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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

RicketyCricket said:
The complaints about a thrill coaster not fitting into Chessington is a strange one to me though. Plenty of kids are over 1.4 and a 'scary' ride gives the younger kids a challenge to look forward to. Rameses drew in huge crowds of spectators.
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From me, not a complaint as such, just an odd decision. I personally think the park would benefit from a few thrill rides, a family park ideally should cater for all the family including older thrillseekers. But having one single 1.4 thrill in the park doesn't really work.
The majority of the core audience will come and not be able to ride the new ride so end up disappointed.
The majority of those this ride is aimed at will come and have no other thrill to ride so end up disappointed.

If the park still had RR and Samurai this would make sense, as it is I can't see that it does.

Look at what Paultons have done; built a headline family thrill ride at 1m restriction but added a true thrill support ride. That makes sense as it isn't the focus of marketing and guests reason for attendance but opens the door further supporting thrill before a headline thrill joins the line up with a legitimate proposition to the thrill market across the park.

This, as a headline, stands too far alone.
 
One thing we aren’t privy to of course is the guest feedback/ research that will have been undertaken.

Perhaps there is a clear desire amongst Chessington guests for a more thrilling ride for older members of the family which this coaster will aim to fulfil. It will be their only inverting ride and fills the gap that RR left in terms of higher thrills.

Yes this market could be met at Thorpe Park, but let’s face it, the clientele and atmosphere is very different and many families don’t want that.
 
TheAverageNerd said:
Regarding the Thorpe Project, I’m not sworn to secrecy or anything but it’s detailed information that I definitely shouldn’t have been told and I don’t think it’s fair to the creatives and everyone else working on the project to have it leaked 3 years before it’s set to open. However, I was with a group of enthusiasts when we were told, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it does start to circulate soon, it just won’t be because of myself. I will say that I think that it’s a fantastic fit for the park and it’s not what I expected at all.

Moving back on topic, Merlin has actually started to irritate me slightly with their hyper-fixation on one big theming element (usually a stone animal or tree-man). When wicker man first opened, it was a pretty unique theme. However, in the same year we got Tiger Rock (big stone animal), the year after we got Colossus (big tree-man), then we got Croc Drop (big stone animal) and correct me if i’m mistaken but this project is due to have a large stone animal too? I feel as though it’s watering down the unique aspects of their previously installed rides and making the parks feel a bit same-y.


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Question re Thorpe
Year of opening?
Wood or steel?
Launch or lift
 
Jb85 said:
Question re Thorpe
Year of opening?
Wood or steel?
Launch or lift
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If you want to know this stuff, maybe message @TheAverageNerd privately? He might be reluctant to reveal it publicly.

I think he did hint at the year of opening by saying:
to have it leaked 3 years before it’s due to open
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however, so I think I can infer that whatever it is, it’s due for 2024.
 
So after coming back from Chessington with my family, i can say its a nice park, however the comparisons on this park against Paultons is none existant. Paultons caters for children of 1m + on most of their thrill rides where the rides here (apart from perhaps Vampire) arent up to the thrill a 1.16 meter child who is 6 wants.

Nice park but you either have to go around the rides which are over 0.9 or to get wet (log flume she wasnt tall enough but was at Paultons) go on river rafts which is lame for a 6 year old. Its like they built the park then thought oh lets compete with Paultons and forgot children need to be able to access most things if with an adult.
 
They raised the minimum height of Dragon/Tiger Falls/Rock a few years back. I was there on opening that year and let me tell you it was not a fun experience for the staff there.
 
Benzin said:
They raised the minimum height of Dragon/Tiger Falls/Rock a few years back. I was there on opening that year and let me tell you it was not a fun experience for the staff there.
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Think its been raised more than once in the past decade …..
 
Rob F said:
Think its been raised more than once in the past decade …..
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It went up from 0.9m to 1.1m if I recall correctly. No idea what it is currently mind as not been in years.

Pretty sure it's the only time it was changed. And it changed at same time as the other Merlin flumes bar Legoland.
 
A friend of mine is at Chessy today and had a funny experience this morning. Just before 10 they entered the queue for Dragon's fury with other groups as the gate was open, but were told by staff that they shouldn't have entered the queue line til 10. :tearsofjoy:
Why was the gate open then. :p:confused:
 
I have a question; many of you seem to say (or at least imply) that Chessington is a very troubled park with a number of problems that need fixing, so in your opinion, what are Chessington's main issues, how would you go about fixing them if you were in charge, and do you think the 2023 coaster/land will go any way towards solving them?

I ask this as someone who hasn't been to Chessington since 2014, so I don't have the most up-to-date viewpoint on the park.
 
Chessington would be fine if it wasn't a Merlin park or near London, they've just never added rides that can cope with the number of guests they get which results in absurd queues. Most of the major rides have a capacity similar to the rides at Paultons but as that gets far fewer guests and doesn't have fastrack queues are much less of a problem there.

The new area will add capacity but not a lot of it - I'd like to see them get something like a Vekoma mine train that will be both incredibly popular with the target market and have enormous capacity. They're not big enough to need massive capacity on every ride but currently they don't really have anything that can soak up a crowd, with the possible exception of Gruffalo.
 
Matt N said:
I have a question; many of you seem to say (or at least imply) that Chessington is a very troubled park with a number of problems that need fixing, so in your opinion, what are Chessington's main issues, how would you go about fixing them if you were in charge, and do you think the 2023 coaster/land will go any way towards solving them?

I ask this as someone who hasn't been to Chessington since 2014, so I don't have the most up-to-date viewpoint on the park.
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Capacity ,as said, is a huge problem. Multiple things needed to fix it; general operations, fastrack allocation levels reduced and removed on rides that clearly can't cope, RAP control. But the big one is the potential of the new build and the plans don't solve it, 1000pph should be a minimum for a big new attraction, this falls woefully short.

Attraction range. The park has gone from a family park to a children's park. With the loss of things like Rodeo, Samurai, Rameses, and even Bubbleworks, with the addition of Gruffalo, The Rainforrest rides. Subtle individually but add up to quite a change. The plans don't really fix this with a lone 1.4m thrill without support of any other thrill in the whole park.

Presentation. There is no care. Rides like Tomb Blaster, Zufari and Rattlesnake an absolute state because of lack of upkeep. Rides like Scorpion and Dragon Falls an absolute state because of referbs that made things substantially worse than they were before. Areas that are just tatty, picnic area by entrance to not Transylvania is so grim, grubby, mismatch of seating thrown in, a couple of old sheds from some old event or another looking pretty dilapidated, one with a window blocked out using an upside old Chessington sign. The backstage area around Tiny Truckers which is clearly visible from Fury which goes straight over it and is full of old crap like broken signs. Some of these things need big spends, some have had big spends so are a bit of a lost cause, some just need a small bit of effort and care.
 
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