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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Skyscraper said:
Having ridden both, I would say that it is. MM is more fun, unique and less bouncy. The dip before backwards spike takes you by suprise too.
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I always feel that Swarm is massively underrated, for me it’s the second best coaster in the UK (well currently the UK best this season given that there’s no Nemesis).

I’ll be trying Mandrill Mayhem next week for myself so I’ll be able to form an opinion of it properly then but I just can’t see it being a better coaster than Swarm, even though of course “better” is a very subjective thing. I just don’t see any elements on it that look that exciting apart from the inversion and probably the launch forwards through the station.
 
Shaggy_Dog_ said:
I always feel that Swarm is massively underrated, for me it’s the second best coaster in the UK (well currently the UK best this season given that there’s no Nemesis).

I’ll be trying Mandrill Mayhem next week for myself so I’ll be able to form an opinion of it properly then but I just can’t see it being a better coaster than Swarm, even though of course “better” is a very subjective thing. I just don’t see any elements on it that look that exciting apart from the inversion and probably the launch forwards through the station.
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Let us know what you think! Everyone has a different opinion. 🙂
I probably would have enjoyed Swarm more if I'd been on an inside seat.
 
Mandrill Mayhem is a fantastic addition to the park. Surprisingly forceful for a family/thrill, well themed, and it seems to tell a bit of a story! There is also some really nice detailing around the land. The flat rides are thrilling as well as fun, Mamba Strike especially, I had some surprising ejector on it, did not expect that for a Miami of its size.

Aside from Jumanji, a few things stood out to us, and not for the right reasons. 292 people per hour in the hour that we rode Dragon's Fury, which was operating with about four cars. Ride reliability was very spotty throughout the day, particularly on the coaster and Croc Drop front. I am pretty concerned about the state of the park when come this weekend thousands more people will be in attendance for World of Jumanji.
 
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Funcone said:
A few points to make on this. Firstly, in terms of vegan food, I understand the challenges. If an outlet only sells one vegan option, you want it to be something inoffensive with broad appeal. The vegan option often has the lowest sales, so things like food wastage are more of an issue. I also understand that at somewhere like Chessington there are big peak and troughs in demand, and if food preparation is too complicated you end up with long queues. But this vegan hotdog does sound a bit bland. There’s certainly more exciting vegan food out there.
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Assuming you are just referencing the Jumanji kiosk food all three options are bland, meat leg, meat sausage or vegan sausage. I don’t see how you can complain vegan sausage is a more bland option than pork sausage?
 
"Haven't ridden it so can't judge" disclaimer, blah blah blah. But even the official POV doesn't sell it for me. The POV starts just as it's launching forwards back through the station, which seems to be the best bit of the layout until the end of the inversion. After that, nothing seems to happen. It just seems to trundle along, circling the area and the Jaguar shrine for the hell of it. Then does it backwards. That's it. For those that have ridden it, may I ask what I'm missing? How does all this feel on ride?

I'm sure it's perfectly enjoyable, but judging by its freshly built extended cattlepen queue - and early comments on how it can be abused, I have no faith in this "virtual queue" stuff. Just seems like a last minute smoke and mirror measure/experiment because they've actually built a pathetically low throughput machine for seemingly no reason whatsoever. If it's struggling to handle 500pph, then in a 7 hour day that's only 3500 guests. If we pretend that only 1 parent with 1 child will ride at a time then that's just 1750 parties. Probably closer to around 1200 families per day (between 2 to 5 people).

No degree of virtual queue will hide the fact that a coaster designed to actually increase park patronage (or if you believe the ludicrous view of Chessington Buzz, provide "extra capacity") just can't handle the crowds, no matter how good it may or may not be. I just don't get why they've done it? What is the logic on spending all that money? If more people decide to visit to ride your expensive new creation and you don't have the extra capacity to let them do so, why did you build it? From such a pricey manufacturer with a higher than usual Merlin theming budget to boot? If the high blue sky bench mark is the woeful way Vampire is operated these days then Merlin really are in trouble with this place.
 
Is it frowned upon these days for solo parents trying to manage height difference children, to have a child come through the queue but wait at the ride exit? 😂 Genuine question! It's the first time I'm attending a park with bigger rides when there is a HUGE restriction gap between the boys (eldest is well over 1.4m and youngest is only just 1m due to his condition). It was accepted when I worked for the company but that was back in't olden days 🤣😅
 
BooMT said:
Is it frowned upon these days for solo parents trying to manage height difference children, to have a child come through the queue but wait at the ride exit? Genuine question! It's the first time I'm attending a park with bigger rides when there is a HUGE restriction gap between the boys (eldest is well over 1.4m and youngest is only just 1m due to his condition). It was accepted when I worked for the company but that was back in't olden days
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I always just say to my kids let’s queue up together but when we get to the station and it’s our turn we’ll just explain to the host that one of them isn’t riding. Never had a problem with this at any park I’ve visited, they always just say to the child to wait behind the exit barrier.
 
jon81uk said:
Assuming you are just referencing the Jumanji kiosk food all three options are bland, meat leg, meat sausage or vegan sausage. I don’t see how you can complain vegan sausage is a more bland option than pork sausage?
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I just feel like us vegans deserve a bit better.

Nah, but seriously, fair point.
 
Can only speak from my experience at Alton Towers but nobody under the minimum height is allowed in the queue, even if they don't intend to ride. However if there's no entrance host then what can they do...
 
Got on Mandrill Mayhem today for the first time, did 4 rides. 2 front row rides and back row ride, and 2nd row. It is the best coaster at the park easily, felt forceful at points and does feel like a big proper coaster, felt like a mini swarm and like stealth with the launches haha. will be fantastic for kids first thrill ride, can't wait to take my kids on it in 2 weeks.

Other remarks on the park, vampire was awful. Waited over a hour and it wasn't a long queue at all, the worst I seen it all season and there was no queues for RAP or fast pass that I could see. They need that 2nd train back. Loads of staff in the station but seem like they didn't know what they were doing or didn't care. They were not rushing.
 
Robinsonhtid said:
Other remarks on the park, vampire was awful. Waited over a hour and it wasn't a long queue at all, the worst I seen it all season and there was no queues for RAP or fast pass that I could see. They need that 2nd train back. Loads of staff in the station but seem like they didn't know what they were doing or didn't care. They were not rushing.
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Was there a batcher on Vampire? On Sunday there wasn't and the staff member behind the gate line at the front dispatch acknowledge zone had to shout row numbers across. Was incredibly hard to hear him. Because of that the gates opening before the bays were filled, although that was also the case on Tomb Blaster.
 
There was, at points 2 but they were talking and taking there time. Filled half the rows then waited for the Back half to fill after the train had came back, was very strange. There was just no speed to any of it. Lucky I'm a passholder so I was in no rush.

Guys behind me were annoyed they waited a hour when times said 25mins and then they saw the poor ops.
 
Quite shocked that Mandrill Mayhem has been open 3 days and a portion of the ride area fence was improperly installed causing half of the fence to not be secured to the post and could easily be pulled away. The ride was stopped for about 25 minutes with every manager, security and engineer surrounding the ride. The fence was not even bolted to the post and could not have been as there wasn’t enough excess for it to be so. They ended up deciding to run the ride with a security guy stood next the fence and then shortly after maintenance had put what appeared to be metal heavy duty zip ties on to keep the fence secure. They did deal with the situation quite promptly however and reopened the ride to those waiting with their slots. It is an awesome ride that has to be experienced on every row possible, we managed 9 rides today! 😊
 
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isitimchip said:
Quite shocked that Mandrill Mayhem has been open 3 days and a portion of the ride area fence was improperly installed causing half of the fence to not be secured to the post and could easily be pulled away. The ride was stopped for about 25 minutes with every manager, security and engineer surrounding the ride. The fence was not even bolted to the post and could not have been as there wasn’t enough excess for it to be so. They ended up deciding to run the ride with a security guy stood next the fence and then shortly after maintenance had put what appeared to be metal heavy duty zip ties on to keep the fence secure. They did deal with the situation quite promptly however and reopened the ride to those waiting with their slots. It is an awesome ride that has to be experienced on every row possible, we managed 9 rides today! 😊
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There was this guy that was on his 48th ride. Honestly, some of you guys are crazy lol. Did you ride anything else?
 
Danscott22 said:
Ostrich Stampede is closed all day.
Buy cheap product, get cheap outcome, I guess.
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The slams on SBF are insightful and all (no, really :rolleyes:) but think about it for a minute ...

The park had such a terrible experience with Croc Drop in terms of the purchase, installation, operation and maintenance of it, that they decided to add to their burden and bought two more units from them .... stuff happens, stuff breaks - that's true of all manufacturers.
 
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