SteveJ

I didn't say that. I'm saying the persistent notion that Chessington don't care and don't know how to operate a theme park is outdated and ignores the big positive changes coming now and in the near future. It's not great discussion when it's just flippant remarks. I have been visiting the park for well over a decade and have never known such a genuine will to make the park a better place. It is also now more successful in terms of guest popularity and profits than it has been for ages, meaning Merlin will continually reinvest rather than ignore it like before.

All I mean is that some people (including me probably) will never be truly satisfied with the park even if their future plans do turn out well, whatever they are, simply because it's not the old Chessington that they used to know. However that doesn't mean Chessington don't care anymore. The creative enterprise of the early 90s will not come back, since the UK theme park industry doesn't work like that anymore. Nothing wrong with that necessarily, since it is now more popular and profitable than it has ever been, but it does mean future projects will lack the charm and originality of those old rides. I spoke to John Wardley about this and he said that simpler time ended long ago, yet we still got Oblivion, Hex and other very impressive rides after it ended. It could have continued like that had Tussaudes not been sold to an investment company and fired everyone; it's only now under Merlin that there is a chance to build entertaining rides again (they just need to take more risks). See the very mixed reactions to Scorpion Express to see how reinventing old rides always causes a stir, even though the refurbishment was necessary to overcome the shocking neglect under DIC Tussaudes and the ride is now very popular. As for BubbleWorks, I'm pretty sure it's obvious how embarrassed Chessington are by what happened to it in 2005. It will undoubtedly see redevelopment sooner or later.

At least you have actually visited and explained why you were unimpressed, but personally I think there is a much nicer atmosphere about the park now. Areas that were left tacky and drab for a decade are now looking a lot more alive and closer to their original design intentions. Mystic East is fresh even after last year's disaster, and there is simply no comparison between Transylvania now and 5 years ago. Not to mention that most areas now have their own audio thanks to new music being commissioned. Chessington is not perfect, but these genuine efforts to make the park better are a relief from when it was going rapidly downhill not long ago.

Amazing. Many people on the internet have no idea what the reality is at Chessington at the moment and are clinging on to dated generalisations that they don't care about anything, even when the entire park is significantly improving right in front of us and the enjoyment of guests has shot up since the mistakes of last year. If you aren't visiting Chessington anytime soon then what's the point in complaining about operations on Vampire, fountains broken on BubbleWorks, Scorpion Express's queue, etc... It has no impact on you if you aren't even there. Although such problems are frustrating, it's not the easiest park to operate you know! Spreading ignorance just disregards all the real efforts made by the management teams on a daily basis. Did you know that Frazzle's neck fell apart last week, he spent a few days switch off and then was fixed in time for the bank holiday? No. Problems occur constantly at theme parks and always have done, it's only with the rise of social media do we hear about them more often. Chessington is on the right track. They have a good plan to restore the park and have received huge amounts from Merlin to finally overcome the problems inherited from the shockingly abysmal DIC Tussauds years. Not everybody will like the direction the park is heading in (sadly there will never be another creative golden age), but at least they have a good objective at last and are receiving the money to achieve this.

It's nice for UK coasters to get some reputation but who cares about lists anyway? Quickly moving on!

I think the tunnel lighting was removed at the same time the Ribena animations were removed. Those 'sprinklers' before the lift have been there since the Thunder Rapids years!

No, obviously. It was decided to extend the opening hours early on in the day, and may continue for the rest of the current busy period. Everything is according to plan.

It is required by law to have such procedures in place in the case of emergency. It really isn't anything to care about.

It stays visible during a power cut or leads people in the correct direction during an evacuation.

Ha, I think I was the one that circulated that rumour years ago, but to be honest I have no idea whose department office is based above Mexican Cantina! Would be nice if it was true. Here's the Tomb prop room for those who haven't seen it before, with the snake pit AbDab (the only one left) highlighted...

Lol, new BubbleWorks mix. I could have done a better job at editing that audio 5 years ago using just Windows Movie Maker. Please please contact Graham Smart to get the original loops back in their full length and quality. Would be great to get the old SFX back from Rex Studios too. That way we can all listen to the ghost of a giant banana saying "Lovely glass of shapoooew - hagh hahh hagh!" without QUAK WUAK QUAK over the top.

Yes, Thorpe Park can't do architecture anymore, so their entrance will now be a massive TV advert instead. Demolish the building and start again please, don't just hastily cover it up. It should have been replaced years ago but seems doomed to be recycled forever.

It's closed because the construction of Amazu prevented its winter maintenance being carried out, but will open some time during Easter. The station and platform have been refurbished for all you people who like words beginning with 're'.

There was no contract, especially since the studio that produced the ride closed a few years after the ride opened. But I'm unsure how Chessington would respond if somebody else used the characters. Hmmmn

Clearly I did "miss the part" because I didn't visit Thorpe Park every week to see when a flat was or wasn't operating. My point is, Rush is only as reliable now because it had quite extensive alterations, mostly to prevent any accidents like the last one ever happening again.

Rush was far less reliable than slammer when it first opened. The ride would break down every day I visited, or would only operate on one swing, or would be covered in scaffolding. I felt so lucky to even get on it at all in 2006. Meanwhile Slammer was mostly fine. Now it's the other way around. Rush has been fine since most of its parts were redesigned (after the accident).

So all the old Terror Tomb props have disappeared? My 10 year old self's dreams of coming across the secret vault of bubble-wrapped ghouls covered in dust have been shattered. Although I kind of knew they would gone by now anyway! Anybody know where they've gone? And yes, all of BubbleWorks is now spread across the country in multiple people's attics.

Yes that's him. He was even on TV at the time. But I didn't want to bring him up in case people start personally criticising him (although thankfully stuff like that doesn't happen often on this forum!) plus I have to consider Merlin's media policy. Would be interesting to know how far his involvement was and what the design process is like now, and how it has evolved since Merlin took over.

Candy Holland is head of Merlin's creative team and she was mentored by John, but another guy (am I allowed to post his name since he is no longer a Merlin employee?) was the lead creative designer of Saw, Swarm and Smiler. The process these days is totally different to how John Wardley used to work. I had a nice talk to him about it last week, the theme park industry was totally different back then. The last time where one person/team had all creative control in a Tussaudes project was around Nemesis or even earlier.

Surely they'd need a lighting programmer rather than an engineer? I heard at the start of the year that the current lights were yet to be polished but not sure if that's happened yet. The lighting remained fantastic right up to 2005, when the sequencing was deliberately removed and the lights just seemed to go off at random. The current LED lamps installed in 2011 are a great replacement, although I miss the fuzzy glow of the original gel lanterns. At one point there was a mirrorball in there as well! Imagine that with the mirrored walls!

Usually they only fix one mister at a time but they've clearly got the whole volcano working brilliantly this time. It really pays off! In fact this year is the first time I've seen all the water effects working as well, since 2003.

Lionsgate is a film production company and simply fund the movies and own the brands, they wouldn't get directly involved with the creative departments of either the movies or the rides. The Ride project was designed by Merlin's lead creative at the time and I would assume Lionsgate's role was to approve the final plans. I know when the ride was first announced that there were a lot of press releases about how "Lionsgate is proud to be working with Thorpe Park to create the scariest ride in the world..." but that's mostly PR and I doubt a film distribution company actually had many creative decisions about the ride's effects and scenery.

Some shots are so quick you have to pause on them, I'll just post the screenshots: Presumably the big shiny entrance. A nice metal box where the Tomb facade is today! Queueline extension?

Somebody kindly published their old home videos of Chessington recently, including this lovely glimpse inside The 5th Dimension. It's really impressive how the whole ride was done in-house by a studio with no background in theme parks! The "part 2" video also shows really brief glimpses of the ride's exterior, very odd to see a big warehouse sitting where Forbidden Kingdom is today. Oh no, swamp spiders!

That's not what I'm saying. Riders being unreceptive is not a problem, it's just human nature - but the best themed attractions are theatrical and thrilling enough to overcome this. There's a big difference between subtlely and poor effort.Anyway the Saw films are hardly subtle, in fact it's some of the most gratuitous silliness I've ever seen in a movie (that's the whole point it seems). The ride should have been just as exaggerated to recreate the atmosphere of the movies. That really wouldn't have been too hard to achieve. Even just some pulsing music and professional lighting in the pre-lift sequence would ramp things up a lot. Instead we have a wobbly Billy doll whose amazing mouth animation probably cost a whole £10 to create (I mean, 40 years ago John Wardley created far more convincing animatronics in his bedroom using elastic). Well I'm glad others enjoy Saw The Ride more than I do, it's there to be enjoyed obviously. But you know everybody would enjoy it 10x more if it actually had some panache and substance to it! Plus then there wouldn't be pointless debates over whether a novelty doll with a light on its face is memorable entertainment (sorry, I'll never let it go - it never fails to amuse me how bad it is!).