Matt 236

Ladies & Gentleman, the solution to Chessington!

My love of themepark's began back at Thorpe during it's early magical days. My first trip was probably 1995(as I remember going as a child) and absolutely loving all the charming rides that existed there including the now removed Thunder River, Octopus Garden, a Caroulsel Kingdom, Farm & Flying a Fish (mk1). Oakwood themepark & Legoland also greatly helped this out too, the former being one of main elements of a family holiday in 1998 (at just 5) which I strongly remember and whilst unfortunately being just about too little for Megafobia, I still enjoyed many rides including the Treetops coaster, Snake a River Falls (which has gained the nick name of the wet bum slide) and the now defunct Nutty Jake's Goldmine. Legoland mainly occurred due to my interest in Lego which still exists to this very day! It was these stepping stones that lead to all future trip progressions where many mile stones have been reached including my first world class park (Alton Towers), first woodie (Megafobia) and first big park outside the UK (Disneyland Paris) and more to come.MC16

Basically Legoland are having extreme difficulty gaining planning permission these days (even more so than Chessie) on the grounds of area congestion so Merlin have their hands tied in this one as they know if they poor openings here they will have no chance of building anything new in the future. I've also heard unlike Thorpe & Chessie Lego's numbers haven't been affected by the Smiler.

Tomb Blaster & Rattlesnake's reliability seemed to have gone down the pan lately and need to be sorted. Pity they couldn't hold off the new ride and instead update Tomb Blaster as that ride really struggles now. Skyway doesn't surprise me one bit as it hasn't worked well for the best part of 10 years and just needs a rebuild. 90 minutes now for Bubbleworks and that seems quite extreme, however 45 for vampire & Fury makes the queue length sound debatable. Safe to say Paultons appear to be overtaking Chessie now.

So we could be losing three attractions at Universal next year by the looks (however Beetlejuice might be moving), however no doubt it's replacements will be of high quality especially seeing how amazing Kong looks already. Wonder what type of ride Fast & Furious will be? I know there's another attraction going to the Hollywood park soon (if it's not there already). Strange about Twister though, I really thought this attraction was on its way out as Theme Park Tourist had been talking about permits for the ride's demolition and Jimmy Fallon opening in 2016 or 17. Shame Disasters going though even if it's old and dated now.

This ride is visually stunning, yet there is still even more parts that haven't even been constructed yet. Either way, this is going to be a stunning ride when it opens.

Some interesting developments at this park, that castle themed teacup ride is already looking really nice. That layout for the woodie though looking very exciting and I guess this will be replacing the Bat coaster which is a bit of a shameless those rides seem to be extremely rare now however I hear their throughputs are awful.

Paulton's upcoming new area coming along nicely. The UK has some new exciting developments next year for once. Some mighty fine theming building up around here, this could well beat WC16's even.

Looks like a washout to me, just like the ride. Storm Splurger would've been a hundred times better at Florida Legoland than Thorpe.

ooh, exciting announcement there, I do like it when the park changes its scare theme each year and look forward to see what's ahead for this year's Fright Nights. New addition wise, I expect one will be a replacement/rework of Studio 13 with a circus theme potentially and the other a scare zone. Unlike Chessington's event which has taken a massive dive suddenly with no HITH & MOHPH I have no doubt this will be another great fright nights event and from what I remember heard earlier this season, the budget is being increased this year.

Curse of the Tomb is apparently free now (source Southparks) which should be the case to begin, however it's still strongly disappointing that both the park's former Halloween attractions however have disappeared as they looked top notch additions snd I never got to experience either of them. I'd really like to no why the decision to chop them were made and whether it was the park or Merlin that gave the 'this maze can't run anymore' order.Part of me is really hoping for a u-turn or change, but this is Chessington. If the 8pm closings are slashed again, I will likely call off my visit (I'm already considering doing a Scarefest instead).

I think Thorpe has reached its stage and time that it now requires a major ride that isn't a coaster, the park had their time of installing coasters (2002-2012) which one could call the coaster baby boom. Seeing the amount of avenues thin out and there's a demand for more immersive experiences and the like, a dark ride is just what the park needs considering most of the park's supporting rides are flats (some of which are really on their last legs), a dark ride couldn't come sooner really.

Yeah, some info should be taken with a pinch of salt really, I'm still sketchy on that 'Rita & Stealth were supposed to be one ride' fact I was told on my lift walk. I don't believe the Colossus at chessie or Saw bit for one moment, however he was half right in how that ride was the most successful ride at Thorpe Park though. I really hope WC16 is a big success (regardless of it's current unthemed exterior) as if it goes well for them and boosts guest figures significantly, I can see other Merlin parks building similar scale dark rides in the future such as Towers and even Chessington (amongst the Europe parks too perhaps). Out of interest considering Thorpe's plans must be very similar to concept images, is the park allowed to enhance or update planning at anytime, I.E add a themed facade over that back wall on WC16 or something similar?

Bitterly disappointing especially since I heard good things about it. I am (or at least was) planning to visit the park for a Hallowe'en (just because I've never been (park at night cress too)) but this news has put me off just a little as that's two great mazes I missed out on. Disappointing times

Florida is the place to be for a lot of the most exciting new attractions in the world. Universal is really moving forwards with everything so far and I look forward to how they keep progressing and WDW responds investment wise. One day

Chessington being Chessington have decided to cut weekday openings during September & October from 5pm to 4pm. Source Southparks If they're trying to impress me, they've failed, we really are living in the epitome of park progression.

These investments snd upgrades sound exciting and stunning. The hulk one sounds much needed as apparently the ride was getting rough and the appearance was starting to look worn, so an overall hardware upgrade in addition to a 21st century update sounds much needed.

We will never know here I go again 1/ I used to have a cuddly bear called nick because I somewhat stole him when I was a baby 2/ I accidentally smashed my glass of wine during new year 5 years ago 3/ I broke a coat hanger renacting Michael Jackon's Thriller when in a hotel drunk

It's been a week since that amazing trip which means one thing. Time for the unofficial meet video/ Matt Creek Oakwood Vlog. https://youtu.be/vAhM8NdXHB4 It's the longest yet and there will be an additional video coming later featuring bits from the meet that were deemed unsuitable for public use

Not a coaster? Think I've worked it out. The ride experience will comprise of you going around the building on the cherry picker in pitch black darkness On a serious note, let's not write this off as being an immersive experience as this ride could still be, when we find out the ride's theme and the exterior is covered up. The UK has still done some immersive rides recently such as Thirteen, The Swarm & to a lesser extent Smiler & Wallace & Gromit. Let's not forget the Dungeons (New London & Blackpool ones) and Shrek's Adventure either. Zufari & Sub Terra would be there too if they'd hadn't been rushed and half cooked.

X No Way Out 2 here we come!

The Champagne is just as good as the actual experience, sometimes a little better. I would recommend Face It Alone to anyone over 18 who isn't afraid.

Just sa it on the news, looks a highly interesting exhibition indeed. The Disney castle is the part I like the look of (unsurprisingly).

Hopefully just a revamp, not all woodies need to get RMC'd especially classic coasters. Must be a pretty major job if it's closing this early

Chessington is just running on fumes from it's once great past (1987-2000), and these fumes become more and more watered down following from reliability issues & removed/rotting theming. The fact that one it's main coasters was never supposed to be long term & the other one being at the end of it's life just sums things up. The longer it takes for Chessington to get reinvigorated takes, the more severe & bigger the bang when most of it's major rides fail forever (towers & thorpe have issues too but they're on a noticeably smaller level). That video from the 90's shows how good Chessington was (and could be with many millions spent) and almost resembles a slightly smaller Efteling, Phantasiland and even Europa scale back then. What went wrong?