Matt 236

Well the must do rides at the park are Laser Raiders (a dark ride with laser shootings), The Dragon (a pretty good coaster with a dark ride section), Pirate Falls (a nicely themed flume ride), Viking Rapids (a decent rapid ride), Squid Surfer (sort of like a stand up whip ride on water), Fairy Tale Brook (a brilliantly themed scenic boat ride) and Star Wars mini land. I suggest doing boating school first and Laser Raiders after at the start of the day.

Nemesis is still number one for me because of the sheer force of the ride throughout and the constant speed it reaches flying through the helixes and loops and despite getting further through its circuit, the ride feels like its building up speed throughout and the. Suddenly finishing with about enough time to think of the amazing experience that has just finished. The ride isn't just brilliant in design and flow rate but the way the queue interacts within the ride really helps too how it suddenly travels away from the ride to come closer to it once again and at nearly 20 years old, the ride is still pretty smooth.

This coaster looks amazing with the heavy theming and the use of the space and layout available plus that pretzel loop looks gorgeous. Certainly looks better than the Swarm, shame about the colour. Looks like another park to add to the wanting to visit list.

Blue fire & Wodan.

I have been frustrated at Chessington ever since they removed train 3 at the end 2011 because I haven't queued less than 45 minutes since 2012 when I've visited and it annoys me how the staff still manage to stack train 2 in the brake run before the station for up to 30 seconds sometimes. Some where in the Vampire's maintenance area are a number of objects that were once train 3 and once fully assembled could still work perfectly. Is it just me or during the pre-floor less days, train 3 wouldn't wait on lift 2 and instead would wait behind train 2 in the brake run if stacking occurred as the bat trains were slightly shorter.

There recently has been numerous complaints on Chessie's Facebook about the bad queues Vampires been receiving lately (not a surprise with it exceeding 2 hours) in which Chessie have responded that due to H&S, it can no longer run on three and can only run a maximum of 2 now. Still feels like its just an excuse to not bother, though the train waiting on lift 2 does feel like one of several reasons as to why they don't run it on 3 now.

That is an impressive structure the park have done, it did look very impressive in person when I saw it today. Meanwhile, found out train 1 is the refurbished 2013 unit as it has different looking wheels on some of the carriages plus feels noticeably smoother whilst train 2 felt more bumpy and at times, a bit painful during my rides on Colossus today.

Having just been to Thorpe on one of the busiest days of the year (where even the grass car parks were filled up), I found the queues and busyness tolerable. They weren't great but certainly a lot better than Chessie's with the longest queue I saw being 90 minutes. Thorpe tackle crowds better than chessie IMO.

I mainly added it to give more of a choice and though its already in the dark, the aspect of walking in and out of the pyramid could be a more interesting experience at night. E.G, going to a night club.

Banned for not eating the cornetto

Seeing that the Swarm came tops, I thought I'd do another poll similar but this time which coaster everyone likes the best in the dark/night time at Thorpe. Things to consider your choice/s are Coherence to the theme Lighting (as too much ruins the effect) Interaction to surroundings (at night)

I think there may be more this year other than the 5 mazes & rides in the dark, I'm certain.

Personally I don't want to see any mazes set on the beach this year, plus the Curse was considered the weakest maze since its introduction.

The little kids probably do, not that it's really any special tbh. I think the park with these dire operations need to get better trained staff and as much as it hurts, reduce guest interaction on the ride areas for the purpose of better throughputs on the ride. The amount of negative feedback on Chessie's Facebook just shows how bad operations currently are at the park with many getting on only 2/3 rides in an 8 hour day. Though its not going to work completely, I do think Chessie should increase park hours with 7pm closures during summer/bank holidays and 6pm most weekends as well as closing at 8pm again during Haloween. Whilst the other parks (debatably) move forward, Chessington is moving backwards.

Congrats James, you've done very well.

I'd like to see the CCR train or route involved in one of the mazes as it could make an interesting experience I.E the train stops due to some problem ad you have to walk the rest on foot to escape. Could work very well.

Well it's certain Chessie's ride teams have gone down in standards in the last few years. I remember the days of 2006 when the park though not perfect seemed a lot better then. The ride loading s were considerably faster and the park probably in slightly better state than it is now (bar Wild Asia and Zufari). Whilst this is perhaps my most enjoyed season at Thorpe since 2006, this is certainly my least enjoyed Chessington season. The park needs big changes in the next few years for the better.

Sounds an interesting coaster concept of having a forwards/backwards family coaster at the park, plus this isn't a thrill addition like the last two coasters, which certainly fills the gap for the non Thrillseeker market. Dolly wood is definitely progressing towards becoming another must visit park in the states.

Sounds like its a very enjoyable park there. Oakwood one of the many places I'm dying to go to and though I visited there 15 years ago, I was too small for Megaphobia. Hopefully my request will be answered in the near future.

2 rides in one day, that is absolutely shocking. Ok it's the summer holidays and the park will be busy but that can't be explained in how bad that is. Chessington's current rides can't hande big crowds anymore plus they're being managed badly and to make matters worse, at least 2 major rides are currently closed. Makes Legoland seem quiet during summer in all honesty which in fact Lego has better throughput rides now too. As far as I'm aware, Fury was down a few days ago and though I think it's running again now, it's certainly not good considering RMT & RR currently being closed. Dragons play house is also currently closed.

Had word from Themepark guide that the Smiler is closed meaning the ride still has problems ongoing with it. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=534561116599192&set=a.166428706745770.47984.163052343750073&type=1&theater Hopefully this will be corrected soon.

I'm very pleased to hear this. Slammer is unique ride and will surely be an impressive one ridden at night.

I do think the queue line worked better in its original form where it worked like the other coasters, dispatching was faster, queues were more organised and it was less confusing to guests. Now it's just a complete mess there.

This all sounds very exciting, four mazes themed around big horror films plus the return of Saw Alive. If this is done right, in theming, atmosphere and setting, then it could be one amazing event and maybe the best event yet. I hope they don't charge for all the mazes as the old ones used to free so hope it will all be included. The factor of maybe more to come is even more exciting. Can't wait for this years Fright Nights.

So we know then that there will be several new/replacement mazes then by the sounds.