Chessington World of Adventures Resort

[ThorpeFan]

All very good points, i just wondered whether it didnt fit in with the target of familys, but your all right it is good for the older visitors of chessington i stand corrected

 

[joelpagett]

If you visit the park over the next few days prepare to be pretty dissapointed...

All of these rides are currently out of action due to the cold temperatures

Vampire

Seastorm

Dragon's Fury

Rattlesnake

Jungle Bouncers

Safari Skyway

Temple of Mayhem

Runaway Minetrain & Dragon Falls are closed due to refurbishment

Might as well make it another zoo day... I do hope they would hand out tickets for a return, surely you can't get away with having your entire top lineup closed!

 

[IanB]

Yikes, I hope they manage to get a few more attractions open in time for the weekend, might have to have a quick look in the morning, and then pop in to London for the afternoon.

As others have said, weather is outside there control, although the H&S issue is debatable, you would expect free return tickets to be issued for customer without having to complain as a gesture of good will.

Ian

 

[LiamC]

To add to the above, Tpblog posted the following on Facebook:

So today is the launch of Zufari : Ride into Africa at Chessington World of Adventures Resort, however it is not going smoothly at the Resort thus far:

"ZUFARI: Ride into Africa – Due to adverse weather temperatures and our concern for the animal’s wellbeing the ride will only be available at certain times throughout the day. Please see information signs upon arrival and at the attraction entrance."

Tpblog

Ouch. Not good for Chessington all round at the minute :'(

 

[Benzin]

To say that it's going completely tits up for Chessie this year (so far) would be an understatement...

 

[joelpagett]

I will be going tommorow, but I have an annual pass so it doesnt bother me, I was going to go to Chessington, try out a few rides and Zufari then go to London to the Dungeons. I don't see how they couldn't give tickets to come back another day when literally the ENTIRE ride lineup for over 5's is shut?!

 

[TheMan]

Don't forget to get those questions in for Nick.

Q1. Will ANY rides be open at all at Chessington this year?

Feel for the management there also right now, refuse to believe they took the decisions that led to some of these issues, now compounded by the weather.

Thorpe seems to be the most organised from a few peoples notes on visits so far.

THIS CANNOT HAPPEN!! (and no doubt wont the day I ******* go)

;D

 

[Lottie.]

Went to Chessie today and yep, the top rides at the park were all shut which was made it feel like a zoo day. It was very noticeable seeing people complaining. It seems they got a letter explaining the situation and they recieve an open-dated ticket to be used before 30th June.

The thing is, Chessington cannot control the weather so it can't be helped that rides cannot open. However it didn't seem like they were going to make an effort to open the coasters. As for Zufari, it was open from 10.15 till 11.45, then it re-opened from 1pm till 3pm.

I did however get my free hot chocolate, which was way too sweet!

 

[John]

I can't see why Chessington still has so many rides closed. Towers have apparently got pretty much everything open now, as has Thorpe. I can't imagine the weather at Chessie is any worse than at either of those parks, yet they've still not managed to get any of their coasters open.

If it's not sorted by the weekend I won't be too impressed - nearly £30 down the drain in train tickets...

 

[joelpagett]

Went to Chessie today and yep, the top rides at the park were all shut which was made it feel like a zoo day. It was very noticeable seeing people complaining. It seems they got a letter explaining the situation and they recieve an open-dated ticket to be used before 30th June.

The thing is, Chessington cannot control the weather so it can't be helped that rides cannot open. However it didn't seem like they were going to make an effort to open the coasters. As for Zufari, it was open from 10.15 till 11.45, then it re-opened from 1pm till 3pm.

I did however get my free hot chocolate, which was way too sweet!

Thanks! You answered all my questions! I am just shocked that all of those rides are shut! Have you got an annual pass? did they give you a free ticket anyway?

 

[Ted]

I was just a few miles away from Chessie today, and whilst it was freezing today, I didn't think it would be cold enough to shut down almost every major ride there! It's a bit bad as well considering Thorpe is just up the road and nearly everything there is open. I hope this gets sorted by Saturday.

 

[HaydenCR]

Well, I visited today and here is what I have to say:

Firstly, Zufari has airtime. Trust me I was not expecting that. Also the ride will get you wet. It is a fun ride, but ultimately it wont blow your mind. Personally I think the landscaping is fantastic. It is much more impressive when you are riding it then in the POV. There is theming to look at in the queues in the form of black storage cases, crates, oil barrels, expedition equipment etc. However the queue does feel like a cattle pen and there is a lack of progression. This is not helped by the slow moving queue. (3 out of 5 trucks were running and roughly 60 riders were let in to the pre show building every 6 minutes) The pre show is fun. A horrendously outdated piece of CGI comes onto the screen to interact with the audience. The ride itself is enjoyable. But chances are it will be much more impressive to children over adults. The cave finale is cool but I cant help but feel something is missing.

As for all the coasters being closed: Meh. I just rode the more thrilling flat rides and dark rides and checked out the zoo. You people seem to forget that there is a zoo, and you can easily spend hours there if you want too. There is always something going on there, always a show of some sort.

And as for progress on the refurbishments? Runaway Train had its trains taken away, but not its cave. Dragon Falls remains unchanged from previous updates.

On another note the exterior of Burger Kitchen really fits in with the Transylvania and the theming does not look tacky at all. I'm quite impressed actually.

 

[HaydenCR]

I did however get my free hot chocolate, which was way too sweet!

My free hot chocolate was way too sweet too! For some reason they asked for my name and postcode. I have no idea why.

 

[Islander]

However it didn't seem like they were going to make an effort to open the coasters.

Thing is, how could you possibly tell this? I can say with near certainty that they would have been trying very hard - it's very much not in their interest to open with loads of attractions closed.

 

[Anonymous]

However it didn't seem like they were going to make an effort to open the coasters.

Thing is, how could you possibly tell this? I can say with near certainty that they would have been trying very hard - it's very much not in their interest to open with loads of attractions closed.

There were no trains on the coaster tracks, and no sign of any engineers working on them...

 

[HaydenCR]

However it didn't seem like they were going to make an effort to open the coasters.

Thing is, how could you possibly tell this? I can say with near certainty that they would have been trying very hard - it's very much not in their interest to open with loads of attractions closed.

There were no trains on the coaster tracks, and no sign of any engineers working on them...

That's not strictly true. I saw an engineer poking at Dragons Fury's track for a bit.

 

[Islander]

However it didn't seem like they were going to make an effort to open the coasters.

Thing is, how could you possibly tell this? I can say with near certainty that they would have been trying very hard - it's very much not in their interest to open with loads of attractions closed.

There were no trains on the coaster tracks, and no sign of any engineers working on them...

Wa...hang o... what th... Jared, not being entirely positive about Chessington?!? What... what is this?? I... cannot comprehend this...

Anyway, to respond to that... maintenance bay? Also, don't forget that all rides will have a temperature range within which the manufacturer recommends they're run. If ambient temperature falls outside that range, it won't be recommended to operate the ride... which means the park cannot operate it, even if it's perfectly capable of doing so.

 

[Lottie.]

Went to Chessie today and yep, the top rides at the park were all shut which was made it feel like a zoo day. It was very noticeable seeing people complaining. It seems they got a letter explaining the situation and they recieve an open-dated ticket to be used before 30th June.

The thing is, Chessington cannot control the weather so it can't be helped that rides cannot open. However it didn't seem like they were going to make an effort to open the coasters. As for Zufari, it was open from 10.15 till 11.45, then it re-opened from 1pm till 3pm.

I did however get my free hot chocolate, which was way too sweet!

Thanks! You answered all my questions! I am just shocked that all of those rides are shut! Have you got an annual pass? did they give you a free ticket anyway?

No problem I had an annual pass, and I think they were giving out tickets to those who paid for entry.

I did however get my free hot chocolate, which was way too sweet!

My free hot chocolate was way too sweet too! For some reason they asked for my name and postcode. I have no idea why.

Same here, which was odd. Oh well... Might have a coffee next time

 

[Dave]

It is a little odd, certainly Towers has not got a full ride compliment up yet and some coasters have barely opened but Towers has had 3 foot (4 where its drifted) of snow and it's colder up north than London so i'm perplexed how Towers (and Thorpe which has notorious maintenance) is managing to open stuff yet Chessie can't. Though to be fair Chessingtons rides are generally older and from questionable manufacturers (Maurer, Arrow).

Still the only Merlin park having any luck this season so far seems to be Thorpe which is ironic as it had such a terrible season last year.

 

[Tim]

Well Thorpe did have Colossus, Rush and Saw out of action when I was there yesterday so I wouldn't say Chessington are alone with this issue. Every park is currently struggling because rides are not designed for these kinds of conditions, hence why we have closed seasons when the weather is normally like this.

All in all this has been a shockingly bad start to the season for everyone. It's quite worrying when you think of how many guests have been put off by the last 2 weeks weather.