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Oh 100% agree there. Big problem. But even if the UK parks continued to develop / expand like they did during their peak / like European parks are doing now, they would still hit a natural ceiling. Thorpe could never really get beyond 2.5 million visitors, for example, I'd say. The reason, in my opinion, that there is no Top 25 theme park worldwide in the UK is because no one - until now - has set out to build one. As for the last successful innovative addition in the UK...I'd argue one of Saw, Thirteen and Smiler. Only Thirteen is truly innovative there. But all 3 of them bought huge attendance boosts, which were maintained, and have lasting power. -Saw worked because of the IP, gave Thorpe the best 3 years in terms of attendance. And it's still a big name for the park. -Thirteen saw Towers go above 3 million visitors for the first time since Nemesis opened. Has the innovation. And it still has that "gotcha" moment for guests. Not a headliner for the park though. -Smiler's obviously been plagued with issues, but so many people know it, and it's branding is super strong. But yeah, the fact that it's been about 15 years since anything truly, successfully innovative washed up on these shores tells the story.

Think the problem is more that beyond Thorpe's initial rush in the 2000s post buy-out the UK parks have stagnated. Other mainland European parks have expanded (much like peak UK in 90s) and pushed the limits of what their parks could achieve. Unless its DLP. When was the last truly successful innovative addition?

The reality of why there's no top worldwide theme park in the UK is a little more nuanced to be fair. All our major parks were first built 40+ years ago. Their locations aren't designed with being a big big hitter park in mind. None of them have the associated infrastructure outside the park to cope with more than 3-4 million a year, let alone more than double that. Imagine what the roads around Towers would be like with those numbers. What the public transport would be. What Thorpe would be like, with queues of cars backing up to the M25 from both directions. You could argue why haven't Merlin tried to utilise their understanding of the UK market to push and create that big hitter park from scratch. But equally, you then ask, do they need to, and is the UK the right place to do that. And then, until recently, no big non-UK operator has had any success inside the UK. It's a difficult nut to crack. Universal will have spent many years researching this, planning this, etc, long before we even got a whiff of the idea a couple of years back. Which is why it'll undoubtedly be a success. But yeah, whilst the "no top theme park" line is a dig at Merlin, it is probably backed up with a deep understanding of why that is the case, and it's not just 'lol Merlin suck'

Extending the Eurostar would be very interesting. Especially when they recently killed off the direct to DLP line.

Shots fired! I mean they aren’t wrong are they! It seems that Universal are planning on arriving and very much staking their claim as THE theme park resort in the UK. There are also suggestions in local council meetings that there is talk of extending the Eurostar line to Bedford - which would be absolutely massive for the UK as a whole to be honest.

Time to wait another week for it to reopen again... guess my plans have gone out the window lmao

Who knows No action over there today didn't see any trains on the circuit or any engineers around, likely waiting for another part now.

A nice little behind the scenes peek at the winter maintenance etc. Can’t help but notice that this is in a different format to similar videos over the last few years - it’s mainly stock footage (all be it new and very nice stock footage). Also the familiar faces are missing?! I hope the people who used to do this stuff haven’t been made redundant? It’s also a month late, suggesting the remaining staff could be overstretched? 😬 I have to say though I really do love the new brighter and more colourful way in which this stuff is portrayed now. All of this new footage is more vibrant than before and is definitely looking good.

Reckon they'll have it up again by next week?

Stealth is now listed (kinda) on the ride availability page I am hoping it will be back for my visit in a couple of weeks time… it’s been down for awhile now!

It's not looking good...

No it didn’t. Have been told it isn’t planned to open today too.

Todays BBC article has some interesting info on this, "only Universal park to be in Europe", talking with local educational establishments, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yrg95rp5wo The site is far more suited as a "brownfield site", which will help with planning/development, and lack of massive industrial employers suggests more potential workforce.

So has it opened at all today?

Fingers crossed for a @Parm Pap update soon.

Has it just died again? It open sporadically yesterday and I'm planning a trip next week so I'm a bit worried XD

Glad we've just changed the name of the Hyperia tracker to Stealth.

Another morning, another closed Stealth...

As said previously by @JoshC., this is most unlike Stealth having issues like this. Normally it's down for a part, then fine again, and not up down up down (other than going to 205ft and back again obviously)... I'm praying for her and keeping her in my thoughts.

Legend goes that an old woman pleaded with the Monks of Thorpe Abbey for the charity of a coin. They cruelly dismissed her. Scorned, the old woman screamed a cursed... "For every piece of Kingda Ka that falls, a month of Stealth's life will be taken" And sure enough, after Kingda Ka was removed, Stealth was shut for a month. --- All I'm saying, is that if Stealth remained closed, that will be the story for the Fright Nights mazes that will take its place. Hex Inferno - The Revenge of Stealth

Kingda Ka cursed it. I'm telling you all. As a baby Kingda Ka, it has been cursed.

Last weekend (April 12th), I finally got to meet industry legend John Wardley. It’s pretty clear 2025 is not the year to be visiting Chessington. With Project Play under construction and Wild Asia mothballed, under the guise of early construction for the Minecraft area. Operations were mixed, with mandrills being decent, despite a breakdown and Vampire doing a decent 2 train op, with just two platformers (one of which was batching). Rattlesnake’s operations were atrocious. The less said about the hideous Tiger Rock tunnel changes, the better. It looks more like an industrial estate than a theme park now. Now onto the event. At first there was a Vampire themed buffet in the temple restaurant. Buffets are known for either quality and quantity, unfortunately this one was neither. Burgers were the main event and as expected tasted vile. Salt, pepper and ketchup couldn’t polish this monstrosity. The curry was at least was just about edible. The desserts were comparatively bette. Black died soft serve, sundaes, sweets and jellies comprised the selection. Thankfully the event improved from here, the VIP team were generally attentive and chatted to everyone and we got a Vampire themed welcome drink. After making our way to the event suite, the main event kicked off. In the first segment John Talked about the different projects he’d worked on. Things mentioned included how the park almost became a housing estate, due to it being a failing attraction, his work with the McNamaras at the (sadly now closed) Oakwood and early ideas for the Vampire. Wardley reckons the ride still has much life left and the trains have less impact on the track than say Nemesis. On the second segment, John answered attendees questions. He said Universal GB wouldn’t impact the U.K. parks as much as people think and it’s not a David and Goliath battle. He also mentioned as far as developments go at the park. We would be in for a treat. At the end, one of the park’s long serving ride engineers Martin went through a lot of the ride’s mechanical statistics and gave away a few random ride bits to some who answered the most correct/accurate answers. There was then an opportunity to meet John, have things signed and have pictures with him. And now the 12 million pound question, was it worth it? At £125, even after discount it was perhaps an eye watering amount to spend, regardless of circumstances. On hindsight the food was mostly disappointing and other features were interesting, but I guess the important thing was this. I finally got to meet John Wardley. The man and legend who brought many of the countries most exciting attractions to life and such an inspiration to many. Without Wardley, Chessington may have well become a large housing estate.

Just opened. Instant 60min wait and growing. Edit - lasted 10 minutes. Down again.

Is there any rumour about what part could have gone wrong? I’m guessing it’s something quite big for it to be causing so much downtime.

Went to Vibes last week, without a doubt one of the best meals I’ve had in a UK park for years. The wrap was tasty, flavoursome and decent value for money amongst the chilled yet vibrant atmosphere of the restaurant. Even the service was to a decent standard. As long as this standard continues, will definitely go here again. A contrast to the awful meal I had at Chessington recently.