Chessington World of Adventures Resort

[Dave]

I never trust any plans until diggers appear, i remember someone "in the know" stating that Thorpe where getting an amazing (non-coaster) ride for 2013 that would eclipse SW7 at Towers...

... didn't happen.

Merlin do so many last-minute budget squeezes that sure the parks have lots of great plans. AT toilet refurb last closed season never happened, and i forget how many times Air Tunnel has had the money then lost the money.

Towers have lots of amazing plans for future stuff but i will be surprised if 30% of them see the light of day. Same with Chessie and Thorpe.

 

[AstroDan]

Ahem!

They did the ladies but couldn't afford the mens!

(in X Sector)

My dad always says:

"if a job's worth doing it's worth doing well"...

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[project?]

It certainly won't bring back the 3rd train on Vampire,

i dont think the 3rd train on vampire would do anything other than increase stacking. Remember the abysmal air-gates, the push to unlock which almost half the train forgets every time, the awful bag dash that delay's every dispatch, the fire exit which gets opened every 5 min, the shocking que batching and the even worse disabled entrance! and i forgot..... the need to open and close the exits so guests can get out.

at the moment until they can get all of those things right i agree with them not wanting to spend money on a 3rd train....

it sends me in a min rage even thinking about it and i haven't even mentioned the theming!!!

and for peat sake turn on the speakers by the organist so the pneumatics don't drown out the music

 

[thefatone]

Third train could easily happen, as all the issues you've mentioned are things the park could incredibly bloody easily sort out, with next to no cost whatsoever. It just doesn't happen because the park themselves are not on the ball and cannot run anything.

It's incredibly hard not to get overly passionate about chessie and end up having a rant about how god damn awful they are.

 

[djtruefitt]

There are a few things I really don't get with Vampire, I can kind of understand why they batch people now, so there are less people in the station and so you can organise groups better. But why leave the batching till the very last minute? And will the person on the microphone please shut up for 2 minutes!

And finally what is with them only letting you use the one exit stairs right near the front of the station? Why can't you go up any of the exits?

 

[Wilsy]

The ride operator PA's are what I dislike the most about Vampire, it ruins the atmosphere and is way too loud.

I can understand why they do it, and I presume that the announcements are like that as it's how they are trained but I find much of the spiel annoying and uncessary.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, the Vampire Ride Ops are annoying.

Just while I'm here. I just thought I'd say, that based on what I've seen today, there's going to be some pretty amazing changes this coming Halloween Hocus Pocus. I can't release anything as yet, but I'm just going to say that there will be at least one brand new spooky attraction this year, as well as a tonne of new theming resort wide (yes, that means the hotel too )

Suffice to say, Chessington's Halloween event is going to get better. Again. I'll book my room now me thinks.

 

[Jordan]

My Jared-o-meter has gone off the scale.

 

[AstroDan]

Shame it shuts as it gets dark.



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[John]

Or even before it gets dark - they've added an extra week at the start of the event but for the first six days it's only open from 10-5, even at the weekend.

 

[Tom]

Surely the event can never be anything special until it has 9pm closes. There has to be ZERO atmosphere compared to Scarefest and Fright Nights.

 

[TheMan]

Surely the event can never be anything special until it has 9pm closes. There has to be ZERO atmosphere compared to Scarefest and Fright Nights.

Made the difference between me going and not.

 

[thefatone]

It had loads of atmosphere on its old 8pm closes - particularly as they've always been really good with their lighting.

Nowadays I doubt it very much, particularly with 5pm closes.

 

[AstroDan]

Chessington had bags of atmosphere at night.

They might have nice props but if say Alton cut Halloween hours to 7pm we'd all be livid.

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[Bob]

Yeah, the Vampire Ride Ops are annoying.

Just while I'm here. I just thought I'd say, that based on what I've seen today, there's going to be some pretty amazing changes this coming Halloween Hocus Pocus. I can't release anything as yet, but I'm just going to say that there will be at least one brand new spooky attraction this year, as well as a tonne of new theming resort wide (yes, that means the hotel too )

Suffice to say, Chessington's Halloween event is going to get better. Again. I'll book my room now me thinks.

You should have dared them to extend the opening hours. That would be a bold move for the park if they really were relaunching Hocus Pocus.

 

[AstroDan]

Hopefully, Jared, you can now see how ridiculous many of us find 7pm closes by looking in the SF thread.

It's not just digs at CWOA. The whole idea is ridiculous. Merlin FTL.

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[Anonymous]

Hopefully, Jared, you can now see how ridiculous many of us find 7pm closes by looking in the SF thread.

It's not just digs at CWOA. The whole idea is ridiculous. Merlin FTL.

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Oh, I completely agree, but it comes from higher up I'm afraid. You can see it in the Nick Varney interview posted on CB. (Can't link, I'm on my phone)

 

[Lottie.]

Hopefully, Jared, you can now see how ridiculous many of us find 7pm closes by looking in the SF thread.

It's not just digs at CWOA. The whole idea is ridiculous. Merlin FTL.

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Oh, I completely agree, but it comes from higher up I'm afraid. You can see it in the Nick Varney interview posted on CB. (Can't link, I'm on my phone)

Said interview:

http://www.chessingtonbuzz.co.uk/interviews/nick-varney-2013/



EDIT: To save those who are on their phone and loading up the whole interview, it was question 9 about Halloween Hocus Pocus.

The Halloween event at Chessington has the best lighting / park atmosphere of any theme park in the UK, but the cuts to its opening times during the event have effected how much of an impact it can achieve. Why was the decision taken to cut back the hours of the event?

The decision to open until 7pm was taken in 2012 at a time when the clocks went back at the start of Halloween week, rather than at the end of the Halloween week as had been the case in previous years. This meant that for the majority of the week, visitors would have broadly the same level of dark experience. Also the park had observed that in previous years few guests remained much beyond 7pm on most nights partly due to the cold and partly due to the age profile of our visitors (with lots of families having smaller children). Finally, although the ride queues closed at 7pm in 2012, all visitors within those queues were able to experience the ride they were queuing for which meant that in reality the park closed its doors later in the evening.

 

[Benzin]

New thing in HPH then... That's sommat...

Shame the park closes at 5pm for the first week of the event, then 7pm for the Half Term week...

 

[Anonymous]

From the press release.

New for 2013 is The Mystery of Hocus Pocus Hall. Adventurers brave enough must enter the bewitching stately home of Sir Arthur, a famous explorer, who vanished without a trace! Try to solve the mystery of what happened to Sir Arthur as you journey through the house and discover a priceless collection of antiques which seem to have powers all of their own... Is there a strange and powerful curse, or is it all a bunch of Hocus Pocus? That’s for you to find out!