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Dragon Falls or Tiger Rock?

Which Version of the Ride do you prefer?

  • Dragon Falls

    Votes: 43 87.8%

  • Tiger Rock

    Votes: 6 12.2%
  • Total voters
    49
I only experienced Dragon Falls in its last 3 years at the park, but I still think it is superior to Tiger Rock.
 
Dragon Falls was a really lovely ride, pleasant scenery and nice open relaxed feel. I miss it. It became a horrorshow after it was half demolished in 2013 and I cannot believe it was allowed to stay in that state so long.

The attempt to retheme it sidelined the ride in favour of the tiger enclosures and now it just feels forced, bright coloured wooden fences everywhere. Though the station interior is better, in a sort of clumsy way?

All in all, whatever, Im glad I got to enjoy something good while it lasted, shame younger generations can't really
 
I not been on tiger rock but if you base it on how dragon falls looked before they removed all the theming off the 3rd drop. Dragon falls wins hands down but now it’s 50/50 as it not improved the ride but it’s not really made it look even worse.
 
Interestingly, I watched TPW’s vlog from Chessington yesterday, and Shawn said that the rest of the area looked a bit neglected, leading him to suggest that the area could potentially be on the chopping block after Minecraft.

I don’t think Shawn was suggesting this as a legitimate rumour, before anyone gets too excited, but instead spitballing based on what he saw. He says that the pattern of “leaving things to rot” is typical for when Merlin doesn’t think something will last much longer.

This has been seen in the past with Duel prior to the Curse refurbishment in 2023, as well as Derren Brown’s Ghost Train prior to the 2023 retheme.

I think it would make some sense if Land of the Tiger was axed after Minecraft. Tiger Rock will be 40 year old ride hardware by 2027, and the winds are changing against that style of unrestrained log flume. It would also further Chessington’s moves to centralising the animals in the Wanyama Reserve area and moving away from the “mixed zoo and park” theme of the 2010s.

In all honesty, I wouldn’t be that surprised if the land ended up playing host to a phase 2 of Minecraft at some point, if the initial phase is a runaway success (and given the IP’s calibre, I really think it could be).
 
We’re two full years away from them even opening the first phase of the land. Even in the very best case scenario that means three full years until a Phase 2, and if we’re realistic probably a lot longer.

If Merlin’s strategy genuinely is to just leave the area to decay until that point, that’s quite remarkable. At the same time, it’s probably believable that they would.

It’s a sorry indictment of Merlin’s current approach that such a thing is contemplated.
 
A while back, I spoke to the guys who sculpted the dragon and the bhudda faces back in 1987 and asked for their thoughts on the Tiger Rock retheme, especially about the Dragon Tunnel.

"Hi there, Admittedly we were heartily disappointed with the chessington dragon. Not simply because it's not there anymore, but because it could very easily have still been utilised, revamped, repainted, repaired if needed to fit the new style of the Tiger Rock ride. It simply looks like a big grey concrete blanket has been thrown over it, which is a real shame :/"

I dare imagine their thoughts now with the entire structure removed and leaving the bare bones of the tunnel exposed.

They're fantastic at sculpting and are still very active! I'll leave a link to their YouTube channel below where you can see their work.

youtube.com

Aden Hynes Sculpture Studios

🌟 🚩 Become a Patron Supporter of our family run studio: https://www.patreon.com/join/aden_hynes_sculpture_studios Welcome to Sculpture Studios, your family run 3D commercial art company. Creating sculpture now for over 30 years, we undertake work of all size and all descriptions. We're a...
youtube.com youtube.com
 
venny said:
We’re two full years away from them even opening the first phase of the land. Even in the very best case scenario that means three full years until a Phase 2, and if we’re realistic probably a lot longer.

If Merlin’s strategy genuinely is to just leave the area to decay until that point, that’s quite remarkable. At the same time, it’s probably believable that they would.

It’s a sorry indictment of Merlin’s current approach that such a thing is contemplated.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more and when you compare what Paultons manage to achieve with their park upkeep every year then it's simply not an excuse is it? Having a clean and well presented park should be a minimum standard really.

I think the problem is though that too much of the money made at Merlin owned parks ends up in the wrong hands or being used to further expand their global park / midway offerings. Customer satisfaction is way down their list of priorities.

It's just a shame Universal is probably another 5/6 years away because the industry in this country needs a massive shot in the arm.
 
There’s essentially three versions of this ride that we have to compare.

Dragon River 1987-2004 (renamed Falls in later years): With rock work everywhere including when rocks encased the giant Buddha, as well as the cave behind the Buddha and the low fencing at bottom of the second drop giving great ride visibility.

Dragon Falls 2005- 2017: A totally different ride experience with all the rocks removed, taller wooden fence panels at the bottom of the drop, except where the water guns were added where the fences were still low (apparently H&S doesn’t matter as much if they’re making a bit of easy money), and later the horrible metal evacuation platform. Giant heads on the second drop also later removed.

Tiger Rock 2018- present. Not a bad theme, but I’m not sure that the tigers roaming around really adds anything to the ride experience as you’re usually moving too quickly to notice them.

Overall, I’d say original Dragon River was the best, Tiger Rock second, and Dragon Falls with all the messing that got done with was by far the worst of the three.
 
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Personally, I prefer Dragon Falls but with Tiger Rock, I'm grateful to Chessington and Merlin that the ride is still operating and hasn't been closed down/left SBNO.

Especially when Merlin intended to do Loggers Leap in the same way but that didn't seem to happen for some reason.

My general observation is why did we have Dragon Falls and Land of the Dragons at the same time as both themes overlap.

I'd say the same with Land of the Dragons and Land of the Tiger with similar names.

I think Dragon's Fury could've been incredible intertwining with Dragon Falls.
 
PhalanaxOperativeA1127 said:
Maybe theres 4 iterations of the ride, then, because the rocks were removed far later than 2005. Wasn't it the early 10s (possibly 2013?) they were removed?
Click to expand...
2005 was when the mountain by the second lift hill was removed. You are right in that the majority of the rockwork (+ the Angkor Wat heads) was removed in 2013.
 
AT86 said:
A reminder of how things looked in terms of 2nd left hill rock work until it was pulled down in 2004/5.

IMG_8662.jpeg
Click to expand...
Wow!!! It looked fantastic!! Themed lift hills are a rare thing, especially in the UK. It really made the area around the giant statue look all the more foreign, and in the best way possible!

I know the Dragon Falls version of the ride isn't well looked upon, but personally the one upgrade it had over Dragon River was the music.


From: https://youtu.be/H29J9qwuR9I?si=thID-5oGm3Rx9vB7


It's perfect for a family log flume ride, and really emphasises on the mystic east theme so well! Quite a relaxing soundtrack too. Much better than the dramatic Tiger Rock music personally, which doesn't really fit well with the ride.
 
AT86 said:
A reminder of how things looked in terms of 2nd lift hill rock work until it was pulled down in 2004/5.

IMG_8662.jpeg
Click to expand...
As someone who grew up in the 90s and walked through Mystic East many times, it was properly immersive - seem to remember one of the area paths had a tunnel over it as part of the elaborate rockwork.

Same with the Runaway Mine Train, though - beautifully themed in its heyday (3:47 in):

 
Matt N said:
Interestingly, I watched TPW’s vlog from Chessington yesterday, and Shawn said that the rest of the area looked a bit neglected, leading him to suggest that the area could potentially be on the chopping block after Minecraft.

I don’t think Shawn was suggesting this as a legitimate rumour, before anyone gets too excited, but instead spitballing based on what he saw. He says that the pattern of “leaving things to rot” is typical for when Merlin doesn’t think something will last much longer.

This has been seen in the past with Duel prior to the Curse refurbishment in 2023, as well as Derren Brown’s Ghost Train prior to the 2023 retheme.

I think it would make some sense if Land of the Tiger was axed after Minecraft. Tiger Rock will be 40 year old ride hardware by 2027, and the winds are changing against that style of unrestrained log flume. It would also further Chessington’s moves to centralising the animals in the Wanyama Reserve area and moving away from the “mixed zoo and park” theme of the 2010s.

In all honesty, I wouldn’t be that surprised if the land ended up playing host to a phase 2 of Minecraft at some point, if the initial phase is a runaway success (and given the IP’s calibre, I really think it could be).
Click to expand...
I'm not sure this is even speculation, really.

Didn't the planning docs essentially reference Land of the Tiger was under consideration for inclusion in the Minecraft expansion?

If I recall correctly the only reason it wasn't included in Phase 1 is because it would result in too much of the park shutting down at once. I.e. the docs heavily imply that the intention is for Minecraft to extend into this area eventually
 
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