dropped hints about an indoor waterpark a few months back), has suggested that there may be multiple attractions discussed in this consultation rather than just the one individual attraction, so the park itself may well see an additional investment to supplement this after all. Take that with as much salt as you like, but given CB's excellent track record for accurate rumours, I trust Jared implicitly.

Yeah but our friend Jared at Chessington Buzz thought that a suitcase and a Land Rover in a laughably lame tarmac adorned entrance plaza was some sort of magnificent theming mechanic. He also made the redundant argument that a highly inappropriately low capacity shuttle coaster was somehow helping the woefully inadequate capacity of the rest of the park using the logic that it is a net addition - completely overlooking the fact that expansions coasting £millions to build are built to (and will) increase attendance rather than increase capacity.

I don't disagree that there's definitely a market for a new waterpark in the area. Huge catchment area, gap in the market and all that. But this won't be an addition that helps supplement the current park, it's a chargeable second gate. You won't be able to waltz on in to escape the queues of the park for free. It'll be built to attract more overnight stays and secondary spend.

A new waterpark and new 600pph coaster will drive more visitors to a place that can't even cope with the crowds it already gets. A place that already parks cars on dirt fields and seldom provides queues of less than an hour for most of its major attractions even on quiet days. All this with less than 2m visitors per year (as it can't realistically cope with any more than that). Talk about trying to run before you can walk.

 

[Blackhole_Sun]

It certainly doesn't have as much stress as some of the US Arrow Suspended rides but the amount of inspection activity visible on the track (every single tie) would suggest that there is some concern.

I would be surprised if any major coaster of this design and construction isn’t inspected at great length purely due to the age of it. Black Hole had similar before it was taken down.

Perhaps the majority of parks paint back over it once completed?

 

[Matt N]

Yeah but our friend Jared at Chessington Buzz thought that a suitcase and a Land Rover in a laughably lame tarmac adorned entrance plaza was some sort of magnificent theming mechanic. He also made the redundant argument that a highly inappropriately low capacity shuttle coaster was somehow helping the woefully inadequate capacity of the rest of the park using the logic that it is a net addition - completely overlooking the fact that expansions coasting £millions to build are built to (and will) increase attendance rather than increase capacity.

I don't disagree that there's definitely a market for a new waterpark in the area. Huge catchment area, gap in the market and all that. But this won't be an addition that helps supplement the current park, it's a chargeable second gate. You won't be able to waltz on in to escape the queues of the park for free. It'll be built to attract more overnight stays and secondary spend.

A new waterpark and new 600pph coaster will drive more visitors to a place that can't even cope with the crowds it already gets. A place that already parks cars on dirt fields and seldom provides queues of less than an hour for most of its major attractions even on quiet days. All this with less than 2m visitors per year (as it can't realistically cope with any more than that). Talk about trying to run before you can walk.

Jared’s opinions and Jared’s rumours are two very different things. You may not personally agree with the opinions and the arguments he makes in some cases, but it cannot be denied that Chessington Buzz has had an excellent record for accurate rumours as of late, so I personally trust him implicitly with stuff like this.

For all we know, there could be another park addition coming. Given that Jared has suggested that more than one attraction might be talked about in this consultation, I wouldn’t rule out the prospect of an additional investment into the park itself being mooted as well as the indoor waterpark.

Also, one thing I’d counter is; does Chessington actually need investment? I know that Jumanji will be the first coaster in 19 years and the first major investment in 10 years and all that, but Merlin’s attendance graph would suggest that Chessington is ticking over more than adequately without much investment. By 2019, their attendance had grown an obscene amount since the Merlin buyout in 2007 (by around 700,000, from a base of slightly under 1 million in 2007 to nearly 1.7 million in 2019), and by a fair bit since ZUFARI was built in 2013 (I can’t remember the exact figure, but the increase between 2013 and 2019 is certainly a fair bit into 3 figures; it’s at least 200,000, from memory, if not higher).

From a business standpoint, that proves that Chessington was doing very well without any major investment, so while some enthusiasts may be banging the drum saying that the park is underfunded and has been for years, does Merlin’s data agree with that? I’m not sure it necessarily does.

 

[Dave]

Jared’s opinions and Jared’s rumours are two very different things. You may not personally agree with the opinions and the arguments he makes in some cases, but it cannot be denied that Chessington Buzz has had an excellent record for accurate rumours as of late, so I personally trust him implicitly with stuff like this.

For all we know, there could be another park addition coming. Given that Jared has suggested that more than one attraction might be talked about in this consultation, I wouldn’t rule out the prospect of an additional investment into the park itself being mooted as well as the indoor waterpark.

Also, one thing I’d counter is; does Chessington actually need investment? I know that Jumanji will be the first coaster in 19 years and the first major investment in 10 years and all that, but Merlin’s attendance graph would suggest that Chessington is ticking over more than adequately without much investment. By 2019, their attendance had grown an obscene amount since the Merlin buyout in 2007 (by around 700,000, from a base of slightly under 1 million in 2007 to nearly 1.7 million in 2019), and by a fair bit since ZUFARI was built in 2013 (I can’t remember the exact figure, but the increase between 2013 and 2019 is certainly a fair bit into 3 figures; it’s at least 200,000, from memory, if not higher).

From a business standpoint, that proves that Chessington was doing very well without any major investment, so while some enthusiasts may be banging the drum saying that the park is underfunded and has been for years, does Merlin’s data agree with that? I’m not sure it necessarily does.

My understanding is Chessington has always performed adequately from a business perspective. It’s lack of investment was mostly because of Merlins general poor investment plans and the fact it’s a nightmare of a park to get planning permission for.

In contrast to Towers I think once Jumanji is built the park don’t necessarily require more attractions in the short term, they need to invest in getting Vampire and Fury operating at maximum capacity (so returning the third train on vampire and working with MS to fix the overspeeding issue on Fury). Ideally they would sort out rattle snake as well but I suspect the age of the ride will limit what can be done.

 

[Benzin]

Not sure how much they can really do with the overspeeding issue since something like that tends to come from the design and layout (like Thirteen).

Don't think 8 cars would make too much difference. Hilarious to see how fast you can dispatch things though.

 

[pluk]

Jared has suggested that more than one attraction might be talked about in this consultation,

My guess would be that this impacts something existing that will have to be talked about as part of the development rather than something else new coming.



If they want it connected to the hotel then options are very limited. To the north and west are the green areas the hotel looks out on, I don't think they'd change that.
To the east you have parking that is only just sufficient already so probably won't be given up.
Between the two to the north east I suppose it could continue along the line of the hotel where there is currently a service area, but I think that's coming out if the currently accepted development area?
That just leaves south which starts encroaching on the park. I don't know how essential the backstage areas are there and if they could be relocated. And then you are on top of Sealife, which was always supposed to be temporary...

 

[Dave]

Not sure how much they can really do with the overspeeding issue since something like that tends to come from the design and layout (like Thirteen).

Don't think 8 cars would make too much difference. Hilarious to see how fast you can dispatch things though.

I mean if you throw money at it they could, what it needs is adaptive trims, it would not be cheap to do.

 

[Mattie boy]

My understanding is Chessington has always performed adequately from a business perspective. It’s lack of investment was mostly because of Merlins general poor investment plans and the fact it’s a nightmare of a park to get planning permission for.

In contrast to Towers I think once Jumanji is built the park don’t necessarily require more attractions in the short term, they need to invest in getting Vampire and Fury operating at maximum capacity (so returning the third train on vampire and working with MS to fix the overspeeding issue on Fury). Ideally they would sort out rattle snake as well but I suspect the age of the ride will limit what can be done.

So the third train is still on site for vampire?