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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Based on what is happening with Mexicana it seems likely that the moment they receive planning permission construction will begin and by all accounts this will be one of the largest projects in the parks history.

There's even the potential that some rides will be relocated immediately. Appreciate that's not good news for Chessington visitors but it would be somewhat understandable for Merlin as a whole.

It's going to be a rough year for sure but if we have 2 brand new areas by 2027 that's quite the coup for a UK park.
 
I can’t see any reason why they couldn’t programme this to be constructed within 18 months, other than for cost reasons. Closing the area at the end of October and reopening in Spring of 2027 would give them that 18 months and allow the area to remain open this season.
 
I can’t see any reason why they couldn’t programme this to be constructed within 18 months, other than for cost reasons. Closing the area at the end of October and reopening in Spring of 2027 would give them that 18 months and allow the area to remain open this season.
It's likely to do with the construction of the ride building in the Minecraft area.
 
I can’t see any reason why they couldn’t programme this to be constructed within 18 months, other than for cost reasons. Closing the area at the end of October and reopening in Spring of 2027 would give them that 18 months and allow the area to remain open this season.
It's likely to do with the construction of the ride building in the Minecraft area.
You also will have to consider there is the commissioning of the rides as well, construction isn't getting the rides approved and running, construction is just building them, they also have to wire and plum it all together and then test the rides to ensure they all work.

also consider if additional AV equipment is needed (such as animatronics, screens, etc) all of those parts will need to be installed into the building after it is built, and then wired up into the rides, which they may not have considered in the estimated construction time
 
Agreed @Mick - it is exciting but it’s been needed for so long.

I wonder if this is part of Merlin wider plan. Get the most out of what we can then pump in £100m to see is through 10 years.

We’re seeing it at AT - albeit in a different guise with no real new hardware count.
 
You’d hope that Merlin will have built in a sizeable loss in visitor numbers and revenue for the next couple of years at Chessington, it’s exciting to see a park have such a substantial overhaul but that inevitably comes with short term pain.
Agreed @Mick - it is exciting but it’s been needed for so long.

I wonder if this is part of Merlin wider plan. Get the most out of what we can then pump in £100m to see is through 10 years.

We’re seeing it at AT - albeit in a different guise with no real new hardware count.
I think for the short term pain, there will be a long term gain.

I think there were some missteps in my opinion such as closing Wild Asia before Project Play opens, not planning in a Jumbos replacement for Project Play so the site can be used for relocations, using the old Jumbos site for a relocation instead of a Project Play queue line and not redeveloping Land of the Dragons first.

I'm hoping the Minecraft area will pay off when it opens but I worry it's classic Chessington capacity.
 
It is odd that Chessington always add low capacity rides. I can’t really think of anything they’ve added since the Wardley era (namely Vampire, Bubbleworks, Tiger Rock) that has a high throughput.
Weirdly enough Modern Vampire seems to be more in line with other modern Chessington rides in capacity if not worse. I've seen queues upwards of 70 minutes often.

It seems Mandrill Mayhem eats through the queues more efficiently than Modern Vampire and has the lowest queue times for a Chessington coaster.

The highest capacity ride seems to be Tiger Rock nowadays.

There's plenty of high capacity coasters that would perfectly suit Chessington that are not there. A Vekoma Mine Train would be the most ideal coaster in terms of capacity and family thrills.
 
Weirdly enough Modern Vampire seems to be more in line with other modern Chessington rides in capacity if not worse. I've seen queues upwards of 70 minutes often.

It seems Mandrill Mayhem eats through the queues more efficiently than Modern Vampire and has the lowest queue times for a Chessington coaster.

The highest capacity ride seems to be Tiger Rock nowadays.

There's plenty of high capacity coasters that would perfectly suit Chessington that are not there. A Vekoma Mine Train would be the most ideal coaster in terms of capacity and family thrills.

I think there are other variables at play that cause those queue times (namely reliability and 3 queues) but in terms of theoretical throughput i believe Vampire is around 1000pph.

Mandrill has shorter queues because of a higher height restriction and intimidation factor relative to the park demographic imo. I will never understand why they didn't build a 2 train circuit coaster like at Legoland Germany but i presume there was a reason (perhaps lack of space). I love the ride though and as you say, it's rarely a queue nightmare these days.

It will be interesting to see how the new rides pan out because on paper neither looks particularly high throughput from what we've seen but hopefully the overall addition of new attractions is beneficial to park capacity. I fully expect Minecraft to open with Virtual Queuing.
 
Dragon Falls has always been highest throughput.

Even 3 train Vampire only just hit 1100pph. 2 trains is about 600-700.

That was 18 years ago mind.
 
I think there are other variables at play that cause those queue times (namely reliability and 3 queues) but in terms of theoretical throughput i believe Vampire is around 1000pph.

Mandrill has shorter queues because of a higher height restriction and intimidation factor relative to the park demographic imo. I will never understand why they didn't build a 2 train circuit coaster like at Legoland Germany but i presume there was a reason (perhaps lack of space). I love the ride though and as you say, it's rarely a queue nightmare these days.

It will be interesting to see how the new rides pan out because on paper neither looks particularly high throughput from what we've seen but hopefully the overall addition of new attractions is beneficial to park capacity. I fully expect Minecraft to open with Virtual Queuing.
That is true and I'd say that the building isn't designed for multiple queues as the entrance for RAP is in Trail of the Kings.

I'm not sure why RAP or at the very least Ambulant RAP is not in the same queue as Reserve and Ride though.

Dragon Falls has always been highest throughput.

Even 3 train Vampire only just hit 1100pph. 2 trains is about 600-700.

That was 18 years ago mind.

At the same time, Vampire no longer runs a 3rd train and with the operations, it runs slower than in the 1990s which may explain the less efficient operations nowadays.

I wonder why Chessington didn't open a full circuit coaster for Mandrill but I think it's because they needed to do a full area and in addition wanted to be more experimental with it's coaster design (same with Hyperia for the latter).

I definitely think that Minecraft will at the very least be restricted in terms of Reserve and Ride and may have a virtual queue.
 
Chessington needs capacity, away from the rides even the public areas are very crowded. Minecraft land is not going to help as it will be a reduction in rides compared to wild Asia. I would also imagine the main coaster will probably have a low throughput. The only benefit will be containing a huge amount of guests in a queue line taking them away from other areas, whilst selling fast track tickets to boost profits.

The next 2 seasons are going to be horrendous with the closer areas. It will be interesting to see how big the cordon is as this could encroach on other parts of the park for access reducing public area space.
 
I'm not sure why RAP or at the very least Ambulant RAP is not in the same queue as Reserve and Ride though.

The existing RAP entrance is similarly inaccessible for non ambulant so wouldn’t make any difference beyond giving ambulant a wider choice of seating at the cost of a much longer queue. FT often extends well beyond the entrance so combining them would be a disaster.
 
The cynic in me would suggest that low capacity = greater sales of fast track.

And possibly more return visits... if you can't do everything you want in a day, you'll have to come back!
 
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