Coaster

The park being busy isn't the issue here, it's the fact that several rides were down on the busiest days (I recall one day at least with five rides closed, including Colossus), as well as mass Fastrack overselling on the mazes and rides, and RNR causing havoc with the main queues of the mazes. For such a busy time, all rides should be open, but I recall Samurai and Fish being closed for maintenance (obviously didn't do Samurai any good ) as well as many other closures throughout the day. It's the poor operations which might put people off returning, not the park being busy.

That already looks amazing for Paultons. If they can produce theming like that, why are a bigger company producing bland green/red warehouses?

On park today, operations are dismal. Park opening advertised as 9:30am, yet Slammer, Loggers' Leap, Rocky Express, Rumba Rapids all on staggered opening (not opening until 11 - an hour and a half after the park opens!), Rush closed until gone 10:30am, Colossus closed (and still is), Loggers still isn't open despite the fact that it should have opened half an hour ago, Tidal Wave is closed and Samurai still sitting in pieces. The Swarm also opened late. To add, X on just two trains! It's no surprise that they aren't getting as many guests in as usual with this service, it's shockingly bad.

I fully understand that you have an opinion, but my issue was that you seemed to be essentially calling the investment a "waste of money" just because it doesn't suit what you want in a ride.

I disagree - who wants to get up really early to then be chucked out in mid-afternoon? Also, I'm sure that more people would spend money on food etc. with an 11am - 5pm opening time as it covers lunch time more, whereas on a 4pm close people would probably wait until the park closes for food or take their own.

Seen it like that many times before, it's one of many reasons why Storm Surge was a poor addition to the park, along with the fact that it's awful and looks like it has been taken out of a skip.

I'm not sure how you can call it a boring waste of money before it has even been built, but dark rides (and rides in general) don't all need to be thrilling. Thorpe lacks an experience ride, hopefully this will bring one to them.

Until the full report is published I will be taking this with a pinch of salt, but I think that the fact that it was human error bodes well for the ride's future rather than if it was a fault with the ride itself.

That's good to hear and I was wrong about that, still disagree with one train operation so that they can leave on time though.

Some parks get their staff in at 6am to make sure rides can open on two trains in certain conditions. If this is true then all I can say is poor, poor, poor! If WC12 really is Merlin's highest investment then I hope it pays off, if they produce a top quality dark ride then I'm sure it will.

Dear dear dear... If they wanted to cut hours, 11am - 5pm would be so much better.

I can't see it being as big as Valhalla to be honest considering the size of the building and the fact that the ride is on several floors and is half a mile long in length.In terms of quality, I'm not sure it will be on the same level for lots of reasons, but hopefully I'll be surprised. As for the comment of "at least it's the same colour as X" - that really shows the low standard that some people are happy to settle with. Unless the theme relates to X in some way (which is not going to happen) I actually think that's worse as it gives the new attraction less individuality. However, if they do theme the exterior them I'll take all that back, but going by the plans I'm not hopeful.

Bolts do shed off rides, but if the article is accurate then on this occasion it landed within feet of a family, which is concerning considering the damage a bolt could do falling from that height onto someone.

Very true actually, it could be a dark ride on the scale of Sub Terra for all we know.

Planting trees does not hide the fact that they haven't bothered to theme the building properly. For a high investment this is a very low standard already, let's just hope the interior makes up for it!

Not a good thing to happen at all, the most concerning thing IMO is that it fell into a public area. Interestingly I saw workers climbing on that section of track about two weeks ago during park opening hours, so it seems as if the track section has been having some issues. BPB usually reopen rides pretty quickly after incidents as long as the ride in question is safe to be opened. They would have checked the track and everything before reopening it though!

I hope that gets a facade, it looks dismal!

I don't rate many coasters that last less than a minute, and The Swarm's weakness for me is that it's almost over before it starts!

1. Valhalla 2. The Big One 3. Wild Mouse 4. Grand National 5. Megafobia 6. Nemesis 7. Big Dipper 8. The Smiler 9. Speed 10. Nemesis Inferno

Chessington really has had a bad season so far this year. I think that these issues are a bit concerning for Merlin at the moment, they need to be providing the best day out possible for guests to regain their respect (and more importantly, custom!) after the reduced gate figures due to the Smiler incident, but when people spend so much money to get in, having so many rides down/operated poorly is just not good enough. Return tickets are better than nothing and it's good that the park realise they need to compensate guests, but it does not make up for the effort guests make when they choose to visit, and the fact remains that no park should be having to give out free return tickets due to poor operations during peak season (or anytime at all for that matter). The problem I have with Chessington is that their issues seem to have been around for years, and nothing has been done about it. They need to sort out their rides so that they can cope with busy days, or more importantly, so they can cope with actually operating! As for Rattlesnake still being closed, enough is enough now, it has been running for years without issues and there are plenty more clones of the ride still open (See Marble Madness at PWH), so IMO it should not still be closed. From my point of view (not an experienced one I know), Chessington need to spend a lot of money on their existing rides to get them in a state where they can operate reliably.

Doesn't sound very likely to me, but I could be wrong!

I thought that Studio 13 was okay, but it felt more like a calm walk through some nicely themed horror film sets as it lacked any sort of "scare" factor IMO.

Forgot about that, sadly it was only good in 2011 as they destroyed the ending in 2012 as well as the sequence of the smoke chamber room and audio, but in 2011 it was easily one of the best scare mazes the UK has seen. I also remember lighting being much better in it's first year.It had a lot longer than two years in it as well, hopefully they'll bring it back after the Lionsgate sponsorship runs out. Also, I disagree about Asylum being meh, I really enjoyed it and the reactions from most people as well as reviews suggest that it was a popular maze, but I appreciate that people have different views on things!

Yes! When on form they were far better than the current ones IMO, it's just a shame that Hellgate, Se7en and The Curse were not used to their potential in their last few years of operation.

There was a kitchen scene in Asylum if I remember correctly with weapons on the wall, it hasn't been used in recent years though.Miss that maze!