Chessington World of Adventures Resort

[AstroDan]

How many of the target audience are going to be standing in that yet unbuilt queue line theorising over the throughput? How many are going to be looking on reasonably excited and slightly in awe?

That's the deal. Let's not be disparaging towards the 'GP' - the World of Jumanji will do exactly for the park what they want it too and for us... We'll moan a bit and move on

Actually, theme parks track queue times very closely. There is an entire team within Merlin led by a competent group director and managers in the parks themselves that look at this as part of guest excellence. The general visitors may not talk about 'thoughput' in that term, but they will certainly notice if a queue moves slowly and/or is long. In fact, queueing is the single biggest factor that affects people's enjoyment of a day out. This, in turn, affects Google and TripAdvisor scores and the reputation of the park. It is often looked at in the context of 'rides per head'.

One of Chessington's biggest issues over the past decade is a systematic reduction in hourly throughput on most major rides - Vampire, Dragon's Fury, Rattlesnake, Zufari and others are all lagging much lower than they ought to have been. These reductions coupled with increased RAP and Fastrack have been a real problem for the park on a lot of days over recent years. In fact, there have been days where it has simply not coped.

I think you are naive if the inferences I get from your post are that throughput doesn't matter to most guests.

It plainly does - even if they wouldn't call it that.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

How many of the target audience are going to be standing in that yet unbuilt queue line theorising over the throughput? How many are going to be looking on reasonably excited and slightly in awe?

The target audience of youngsters will indeed be looking up in awe at the ride but their parents will be looking down at their phones as they leave a scathing review on Trip Advisor about “horrendous queues” and how they queued for hours and “only got on three rides”.

 

[Zeock]

How many of the target audience are going to be standing in that yet unbuilt queue line theorising over the throughput? How many are going to be looking on reasonably excited and slightly in awe?

They're not theorising the throughput but they definitely complain about slow-moving queues. Have you ever been in the Croc Drop queue? All I ever hear is moaning...and yet more moaning.

 

[Squiggs]

The target audience of youngsters will indeed be looking up in awe at the ride but their parents will be looking down at their phones as they leave a scathing review on Trip Advisor about “horrendous queues” and how they queued for hours and “only got on three rides”.

The kids might be looking up in awe for maybe the first five minutes, if you're lucky. An hour or so in... maybe not so much.

 

[Towers4ever]

All the parks have KPI's and absolutely throughputs throughout Chessington aren't as high as they could and should be for a host of reasons, some of them unforgiveable really.

The coaster will always be plagued by capacity concerns and justifiably so.

Watching the various videos the land looks sparse and not particularly immersive but they have 70 odd days to sort that

As for TripAdvisor... All the time Merlin persistent with the prison food at premium prices I'm not sure rides will be the biggest gripe.... Or the £8 car park pay on the day price

I'm on the fence... It's an interesting B&M in a modest park.

 

[Blackhole_Sun]

I think the moan is more about a low capacity ride in a park already full of low capacity rides.

It’s actually not that bad, it’s the operations which suffer at this park. Perhaps they will turn a corner now they absolutely need to throw this train out the station.

 

[Dave]

Why is it that they aren’t allowed to fill all the seats on Rattlesnake and Dragon’s Fury again?

Spinball has no similar restriction, so I’ll admit that that has always surprised me.

The rumour (and it’s only ever been rumour) is that at least one block brake on Fury is too short to guarantee a stop with a fully laden car.

Spinball has a similar issue but only in the rain.

 

[Blackhole_Sun]

The rumour (and it’s only ever been rumour) is that at least one block brake on Fury is too short to guarantee a stop with a fully laden car.

Spinball has a similar issue but only in the rain.

Yes it’s to do with weight, they have a weighing platform in the station.

It’s a max of three adults on Fury and Spinball can usually carry four I believe?

 

[Skyscraper]

Yes it’s to do with weight, they have a weighing platform in the station.

It’s a max of three adults on Fury and Spinball can usually carry four I believe?

That's correct!

Rattlesnake has a max weight of 300kg (42 stone) per car, Dragon's Fury doesn't have a limit.

 

[Poisson]

That's so odd, as mirror clone of it Marble Madness doesn't seemingly have a limit?

 

[Matt N]

That's correct!

Rattlesnake has a max weight of 300kg (42 stone) per car, Dragon's Fury doesn't have a limit.

Is it me, or does that seem like a very low combined weight limit for 4 riders?

That would equate to only around 10.5 stone per rider (on average), which doesn’t seem like very much… is that why they only let 3 adults ride per car?

 

[Alsty]

Rattlesnake has a max weight of 300kg (42 stone) per car, Dragon's Fury doesn't have a limit.

Fury does have a weight limit but I don't know what it is. I was with two other adults last year and our combined weight was too much. It ended up with two adults in one car and a single adult in the other (much to the amusement of the others we were with).

Regarding Rattlesnake, the other consideration is the lapbar is shared for each row. I don't believe they let two adults in the same row anymore? Certainly not seen more than two adults at a time on that ride for as long as I can remember.

 

[Skyscraper]

Fury does have a weight limit but I don't know what it is. I was with two other adults last year and our combined weight was too much. It ended up with two adults in one car and a single adult in the other (much to the amusement of the others we were with).

Regarding Rattlesnake, the other consideration is the lapbar is shared for each row. I don't believe they let two adults in the same row anymore? Certainly not seen more than two adults at a time on that ride for a long as I can remember.

Yeah guests of a greatly differing stature can't sit together on Rattlesnake because of the shared lap bar. Fury's weight limit isn't mentioned on its webpage, whereas Rattlesnakes is.

 

[Matt N]

If two adults can no longer sit in the same row on Rattlesnake, would I be correct in saying that that means that only two adults can ride per car?

And if you then apply what @Skyscraper said about two guests of greatly differing height being unable to sit together, that would effectively rule out an adult and a child sitting together as well…

With all of this in mind, I be correct in saying that that effectively bars there from being more than two riders per car on Rattlesnake in the vast majority of cases? (So the ride would only run at 50% capacity most of the time?)

 

[Blackhole_Sun]

Fury does have a weight limit but I don't know what it is. I was with two other adults last year and our combined weight was too much. It ended up with two adults in one car and a single adult in the other (much to the amusement of the others we were with).

Regarding Rattlesnake, the other consideration is the lapbar is shared for each row. I don't believe they let two adults in the same row anymore? Certainly not seen more than two adults at a time on that ride for as long as I can remember.

That’s incorrect

We had three adults on Rattlesnake last season myself and my brother both sat in the back of the car. Then my girlfriend sat in the front on her own.

 

[Blackhole_Sun]

Yeah guests of a greatly differing stature can't sit together on Rattlesnake because of the shared lap bar. Fury's weight limit isn't mentioned on its webpage, whereas Rattlesnakes is.

There is a sign outside Fury stating a maximum of three adults in a car at any one time. We were weighed once last October and I think we were sent as a two as kids rarely are single riders.

 

[John]

CWoA really seem to have a can't-do attitude at times. They'll identify all sorts of potential risks or problems but never spend any money on properly resolving any of them - they just go for the easy option of yet more operational restrictions that reduce throughput.

 

[QTXAdsy]

Is it wrong that I'm finding the arguing about this new area and shuttle coaster more funnier by the day? I understand the concerns people have but it's just how everyone seems so unsatisfied with it that weirdly I'm taking great enjoyment at others moaning.

 

[Matt N]

Is it wrong that I'm finding the arguing about this new area and shuttle coaster more funnier by the day? I understand the concerns people have but it's just how everyone seems so unsatisfied with it that weirdly I'm taking great enjoyment at others moaning.

It’s like they always say; “some men just want to watch the world burn”!

On a serious note, I doubt you’re the only one who gets some kind of enjoyment from hearing people moan! And after all, you are more than entitled to feel that way, if that’s how you feel.

 

[QTXAdsy]

It’s like they always say; “some men just want to watch the world burn”!

On a serious note, I doubt you’re the only one who gets some kind of enjoyment from hearing people moan! And after all, you are more than entitled to feel that way, if that’s how you feel.

Where I'm from, I have good reason to laugh at such things regarding rides.