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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Sorry Matt, but you forgot the bold tldr...again.
No apology required, leg pulling again.
You can knock out an essay though mate.
 
I wonder how much it has cost them in time, staff costs and lost capacity having to crane trains off every time maintenance is required since 2004.

Probably could have built that maintenance shed 3 times over. At least it’s finally happening.
 
RyanUK said:
Beginning to think we have a secret Merlin employee on this forum with all these figures. 😏


Yes I know that but John went to see the Arrow prototype. He made a separate trip a few years later during the planning for Nemesis. Transylvania only really properly came about because of this new coaster - had a suspended coaster not been put in, it’s likely Transylvania could’ve been something completely different and we might not have even had the Bubbleworks!
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What do you mean he went to Arrow during the planning for Nemesis?

He would of course visited Arrow to see the pipeline coaster plans in the late 80s or early 90s that would have been SW1/SW2.
But the first Arrow suspended coaster opened in 1981 and Vampire in 1990. It was little to do with Nemesis/SW3 as Tussauds didn’t acquire Alton Towers until 1992. Also the new B&M was revolutionary as it inverted, Arrow wasn’t doing that.

I do agree that the Transylvania theme is dependent on Vampire opening but it has no connection with AT. In the 80s Chessington got JWs attention.
 
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Matt N said:
I do think there’s something in this.

In 2008, park attendance rose by 29% (~968,750 in 2007 to ~1,250,000 in 2008, as per Merlin’s attendance graph) despite the lack of a major new addition.

Merlin gained control of the parks in summer 2007, and 2008 was their first “proper” year in control of the parks where products like the Merlin Annual Pass properly entered the public conscious.

With all of this in mind, I’d wager that the MAP was at very least a significant contributing factor to Chessington’s rise in attendance in the late 2000s and 2010s.

However, I don’t think it tells the whole story, nor do I think it explains why Chessington struggles so much with queues nowadays. The park maintained a peak attendance level of around 1.8 million between 1995 and 1998 (a level that has never been hit since, even under Merlin), and anecdotes from the 1990s suggest that the park never suffered with long queues quite like it does now.

From what I’ve heard, I feel that the issue can be blamed more on throughputs for major attractions dropping due to H&S requirements, although the guest figures rising again in recent years certainly won’t have helped.
EDIT: Sorry, I wrote this post before your most recent reply…
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The Annual Pass pre-dates Merlin, being the Tussauds Annual Pass with Chessington, Thorpe, Alton, Warwick, London Eye & Madame Tussaud’s so don’t think that will be a big factor in a jump of visitors that year.

They were practically being given away being only £20 in Tesco Clubcard vouchers for a number of years! Was an amazing deal.
 
Johnny Rocket said:
The Annual Pass pre-dates Merlin, being the Tussauds Annual Pass with Chessington, Thorpe, Alton, Warwick, London Eye & Madame Tussaud’s so don’t think that will be a big factor in a jump of visitors that year.

They were practically being given away being only £20 in Tesco Clubcard vouchers for a number of years! Was an amazing deal.
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I think Matt’s point was that although Tussauds introduced the pass it was Merlin who ramped up the marketing to offer guests to upgrade for only £X today! As you say there was a period of passes almost being given away.
So Tussauds started the issue but Merlin made the volume of passholders.
 
jon81uk said:
What do you mean he went to Arrow during the planning for Nemesis?

He would of course visited Arrow to see the pipeline coaster plans in the late 80s or early 90s that would have been SW1/SW2.
But the first Arrow suspended coaster opened in 1981 and Vampire in 1990. It was little to do with Nemesis/SW3 as Tussauds didn’t acquire Alton Towers until 1992. Also the new B&M was revolutionary as it inverted, Arrow wasn’t doing that.

I do agree that the Transylvania theme is dependent on Vampire opening but it has no connection with AT. In the 80s Chessington got JWs attention.
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What I meant was John made a few trips across the pond to America - not just for Nemesis but other projects. Maybe I should’ve explained that better. 🤓
 
Johnny Rocket said:
The Annual Pass pre-dates Merlin, being the Tussauds Annual Pass with Chessington, Thorpe, Alton, Warwick, London Eye & Madame Tussaud’s so don’t think that will be a big factor in a jump of visitors that year.

They were practically being given away being only £20 in Tesco Clubcard vouchers for a number of years! Was an amazing deal.
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Take up wasn't great at the start, when the cheaper passes came in, but slowly word went round mumsnet and facebook groups, and every family got one, and off peak quiet days went out the window, and every off peak weekend got a lot busier.
Scrap all season passes, scrap all cheap fasttrack, watch the queues fall by fifty percent overnight.
 
You need to factor in LEGOLAND and the Sea Life's as well.
Although these didn't add much value to enthusiasts using the passes for you average family these additions were a major selling point.
The Sea Life's are in enough places that it gave most people a local attraction they could visit frequently. And if you have younger kids LEGOLAND was complimentary to Chessington. Before Chessington was the only attraction in the pass aimed at younger family members.
 
I have been thinking about Hocus Pocus Hall recently.
It's really disappointing that it left the park, as it was a quirky experience that Merlin wouldn't dare to introduce today, and it was replaced by a far inferior experience in Room on the Broom.
Shame I didn't appreciate it while it was there.
 
I have to ask, is there any way to keep track of the auctions that Chessington do? Because before that they only announced it one day before it happened
 
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