pluk

WTF were they thinking with the BK destruction? Just as they put in a highly themed railways station coffee shop, they tear out a highly themed burger bar and turn it into generic shopping centre? Spending money to make things worse is my biggest hate in Theme Parks, especially when getting funding for anything that isn't a big new thing has been neigh on impossible for decades, but with this and the teacups we have two big lumps of that here. Who the hell is running this place, and can they be sunk with the Thorpe Belle?

I don't think I could bring myself to visit with all that nonsense going on. Fortunately it'll be a few years until my daughter is old enough to be making a visit likely, hopefully by then this system will be on the scrapheap, but it feels like a one way situation at the moment. Once reliant on the queue jumping cash it's hard to come away from.

Merlin can build new parks from scratch without a wince, they don't have a tight budget in the slightest. They could put a full size coaster in here if they fancied it, they are choosing not too. This change looks insignificant, likely for groundworks, utilities, access.

...changes Turn and face the strange Ch-ch-changes Bowie, the ride. At last, a theming idea I can get behind.

It's loggers, isn't it? 😄

I don't like to be negative, but I hate it for that adverse camber nonsense straight out of the station. Pack it in. Overall though it looks alright I suppose, which seems like some mental apathy for the height record in the UK. It just seems that everything I'd want from a hyper isn't there. A straight ahead killer drop, multiple airtime hills, and length. This is like a greatest hits of elements of other coasters they already have, just a bit bigger.

I think it's safe to say it didn't come about how it should; by someone who knows what they are doing designing an excellent ride and the theming and marketing evolving around that. The tail wags the dog at Merlin. And this is the real crux of it, why I'm negative on the project overall rather than indifferent. However good this ride actually is that throughput is absolutely not good enough. Regardless of any other consideration, the whole thing should be back to the drawing board on that point alone.

Considering enthusiasts have been crying out for investment in Chessington for decades, does it not say something that there might be something off with these plans that the response has been muted at best? There's going to be differences of opinion but collectively we do kind of know what we are talking about, don't we? Should we have been happy for a new dark ride, something else we have been crying out for for decades, when we were given DBGT? Other than it is something, I'm intrigued to know what particular positives people find in these plans. They literally have an empty field to work with, a completely blank canvas, quite a rarity in UK developments. Is this really the best thing they could do with that and a pile of cash?

There's sooo much this park needs, but I'm at a loss to understand why they think that includes a (relatively) low capacity 1.4m coaster with another vaguely jungle theme. Everything about it is so odd.

My first thoughts (from POV, I'm no VIP) is that if this sort of set up was used as the entrance and exit of X, with effects of comparable quality during the ride, that would make one complete, excellent attraction rather than two slightly lacking ones we now have.

Agreed about the middle section. I don't understand why they couldn't get that effect to work reliably? It really was simple, surely they could have put the effort they did into reconfiguring that section into the effect instead and kept it going. That's such a non event now, something spectacular needs to happen there to make the journey feel worthwhile. The obvious answer would be some nice close up real fire effects, but I imagine that would increase the running costs too much.

So Thorpe suffered the indignity of falling below Chessington for the first time in a long time just before the pandemic hit. Shocking really considering the state Chessingron is in.

Changing the uniforms and adding a line of text to DBGTROTD is akin to giving a man a bucket on the titanic. Got to be time for a WWH style electrical fault some time soon so we can get three more thrill flats instead of whatever this is.

I can't believe for a second they'd go for a B&M wineries, it just feels all wrong. I'm sticking my money on a variant of that S&S prototype with the flicking out seats that looked a lot like it could be developed into a winged coaster. Not much money mind, because it probobly won't actually be anything that exciting.

You mean they didn't already?! 😄😄 I wonder if they could use something where guests slot their own phones into a disposable cardboard holder? With an app to run the VR? Wouldn't be as effective but might word for now.

No, I am quite a lump! But I watched a couple of cycles from truckers and my elephant was just not much of a flyer regardless of who was on it.

Hello last spring. Surprised it wasn't mentioned after this post, but the theming element is no longer missing although you'd be hard pressed to notice it wasn't. Really, it is tiny sitting atop this ride, the scale is all wrong. It just looks bizarre, with some big sort of padding thing below it and a relatively tiny motif on top. The base has colourful stones in sections, but this is full of detritus from the trees so just looks messy. The ride itself is also quite broken, with a couple of elephants (including the yellow one I found myself on) very obviously not able to make it more than a couple of feet off the ground. When small but IP led retheme investments are this bad you know something is deeply wrong at the heart of what is happening here.

Walk on Vampire fun times!

How is Chessington coping off peak midweek these days? Thinking of visiting fir the first time in a couple of years but don't fancy a day of explaining to a 2 year old why we have to wait hours for everything!

It went to Holiday Park, so I had unknowingly ridden the same ride a couple if decades apart!

I was there that opening day, IIRC it was hit heavily by powercuts and something of a nightmare.

I'd assume / hope that these bag holds have switching access so you can only access your own trains bags? With the number of trains on Saw that probably wouldn't be possible so I hope not. Either way, this looks like a right old mess. I don't think it should be too much to ask that if they are going to do something they do it properly and professionally, this looks like it's neither.

Gimme a B Gimme an R Gimme an E Gimme an A Gimme a K Gimme a D Gimme a A Gimme an N Gimme a C Gimme an E ...and a polyp. ... and a tagada

I imagine that whatever restrictions Covid necessitates could be overcome if the desire was strong enough to keep the ride running. This conversation seems to be jumping the gun a little but if it has gone it surely is because they want it gone, not because it has to go.

I don't think it can be denied that doing this is his work. I don't think it could be argued he could do this work without going there to do it, and there have been very few attractions open to chose from. It cant be argued that you can travel for work if you cannot work from home because that's the law, and therws nothing in law that states the work needs to be essential. That's not a loophole or bending of the rules, its the law which is written that way deliberately. That being the case I find it hard to be critical of him doing it, even if it's not something I'd do myself right now. As for the allegations, he was in a no win situation with that, and as a one man band trying to deal with that I'm not sure what people could expect of him? He's not going to have slick managed response and I don't see how he could be responsible for his friends actions which themselves never went beyond unconfirmed allegations. If people have found him to be an arse in real life then fair enough I suppose.