Benin

Asterix has been criminally underrated for a very long time. One of the best park line ups that has only improved in recent years, especially as they've filled up the dead spaces through various additions. Just need that ridiculous Victorian area show to return.

Well at least ONE multi-million pound company can afford to offer fair wages to some of their staff. They might be able to afford lunch at Burger Kitchen now.

The Nemesis Observation Platform opens on the 26th April. Vloggers unite in excitement for dirt pics.

Not a good show for Merlin at all. Shame the rest of the staff can't join in. Considering the state of the park so far this year there's definite underlying issues.

If you think this is bad should see the state of queues in Italy and Spain. Not much you can do but make queues either interesting or fast moving.

Lol. Is this actually worse than last year's version? I guess though this is the issue with the UK parks as a whole. Entertainment is an afterthought, so we end up with Butlins-esque stuff because people seem to like it? Though the old pirate show was usually worth a giggle or two so maybe it's what works. Bring back the Ice Show.

Are we resorting to stalking LinkedIn pages now? 1 person leaving shouldn't affect a project. Unless currently John Burton since he's the main head, but even then these projects are a joint effort and require a team of people.

Daft thing is in my experiences of similar systems abroad and in UK the abuse is only prevalent in Merlin parks. And a lot of other parks don't even use the return time slots either. I'd say the steps to change it are simple. But the park are hesitant because of the inevitable bad press from those who will scream and shout because they can't abuse the system anymore.

Easter weekend queues are always terrible. But you know when they've not enforced their own rules over the years, opening the system to abuse, whilst also many visitors (often MAP holders) openly encourage people to abuse the system and staff for doing their job it's a rod they've made for their own back. Needs fixing. But they won't risk the backlash. Which means we'll limit our own visits because this affects both our day using it and the other guests too. Especially when factoring in Fastrack.

"Spicy Nemmie"? 🚮 The crocs have been there for YEARS. Maybe even since opening.

By queue you mean walking round the empty queueline and maybe stopping to merge with 50 RAP users?

When there's actual news to share. Rule 1 of theme parks. Don't jump into ride areas. Rule 2. Don't give out time frames because people will hold you to them and get angry if its wrong.

Memorable experiences for all the wrong reasons. Lot of it is shooting themselves in own foot. Over-selling Fastrack, allowing RAP to become a complete mess of a system that helps no one, adding low quality/throughput rides, allowing existing rides and infrastructure become almost unsafe, the list can go on.

If Paultons continues on their trajectory then could easily surpass Lego and Chessie. Granted very difficult for them to tackle the 30 odd years both have been in the game. But they're certainly making a good effort so far. Few more decent expansions and infrastructure improvements and they'll get there. Unlikely we'll see good competition elsewhere though. The other parks don't seem to be much bothered.

The 3 Merlin parks seem grossly under prepared for the season. Again.

Wouldn't really say adding the scare corridor to Sub Terra 'fixed' anything. More made it worse.

Judging by the pictures on the Chessie Burger Kitchen that Aramark are charging what they charge for what looks to be god-awful food is fairly fine to criticise. Especially looking at the reduced menus and lower quality in foodstuffs whilst the prices increase. To say they're a scapegoat because of also having a prison contract is naive at best. Most of the American park food is tonnes better than the UK equivalent in my experiences. Even with the basic options or chains involved. Not everyone can be Dollywood but there's plenty of examples out there that show that theme park food can be good quality. But captive audiences mean less effort I suppose is the current viewpoint. Sadly it falls in line with current food issues in the wider world. Because these companies only care about the bottom line and shareholders.

That their April Fools joke didn't have the shop called "Lost Soles" REALLY bugs me.

Sub-Terra fans UNITE! Was a fun for what it was. And most of my rides it seemed that the guests were having fun, which is the important thing. But, like with similar attractions, the budget got slashed and was too staff intensive.

https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2023/march/chessington-world-of-adventure-facing-strike-threat-in-pay-dispute/ Awkward start to the season then. Never knew the engineers were in an union though. Guess any union talk is often in public sector roles.

Our (new) Lord and Saviour John Burton telling us... what we already know.

It looks more like a fake spa than a "quiet place" though to me. Good idea badly executed maybe?

Gotta get those New for 2023 points after all. Maybe should limit it to those who medically need it, but when they've advertised as a spa rather than a specialised room (I forget the official term, maybe sensory room?) then they're not really putting it in with the right reasonings. Sounds like got a random sponsorship and had to do some nonsense.

Factor in the issues in supply chain at the moment though. But Thorpe would've agreed to a date with Taziker and presumably unlike other park owners would've kept up to date with any going ons with it. Any delays they would be compensated for but it depends how on it the park were to this as a project.

Van Helsing's Factory did it first.