Chessington World of Adventures Resort

[dave___]

Just looked on reserve and ride and the wait time is currently listed as 54 minutes if I try and book a ticket for the new ride.

I thought it would be currently sold out despite it being a weekday Monday. Next weekend ill be the big text I guess.

 

[George W]

Park looks very quiet according to the app, thought with it being the first day of it properly open would atleast be semi busy, we'll have to see on the weekend.

 

[mynameduck361]

Just looking at the reserve app at home and you can press reserve on mandrill mayhem multiple times for multiple reservations..

 

[lee2804]

Im really glad it seems alot of ppl have enjoyed the ride.

After thinking over my initial thoughts maybe cause im a fairly tall above average body weight guy this has hampered me in the enjoyment.

I have to say 1 thing i didnt mention previously you are able to get some very good pics.

 

[Matt N]

From the same people who think £13.50 is good value for a hot dog.

The same people/person who considered a suitcase sat on plain grey tarmac to be heavy theming then?

Out of interest, what would their perception of hot dog value or their taste in theming have to do with their authority as a source for rumours? I’m not asking that to be confrontational, and I apologise if it comes across that way. I’m genuinely interested to know.

Take what they say with as much salt as you like, but I personally feel that Chessington Buzz is a source that can be trusted based on their previous record of successfully leaking future developments at Chessington and other Merlin parks. I get that a lot of things are said on the internet, I get that “a stopped clock is right twice a day” and all that, but from my perspective, Chessington Buzz has been right about far too much, and about some pretty specific details in some cases, for me not to trust what they say.

Back to a more topical note, I’m glad that Mandrill Mayhem has been generally well received!

 

[dave___]

Im really glad it seems alot of ppl have enjoyed the ride.

After thinking over my initial thoughts maybe cause im a fairly tall above average body weight guy this has hampered me in the enjoyment.

I have to say 1 thing i didnt mention previously you are able to get some very good pics.

My kids are the prime market for this. Just big enough to go on the 1.2m rides at eg Alton Towers but not quite big enough for the "big" ones yet. It will be a good introduction to a launch and inversion for a lot of children.

 

[Rob]

Out of interest, what would their perception of hot dog value or their taste in theming have to do with their authority as a source for rumours? I’m not asking that to be confrontational, and I apologise if it comes across that way. I’m genuinely interested to know.

Take what they say with as much salt as you like, but I personally feel that Chessington Buzz is a source that can be trusted based on their previous record of successfully leaking future developments at Chessington and other Merlin parks. I get that a lot of things are said on the internet, I get that “a stopped clock is right twice a day” and all that, but from my perspective, Chessington Buzz has been right about far too much, and about some pretty specific details in some cases, for me not to trust what they say.

Back to a more topical note, I’m glad that Mandrill Mayhem has been generally well received!

I have no doubts they know their stuff; they either get leaks from a reliable source or have connections with park management and are told what to release. And if there is another major coaster in the pipeline, then that's great news! I just hope it is one that has a capacity of over 1000pph.

 

[lee2804]

My kids are the prime market for this. Just big enough to go on the 1.2m rides at eg Alton Towers but not quite big enough for the "big" ones yet. It will be a good introduction to a launch and inversion for a lot of children.

It was alot more intense than i expected tbh. I think it def sits above wickerman for intensity

 

[dave___]

It was alot more intense than i expected tbh. I think it def sits above wickerman for intensity

My basic college physics ability wants to say that there's not going to be a whole lot of difference between a linear launch to 45mph on Mandrill Mayhem as opposed to the 60mph on Rita which would make sense for the intensity.

I'd be interested to see some feedback from younger guests in due course too to see how they fare.

 

[Rick]

@Skyscraper glad that you won and glad that you had a great time !

The air gate problem is a bit weird. Vekoma fixed it 20+ years ago with Déjà Vu.

 

[lee2804]

My basic college physics ability wants to say that there's not going to be a whole lot of difference between a linear launch to 45mph on Mandrill Mayhem as opposed to the 60mph on Rita which would make sense for the intensity.

I'd be interested to see some feedback from younger guests in due course too to see how they fare.

On the launch i feel theres a bigger distance between the 2 on launches. The sudden push back into your seat and that feeling in your stomach as you launch on Rita doesnt happen on MM. But then i do think the rolling launch is alot more enjoyable on MM.

The ride is 2/3s a good ride especially the further back you are on the train.

 

[Benzin]

Love the claim that having a thrill coaster would stop the family park claim.

At the park which used to have a host of 1.4m thrill flats once upon a time.

Then again some goons these days weren't even born when Samurai was at Chessie. Good way too feel old.

Anyway any good family park caters for all elements. From kids to adults. 90s Chessie definitely used to do that well, so makes sense that the current crop who no doubt grew up on it are aiming for that.

Depends how the planning authority deal with any big additions. Wouldn't be the first big plan that's fallen through.

 

[Dave]

Love the claim that having a thrill coaster would stop the family park claim.

At the park which used to have a host of 1.4m thrill flats once upon a time.

Then again some goons these days weren't even born when Samurai was at Chessie. Good way too feel old.

Anyway any good family park caters for all elements. From kids to adults. 90s Chessie definitely used to do that well, so makes sense that the current crop who no doubt grew up on it are aiming for that.

Depends how the planning authority deal with any big additions. Wouldn't be the first big plan that's fallen through.

No reason it couldn’t be a replacement of something else.

You could get a decent sized indoor coaster in the tomb blaster building.

 

[Matt N]

Another thrill coaster would be an exciting step for Chessington.

My only concern with Chessington building more thrilling rides would be; where does that leave Thorpe Park?

The main reason that Chessington stopped building thrill rides in the first place was because Tussauds acquired Thorpe Park and they didn’t want the two parks to tread on each other’s toes. With Thorpe Park having far more lax planning regulations, it made sense for Thorpe to be more of a thrill park and Chessington to be more of a family park.

If Chessington starts building more thrilling rides again, wouldn’t that mean that they would be infringing on Thorpe Park’s turf a bit? Wouldn’t the two parks targeting the same demographic risk one of the two parks eventually being cannibalised by the other?

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

Question about the virtual queue slots for Mandrill Mayhem. I haven’t been to Chessington for many years and I had been assuming that the virtual queue would work in a similar way to how they do it at say Liseberg whereby you just use the main park app to book a slot.

But am I correct in saying that at Chessington you can’t access the virtual queue from the app, you have to book on a separate Reserve And Ride website? And also that that anybody can book up a slot regardless of whether or not they are at the park or sat at home halfway around the world? Given the poor throughout on the ride and the limited amount of slots compared to the amount of guests at the park then that sounds like an absolutely insane system. They should have used a system like at Energylandia whereby you physically scan your entry ticket at ride entrance to book your one slot for the day.

 

[AT86]

My only concern with Chessington building more thrilling rides would be; where does that leave Thorpe Park?

The main reason that Chessington stopped having thrill rides in the first place was because Tussauds acquired Thorpe Park and they didn’t want the two parks to tread on each other’s toes. With Thorpe Park having far more lax planning regulations, it made sense for Thorpe to be more of a thrill park and Chessington to be more of a family park.

If Chessington starts building more thrilling rides again, wouldn’t that mean that they would be infringing on Thorpe Park’s turf a bit? Wouldn’t the two parks targeting the same demographic risk one of the two parks eventually being cannibalised by the other?

This is the strong argument for why Merlin (and previously Tussauds) shouldn’t be able to own two parks so close, it stifles competition, but that’s a whole other discussion.

To your point - there isn’t an arbitrary age where someone would suddenly stop going to Chessington and switch to Thorpe Park. They want to cater to the whole family with different age ranges, as part of this there needs to be something for everyone, including a thrill ride or two for older guests.

 

[Alix]

Question about the virtual queue slots for Mandrill Mayhem. I haven’t been to Chessington for many years and I had been assuming that the virtual queue would work in a similar way to how they do it at say Liseberg whereby you just use the main park app to book a slot.

But am I correct in saying that at Chessington you can’t access the virtual queue from the app, you have to book on a separate Reserve And Ride website? And also that that anybody can book up a slot regardless of whether or not they are at the park or sat at home halfway around the world? Given the poor throughout on the ride and the limited amount of slots compared to the amount of guests at the park then that sounds like an absolutely insane system. They should have used a system like at Energylandia whereby you physically scan your entry ticket at ride entrance to book your one slot for the day.

I’ve had a play with this this morning - you scroll down on the “explore” tab of the chessington app and tap on Mandrill Mayhem. You then have to log in (or set up a log in) then you have access to all the reserve and rides. MM was fully booked when I looked so I don’t know what happens next - however I did all this from home which is no where near Chessington. TPW said they would give dull tutorial today as they’re visiting as general punters rather than VIP so that might be worth watching.
It looks possible that it’s open to abuse.

 

[mynameduck361]

Offical pov of mandrill mayhem

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

I’ve had a play with this this morning - you scroll down on the “explore” tab of the chessington app and tap on Mandrill Mayhem. You then have to log in (or set up a log in) then you have access to all the reserve and rides. MM was fully booked when I looked so I don’t know what happens next - however I did all this from home which is no where near Chessington. TPW said they would give dull tutorial today as they’re visiting as general punters rather than VIP so that might be worth watching.
It looks possible that it’s open to abuse.

Yeah, definitely looks open to abuse or even accidental misuse. I was just playing around to see how the booking works (as I’m visiting next week) and accidentally booked a slot for today even though I’m sat here 300 miles away from the park. Obviously I clicked to cancel it afterwards.

 

[Matt N]

This is the strong argument for why Merlin (and previously Tussauds) shouldn’t be able to own two parks so close, it stifles competition, but that’s a whole other discussion.

To your point - there isn’t an arbitrary age where someone would suddenly stop going to Chessington and switch to Thorpe Park. They want to cater to the whole family with different age ranges, as part of this there needs to be something for everyone, including a thrill ride or two for older guests.

I do get this point, but if Chessington builds thrill rides and Thorpe builds family rides, might that eventually risk a situation where the two parks offer an overly similar product?

Previous examples where this has occurred among parks with a shared parent company within a shared locale have not gone too well. I would cite examples like Cedar Point/Geauga Lake and Silver Dollar City/Celebration City for reference.

If we’re looking at Chessington and Thorpe Park in isolation, then I would support the parks broadening their range of attractions. I do have concerns about what broadening too much could lead to in the context of the two being located very close to each other and owned by the same company, however.