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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Out of interest, what is it about these rooms that is generating such outrage compared to, say, the Cadbury and Coca-Cola rooms in the Alton Towers Hotel?

I’ve never heard anyone complain about the various branded themed rooms in the Alton Towers Hotel over the years, and they’ve had quite a few ever since the hotel’s inception in 1996; I believe they’ve had Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Imperial Leather, Tatty Teddy and Superdrug, amongst others. In fact, some of the ones like the Cadbury and Coca-Cola rooms often seem to be talked about quite positively, if anything.

What makes these ones different to those?
 
Matt N said:
Out of interest, what is it about these rooms that is generating such outrage compared to, say, the Cadbury and Coca-Cola rooms in the Alton Towers Hotel?

I’ve never heard anyone complain about the various branded themed rooms in the Alton Towers Hotel over the years, and they’ve had quite a few ever since the hotel’s inception in 1996; I believe they’ve had Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Imperial Leather, Tatty Teddy and Superdrug, amongst others. In fact, some of the ones like the Cadbury and Coca-Cola rooms often seem to be talked about quite positively, if anything.

What makes these ones different to those?
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Setting aside the fact the brands Chessington have chosen are quite 'low rent' (Capri-sun themed room, really?) the implementation is just so tacky.

A themed suite in a theme park hotel is never going to be the Sistine chapel, but the Chessington Oreo one just looks awful.

I am all for themed rooms, but make some effort. To me a picture speaks a thousands words.

Towers
chocolate room.jpg

Chessington
oero room.jpeg
 
Reb said:
I wish Chessington would focus on their own brand a bit more. I'm sure kids would beg to stay in a vampire room over an Oreo one.

I don't understand this insistent use of IP's to drive sales, especially when they come so out of left field... Like Capri sun? Is that really going to bring people into the park? It's seemingly as random as a bic ballpoint pen room...
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You mean to tell me you’ve never wanted to pay to sleep in a capri sun room?
 
I also think Cadbury and Coca-Cola are just generally much bigger and more loved brands that have been around for over a century. People love going to Cadbury World. Would an “Oreo World” at the same scale be as popular? Probably not. Maybe a shop on Oxford Street.

Same with Coca-Cola. You often see branded vintage style t-shirts, sweatshirts, prints, metal signs etc. I don’t think anyone’s buying a t-shirt with Capri Sun on it?! These brands just aren’t on the same level.
 
Zeock said:
Forbidden Kingdom is meant to be an area built in ca. 3000 BC, but viewed in the modern day. Those colours are too bright.
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My thoughts exactly. I've actually visited The Pyramids of Giza, and I've seen Sphinx in person, and all the colour on them has all washed away from exposure from the environment, the only stuff that still has the colour are the artifacts which all were inside the old ruins. Farmer did a great job creating a historically and timeline accurate look of the temple ruins in the modern day while still being a bit wacky with the skulls and waterfall, a nice touch I always liked. It looked really nice back in 1994.

Photos belong to Euro Theme Park Archive.20240113_164310.jpg20240113_164311.jpg20240113_164313.jpg20240113_164315.jpg
I just hope at least they jetwash the entire facade and the area. Its not looking the best with all the moss and grime covering it.
 
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Perhaps they have beat me into submission but the last thing i'm going to complain about is Merlin actually tidying and painting old rides. The "authentic" look in the 90s is definitely better but some bright colours on top isn't the end of the world.

This caused me to look up how old Tomb Blaster is. Apparently it opened in 2002 but 5th Dimension closed in 1993... so it was empty for almost 10 years? I always assumed Tomb Blaster operated on the same track and system and they just revamped everything else so why such a long gap?
 
Matt N said:
I’ve never heard anyone complain about the various branded themed rooms in the Alton Towers Hotel over the years, and they’ve had quite a few ever since the hotel’s inception in 1996
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I wish to lodge my complaint with you about the various branded themed rooms in the Alton Towers Hotel over the years. All of them. Every single awful corporate tie in. They're tacky and out of place and generally make my skin crawl, in the same way that Gregg's branded apparel make me want to rip out my eyes and stuff them into mediocre puff pastry, and serve them at a temperature hotter than the sun, to paying fools with bland taste buds and a lack of creative imagination.
 
Bowser said:
Ah that makes sense! So the 2002 rebranding was just adding the guns presumably?
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Outside of the Lack of guns and targets, there was actually quite a lot of change done to the ride. Originally when it was Terror Tomb, the ride had an antagonist, Abdab, a menacing tour guider that was out to steal the Jewel within the temple for himself, and he would try and stop the riders from getting there before him, with traps, spikes, snakes, etc, until he was taken by the Mummies in the Tomb. The final scene with the Cobra used to be drastically different, in there would be a Punk Pharo playing the 'Juke Box Jewel'. With him playing an electronic guitar that looked like a Scarab with some undead women singing along with him, condemning Abdad to be a slave forever under his control. The rider overall was a bit more sinister. The ride had its own music as well, done by Graham Smart, who previously worked on Nemesis, Toyland Tours, The Vampire, Bubbleworks, and The Haunted House.

If you want to see what it was like before it's 2002 change, I'll leave a POV of it below.


From: https://youtu.be/HJ5g2gcDABI?si=njeeq2TPPn2gFkKg
 
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I don’t care as Long as they do some work inside it. The set pieces are golden
 
As nice these little touchups and refreshes are, I can’t help but notice just how dirty and neglected the walls and structure elements look around the area. Whilst it is supposed to be a dark and mysterious area, the lack of attention there screams neglect.

Regrettably never got to experience Terror Tomb, but judging from POVS looked spectacular and something that wouldn’t look too out of place at somewhere like Europa Park & Efteling. Can say for all its fault the original version of Tomb Blaster is better than what we currently have here.
 
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