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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Dave said:
Chessingtons ops, food quality and maintenance are not majorly different to Towers
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I believe today is a school day? Lets see what's happening at the parks at this random moment...

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There are always other variables naturally but i don't think that's a particularly unrepresentative picture.
 
Fit for the Future is rinsing all the Merlin parks, a VP has little say in that sadly and totally understand the workforce being demoralised by the whole process. As the showpiece UK theme park Towers will always attract more interest and scrutiny but I'm sure it's the same at Thorpe Legoland and Chessington
 
Bowser said:
I believe today is a school day? Lets see what's happening at the parks at this random moment...

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There are always other variables naturally but i don't think that's a particularly unrepresentative picture.
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So your point is Towers is more popular today than Chessington is?

Wonder if that’s something to do with my point on “events”….. Towers has Scarefest and is open until 9pm today, Chessington has not much and open until 5pm.
 
Scarefest is probably the main deciding factor in Towers’ larger queues, but even without that, I’d also make the argument that Chessington’s more child-centred target market makes it less likely to attract significant crowds on weekdays, whereas Towers has slightly more universal appeal and might be more attractive to guests without children in the midweek periods.
 
Vampire is still broken.

Chessington's Halloween event starts properly tomorrow, today is just a normal weekday. The park is not busy, though I've seen a few families with school age kids so guessing it must be half term already or at least an inset day for some.
 
Dave said:
I love how Chessington Buzz are sort of suggesting in the post that Chessington is some sort of jewel perfect example theme park and Towers needs a massive turn around….

Last time I checked Chessington continues to have poor operations, naff food, over selling of fast track and barely any decent events to speak of, just because it’s had a decent run of capex spend which has little to do with the VP doesn’t make it Islands of Adventure 🤣
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Chessington is Merlin's most profitable UK park and one of their 3 most profitable parks (Gardaland, Legoland California and Chessington). It has very serious flaws ranging from capacity and operations to food, but the truth is, Merlin themselves do regard Chessington as their UK crown-jewel. The amount of investment they are focusing on just Chessington is more extensive than what's been pledged for the other UK parks. Two new IP lands with coasters for 2026 and 2027. Meanwhile, Alton Towers Project Horizon is still delayed and they're just getting a Bluey kiddie coaster for 2026.
 
The Big Mack said:
Chessington is Merlin's most profitable UK park and one of their 3 most profitable parks (Gardaland, Legoland California and Chessington). It has very serious flaws ranging from capacity and operations to food, but the truth is, Merlin themselves do regard Chessington as their UK crown-jewel. The amount of investment they are focusing on just Chessington is more extensive than what's been pledged for the other UK parks. Two new IP lands with coasters for 2026 and 2027. Meanwhile, Alton Towers Project Horizon is still delayed and they're just getting a Bluey kiddie coaster for 2026.
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This is definitely all somewhat questionable. Legoland Windsor for instance is definitely more profitable than Chessie…
 
Islander said:
This is definitely all somewhat questionable. Legoland Windsor for instance is definitely more profitable than Chessie…
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It's less about how much money Chessington makes from visitation compared to Legoland and Alton Towers. It's more about how much more disposable income Chessington has compared to the other UK parks. Merlin regard Chessington as their UK crown jewel for investment.
 
The Big Mack said:
It's less about how much money Chessington makes from visitation compared to Legoland and Alton Towers. It's more about how much more disposable income Chessington has compared to the other UK parks. Merlin regard Chessington as their UK crown jewel for investment.
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Yeh, again, I don't buy this at all.

Yes we have the Minecraft collaboration, something brought about by Scott O'Neil who then very suddenly left the company, but aside from that... there's really nothing much to shout about over and above the other parks.
 
The Big Mack said:
It's less about how much money Chessington makes from visitation compared to Legoland and Alton Towers. It's more about how much more disposable income Chessington has compared to the other UK parks. Merlin regard Chessington as their UK crown jewel for investment.
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I think this is all speculative rather than definitive as Merlin don’t release data about individual UK park profits to my knowledge.

Chessington arguably having more investment this decade than the others speaks of something but not necessarily a reflection of profit.

Personally I think because as a family park in the proximity of London it’s the most in need of investment to compete with Universal and this is being prioritised. Legoland has a strong brand to fall back on but I suspect they’ll be next to receive big investment prior to Universal opening.
 
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