SteveJ

There were often no spaces for hotel guests in the car parks and they'd have to park in the grass car park, rather than the logical place of right next to the hotels. They always end up using the south entrance anyway so might as well send most cars there from now on. I heard there's a lot more they want to do until it becomes the main theme park entrance. The north car parks are pretty rubbish anyway even though they keep improving bits. What they really need is a big overhaul but there are more important things to sort first.

Some decoration has been added to counteract the demolition of the only remaining themed part of the outdoor queue. Pretty sure Vampire's queue has been planned for a redesign for some time.

The rollercoaster was very bare when it first opened, then it hit a sweet spot and then some of it got so overgrown it's a bit ugly. They fixed this though a year or so back when the whole of Transylvania had a trim. The parts where you swing close to trees are fantastic, I'm surprised they can get away with such close clearance in some places and I hope they never cut these down! The queue line drastically needs relandscaping though.

SCARE the children, it's good for them and they like it. Eventually. Where are the old days of Terror Tomb being considered a family ride?

SUCH A REPETITIVE TOPIC SURELY THERE'S SOMETHING ELSE TO TALK ABOUT WITH VAMPIRE Oh, no there isn't

Pretty sure all of them have gone now, bar one or two in the middle of the queue that are now silent. There used to be three separate audio areas I think, only the middle section (roars and rumbles) and by the entrance (information announcements in a 'dragon' voice) had been working in the last few years.

The £2 B&Q shed is gone? that always amused me.

If you were checked twice it means there was an issue flagged by the computer or they were training a new attendant. Probably the latter because the rides recently swapped between the allocated staffing teams so there's a new load of training.

There was never a brewery concept planned ever, that's just a common misunderstanding of JohnW's story of how he came up with the BubbleWorks, but he never proposed it to be a brewery. It was a magic pop factory from day 1 of planning, from before the Transylvania concept was developed. The station sets at least were dressed to look like a European town with the canal running through it. It was also a good enough ride for no one to care about it "not fitting in"!

It had a magnificent strobe lighting sequence that will stay with me forever. It was perfectly safe because it was timed in short bursts and the appropriate warnings were given at the entrance. It was the most amazin part and enjoyed by millions of young families without any issue over its 15 years. There are now prominent strobes in Tomb and Zufari as well with no problem. The strobes were not removed completely as such, just the lighting was botched so they came on at the wrong time and had no stroboscopic effect. Originally they were programmed to come on during blackout and the rate slowed gradually to give the visual effect of the water droplets changing speed.

I missed the joke, I do take BubbleWorks too seriously don't I. And yes very strange that out of all the projects Chessington were trying to start, the dragon falls one was publically announced. Perhaps it was a rushed announcement To lessen the shock of its poor appearance, but now we're pretty used to bits of Chessington disappearing each year.

Dont know where you got this idea from but there is a lot more happening than Dragon Falls.As for being ready by last year, that project never got off the ground let alone being scheduled for a completion date.

Having met all the key team members that created the ride I can tell you that they could not possibly know about the future of BubbleWorks because none of them have been contacted about it for 25 years. Also I've got all sorts of documents with the names of those involved in creating the ride and never heard of "Bazil Durrent", so who is he? However there's more credibility to the story than you think but don't expect a BubbleWorks redesign yet.

Think my trailer beats it though.

10 years. Like all rides it has received reinvestment to try and prolong this lifespan. Same old story, you can see it all around the park, and not just in the rides. The most obvious example is Vampire. It's now nothing like The Vampire that opened in 1990 because it has been modified so much to cope with its age problems (no more Arrow parts, seemingly no more Vekoma parts, bla bla). But they can't remove it. Very difficult situation.

Chessington has had a tragic history and IS a sad state of affairs. However I'm sure everyone knows this is because of its original design reaching the end of its intended life (rides being built on top of each other was the only clever way to maximise space at the time) and the fact that it was utterly vandalised for a decade before Merlin took over. It gets investment poured into it but very little is actually visible because of how poorly maintained the park was for years. But why it attracts criticism and hate now (not necessarily on this website) I never know. It can be fun to visit and is popular, and has a better future. Blame all of the park's flaws on circumstance and a decade of idiotic operation under DIC Tussauds.

I laughed. Dragon's Fury is the cheapest excuse for a leading rollercoaster ever, was built to be temporary and it shows badly. And I've always felt the ride experience feels a bit like one of those homemade garden rollercoasters. Anyway there are massive plans for the future - people always say that about Chessington but this time they may actually result in something coming to fruition! shock

Can't say I do. But I remember when Marseille the organist actually started moving again. Weird to think he just sat there still for about 5 years, those were the days when no one really could be bothered! I'm yet to find any material of his clone in the Black Forest Chateau. I love the idea that you'd meet him rising up through the stage floor in a jolly animatronics show, then he'd reappear to serenade you to the sound of late 80s gothic rock while you boarded the ride. No video preshow character interaction nonsense, just camp in-your-face animatronic fun.

Sounds like your normal vague maybe/'we hope so' response from the online team that are nothing to do with the decisions that led to the chandeliers removal. It could be anything. Also everyone's overlooked the sad state that the old crypt is now in. OK so even before being completely obliterated it has been a shadow of its former self for years. But here are some bad photos I took around 2008 before most of the decoration was removed. I remember when you actually queued through the crypt and down the corridor, ahhhh. Spooky. There once was a plaque overhead proclaiming "Abdandon hope all ye who enter here.. The Vampire is about to strike.." or something along those lines, and that whole area was once filled with smoke too.

There are only 3 chandeliers right? And pretty sure the holes have always been there. I doubt they will be put up anytime soon, you'd need some serious scaffolding which means closing the ride again. The time to do it at the start of the season has been and gone. The new policy is if it's potentially unsafe, just don't do it. And don't build anything that could potentially become unsafe in the first place. All guests will also be wrapped in bubblewrap as soon as they enter the park. Yet the false claims against UK parks are way more than 30 odd years ago, back when they were sending guests over rooftops, etc, and all rides had far less safety procedures. Claim culture happened, shame really. It makes it hard to strike the right balance, but with so much great stuff being removed it's ruining the experience.

Or maybe they have been told (some) true information, but as they are far removed from the ones making the decisions plans may change without them knowing or they only have a fraction of the story. They might not be 'lying' but it's all just grapevinery until something actually happens.

Fury has very frequent but quick-to-resolve breakdowns this season because a main component was replaced over winter. You may notice the whiplash inducing alignment buffer is now much softer, sometimes too soft. Engineers are working on it though I know. So if you're in the queue and hear about technical difficulties, more often than not it won't be anything to bother about.

John was not involved, Spirit of London was done entirely by Tussauds Studios. It was their second dark ride after The 5th Dimension at Chessington.There were plenty of great attraction studios in the UK back then, it's thanks to them that a lot of classic rides were built and a lot but not all were based on John's ideas. In fact Spirit is the only one I can think of from the 90s that hasn't been totally vandalised!

I'm fairly sure they have got the "Three points of contact" rule mixed up with "three steps" whatever that is. Sounds made up and arbitrary to me, either a mistake at Guest Help or nonsense