Leaderboard

I'm not too sure that there's much competition for "best UK dark ride" these days. Especially when the usual winner is currently closed.

Children have been said to be at the absolute lowest risk though.. Not many young folks have died from the virus, actually the current number for the age range 0-9 is 0. And 10-19 is a very low death rate. Young people are not the worry here. Honestly I like the UK approach, I find the current media coverage to be somewhat drastic and melodramatic. People mass buying crap and self isolating themselves are just perhaps a little too easily influenced by the current media brainwashing them. It is a nasty virus and some people are going to die, but there is many other things such as cancer, heart problems, or even the Flu itself which kills tons of people a year but I don't see anyone locking themselves in a room crying over it? There is more chance of crashing your car on the way to the parks that catching the corona virus.. But you still drive cars don't you?

Rumor is the coaster is now open with with a queue time exceeding one hour. It is also running many trains at half capacity due to a lack of children riding. Not to sure why though...

All it takes is one idiot to ruin any planning. And it's a proven fact we have idiots living in this country. Some are even in prominent government positions. Fact is that it's a proven deadly virus and the government and business response is to shrug shoulders as if nothing is happening. Should've seen their faces when I mentioned Tarin had to self isolate at NHS request after showing symptoms. Because even though she's young, oh look she's an at risk person because of underlying medical issues. I do think people are over reacting a bit with the store emptying, but I also think acting as if nothing could go wrong is a poor decision too. I mean if it wasn't for footballers being tested positive those matches would've taken place this weekend with full(ish) crowds. The current plan for herd immunity as well is just. Weird. We'll just let people get infected and then see who survives. Like what? It's a weird angle to go with considering some of the potential risks that go with it. The POV of "oh it only kills the elderly and those with health issues" is exactly the problem I have with this. Numbers might be low in the other age groups but there are still numbers if it. I'd rather see measures taken to make those numbers zero then a collective shrug, talk of Blitz spirit (though we are clearing out shops so that might be correct) and be good with personal hygiene.

It's a nasty virus that is wiping out 200 lives a day in Italy. It's a virus that doesn't show signs immediately so you can be a carrier and spread to 100's of people before you show symptoms. It has no known cure, it's not really known if you are immune once you've had it. Thats the danger. Read up about South Korea where it was relatively contained until Patient 31 spread it to thousands of people and then it became out of control.

I never feel like political discussions go down well on the internet, no less a theme park forum, but oh well... I'm completely anti-conservative, and anti-Boris. But I have to say that when watching the press conference yesterday where Boris and the experts discussed what they were doing and why, I completely got it. Impossible to know, of course, if they're the right decisions, and there's still - in my mind - questions that should be asked about the legitimacy of the research done (as far as I know, the research they quote isn't publicly available, which leaves some doubt in mind as to whether they actually are just plucking things out of thin air). If we take things at face value, though, it's hard for me to reasonably say what they're doing is wrong. Some of Boris' wording wasn't great (further still since it can be taken out of context), but there's not much that can be done. I really hope we don't live to regret the action take so far though, of course. I personally never feel that making comparisons to other countries is a good idea. Especially since we're on an island, which drastically alters how this could spread. And also, just because other countries are doing things in a certain way, it still doesn't mean it's the right way. Death rates might be tiny, but there's likely still a number of children catching the virus. They just might not be showing symptoms, or recovering very quickly. The greater issue is that children can catch it and pass it on to others (especially since children are less well adept to cleaning their hands thoroughly, or catching sprays from coughs and sneezes), increasing the spread to adults and, in particular, those at greater risks. Drastic and melodramatic? No. This is a severe situation. And the media are just responding to what the public want - as much information as possible. The bigger issue is that social media is spreading false information, people are panicking, etc. That's where all of the major issues stem from. If, as modelled, there are 10,000 people in the UK who have / have had coronavirus currently, that's about 1 in 700 people at the moment. On average, about 1 in 2500 people get seriously injured in a car crash in the UK every year. In other words, you are MUCH more likely to catch coronavirus than you are to be seriously injured in a car crash. That's not to scare anyone, but it's the truth. As I say, I never think political discussions go down well, and this is probably steering the conversation in the wrong direction. It's impossible to know if what any country has done is right or wrong. But what is obvious is that we're in this for the long haul. A vaccine realistically won't be ready till next year. The virus spreads very easily. It's not clear if you're immune after catching it, or how long for. The worst is yet to come. As the general public, all we can do is do out best to look after ourselves, follow the advice and apply common sense. No one wants to be isolated any longer than necessary, and no one wants to see the country crumble. Hopefully we won't see that, and whatever happens in the days and weeks ahead will help reduce the impact for everyone.

Refreshingly honest if you ask me. And I'm no big fan of Boris! Regardless of what they do people will die who may not have done if they didn't have a the virus. Just like many things, people pick up all sorts which finish them off that ultimately could be prevented if people didn't come into contact with each other or extreme measures were out in place to stop them. You could ban alcohol, processed foods, tobacco, cars etc etc and wipe out incredible amounts of 'untimely' death, but it's generally accepted the loss of enjoyment, freedom and economic activity would be too bigger cost for the result. The same thing is happening here but within a shorter timeframe. Playing state activity off against risk to life might be an unsavoury thought but it is happening constantly, and has to. Even in my lowly position in it all in my training, for terrorist response especially but a lot of major incident response, you have to make some dreadful decisions that will ultimately condemn people where you use your resources in the most effective way. Not everyone can be saved from everything, you have to do what's best with a much wider outlook. The decisions that are being made are made on the advice of medical experts, and with a hell of a lot more information than will be available to the rest of us, they're not just pulling the decisions out of their arses. Even if in some aspects with hindsight we get it wrong I think they are making the right decisions for the right reasons.

I should probably add this because of the message above: children aren’t really being affected by the virus as a whole. yeah, they can catch it, but it rarely kills them. the real threat is to the elderly and those with preexisting conditions.

Legoland gonna be getting all those kids with underdeveloped immune systems right under the bus then. UK response has been dreadful. Evidenced by our glorious leader stating that we should be prepare to see people die. I mean sure but what methods are being taken to reduce that possibility? Oh yeah we wash our hands (which why aren't you doing that anyway?) Football only stopped when players and managers got sick. No consideration to the fans here. My work have said if we decide to self isolate we don't get paid (only get SSP if we have been recommended to do so). Rate things are going even if the parks opened they'd lose money hand over fist. So once that happens they'll close.

2020 park map is available here: https://www.chessington.com/media/msbjs1wa/2020-park-map-theme-park-zoo-sea-life.pdf It's interest to note that Blue Barnacle, despite being an entirely new piece of ride hardware with a new theme, isn't in any way being marketed as 'new' or even 'returning' for 2020, which is refreshing.

^ Thought it was a picture of a cement mixer at first 😂