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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

My kids will be out of the target age range for this when it opens and after many years of being subjected to Paw Patrol I can't deny I am quite pleased however I do think this is quite a potentially good thing for the park, if they do it justice. Clearly a shot across the bows of Paultons in my eyes.

It's a really weird blend of IP they have now though with Elmer, Spinmaster, Mojang/Minecraft, Jumanji isn't it. Keeping their options wide open rather than focusing on one "provider" as such..
 
Towers4ever said:
CBeebies is great and the recent refresh has been good. Walliams needs to go. A waste of prime real estate. Don't agree with everything Chessington are doing but on the positive side they've got a lot more to shout about in terms of potential than other Merlin parks right now
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Feels like they are refreshing their target market significantly and at least they are getting a cash injection. Last time I went it had a distinct Gullivers-style air to it

Inevitable really especially as one of the tigers has recently passed and they are trying to shrink down the wider animal-based estate
 
Two tigers left. They'll be moved on and Land of the Tiger will be redeveloped. For a park needing rides thats a lot of space for new rides and a few flats relocated. Would love to see Swinger or even Tuk Tuk up by Walliams
 
Towers4ever said:
Two tigers left. They'll be moved on and Land of the Tiger will be redeveloped.
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I'm going to be honest and say I'd imagine that they may explore those three areas next for redevelopment
  • Trail of the Kings
  • Land of the Tiger and Tomb Blaster
  • Rattlesnake, Stage, Safari Skyway Station, Elmer's Flying Jumbos, Tiny Truckers and Land of the Dragons
All three areas offer sizeable land for development, has older hardware reaching the end of their service life and some of them have reliability issues.

I'd also say that with Paw Patrol, this supercedes Land of the Dragons which that could be home to a signature rollercoaster instead.

I would ideally like to see Tiger Rock replaced with another water ride in preparation for when it closes. It is still one of the most popular and queue munching rides on park as of right now.
 
Dave said:
If they got the wave swinger that would be fine, it’s a solid flat ride and a park model so fairly robust.

I don’t have a particular issue with theme park groups moving rides around their portfolio.
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Hid said:
No it could do with it to increase capacity Alton Towers needs more rides
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They don't need a pass me down, 25 year old attraction at a themepark known for running their rides hard.

They do need more capacity, they do need more rides, but old attractions that will require more thorough and lengthy maintenance is not the answer. Remember, this is a park that already has an aging collection of rides and routinely struggles to get and keep them open, they dont need to add to that problem, then need to alleviate it. The mechanicals might be relatively simple, but there is far more that needs checking daily on these than just the mechanicals.

Alton Towers could do with a brand new wave swinger, not one that's already a quarter of a century old.

Sorry, this has strayed off topic as this is a Chessington topic.
 
DistortAMG said:
They don't need a pass me down, 25 year old attraction at a themepark known for running their rides hard.

They do need more capacity, they do need more rides, but old attractions that will require more thorough and lengthy maintenance is not the answer. Remember, this is a park that already has an aging collection of rides and routinely struggles to get and keep them open, they dont need to add to that problem, then need to alleviate it. The mechanicals might be relatively simple, but there is far more that needs checking daily on these than just the mechanicals.

Alton Towers could do with a brand new wave swinger, not one that's already a quarter of a century old.

Sorry, this has strayed off topic as this is a Chessington topic.
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Have to remember Monkey Swinger is not as old as Twirling Toadstool when it left.
 
DistortAMG said:
They don't need a pass me down, 25 year old attraction at a themepark known for running their rides hard.

They do need more capacity, they do need more rides, but old attractions that will require more thorough and lengthy maintenance is not the answer. Remember, this is a park that already has an aging collection of rides and routinely struggles to get and keep them open, they dont need to add to that problem, then need to alleviate it. The mechanicals might be relatively simple, but there is far more that needs checking daily on these than just the mechanicals.

Alton Towers could do with a brand new wave swinger, not one that's already a quarter of a century old.

Sorry, this has strayed off topic as this is a Chessington topic.
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That isn’t completely irrelevant but a wave swinger is a bit like a triggers broom. The only real structural element is the main column and steal frame which have effectively hundreds of years of life. There are some great videos of traveling models being built which demonstrate how little ride is actually in a wave swinger.

The mechanical parts are a couple of motors, which are replaced all the time anyway.
 
Towers4ever said:
CBeebies is great and the recent refresh has been good. Walliams needs to go. A waste of prime real estate. Don't agree with everything Chessington are doing but on the positive side they've got a lot more to shout about in terms of potential than other Merlin parks right now
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You do realise that neither of those things are at Chessington, right?
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
You do realise that neither of those things are at Chessington, right?
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I think the point was being made other parks have found success in adding in a dedicated IP Land for youngsters. Few examples Peppa Pig World for Paultons, Cbeebies Land for Alton Towers, Thomas Land for Drayton Manor, Nickelodeon Land at Blackpool Pleasure Beach have all been vastly successful for each respective park why couldn't it work for Chessington as well
 
Impromptu visit to Chessington today. Bowser Jr was absolutely delighted when he saw all the Paw Patrol boardings which bodes well for next year! Saw quite a few other children admiring them and getting photos so already looks like this is going to be a hit. Had a good look from the top of Croc Drop (not spinning anymore obviously) but absolutely nothing to see at this point.

Unusually we went to the Fish and Chip place by the Pirate Ship, mostly for a sit down but noticed they had the tablets people have been complaining about on here. Now we haven't eaten there in several years after a particularly dire meal but the convenience of the tablet meant i was curious enough to at least peruse the menu. Chips were about £4 and looking at other peoples they seemed at the very least edible so gave it a go. Wasn't sure if we had to go and get the food but lo and behold about 2 minutes later someone brought them out to us so that was nice! There were full bottles of condiments on every table too and the chips were pretty decent. The lack of MAP discount is definitely annoying but on this occasion being 80p i was happy to write it off as a delivery fee.
So, unpopular opinion but i'm in favour of the tablets.

Park wasn't too busy, was anticipating it would be heaving, especially after it took us several hours to get there but was pretty standard Saturday fare with queues averaging 30-60 minutes. Vampire went down at the end of the day as we were in the queue but to my surprise they reopened it 10 minutes before park close. There were also a pair of young thoosies in front of us, they really knew their stuff so was endearing to listen to such young people with a wealth of knowledge about the park and rides.

Metal detectors were strangely absent from the entrance, though we arrived after noon so not sure if they put them away. Hotel car park was overflowing to the point they opened the staff car park. I've never seen that happen and didn't reflect the number of people in the park so not sure why that was. On the plus side meant we bypassed the queue to leave so that was nice!

Only blemish was some odd batching on Mandrill Mayhem. The RAP line was particularly long with it being i believe the only ride that shares with Fast Track yet the host was only putting on one group per cycle, meaning we waited 20 minutes on an advertised 25 minute queue plus got the time out afterwards so in fact waited twice as long as the main queue.

Oh and after Tower of Terror my wife was extremely unimpressed with Croc Drop 😂
 
It’s frustrating watching the single rider queue on Mandrill (except when I’ve been in it of course) but every so often they just let multiples go together. I’ve seen it quite a few times so not just one host’s batching. I wonder if it’s to keep the single rider queue down, but it doesn’t make sense when the main queue was so long. Why does it matter if the single rider queue is long?
 
LF22 said:
It’s frustrating watching the single rider queue on Mandrill (except when I’ve been in it of course) but every so often they just let multiples go together. I’ve seen it quite a few times so not just one host’s batching. I wonder if it’s to keep the single rider queue down, but it doesn’t make sense when the main queue was so long. Why does it matter if the single rider queue is long?
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Part of me would love to be a ride batcher as I’m very mathematically minded and it’s like playing human Tetris (though I appreciate there are other aspects to the role too). You can definitely tell when someone gets “it” and someone doesn’t.

Actually that reminds me, it’s surprising Vampire doesn’t have a single rider as you often see empty seats, though realistically there’s nowhere for them to put it. Perhaps at a push could split the fast track line in two but then you’d need to rope it all the way into the station and it’s already quite narrow. Very much a ride of the 90s!
 
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