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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Always amazes me why people cry out for more flat rides at Merlin parks. A 60 second cycle and multi-minute turnaround is really nothing new.

These two cheap things are OK to make up an area I guess, but it is the bare minimum really. 1-2 more would have been more credible to describe the area as a 'land'.
 
Went to Chessington today, purely for the reason of World of Jumanji.

Managed to get on Mandrill Mayhem 11 times in various riding positions which I will explain later on. The reserve and ride initially didn’t work for me I believe it was because I had a reserve and ride account logged in from last year. I had to create a new account so keep that in mind if you are trying as you could miss out on a pre-park opening spot.

Mandrill is a decent coaster, it’s got some interesting forces. The best part of the ride is the reverse through the spike, especially if you are on row 4-6. My first ride was on row 7 and it was a bit of a let down. The best riding position we had was left side row 6. Front wasn’t all that, offers better hang time through the inversion. The launches are snappy but not intense, it does feel a little on the slow side but it doesn’t really take much away from the ride. It is not uncomfortable on the helix at all when you stop. It’s best at the front right but wouldn’t sacrifice for the pop of airtime you get on the reverse spike. The Jaguar statue roars when you get to the top of the spike but you can’t hear it from the top of the helix. Some onboard audio or speakers around the top of the shrine would have added to the experience.

The area itself is well themed. The food outlet is tucked away and it should really be facing the open area where the middle of the game board is. That brings me on to the supporting flats…. Ostrich was closed all day and appears to have some new ostrich theming to replace already which I don’t understand. Didn’t ride it as it was closed all day. Mamba strike feels cheap and wouldn’t queue for more than 10-15 mins for it. Can’t see these two rides lasting at all. I know it’s early but they are very budget.

I have no idea how this virtual queue will cope on busier days but it seems to work very very well off-peak. I would recommend riding in the afternoon as the queue goes to nothing and the ride is one that warms up a bit. I fear for the area as a whole as the paths are very very narrow and there isn’t much room to move around.

Finally, still prefer Vampire as it’s an absolute classic. Lucky to now have two great themed coasters in the park. Perhaps the best two in the UK now.
 

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John said:
Not putting batching areas on the support rides seems like a massive error. Having seats allocated whilst the ride is still running can shave several minutes off loading times and makes a huge difference to capacity.
Click to expand...

How many staff are they running these on? It’s pretty common for Merlin to run support rides on 1 member of staff making pre-batching impossible.
 
Yeah they'd definitely need at least 2 staff to pre-batch, though given the restraint checking process on Ostrich I'd argue that one should have 2 staff at peak times anyway. Mamba is presumably a lot quicker to load so it's less of an issue
 
Europa Park often only has one staff member running their flat rides. Although it is easier to load a ride when most people come out of one queue. The number of exit riders slows things down a lot, particularly if they have passes that need checking, there’s arguments about the number of carers etc. In many cases the regular line and the exit line are on opposite sides of the ride. Europa Park are also easier going about height checking. If a ride is a traveling ride like Money Swinger, it’s also slower because there are extra steps people have to go up and down to get onto the platform.

I suppose you could also argue that when they’re selling Fast Track tickets for rides like Sea Storm, the money could fund an attendant.
 
Talking of Europa's flats I love how Crazy Taxis and the London Bus share an operators cabin.

Back when I used to work as a ride operator (a decade ago now...) I always got frustrated working a ride alone as you were effectively stuck in one spot, unable to update queue time boards or leave the ride area for any reason. Having someone else who could cover the control booth and give some company would have helped a lot.

Having said that you just know that on off peak days you'd end up running both rides on alternate cycles.
 


Virtual queue appears to have hit its first major flaw - the Reserve and Ride system has completely crashed and hasn't recovered since 9:45 when it was supposed to open. This means no one on park can book for MM, guests who have pre-paid for a reserve and ride package cannot redeem anything and RAP guests also cannot redeem any access.

Hopefully it's sorted out soon but what a mess!
 
I think they must have opened Mandrill Mayhem as a standby queue, because it’s currently showing as having a 20 minute queue time on the app.

That’s actually pretty good, if you ask me, particularly considering that the ride only opened on Monday!
 
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