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Chessington World of Adventures Resort

Rob said:
I have never seen Paw Patrol in my life but Christ that's awful! I'm sure it is less awful to kids who love Paw Patrol though.

This just does not feel very Chessington at all to me.
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My son used to make me sit and watch it with him. I can confirm this is very on brand for the show and kids will immediately recognize it.

Chessington are on to a winner with PP and Minecraft. Jumanji not so much. Feels like that franchise was on it's way out.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Not to scaremonger, but Cocomelon is owned by another Blackstone backed firm. There's every real possibility that we could see World of Cocomelon in the future.
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A Cocomelon ride would genuinely cause fear in a number of parents.

We may have failed at banning the Pig, but sure as hell ain't letting that absolute gross tier awfulness plague our house.
 
Apologies if this has been answered before, but just a quick hypothetical question: if Tussauds / Merlin had never bought Thorpe Park in 1998, then how different would Chessington be today?

I have never been to Chessington, but is it possible that more investment (and, specifically, thrill rides) would have found their way there?
 
Benzin said:
A Cocomelon ride would genuinely cause fear in a number of parents.

We may have failed at banning the Pig, but sure as hell ain't letting that absolute gross tier awfulness plague our house.
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Doubt you'll have to. With Paw Patrol and Minecraft coming soon, a third world aimed at anyone under 12 would make the park a lot less like a thrillsome park and more like somewhere to take your toddler!
 
Secret Weapon said:
Apologies if this has been answered before, but just a quick hypothetical question: if Tussauds / Merlin had never bought Thorpe Park in 1998, then how different would Chessington be today?

I have never been to Chessington, but is it possible that more investment (and, specifically, thrill rides) would have found their way there?
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Thing with Chessington it has lot of difficulties getting planning it had similar height restrictions to Towers even more strict at times. Thats why Black Buccaneer and Rameses were dug into pits
 
Hid said:
Thing with Chessington it has lot of difficulties getting planning it had similar height restrictions to Towers even more strict at times. Thats why Black Buccaneer and Rameses were dug into pits
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According to the "Making Thorpe Park" book, this is why Tussauds made the difficult decision to rebrand the previously child-friendly Thorpe Park as a thrill park, and the previously thrill-centred Chessington as a family park (planning permission is much easier to obtain at Thorpe Park due to its location besides two noisy motorways).

The book also mentioned that significant money was diverted away from Chessington and towards Thorpe Park as a result (in order to bring Thorpe Park up to speed) - but it also made me wonder what would have happened to that money if Thorpe Park had been sold to somebody else instead (e.g. Warner Brothers, who were allegedly interested).

It would have been difficult to build tall rides such as Stealth and Hyperia at Chessington, but it still would have been possible for Tussauds / Merlin to break the inversion record at Chessington with a Colossus-type ride, and maybe they also would have had a Rita-type ride and/or a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter as well ?

I wonder whether they would have scrapped Vampire and replaced it with a B&M invert or wing coaster?

I am yet to visit Chessington and so it is hard for me to visualise the space available, et cetera.
 
Secret Weapon said:
It would have been difficult to build tall rides such as Stealth and Hyperia at Chessington, but it still would have been possible for Tussauds / Merlin to break the inversion record at Chessington with a Colossus-type ride, and maybe they also would have had a Rita-type ride and/or a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter as well ?

I wonder whether they would have scrapped Vampire and replaced it with a B&M invert or wing coaster?
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Supposedly, they did actually have plans for a B&M inverted coaster - known as "Nemesis II" - before they acquired Thorpe Park. They would have had to dig down a lot though. I remember John Wardley saying something like "It would have been in the biggest pit ever built for a roller coaster". Apologies if I've got that wrong. I don't know where it was planned to go, but it was unlikely to be a replacement for Vampire, as this was a long time ago, and I don't think they'd have wanted to scrap the suspended coaster then. Maybe it was planned for the (then unused) World of Jumanji area?

As for the rest of the park, I used to think they wouldn't be able to build a typical Euro Fighter, but they have Croc Drop, so perhaps that's not right. I suppose you could have one without a vertical lift hill and drop as well, if planning was an issue. But yeah, definitely a multi-launched coaster would have been good if they wanted to remain a thrill park, so to speak (I know Mandrill Mayhem is that, but I'm thinking something more like Icon).
 
Benzin said:
There's so many coaster types they should've got rather than Mandrill Mayhem. Or at least make that a full circuit ride so it can have a throughput.
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That's an interesting point; I wonder why Chessington decided to build a boomerang rather than a full circuit ride? Was it just the novelty of being able to go backwards?
East Coast Mariner said:
Supposedly, they did actually have plans for a B&M inverted coaster - known as "Nemesis II" - before they acquired Thorpe Park. They would have had to dig down a lot though. I remember John Wardley saying something like "It would have been in the biggest pit ever built for a roller coaster".
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Was "Nemesis 2" the actual name, or just a codename?

If it was the actual name then I'm confused, because John Wardley was horrified when Thorpe Park decided to call their B&M invert "Nemesis" (later changed to "Nemesis Inferno" as compromise), so I'm surprised that he wouldn't object to calling the one at Chessington 'Nemesis' as well - unless it's because (A) the Chessington ride was to be dug underground, and so would have been much more similar to the Alton Towers original, and/or (B) he perhaps had more sentimental attachment to Chessington than Thorpe Park?

(Incidentally, people are offended at the name "Nemesis Inferno", but I haven't heard the same objections to the name "Nemesis Sub-Terra")
 
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