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Oatcakedodger
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Swarm
went Tuesday with Missus and 2 kidlets, had fun queues were ok, it's worth going, feel your comment was a bit harsh !DiogoJ42 said:
A
Anonymous
I'll just leave this here...
That's good news. I think Rameses sits really well there, would be sad to see it go.Lottie. said:Jonathan said:
Not sure if it's me but hasn't Rameses been like that for a long while? :S
huzzellio said:
It is definitely coming back next year.
I wish I had something witty to say here.....
D4n
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Zadra
Chessington was an absolute shambles yesterday.
I expected the place to be busy (and it must have been close to capacity) but it was really beyond a joke. There shouldn't be so many people actually allowed into the park and operations on the day were really quite laughable.
Vampire went down about half an hour into the day (it didn't reopen), having already built up a queue of over two hours, and (from what I can gather) all guests in the queue line were redirected to guest services where they could get a free fastrack ticket valid on any ride of their choosing. The queue for guest services then stretched back through market square back to Pizza/Pasta buffet at one point.
The park was already heaving, fastrack had clearly already been oversold, and these additional 'free' fastrack tickets meant the main queue lines ground to a halt (the likes of Kobra and Fury were definitely running at at least a 70-30 ratio in favour of fastrackers at the merge point). On top of that the disabled/exit queue for most attractions was a constant flow, and they were getting 50% of all rides. No doubt this meant that people standing in the main queues then complained, and probably also received a free fastrack in response to this.
Here's a sample of ride queue times at the peak of the day:
Vampire - Closed
Fury / Zufari - 90mins
Kobra - 120mins
Tomb Blaster - 70mins
Dragon Falls / Bubbleworks / Seastorm / Tuk Tuk Turmoil - 60mins
Rattlesnake / Hocus Pocus Hall / Bubbleworks / Monkey Swnger / Black Buccaneer - 45mins
I can appreciate a park being busy, but when there isn't a single family / thrill ride on park with a wait time less than 45 minutes you know you're doing something wrong. The response to Vampire going down should have been "stop selling fastracks" not "give away lots of extra fastracks" because the park clearly couldn't handle it on top of the crowds. Ride close was extended until 7pm but the queues were still of a very similar length at this time (understandable, nobody had gotten on more than 5 or 6 rides, not accounting for the zoo) so this was really quite inadequate.
On top of this, the people operating the rides really didn't seem like they could give less of a toss about long queue times and throughput on the majority of attractions was abysmal. I usually have sympathy with ride staff on days such as these, but the way Dragon's Fury staff seemed to stop working to have a chat, Zufari staff didn't bother trying to fill cars and Monkey Swinger staff had nice, long chats with fastrackers when they should have been batching the ride left everybody with bitter tastes in their mouths yesterday I think.
I have experienced 'bad days' at Alton Towers due to overcrowding and fastrack, but nothing quite as laughable as this. I was with a friend visiting for the first time, his opinion? "This place is a joke", on that evidence, I'd have to agree. Not impressed.
On a sidenote, very disappointed with Zufari's "finale"... what the heck was that? A sprinkler?
I expected the place to be busy (and it must have been close to capacity) but it was really beyond a joke. There shouldn't be so many people actually allowed into the park and operations on the day were really quite laughable.
Vampire went down about half an hour into the day (it didn't reopen), having already built up a queue of over two hours, and (from what I can gather) all guests in the queue line were redirected to guest services where they could get a free fastrack ticket valid on any ride of their choosing. The queue for guest services then stretched back through market square back to Pizza/Pasta buffet at one point.
The park was already heaving, fastrack had clearly already been oversold, and these additional 'free' fastrack tickets meant the main queue lines ground to a halt (the likes of Kobra and Fury were definitely running at at least a 70-30 ratio in favour of fastrackers at the merge point). On top of that the disabled/exit queue for most attractions was a constant flow, and they were getting 50% of all rides. No doubt this meant that people standing in the main queues then complained, and probably also received a free fastrack in response to this.
Here's a sample of ride queue times at the peak of the day:
Vampire - Closed
Fury / Zufari - 90mins
Kobra - 120mins
Tomb Blaster - 70mins
Dragon Falls / Bubbleworks / Seastorm / Tuk Tuk Turmoil - 60mins
Rattlesnake / Hocus Pocus Hall / Bubbleworks / Monkey Swnger / Black Buccaneer - 45mins
I can appreciate a park being busy, but when there isn't a single family / thrill ride on park with a wait time less than 45 minutes you know you're doing something wrong. The response to Vampire going down should have been "stop selling fastracks" not "give away lots of extra fastracks" because the park clearly couldn't handle it on top of the crowds. Ride close was extended until 7pm but the queues were still of a very similar length at this time (understandable, nobody had gotten on more than 5 or 6 rides, not accounting for the zoo) so this was really quite inadequate.
On top of this, the people operating the rides really didn't seem like they could give less of a toss about long queue times and throughput on the majority of attractions was abysmal. I usually have sympathy with ride staff on days such as these, but the way Dragon's Fury staff seemed to stop working to have a chat, Zufari staff didn't bother trying to fill cars and Monkey Swinger staff had nice, long chats with fastrackers when they should have been batching the ride left everybody with bitter tastes in their mouths yesterday I think.
I have experienced 'bad days' at Alton Towers due to overcrowding and fastrack, but nothing quite as laughable as this. I was with a friend visiting for the first time, his opinion? "This place is a joke", on that evidence, I'd have to agree. Not impressed.
On a sidenote, very disappointed with Zufari's "finale"... what the heck was that? A sprinkler?
A
Anonymous
DiogoJ42 said:I thought that was some Terror Tomb fan art for a second.Jared said:I'll just leave this here...
Nope, it's Chessington actually making a big effort yet again for Halloween. This is the 3rd new Halloween attraction in 3 years.
2011: The Crypt.
2012: Vampire - Haunting in the Hollows
2013: The Mystery of Hocus Pocus Hall
I know that I for one am very much looking forward to another fantastic event at Chessington. There's also been a lot if old props moving around on park, and some new ones being delivered. I'm really looking forward to this coming Halloween season. Especially at Chessington.
D4n said:
This unfortunately seems to be par of the course this year. Chessington has always been my favourite park and used to be the one I relied on after horrors at Thorpe and Alton during visitors.
I refuse to visit this year based on things I'm hearing like your trip report or Vampire reduced to two trains permanently or Toadies reduced running to three cars permanently.
It's a mockery that eight years ago, when I worked there, we were encouraged to push throughputs and reduce queue times on Runaway, Fury and Rattlesnake as much as physically possible and now thats completely out the window. The biggest complaints a theme park gets afterall is the queuelines and yet Chessington seems desperate to make them as long as possible.
I popped into CWOA yesterday (Sunday) on my way back from Thorpe. OMG - how busy. managed 2 rides all morning and left around midday as it was just so busy. The queues just to buy Fasttrack tickets were ridiculous.
Thorpe was similar the day before. Merlin seriously and I mean, SERIOUSLY need to address FastTrack sales next season, this cant continue, they may be making a lot of money but they are also putting a lot of guests from ever visiting again. Forking out a small fortune after paying to get in for FastTrack tickets should not be essential if you want a good day out with some rides.
Thorpe was similar the day before. Merlin seriously and I mean, SERIOUSLY need to address FastTrack sales next season, this cant continue, they may be making a lot of money but they are also putting a lot of guests from ever visiting again. Forking out a small fortune after paying to get in for FastTrack tickets should not be essential if you want a good day out with some rides.
E
electricBlll
The explorer in the picture is hinted to be the character from Mystery of Hocus Pocus Hall, it's nothing to do with Terror Tomb…
Or is it?!
(that's the idea)
Or is it?!
(that's the idea)
nickhutson
TS Member
Because Lord Mystic and his Manor are owned by The Mouse? ;-)
siralgenon
TS Member
He also looks like the old Sir Algenon from the Alton Towers Hotel!
Rose Of Dawn
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Eejanaika (Fuji-Q Highland)
Don't ask me how I saw this, but a Daily Mail columnist has wrote about how bad Chessington is:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2411810/LORRAINE-CANDY-Thank-Chessington-worst-days-entire-life.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2411810/LORRAINE-CANDY-Thank-Chessington-worst-days-entire-life.html