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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Rob F said:
Yes, but for when ? At the moment its a massive issue, if it takes 2-3 years for a replacement then so be but what about the kids that are now missing out, by the time a replacement would open they would be tall enough for the vampire which would likely just fully close due to end of life. Etc
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Junior coasters don't take long at all to build; Octonauts started construction in December or January 2014, and it opened as a fairly well themed kiddie coaster in March 2015!

I'm not sure how GDO rights work at Chessington, or if they have them, but they might not even need planning permission for such an installation...
 
Rob F said:
How cant compare the 2 though a runaway mine train vs a 10second toddler coaster?
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They're not that different in scale; both have a 0.9m height restriction, and neither is an especially tall or expansive ride. Both have comfortably under 1,000ft of track.
 
Rob F said:
Yes, but for when ? At the moment its a massive issue, if it takes 2-3 years for a replacement then so be but what about the kids that are now missing out, by the time a replacement would open they would be tall enough for the vampire which would likely just fully close due to end of life. Etc
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New for 2023, the Chessington Retrosquad featuring a single Wacky Worm on the site of Scorpion Express.
 
Does anyone else think that Chessington's starting to feel a bit like Disney? At Disney some of the queue's hardly move until the Lighting Lane merges in.
 
Disney have high capacity rides but allocate up to 75% of the capacity to fastpass/LL.

Chessington have low capacity rides and allocate up to 75% of the capacity to empty seats. Then half of what's left to FT/RAP. From speaking to some TS members who visited recently, the Fury queue can go more than 10 minutes without moving AT ALL due to a combination of poor operations and hosts juggling between 3 queues.
 
John said:
Then half of what's left to FT/RAP. From speaking to some TS members who visited recently, the Fury queue can go more than 10 minutes without moving AT ALL due to a combination of poor operations and hosts juggling between 3 queues.
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Actually, it's 15 percent for Fastrack. The number of RAP users varies depending on how large a RAP queue line is.
 
Exactly - the park might set FT at 15% of nominal capacity but if Fury is loading an average of 2.?? per car (or 1.?? as was the case for the aforementioned recent TS group) it's not getting through 700 people an hour. You've also got non-controlled forms of priority access (the TS group had priority passes for Fury due to a prior breakdown elsewhere). When merge hosts are faced with multiple long queues the theoretical ratios often go out the door.

Going back to the Disney example, a problem I often saw was that after downtime they'd have many hundreds of people trying to use FP at the same time, resulting in FP queues stretching way out the entrance and a standby line that pretty much wasn't moving as a result.
 
John said:
Going back to the Disney example, a problem I often saw was that after downtime they'd have many hundreds of people trying to use FP at the same time, resulting in FP queues stretching way out the entrance and a standby line that pretty much wasn't moving as a result.
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We experienced this first-hand last month. After Rise was down for most of the day, we joined the queue when it reopened in the evening, and with all the Lightning Lane guests joining then too, it took us twice as long to get to the front of the queue from the same point earlier in the trip. I believe (and I’m sure someone could back me up or correct me here), but in this worst case scenario, Disney’s ratios go to 20 LL groups to 1 main queue group, completely screwing over the standby line.
 
Disney runs on ratios in three phases, the phase level depending on demand (basically, how long the Lightning Lane is/is expected to become in the imminent future).

The numbers may have been tweaked since the Genie+ changes, but that’s not my understanding.

Phase 1
For every 4 standby guests you admit up to 16 Lightning Lane.

Phase 2
Depending how critical the situation is becoming, for every 4 standby guests, admit up to 56 LLs, though it can be lower (mid-20s I believe).

Phase 3
For every 4 standby guests, admit up to 40 LLs.

As I understand, Phase 2 is intended to try and quickly flush the Lightning Lane and restore normal Phase 1 operation. Phase 3 is for more sustained crowds that are unlikely to reduce down, which is why Phase 2 can actually be more demanding if it needs to be. Cause a bigger disruption but for a shorter period of time to get back to normal quickly, and avoid a long-term Phase 3.

However, it’s also important to note that Genie is intended to prevent sudden surges by spreading out the return times and limiting the number of people joining LL at any one time. This means under normal operation you shouldn’t really see queues forming at LL. As a result, standby will flow freely until someone comes down the Lightning Lane. That group will be admitted and normal flow will return. So while Phase 1 can allow up to 12 LL to 4 standby, in reality you might see the inverse, where standby is feeding the majority of guests. You don’t block the standby line and wait for another 6 LL guests to come along.

We recently used LL on Slinky Dog Dash, a ride that’s famous for selling out in seconds. We were the only people using the lane when our return time came up, so aside from us 3 slotting in, standby was using the full capacity of the ride at that point. It’s only usually when there’s downtime and untimed recovery passes are issued that you start to see lines building up. That’s when the phases step up to try and clear the backlog.

The merge phases are also monitored and controlled on the majority of Disney rides, with the screens at merge able to tell cast what phase they should be running at and tracking numbers. There’s always going to be a human element with staff discretion, but as a system it’s far more regimented. As others have said, at Chessie there’s a huge demand coupled with low throughput and the complaints at merge. It’s not surprising that staff may panic and try to run down a line that is constantly growing. Chessington seems to run in a constant Phase 2/3 state for many of its rides.

You can only really run a fastrack system well if you have strict controls at every point of the journey (from point of sale/issue, to sitting down on the ride). I’m not saying Disney is perfect, far from it. As a standby guest, phase 2 and 3 can be frustrating. But they have far more control over their system than Chessington.
 
Rick said:
It feels like it's anything but scientific.

My own experience would suggest that when the FT line gets longer, hosts generally get twitchy in fear of having to deal with annoyed guests and change up the ratio to clear the line.
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Sounds familiar.

"I've paid money to beat the queue!"

So have the other 50 groups in front of you.

Still have vivid memories of the utter mess of the Summer they let MAP holders use Fastrack for the final hour. Maybe that was the start of the self-entitlement that seemed to flow through those FB groups?
 
Matt N said:
If it is being removed, then it would appear that I owe @Prof Burp an apology... over on TPM, they've been banging that drum for months, perhaps even years, but I myself genuinely thought it was likely to return. I sincerely apologise for not giving your idea more consideration.
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Not really a due apology though is it? Prophesing that a (then) 32 year old ride was closing at the beginning of this season (which it didn't) stating it as a forgone conclusion at the time when it closing next season isn't even definite yet. He also made up a load of other stuff that was dictated to all of us relentlessly.
 
I think Disney and Chessington are both getting really swamped with the number of people using the disabled policy. At Disney you don’t have to show any proof of a disability. You just go to guest services and say you’re unable to queue, and you get enrolled onto a free virtual queuing system. I know quite a few people without a disability who are using it. It’s hard to know what percentage of the people using the Lightning Line have a Lightning Lane pass, what percentage have Genie+, and what percentage have a disability pass. The point about things backing up when a ride’s been down is also a good one. I know the debate about Ride Access Passes has its own topic and has well discussed already. Obviously my original post was a bit tongue in cheek (I was standing in the Ratouille line at the time).

It’s interesting that Disney’s operations are pretty much back to ‘normal’ now, but on Trip Advisor they’re still getting quite a few negative reviews. Not as many as Chessington, but it’s heading in that direction.
 
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