Benin

I saw lots of dirt today at the park...Hence, I've determined that it will be a 4000ft long sideways coaster (hence the world first), and will interact with no more than 2 major pathways and be themed to Cloud Cuckoo Land and Sir Algeon...You heard it here first!

Couldn't agree more...Half the park just looks so tatty these days... I'd say that includes Toytown, Mexicana, Market Square, Pirates Cove and Translyvania... And Land of the Dragons has just no identity to it... Same for Market Square and Pirates Cove...I feel incredibly strongly about what the park needs to do... And to heavily invest in regenerating and hence reinvigorating the park... This would not only improve the park as a whole with making old rides look new again but also adding new rides will help bring in new guests...Just Chessie never seems to get enough of the Merlin pot of money to do this though... And it's disappointing when they can't even retheme an area, just because they had a poor summer (like the other parks did)...So instead of celebrating the 25th with something massive... An area retheme which will involve very little if any new rides? Sigh

Hint - It's not the side you got on...And the control cabin is not the exit...And it helps not to panic when you realise you're an idiot...Oh Fury... You cause so much havoc with people's brains...

I think you were batching at the time... But, you weren't on platform who were the crap ones so you're absolved...I've been rather meh about it really, there are SOME improvements to the park like paving and signage for EVERYTHING... But it was just lacking... something...

Some children need their heads bashed together...I fully agree that people can be extremely **** and good at the same time... Such is life...As this is the rant thread, Michaela, is entirely in her right to bitch about people, regardless of what else has happened...

Yep, it's still crap...

OPENING DAYWell naturally I had to go yesterday to see how the park would be setting out for the season after the comments based on AP day, and just HOW did the park do?To say the day was a rather mixed bag was an understatement... It wasn't the worst trip I've had but nor was it the best... It missed something, but more as this report continues...So, start the Chessie season with Vampire, simple walk on/5 minute queue... Approve of the new bag holders, even if they are slightly too small for average sized rucksacks, but at least it prevents numerous bags strewn upon the floor...After that, Bubbles is closed, so go towards Fury, which has a full queueline of not-want, so move to Tomb, which is closed, then to Rattle, which is also closed... Cue annoyed Benin and Runaway Train times... Not a great start really to the day, what with 3 big rides down... Bit disappointing really... But still, they did all open eventually I guess... Off to Falls next, where the new 1.2m minimum restriction greeted us... As being discussed already, is a Mack based thing, so I wonder what has happened somewhere in the world... Dunno how the staff dealt with annoyed guests but I'm sure there were a few...After that it was onto Wild Asia, and whilst Kobra was advertising a 30 minute queue, it was certainly less than that, so on the ride we went...Then it was Tuk Tuk times, which were good fun as always...After looking at Fury's queue and it still being silly, we headed towards a now open Tomb Blaster, and then we proceeded to be annoyed by loud noisy girls... Really annoying people... Throttling was unfortunately not done, or listening to music to drown them out... Which ruined the ride a lot.... Sigh... I hate people sometimes...Lunch was called, and we headed to the Nando's Chicken Shack... Pricey food is pricey, and it was rather average... Can't see myself eating there a lot this year to be honest... Nice but... Not for the price they wanted...Time for Wanyama, and Fennec Foxes of JOY and new Ostriches... Woooooo... Again, nothing much to say here, which seems to be a theme here... Nothing exceptional happened throughout the day that made it any better... A shame as Chessie can be capable of it but nothing happened... Hmmm...Then we had a silent train on Skyway... Surely they should be all working on the first day? Silly Skyway needs redoing desperately like Runaway...Now for Bubbleworks... Oh god... The old music being back made me smile and angry at the same time... And then in the ride having 4 old tracks and one random bubble thing isn't good enough to make it any better... Especially when 3 rooms are dead and silent...Just this is another ride that needs redoing... And there wasn't much in the way of brand removal, so what a cop out I feel... It's still not good, regardless of the old music...Urgh, rant aside, we headed towards Fury which had just broken and the queue slowly drained away, so we braved it... Kinda wish we hadn't... 6 cars and a terrible team give me more problems... Having conversations with guests is all well and good but when you're not loading an empty car because of this then that's not what should be happening... Watching an empty car go through the entire Fury platform is a disgrace... If they act like that in Summer it'll be an absolute nightmare...Then mis-communicating exit riders and putting two cars in a row of them is not good... I know it's only the first day but I'd rather see them focusing on how to platform rather than how to interact with people and ask what the life story is...After that nightmare, we went to Nero then Griffins to cheer up... Then we left at 4:40, as really couldn't be bothered with anything else at the park and one of us needed to get the 5:10 anyways...So yeah, Chessie was rather meh for me... It was really missing something... Have no idea what but it was just made the day blergh... Sigh... Depressing times...

Welcome to last week Jack

I'm just passing on the info I found out on park yesterday... I don't know anything else...But, obviously something has happened in the past week, so maybe Chessie were the first to implement it like with Buccaneer, as didn't Blade come after?

It's a Mack wide thing, like with the Huss pirate ships...Should be interesting...

Go on Monday Mark!

Cats ARE Dinosaurs...Erm... Raptor Jesus WINS!Black Metal or Death Metal?

NOM! NOM! AND THRICE NOM!Omg, seriously... Cannot bloody wait for this beast now... It looks like the best addition to any Merlin park since they've acquired Tussauds... And possibly even better than such things as Ramses and Fuga del Atlantide already at the park...Honestly... Start theming stuff like this in the UK please...

Torches were also prime hiding estate... <3

Didn't they dent it when they built Storm Surge?I seem to remember people kicking off because of that...

NOM NOM NOM! I'll be sure to find this when in Hamburg... Looks AWESOME!

Erm... No... Exit passes pls k thnks

Footwear gets thrown into a bin if you leave them on the platform now?GREAT IDEA!

LOL... I believe many on here would disagree with that...I agree with Mark... Raptor looks like pure awesome... NOM NOM NOM!Plus I'm looking forward to Sequoia Adventure...

Lol,...Dear Zamperla, please come to Chessington and prove us how the hell we're meant to get 264 an hour on Tiny Truckers...Thankyou, THE MANAGEMENT.

Nah that's fine, means first ride of the day after meet up will be Tomb <3Besides, gives me time to run off to Vamp quick

Stop stealing my photos!

Oh of course Mark... But it's still gonna be a rapist... It's hard to shake the memory of it...

Shockwave's trains (or at least, the red train, blue was indoors) look absolutely awesome... Just so shiny and pretty...Seeing queues being repainted as well is a good thing too... I do like Drayton as a park, unlike many other enthusiasts, ok the coasters are crap but it has a nice atmosphere and some decent theming strewn around...Plus Maelstrom <3<3

Removal of sponsorship my arse...Sigh, hearing the music just depresses me... As from that video very little actually seems to have changed...I hope I'm wrong, but putting the original music back doesn't make it good again...