• 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

It's always really amazed me how the food at Chessington is so expensive yet so poor in quality. Chessington has done a lot of things wrong in the last 20 years, and getting rid of the fast food joints was one of their biggest blunders (if not from a profit perspective, then definitely from a customer experience perspective. Thank god for Thorpe and its Burger King and KFC.
 
Poisson said:
So today, I did a comparison on Discord of what the local greasy spoon to work did for just under £13 v Chessington.

1710790909304.png

Sadly no MAP for scale, but the Parkin and Monster were kept for another day. I expect parks to be more but CWOA are taking the mickey.
Click to expand...
And unlike Merlin parks they even give you free parkin'

I'll show myself out...
 
Is the food another thing that the APs are buggering up? With the 20% discount so ingrained in the perks, and the passes being so prevalent, it seems they have priced food to be discounted, just as they have done with the entrance ticket. That's all very well for passholders, but unlike the gate price vs prebook/voucher with the food there's no option for the non passholder.

The pricing with discount is probably roughly where I'd expect them to be, and should be. The AP discount prevents them pricing sensibly in the first place.

Edit - I thought this was the food thread, feel free to delete as duplication, it seems I can't.
 
Genuinely can't remember the last time I bought hot food at a UK park. Probably over 10 years ago.

When we go to Towers (once or twice a year) we take packed lunch and snacks. When we go Blackpool we typically go to Spoons or sometimes we did the Pizza Hut on the front. Not sure if that's still open anymore.

Getting a Zero is quite the accomplishment though. Sounds like a manager problem to me. Probably somebody who hasn't got a clue how to run a restaurant in charge due to the poor wages they pay.
 
So. Having our first visit on passholder day thought I would share some thoughts.

Ride availability was ok in the whole. Queues were pretty large but my sons RAP worked wonders to make the day manageable in that regard (big fan of the digital version , hint hint towers)

The app wasn’t updated until 12 (to show open…) so until then we’re a bit lost. And the weather was shocking to start but can’t really judge the park on this. Having SeaLife, Room on the Broom and Gruffalo helped here. On the second two.. really impressed. Both kids (8/4) loved them.

We didn’t buy food. So no comment there.

Jumanji area was good. Theming is a bit hit and miss (hit around Mandrill - miss everywhere else)
Mandrill Mayhem is a truly fantastic “step up” coaster to bridge the gap from little to big.
My 8 year old was quite scared of coasters (1.4m tall) but after riding he’s super keen to try more. So that’s a win.
The other rides .. well.. they had short queues so fill in a purpose. And he liked them so no major drama there.

I guess the bad - the park is screaming out for some investment. Lots of tired looking theming and the flow of the park just feels.. off?

Zufari was an absolute waste of 20 mins waiting though. We saw 2 Giraffe and … had crackling speakers .

With MAP we’re gonna visit again but as a paying customer on the whole I would say, compared to LEGOLAND close by - would be an avoid for me
 
I think of those Tomb Blaster is already known to be shut for another week anyway.

The question is always "why" and the answer from people I see is always "it's like this at the start of every season and people should expect it". No, they shouldn't expect it, they should expect that things work. See also Nemesis breaking this week and everyone is saying "it happens at the start of every season".
 
The Nemesis problems aren’t really the same since it is a new attraction for all intents and purposes, and they do all tend to have teething issues. Ideally a period of soft opening would enable these to be identified and fixed before opening fully, however at a seasonal park that isn’t as easily done as somewhere like Disney.

The Chessington issues - where multiple existing attractions are simply not ready to open seems to happen every year and is not acceptable. They know what work needs doing and how long they have to do it months in advance. It’s just another example of the poor management of this park.
 
dave___ said:
I think of those Tomb Blaster is already known to be shut for another week anyway.

The question is always "why" and the answer from people I see is always "it's like this at the start of every season and people should expect it". No, they shouldn't expect it, they should expect that things work. See also Nemesis breaking this week and everyone is saying "it happens at the start of every season".
Click to expand...
I think there is a difference between this ride is ready to open but there are teething issues causing occasional breakdowns and outages, compared to we can’t be bothered to get it open for the first week.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top