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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Alsty said:
Chessington have announced there will be industrial action by their engineers on these dates:
  • Friday April 28 to Monday May 1
  • Friday May 5 to Monday May 8
  • Friday May 12 to Monday May 15*
  • Friday May 26 to Monday May 29*
* opening of World of Jumanji on Monday May 15 will go ahead as planned, with the NEW land remaining open on the days impacted.

There is a dedicated page here: https://www.chessington.com/industrial-action/

On these days they will be limiting the capacity by 2/3rds. Dragon’s Fury, Croc Drop, KOBRA, Rattlesnake and Tiger Rock will be closed. They will aim to open 40% of their rides, those that are "more suited to younger families".

Note these strike dates overlap with the three bank holiday weekends in May so this is likely to have a big impact.
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Merlin, and especially Alton have a very shady history dealing with unions and for some reason especially their engineers. Who without them the whole show stops, and they’re recruiting.

They are trained engineers working in a safety critical regulated industry. No different than pharma, aerospace or defence.

Look up Alton’s history in changing terms and fighting unions for techs on park over the past 15 years.

“Rides are becoming more electrical than mechanical” I remember being said at the time

Shady, they’ve got previous

Solidarity with the strikers
 
As we know there's an ongoing industrial dispute between the engineers and Merlin, I wonder if the engineers are also taking action such as overtime bans, not covering for holidays etc? That might explain why there's so much difficulty getting things open.
 
2023 could’ve been one of the best years for Chessington, but it’s now on the cards to possibly be the worst yet.

A poor start with terrible reliability, rides, attractions not being ready or in a fit state of opening. And now the strikes, which will affect a substantial part of the operating calendar and more.

I don’t blame the engineers, given they are overworked and treated badly, but more-so high-end management of the place. Who seem to make even Thorpe and Towers’s shaky starts look more tollerable.
 
I don't want come in being on negative on a Friday afternoon - BUT...

The whole Merlin group seems to have been a chaotic mess this season. I've been going to these parks for over 20 years, and the first opening week is always a bit of a mess, but that week has turned into months - and with theseset of strikes at Chessington, it appears to be getting worse.

They have a pretty poor reputation to upkeep, but they seem to keep sliding further down the "surely not" scale. Every time it feels like they turn a corner, another surprise awaits.

Hopefully, this new CEO will come in and start kicking some A$$ and getting things into shape sharpish at upper management. Change takes time I know, but he can't risk taking too long or there won't be any businesses to manage.
 
what I find crazy is these are the top theme parks in the uk owned by one of the largest entertainment company's in the world, yet they are in the worst condition out of pretty much all the UK theme parks Bar Amandas hot ice beach.

It really dose not make you proud to be British when it comes to UK theme parks!

I actually hate merlin yano! I feel everything from food, themeing, rides and landscaping is always a missed opportunity. When a small park like Pultons is out doing you albeit on a smaller scale, the Merlin park management should hang their heads in shame
 
Alsty said:
As we know there's an ongoing industrial dispute between the engineers and Merlin, I wonder if the engineers are also taking action such as overtime bans, not covering for holidays etc? That might explain why there's so much difficulty getting things open.
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Would definitely make sense, and given Merlin's absolute flood of recruitment videos on social media, it would seem they are struggling with staff resource generally.
 
This is from the MAP Facebook group...

"Hi was anyone at Chessington in 16th April and ate from the chicken place?"

In other words, food poisoning 🤮
 
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Skyscraper said:
This is from the MAP Facebook group...

"Hi was anyone at Chessington in 16th April and ate from the chicken place?"

In other words, food poisoning
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To be fair, not that I remotely want to defend the state of F&B at the moment, a lot of MAP group members like to claim they’ve got food poisoning at the moment as another way to lash out at Aramark, but when they then give details of timelines etc it doesn’t match up.

There’s quite enough to legitimately complain about without people needing to make stuff up lol.


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I don't know mind when me and my friends ate at flambos 5/7 of us excluding me and one other person all came down with very upset stomachs and were a little sick for a few days after.

And when I looked on Facebook there was people asking if anyone else had eaten there that night, so I did think oh dear.

It personally didn't make me feel bad so I was fine after and maybe it's because some alcohol was consumed by our party that night so can't say it was 100% Aramarks fault.
 
Turning the contents of your stomach and alimentary canal through high volumes of rotation through all three planes over a period of several hours tends to do little for ones overall digestive processes.
I have discovered this over several decades of entertaining research.
High volumes of beer or cider can accelerate any issues dramatically.
It is often difficult to blame the food alone with any degree of certainty.
 
Just a question does anyone know if the goats are still besides the Pirate Ship? No one mentioned them since they were a little scared of the “giant swinging ship”

I would love too see updates of the rats in the kitchen set they created too. But no one ever blogged them properly?


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TroySmith1 said:
Just a question does anyone know if the goats are still besides the Pirate Ship? No one mentioned them since they were a little scared of the “giant swinging ship”

I would love too see updates of the rats in the kitchen set they created too. But no one ever blogged them properly?


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Rats are back. The tubes were taken down during winter and the rats stored elsewhere.

Buzz updated it the other week


From: https://twitter.com/ChessingtonBuzz/status/1647544974815162377?t=DZ0Pqt3B8K6uU0suAV9lJg&s=19
 
AT86 said:
Yes they are still there.


From: https://twitter.com/chessingtonbuzz/status/1647549680870465538?s=46&t=zG_i8R9vX93ZZU0RljfzWA
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Thankyou great to see there more comfortable it appears!


Towers4ever said:
Rats are back. The tubes were taken down during winter and the rats stored elsewhere.

Buzz updated it the other week


From: https://twitter.com/ChessingtonBuzz/status/1647544974815162377?t=DZ0Pqt3B8K6uU0suAV9lJg&s=19
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Thank you you never actually see them
In the kitchen do you? Nice idea tho


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