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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Reb said:
going now, it's honestly quite funny.
I promise you that Dragons Fury will break on your visit lol, (There hasn't been a day since season started where it hasn't). The current record is 5 breaks in one day.

On the plus side, I think they've had enough complaints that Zufari, Rattlesnake and Tiger rock now open on off-peak days, but they may have just anticipated a better turn out rather than listening to feedback.
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We went last Friday and Rattlesnake and Tiger Rock surprisingly opened up without warning. Zufari didn’t but it’s shit anyway.
 
That's the odd thing with Scorpion - compared to Alpenexpress it seems the fire damage was relatively minor and repairing it in reasonable time just should not have been a major problem. They would have needed some new parts for one or two cars but not much more. They could probably even remove a car as a temporary measure if necessary and if they needed a new shell for the front car I hear EP have one going spare..! It just seems they either don't have the means or the will to get it open.

Alpenexpress meanwhile has been completely rebuilt in less than a year. New track, new train, new control system.
 
Reb said:
Are you sure?
The pathway between Zufari and Croc Drop is closed currently, meaning that you have to get to Zufari via Wanyama.
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Yep, pretty sure. It had a sign outside stating it was scheduled closure. We stayed in the hotel and they mentioned they had no drivers available for the tours as people had asked for out of hours Giraffe feeding which they had to turn down.

Was also showed as closed on the app all day.
 
Scorpion Express is an interesting one.

With it having been shut for nearly 2 years with no obvious indication of it reopening any time soon, one does have to wonder whether the effort required to get it back open will have increased past the point of feasibility even if they suddenly wanted to move heaven and Earth to reopen it.

An interesting thing to note is that in Scorpion’s absence, Chessington actually has the “entry level” coaster with the highest height restriction out of the four UK Merlin parks despite having one of the younger target demographics. With Scorpion Express closed, their current “entry level” coaster is Vampire, with a 1.1m height restriction. By comparison, Legoland has Duplo Dino Coaster and Dragon at 0.9m or below, Alton Towers has Octonauts at 0.9m, and even the more thrill-focused Thorpe Park has Flying Fish at 0.9m.

With Chessington’s younger target demographic, I do feel that an “entry level” coaster of some description is something they currently lack. If Scorpion is a goner, I think that something along the lines of Octonauts would fit the bill quite nicely.
 
Matt N said:
An interesting thing to note is that in Scorpion’s absence, Chessington actually has the “entry level” coaster with the highest height restriction out of the four UK Merlin parks despite having one of the younger target demographics. With Scorpion Express closed, their current “entry level” coaster is Vampire, with a 1.1m height restriction. By comparison, Legoland has Duplo Dino Coaster and Dragon at 0.9m or below, Alton Towers has Octonauts at 0.9m, and even the more thrill-focused Thorpe Park has Flying Fish at 0.9m.
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Always thought this was an odd one, Chessington always had the youngest demographic of the Resort Theme Parks, yet it lacks a kiddie coaster of any form.

If Chessington were smart, a duelling kiddie coaster would really stand out and have good capacity.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
Always thought this was an odd one, Chessington always had the youngest demographic of the Resort Theme Parks, yet it lacks a kiddie coaster of any form.

If Chessington were smart, a duelling kiddie coaster would really stand out and have good capacity.
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Yes something like Kid Flash would be good.
 
Scorpion Express, Vampire, Rattlesnake, Tomb Blaster... they all need to meet the wrecking ball. Here's hoping Chessington are looking closely at Na Fianna Force, an STC would make a good replacement for Vampire. Scorpion has been closed for long enough by now to send alarm bells that the thing won't be coming back. The entire Mexicana plot is crying out to be completely redeveloped. It's a very compact area so I'm not sure if any higher quality family coasters would be big enough for it, but a little dark ride akin to Popcorn Revenge and some flats wouldn't go amiss.
 
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Hyperia Super Stan said:
Scorpion Express, Vampire, Rattlesnake, Tomb Blaster... they all need to meet the wrecking ball. Here's hoping Chessington are looking closely at Na Fianna Force, an STC would make a good replacement for Vampire. Scorpion has been closed for long enough by now to send alarm bells that the thing won't be coming back. The entire Mexicana plot is crying out to be completely redeveloped with some new higher capacity flats and a dark ride.
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It's Vampire or bust in that area. They can retrack / rebuild it, or remove it, but that's it. That's all they have planning permission for and once Vampire is gone, the park is not allowed to build another attraction of similar scale or size on the site (as per planning permission).
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
It's Vampire or bust in that area. They can retrack / rebuild it, or remove it, but that's it. That's all they have planning permission for and once Vampire is gone, the park is not allowed to build another attraction of similar scale or size on the site (as per planning permission).
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I remember hearing somewhere that they've now got permission to develop the Vampire site, but it's probably more likely that we'd see a like-for-like track replacement for Vampire than anything else in its place.
 
I've no idea if the track is the right width, or how much shorter the trains would have to be, but after visiting Phantasialand a couple of weeks back I had the crazy idea of putting the new Vekoma Flyer trains on Vampire if they were doing a retrack. With a bit of smoothing and minor alterations to the layout, it would totally revitalise the experience and make it pretty unique. Would make the ride a bit more thrilling too.

Crazy idea and one that will almost certainly never come to fruition, but let me dream!
 
Hyperia Super Stan said:
I remember hearing somewhere that they've now got permission to develop the Vampire site, but it's probably more likely that we'd see a like-for-like track replacement for Vampire than anything else in its place.
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I think the passage of time and the progress of ride technology has probably altered the stated belief that Chessington couldn’t replace Vampire with anything of the same scale.

The general understanding was that the council didn’t quite realise the scale of the attraction and its impact when they first agreed to it, leaving them somewhat put out when they realised what it looked and sounded like.

However 35 years on most of those councillors will be dead and buried now and things move on. The trees have had 30 years to grow, ride technology is much quieter, the modelling and images that can be produced to show the planners what they are building is worlds apart from 1988.

A new generation Vekoma suspended or flying coaster with nods to Vampire in the layout etc would be a good replacement when the time comes.
 
mo237 said:
I've no idea if the track is the right width, or how much shorter the trains would have to be, but after visiting Phantasialand a couple of weeks back I had the crazy idea of putting the new Vekoma Flyer trains on Vampire if they were doing a retrack. With a bit of smoothing and minor alterations to the layout, it would totally revitalise the experience and make it pretty unique. Would make the ride a bit more thrilling too.

Crazy idea and one that will almost certainly never come to fruition, but let me dream!
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Vampires Revenge!
 
Step away from the Vampire.

It’s a unique coaster and needs to be preserved. It’s still the most popular ride there and is well loved. We don’t need to “RMC it” or take away the unique swinging element by making it a normal boring suspended Vekoma family coaster.

It’s the reason why I envy American parks. They get to keep their older rides, especially the arrow ones. They have room if needed for another coaster. If anything, Rattlesnake will be first on the chopping board over Vampire.

I’ll chain myself to lift 2 if I have to.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
It’s the reason why I envy American parks. They get to keep their older rides, especially the arrow ones. They have room if needed for another coaster.
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I think they have the room, but also the planning permission (for certain areas to be used) and not a lot of them are themed, like six flag parks are just concrete slabs with rides and a carboard cut out of superman or batman on it, I am pretty sure they have reused the name and logo for goliath so many times now you coupld pick any ride model and there with be a goliath of it some where.
 
Good ops at Chessington today, didn't see anything go down. The only odd thing was Tiger Rock was sending round a lot of empty boats but they were still putting people in some as well.

Wasn't too busy either, didn't see much go over 40 minutes.
 
Bowser said:
Good ops at Chessington today, didn't see anything go down. The only odd thing was Tiger Rock was sending round a lot of empty boats but they were still putting people in some as well.

Wasn't too busy either, didn't see much go over 40 minutes.
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Noticed that on the app while I was watching half the rides at Alton breaking down or not opening at all. I think they have turned a corner at Chessington this season. Our visit a couple of weeks ago was faultless, I occasionally check the app and all rides normally appear to be operating.
 
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