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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

I asked the host at the entrance gate and she didn’t actually know if the ride was going to open ( less useful than the app as it was showing closed all day but I wasn’t sure if it just hadn’t updated for today). She basically shrugged at me.

We did go and ask the host at the ride entrance at the end of the day and he said technical difficulties and they weren’t sure when the engineers would be able to fix it. He confirmed it hadn’t been tested today.

It’s just frustrating when you look forward to riding it and wanted to set others expectations!

Overall we had a good day. Queue times were reasonable and I think visiting on gold Merlin pass restricted days is the answer!
 
I forgot to quote @Tom with Thunderbird, being a launched wing coaster by B&M that's 8 years old and seems to be reliable enough I believe? No cause for concerns yet
 
Thunderbird was closed for most of the day when I was there. Not sure how indicative that is of it generally. They did have some problems with getting enough power on site in early seasons.

Less is definitely more in terms of giving information to guests on site. If you give a nugget of information it often backfires.

If you're awaiting engineering or fault finding you'll be presented with a grandad of a group who was an air freshener engineer until he retired 15 years ago who can definitely help ...

If you explain what the fault is, it will be misreprested on social media and nerds will extrapolate from said fault how long the ride is likely to be down and return with their backpacks adorned with 100s of pin badges to ask further inane questions at the point that they think the ride should be open.
 
Day at Chessington today. We managed four rides on Mandrill Mayhem with the virtual queue - if you know what you're doing, it's not too difficult to do that, but there were a lot of very annoyed people, I think worsened by the staff telling dischuffed guests that it's "fastest finger first" - which I am not sure would pass the focus group test ... Slots are released at xx:10, xx:30 and xx:50 - once you know that you're home and dry.

The ride itself is fun, some interesting dynamics - those wing trains are a sight to behold, so graceful. Capacity was as expected.

Waited an hour for Mamba Strike. Laughable. Also rode Vampire, watched the shows and chilled.

Food was a mix ... The nachos from the taco place in Mexico were sadness in a bowl. Freezing cold cheese sauce on cheap nachos, with a couple of jalapenos chucked on top. The best value food was the portion of chips from the place next to Trawler Trouble. £3.49 with MAP discount for a pretty sizable portion.

The churros place next to Fury doesn't accept MAP discount ... Some guy in a Chessington fleece with a Chessington ID explained they were part of some events company.

Availability was fairly laughable. Croc Drop spent more time closed than open. I don't understand how that can be the case. All very cute with the "But SBF ..." comments - parks all over run their rides with far more success.

Had the first Magnum ice cream of my life. What a day.
 
Rob said:
I don't know why places, especially Merlin parks, continue to put cheese sauce on nachos. It smells and tastes like vomit, truly disgusting! Give me some real chesese!
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Only if they melt the cheese first though.

I remember getting some ‘cheesy chips’ from Chessie last year, it was just a portion of chips with grated cheese plonked on top. Very appetising!
 
Just rode again on the forward rows. Definitely prefer row 7. It seems to get bouncier the more it warms up. Launches are very Icon-esque. Low expectations and anticipating a family coaster, not white knuckle thrills have really helped my somewhat favourable views on it I suspect.

Do I prefer it to The Swarm? Hard to say, probably depends what mood I'm in. Good investment for the park? Absolutely. Just a crying shame about the capacity, although the virtual queue appears to be working well.
 
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