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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

QTXAdsy said:
Paulton's nearby will laughing seeing Chessington commit suicide with their choices that'll allow them the time needed to overtake them as the top family park of the south.

Only good thing about Mandrill Mayham is that after seeing all the hell it has brought up capacity wise, it'll likely be a good warning for the other parks (not Merlin ofc who never learn) of why shuttle coasters are not always a good idea.
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I wouldn't bank on that. They still built a shuttle coaster after the queuing disaster that is Croc Drop.

Paultons has a fair few low capacity rides itself. But then it doesn't have 2m visitors per year and a long running history of park wide capacity issues. This new area will draw new visitors to Chessington and all 3 rides aren't up to the job of handling them.

Mandrill really has caused further Mayhem.
 
Chessington does ~1.4m a year, Paultons is around ~1.2m.

Mandrill's capacity certainly isn't that of many other B&Ms, but it's not too far out of whack for the rest of the industry, Ride to Happiness does similar (probably less) than MM.
 
Purely based on typical queue times at the two parks I'd assumed the gap between them was far bigger than that, seems Paulton's are doing a better job than I give them credit for. I'd always assumed that if they got Chessington's visitor numbers they'd have dreadful queues too but it seems it's not that simple.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, lousy throughputs at Chessington aren't exactly anything new.
 
I think the PPW pre-school demographic probably shifts a similar attendance in quite a different pattern.
 
John said:
Purely based on typical queue times at the two parks I'd assumed the gap between them was far bigger than that, seems Paulton's are doing a better job than I give them credit for. I'd always assumed that if they got Chessington's visitor numbers they'd have dreadful queues too but it seems it's not that simple.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, lousy throughputs at Chessington aren't exactly anything new.
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At the very least if Paulton's were to install a new coaster that did seem get the Chessington numbers them they would be wise to get a coaster with a higher throughput than Mandrill Mayham which honestly can't be hard to do. Honestly several of the other smaller parks around the UK would have all noticed the throughput calamity with MM will be quietly putting to bed any plans of a shuttle coaster of their own if MM is anything to go by.
 
I’m also surprised that the attendance gap is that small. In 2019 (I cite 2019 as it was the last pre-COVID year), Chessington got around 1.65 million (as per the Merlin attendance graph), whereas I was under the impression that Paultons never really exceeded 1 million by an awful lot. Paultons also never seems overly busy, from what I can gather.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Peppa Pig visitors did make up quite a significant percentage of Paultons’ guest figures, but even Peppa Pig World never seems overly busy (in terms of queue times) compared to Chessington.
 
I thought Chessington sat around the 1.8 mark and Paultons numbers weren't published?

Either way, I know which park has the least painful queues.
 
Matt.GC said:
I thought Chessington sat around the 1.8 mark and Paultons numbers weren't published?

Either way, I know which park has the least painful queues.
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The Merlin attendance graph put Chessington at ~1,656,250 in 2019 (the last pre-COVID year) and ~1,468,750 in 2022 (which I guess was pretty much normal, but perhaps not entirely). Chessington only ever exceeded 1,800,000 in the mid-90s. Here’s the thread where I’m compiling visitor figures for all of the UK Merlin parks over time based on the attendance graph, if you’re interested in seeing the figures: https://towersstreet.com/talk/threa...res-through-the-years.5778/page-2#post-378827

As for Paultons, I think you’re right in saying that they don’t release figures. I could have sworn I once read 1,100,000 as a Paultons attendance figure, but I could have completely imagined that, as I struggled to find it again in a Google search…
 
Paultons hit 1 million in 2011, so you would think they have grown a little since then. Their entrance fees and investment would suggest they are doing well.

Chessington is hideously managed growth-wise. If cheap and/or modest-capacity additions are their way forward, they will need a them coming thick and fast.
 
In fairness, whatever Merlin has been doing at Chessington during their tenure has clearly worked, because looking at the thread link I just posted would suggest that between 2007 and 2019, Chessington’s attendance grew by 74%, from a nadir of just below 1 million in 2007 to a zenith of 1.6-1.7 million in 2019.

Admittedly, I suspect that the Merlin Annual Pass may play at least a partial role in that attendance rise. I always heard rumours that Chessington was the Merlin theme park where passholders made up the highest percentage of guest figures, and 2008 alone (the first full year of the MAP being properly pushed) saw around a 30% attendance rise on 2007 (968,750 in 2007 to 1,250,000 in 2008) with no major investments that year. However, passholders alone wouldn’t account for the other 400,000 additional guests that the park accrued between 2008 and 2019, so Merlin are clearly doing something right to see such significant growth in guest figures!
 
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Chessington's attendance is massively, massively inflated by annual pass holders.

On gold / basic pass blackout days queues are always very short.

A flexible pass where you pay for each attraction included feels like a natural solution. I do wonder why Merlin are so reluctant to do this.
 
There was good growth in the first four years, but relative stagnation after that. There was signs of steadier gradual growth prior to the pandemic, but let's see what happens. A few fallow years after Jumanji will not help.
 
2019 was their highest year since 1999, and they seemed to be on a generally increasing trajectory, so I’d say that the pre-pandemic signs were pretty good.

As you say, I’ll be interested to see what Jumanji does for their attendance. With it including their first coaster since 2004, I wonder what impact a new coaster might have on Chessington’s figures.
D4n said:
A flexible pass where you pay for each attraction included feels like a natural solution. I do wonder why Merlin are so reluctant to do this.
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Are you referring to a Merlin Annual Pass where it costs £x per attraction included on the pass rather than £y for all of them like it is now?

On a side note, another thing that I reckon would be quite lucrative for the three London area Merlin parks that I’m surprised Merlin have never done is combined 2 or 3 park tickets. Think along the lines of the SeaWorld/Busch Gardens 2 park ticket that you can buy in Florida, granting you a day visit to each park.

I can certainly imagine a Chessington/Legoland 2 park ticket being quite lucrative. Or maybe a Thorpe/Chessington 2 park ticket, or a Thorpe/Chessington/Legoland 3 park ticket? Perhaps not the latter, as Thorpe and Legoland in particular have very different target markets, but at very least, I can imagine a Chessington/Legoland 2 park ticket being quite a lucrative product.
 
Poisson said:
"You can't put people in the airgates as the ride comes through too fast"

Vekoma worked out the problem a long time ago with the GIB. 3 metre tall airgates. Problem solved.
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Exactly. I'll never understand why they didn't go down that route.
 
Matt N said:
As you say, I’ll be interested to see what Jumanji does for their attendance. With it including their first coaster since 2004, I wonder what impact a new coaster might have on Chessington’s figures.
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It has felt quite a lot busier than normal this year on my visits, especially yesterday's visit when MM was open, so the attendance could have quite a big increase. It's certainly possible that this could be their highest year of attendance since 1999.
 
rob666 said:
It is an appalling misjudgement regarding throughput that could have very simply been planned better.
Muppets in senior management and purchasing who have no experience of actual ride operation management, one presumes.
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Surely the ride manufacturer would suggest this also?

As soon as the train arrives back in the station you are told to run around the top. The gate is usually open by the time you get around the top and you walk straight on the ride. It would help being at the air gates but it’s not going to mask over what little capacity the ride has generally.

The first year of operation will be hyped, this is also the first weekend the ride is open to the public. Combine that with decent weather and it’s not surprising they have big queues.
 
Out of interest, have Chessington done much advertising for Jumanji in and around London/the South East?

I haven’t personally seen any adverts for the World of Jumanji, but I’m in the South West, so I wondered if Chessington were staying regional with their marketing.
 
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