• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Chessington World of Adventures Resort

You know, I will confess throughout this thread that I knew very little about the workings of Chessie but after learning about capacity problems the park has and what are long ongoing issues with the park, I've learnt more from this thread about the park than watching any non bias documentary on the place. Kind of feels strange I'll be honest if I had a pound for everything some mentioned the word 'capacity' on here then I would have been able to buy the park off Merlin myself. :p
 
QTXAdsy said:
You know, I will confess throughout this thread that I knew very little about the workings of Chessie but after learning about capacity problems the park has and what are long ongoing issues with the park, I've learnt more from this thread about the park than watching any non bias documentary on the place. Kind of feels strange I'll be honest if I had a pound for everything some mentioned the word 'capacity' on here then I would have been able to buy the park off Merlin myself. :p
Click to expand...
Chessington gets a lot of hate on capacity but it's generally for 3 or 4 rides on busy days. I've been at Towers which is a huge park space wise and every path was full and busy. Rita and 13 were on 120 as was Smiler and Wickerman. It'd not just a Chessington problem but yeah building a small coaster is a surprise when maybe they might have been able to do something else but fair play for the land, looks good if nothing else
 
Everyone complains about capacity, but I've honestly never seen it that busy. In the 90's, I remember 2 to 3 hours queues for vamp, but the longest I've waited since 2016 is 45 mins. I guess I'm just lucky. 🤷‍♀️
 
Hairobics said:
Everyone complains about capacity, but I've honestly never seen it that busy. In the 90's, I remember 2 to 3 hours queues for vamp, but the longest I've waited since 2016 is 45 mins. I guess I'm just lucky. 🤷‍♀️
Click to expand...

Where as as a regular visitor in the 90s I don't ever recall having Vampire queues anything like that long, even during the insanely busy haloween events back then. The queue would be physically long, but on three trains with lightning ops and no fastrack (or presumably RAP of any sort) interference it was always shuffling forward and didn't take any significant time.

Runaway train was the only queue that felt arduous to me back then. If you were queuing on the walkway above zeek shoot you knew it was going to be a tough one! Dragon falls was probably an even longer wait on a hot day, but again it kept shuffling so didn't feel as bad, and often live entertainment in the stand by the cattle pen helped pass the time a lot.

Imagine that. A constantly moving queue and live entertainment! How far our parks have fallen.
 
Apologies for going slightly off-topic, but I’ve just booked a ticket to go to Chessington for the first time in nearly 10 years, and I must admit that I’m quite looking forward to it!

My main reason for wanting to go is Mandrill Mayhem (the allure of a new prototype B&M was hard to resist!), but I am looking forward to re-acquainting myself with the park after so long!

It’s by far the Merlin park that I know the least well; my last visit was in 2014, when I wasn’t quite 11 years old, and that’s my only visit in recent memory (well, since I got into theme parks, anyway), so compared to Alton and Thorpe, which I usually visit at least once every year, I am a real Chessington novice!

I know I may be being a tad premature, seeing as my visit isn’t for over 4 months and Mandrill Mayhem hasn’t even opened yet, but with my relative lack of Chessington experience in mind, I just wanted to ask; is there anything in particular I should know having not visited the park in nearly a decade? Are there any particular rides that I should go to first? Is there anything in particular I should check out? Is there an optimal way to traverse the park?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Even though I know all these questions probably make it sound as though I’ve never been to Chessington before, I assure you that I have been. However, my last visit was nearly 10 years ago, so my memory of it in terms of park layout, bearings and such is quite rusty, and seeing as I was also very young last time I went, I don’t really know an awful lot about Chessington trip planning or an optimal attack plan to get the most out of it.
 
Matt N said:
I know I may be being a tad premature, seeing as my visit isn’t for over 4 months and Mandrill Mayhem hasn’t even opened yet, but I just wanted to ask; is there anything in particular I should know having not visited the park in nearly a decade?
Click to expand...
It's terrible.
To be serious, I usually start off with a couple of the busier rides (KOBRA, Dragons Fury, Vampire, Rattlesnake) near the start of the day, then have lunch. After that, I will usually do some of the quieter rides e.g. Blue Barnacle, and then go to Forbidden Kingdom for Croc Drop and Tomb Blaster. I do Tiger Rock after that sometimes. Then, it is near the end of the day and I either go on Dragons Fury or Vampire. This will probably change slightly in 2023 due to Mandrill Mayhem.
 
Last edited:
jon81uk said:
@Matt N
Go on a term time weekday and you’ll have a fantastic time. With short waits it’s a fantastic park with the animals, fun rides that don’t make you feel sick if you overdo it and and compact layout.

Go on a weekend with long waits and it can be a terrible park.
Click to expand...
I’m going on Sunday 17th September. The date is set in stone due to the circumstances enabling me to visit, but it does sound as though I may have drawn the short straw by being unable to go on a weekday…

Nonetheless, the kids are back in school by the day of my visit and the initial hype around Jumanji should hopefully have died down by then, so I’m hoping it won’t be too busy… would regular visitors say I am being overly optimistic?
 
Matt N said:
I’m going on Sunday 17th September. The date is set in stone due to the circumstances enabling me to visit, but it does sound as though I may have drawn the short straw by being unable to go on a weekday…

Nonetheless, the kids are back in school by the day of my visit and the initial hype around Jumanji should hopefully have died down by then, so I’m hoping it won’t be too busy… would regular visitors say I am being overly optimistic?
Click to expand...
Term time weekends are not too bad in my experience, although I do go to Chessington quite a few times a year so I don't feel like I need to go on everything each visit, unlike you who lives quite a long way from the park, so will probably be more anxious about getting all the rides in.
 
Depends what you enjoy. Chessington has some decent animal stuff. The rides are thrilling rather than fantastic but Vampire and Fury always good. Scorpion Express should be back. Rattlesnake is brutal. Mandrill Mayhem will be fun I'm sure. Croc and Tomb are fun. Kobra a good disko
 
Towers4ever said:
Rattlesnake is brutal.
Click to expand...
Strangely, that's one thing I remember very well from my visit 9 years ago... of the 91 coasters I've ridden, I think only Colossus and Infusion sit lower than Rattlesnake based on my 2014 memory of it!

I'd probably say that Rattlesnake is the ride I have the strongest memory of at Chessington; its strong laterals and the big red bruise it left on my elbow certainly left an impression on me!

My recollections aren't the strongest seeing as I went nearly 10 years ago and was only 11 at the time (and from memory, I only had 1 ride on each coaster), but in terms of the other Chessington coasters, I remember being a bit unimpressed by Vampire, and thinking it was quite rough, I remember Dragon's Fury being quite good, and I remember thinking it was superior to Spinball (although bizarrely, it's probably the Chessington coaster I have the haziest recollection of), and I remember Scorpion Express feeling very slow compared to Runaway Mine Train.

I had ridden so much less at the time, though (my only visited park when I last went to Chessington was Alton Towers, and my coaster count went from 8 to 12 on the day of my visit), and I had somewhat different taste in coasters, so I am intrigued to see how these rides stack up now that I've done nearly 100 different coasters (91, to be exact!) and 20 different theme parks!
 
Towers4ever said:
Depends what you enjoy. Chessington has some decent animal stuff. The rides are thrilling rather than fantastic but Vampire and Fury always good. Scorpion Express should be back. Rattlesnake is brutal. Mandrill Mayhem will be fun I'm sure. Croc and Tomb are fun. Kobra a good disko
Click to expand...
I like Vampire but my parents hate it for banging their back and the headbanging. Fury is very fun for me too. I've never had issues with Rattlesnake; I really enjoy it and have it over Vampire (but not Fury). Agree on Croc Drop and Tomb Blaster, although the latter has seen better days. KOBRA can be brutal due to the restraints, but that's typical Disko fare anyway, and it is my favourite Disko (only other one I've ridden is Mia's Riding Adventure).
 
One practical question I should probably ask is; does Chessington have a drop off zone? And if it does, which entrance do you go up to get to it from the road?

I only ask because Google Earth implies that there are two entrances off the main road.
 
Towers4ever said:
Anyone know who's doing the music for Jumanji? Think John Burton said Sony was doing the ride music


From: https://twitter.com/ChessingtonBuzz/status/1655169616400769024?t=zllsXrFqBoeXv4o71qCevA&s=19
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's the same audio (if not a minor variant) of the music themes that also play in the exterior areas of Garadaland's Jumanji Labyrinth and the Jumanji adventure attractions.

I believe Sony are pretty strict with audio when it comes to the Jumanji IP.
 
I think the sad thing to think is how little has really changed at Chessie in the past decade.

Beyond everything getting worse of course.

Wild Asia was 13 years ago!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top