Chessington World of Adventures Resort

[Benzin]

Relevance is in the eye of those pushing that awful looking film that's coming out.

Some IPs are timeless though, hard to tell if Minecraft would come under that. At least it's not Roblox.

 

[Bowser]

Minecraft as an ip meh. Its an old game only diehards still play it and in 3 or 4 yrs time will be even less relevent.

The actually plan on attractions looks good just not the ip

It still has an active user-base of well over 100 million, i'd say that's more than diehards.

Even if that dwindles, it will forever be culturally engrained in certain demographics due to the level of popularity it reached for a sustained period. It certainly dwarfs the likes of Jumanji or Uncharted.

Outside of a handful of franchises which are essentially monopolised by Disney and Universal, there's a case for it being the biggest available IP a theme park could obtain and in that sense it's quite incredible that Chessington will seemingly be getting it. It's worth billions.

 

[flyingguitar]

Minecraft as an ip meh. Its an old game only diehards still play it and in 3 or 4 yrs time will be even less relevent.

The actually plan on attractions looks good just not the ip

it is still very popular, and has been going on for the better part of 15 years now.

if merlin do a good job, it could be an amazing land similar to Nintendo land.
IP if used right can be really good even if the origional IP wasn't, if IP is used more as a backdrop to the rides and lands then I find they often work much better (for instance the walking dead, but if the IP is lazily slapped onto a ride or land and they call it a day it can make it worse.

I also wonder what the indoor ride is as it looks large, but not large enough to house a ride like the curse, I wonder if it could be a mad house as I am trying to think of other indoor themed flats

I wonder if one of those shooter rides like lego ninjago could fit there.

 

[dave___]

Minecraft as an ip meh. Its an old game only diehards still play it and in 3 or 4 yrs time will be even less relevent.

The actually plan on attractions looks good just not the ip

It's more relevant and likely to hang around than Jumanji. 5 years time and some of the kids going on Mandrill Mayhem probably won't even know what Jumanji is. Even now I bet there are plenty that have never seen the original..

 

[The Big Mack]

It's more relevant and likely to hang around than Jumanji. 5 years time and some of the kids going on Mandrill Mayhem probably won't even know what Jumanji is. Even now I bet there are plenty that have never seen the original..

Perhaps not, a third Dwayne Johnson Jumanji film is currently in development. They're both very relevant IP's.

 

[George W]

I think Minecraft still seems very relevant amongst Chessington's target demographic and then there's die hard Minecraft adults who still love the IP.

 

[Roz123]

Jumanji suits Chessington because of its jungle setting and the films involving animals that you could find in the zoo. I was slightly surprised that they didn't have some animal enclosures in that area.
Minecraft on the other hand looks ugly to me but I have never played the game.

 

[Tom]

Pleased that O’Neil looks like he found his chequebook at long last, and that it could be an Intamin.

 

[Quantum]

My son still plays Minecraft with his mates. It doesn't really have any story but aesthetically it works as a themed area. It's most similar to Lego as a franchise so Merlin will see it as a safe bet even if it not as hot franchise wise these days.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

Minecraft is a very smart choice of IP. It’s the top selling game of all-time with sales of 300 million according to Wikipedia. It’s a very well established franchise that has been around since 2011 and its popularity isn’t dependent on the release of the latest instalment or movie etc. There will always be a stream of new youngsters picking it up (and it doesn’t really date that much either) but I think one very important aspect is that it probably has a very wide global appeal compared to something like CBeebies at Towers which is in large part very much a British thing culturally. This can help put Chessington on the map internationally, and when you bear in mind that Universal GB will pull in a lot of international tourists it could be very appealing for them to head over to CWoA as well and spend a day there. This could be a fantastic asset for a Merlin.

 

[flyingguitar]

I saw a few suggestions that project play would be an IP like CBeebies, I really hope not and I hope it is a unique area that is able to make the balance between young and old, with a ride entertaining for both to make it more of a family rather than a kiddie ride as it is the one big problem I have with cbeebies land as it is isn't entertaining for any one over like 8, I feel like disney are able to pull this off with their rides making them entertaining for both young and old (of course Disney are huge and have large budgets)

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

the one big problem I have with cbeebies land as it is isn't entertaining for any one over like 8,

It's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be a safe and appropriate environment, away from the rest of the park, that caters for younger children.

Drayton Manor Park & Zoo, and Paulton's Park, have the same thing going with their respective IP lands for toddlers.

 

[Mick]

Basically all of Chessington hits that fun for people of all ages demographic, so no issues with one specific area of the park being focused on those youngest.

 

[flyingguitar]

It's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be a safe and appropriate environment, away from the rest of the park, that caters for younger children.

Drayton Manor Park & Zoo, and Paulton's Park, have the same thing going with their respective IP lands for toddlers.

Fair point, but I feel like catering to one area can be negative, for example, if you have CBeebies area and have one 5 year old and a 10 year old, one child would not be entertained by the child area, leading to the 2 having to be split, for longer, or the one kid not having a fun time. but with rides like the haunted mansion, big thunder mountain, pirates are entertaining for everyone not just the children leading to a better experience with the family together longer.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

Fair point, but I feel like catering to one area can be negative, for example, if you have CBeebies area and have one 5 year old and a 10 year old, one child would not be entertained by the child area, leading to the 2 having to be split, for longer, or the one kid not having a fun time. but with rides like the haunted mansion, big thunder mountain, pirates are entertaining for everyone not just the children leading to a better experience with the family together longer.

But the whole point of CBeebies land is that it’s based on a TV channel aimed at very young children (ages 0-6 according to the BBC themselves). And this is something that’s similar to the children’s areas at both Drayton Manor and Paulton’s Park, they are all based on franchises that appeal to the younger guests so therefore the rides themselves are geared towards the youngest guests. They aren’t meant to be areas with rides that appeal to older riders (though of course anybody is free to ride them if they want to).

Towers does have a couple of rides elsewhere that appeal to that kind of slightly older family range that you are specifying (RMT, CCR, and possibly GG) but it’s true that it’s definitely an area that the park is lacking in. I think they really could do with a couple more true family attractions, something that sits between the thrill level of say Octonauts and Spinball Whizzer would be something I’d like to see at the park. Hopefully the dungeons building could be used for a family dark ride again which would do some way to putting things right. I also feel that the retheme of Duel in to Curse has pushed the age bracket of that ride up a tad as it’s a bit more scary for some younger guests now.

 

[Poisson]

The thing with CBeebies is they were one bit of area planning away from nailing it. Making an access using the bottom gate to Adventure Land would have sorted it. A 1.2m coaster with direct access would have been great.

 

[flyingguitar]

But the whole point of CBeebies land is that it’s based on a TV channel aimed at very young children (ages 0-6 according to the BBC themselves). And this is something that’s similar to the children’s areas at both Drayton Manor and Paulton’s Park, they are all based on franchises that appeal to the younger guests so therefore the rides themselves are geared towards the youngest guests. They aren’t meant to be areas with rides that appeal to older riders (though of course anybody is free to ride them if they want to).

yeah, but my though is that if you have a family orientated park it would be best if you could have the entire family enjoy as much of the park as possible, you don't have a problem where one child hates one land leading to a split that has to happen, disney are really good at making rides that cater to both.

for alton I think it makes sence as the rest of the park is so much thrill, they need that area, but chessington is much more family with much tamer rides.

 

[Dave]

The thing with CBeebies is they were one bit of area planning away from nailing it. Making an access using the bottom gate to Adventure Land would have sorted it. A 1.2m coaster with direct access would have been great.

CBeebies was always planned to have one entrance (originally it had one entrance one exit but they closed the exit. It’s designed to stop young children running out of the area and getting lost. It’s why there was an entrance host at the area entrance.

 

[tayspru]

Sorry but it’s the parents responsibility to make sure their kids don’t run off. Having an access point at the SW end would make a lot of sense

 

[Bowser]

Sorry but it’s the parents responsibility to make sure their kids don’t run off. Having an access point at the SW end would make a lot of sense

I imagine it’s intended more like a soft play where children can safely explore on their own.