Cal

Last year was the first Fright Nights I hadn't done since 2012, meaning both Survival Games and Death doors were completely new to me. Survival games was my favorite of the mazes. Me and a friend got split up and didn't see eachother the whole time. It was quite funny talking about it after having completely different experiences. This one definitely seemed to get the best reactions of people coming out of the maze too. Trailers was basically the same as when I went on it a couple of years ago. Great sets and a good amount of actors. Stiches was my least favorite of the 3 mazes, which was a shame as I was looking forward to this one. The length of the maze and sets were amazing, but just felt it lacked any sort of scares and lacked actors in places there probably should've been actors. I do think I may have had a particularly bad run through on this so if I get myself to Fright Nights again I'd like to give it another go. I was also at the back of the group which didn't help, as most effects etc happened before I got there. I didn't watch the Creature Campus show as thats not something that really interests me. I thought the Lucifers Lair area was great though. Absolutely packed with actors and just in general a great atmosphere in the middle of the park. Everyone really seemed to enjoy this area, was constantly busy. The Crows scarzone was great, felt more like an outdoor maze than a scarezone. The lighting, audio and smoke was great. I liked that they were sending you in batches as it meant it wasn't too crowded in there but I'm unsure how this will cope on the busier nights. It created big crowds at the entrance with no real queueline. It was impossible to hear what they were saying on the megaphone with Saws area music in the background 😄 I also really enjoyed Death Doors, which was a pleasant surprise. Something completely different and it was a good laugh. Few other points: - The park in general is looking great at night. Would be nice to have a couple smoke machines around though, like Samurai and Colossus has done on previous years. - None of the rides had Fright Nights audio this year which is a shame. Not sure if they just haven't had the time to do it yet or they aren't bothering this year? This really adds to the event normally so I hope they get that sorted. - There really isn't enough time in the dark. The park looks great at night and its a completely different atmosphere. I know the park aren't keen on bringing 10pm closes back due to a number of reasons like staff welfare etc, but it seriously makes such a big difference. I'd much rather them do an 11am-10pm if its the extra hour which is an issue. Bring 10pm closes back!!! - Wasn't a fan of the parkwide Fright Nights audio this year. Overall though, the best Fright Nights I've been too in a long time. They have a great mix of attractions which are all high quality. Its clear they're putting a lot of effort into the event again and the budget it there. Next year id like to see them add a 4th maze to the current lineup. I'm sure they'd like to as well as it will help with queues and its an extra income for them. Not sure if they'll be able to do that though space wise until they get rid of black mirror. If a 4th isn't an option next year then I'd like to see a new maze to replace Trailers.

I echo the comments about queueing for mazes above. When paying for the mazes, it would be nice to have a timeslot and get straight on/little queue. An hour queue for a maze when you've paid for them is unacceptable in my opinion. They know the throughput of the mazes, and they know how many tickets they're selling. If theres an hour queue, they've clearly oversold. We got to trailers a little after 6 and they originally weren't letting us on telling us we've already used it. Had to argue our way onto a maze id paid for because I'd been stuck in queues for the others...

Completely agree with this. No ambiance in the station at all, lack of audio and bright lights. Operations were dreadful on the Swarm yesterday evening, never seen it operated so badly. Stacking every train, some for 4/5 minutes.

I've always done the first Sunday and it has historically always been a good day for Fright Nights and the crowds tend to really drop off later in the day Seeing 25 degrees forecasted is crazy though certainly going to be the nicest weather I've ever had for Fright Nights 😄

Couple of updates re Stealth single rider and fire effects Understandable regarding Stealth, I know they've put a lot of work into improving its throughput this season and that's clearly worked. I do hope they still manage to add this in the closed season though, the single rider works great on SAW and theres no reason that Stealths wouldn't too if its in the right place. The fire effects comment has got to be a joke surely? I'll believe it when I see it

Interesting! I remember being pushed on the final breaks back in the day but I didn’t realise that was an issue on lift 2 as well. I imagine that’s just Chessingtons standard poor reliability. Having a look on the app now everything is open apart from vampire which is scheduled to open from 12. They’ve been closing Wild Asia, Tiger Rock and Zufari at 3:30 on off peak days for a while but this seems to have stopped for now.

That's good to hear, agreed its not uncommon for all restraints needing to be rechecked on Colossus so that should seriously improve its throughput. I wonder if this also means they won't have to lift up all the restraints for every dispatch? That's an absolute faff on quieter days. On another note it was great to hear the original area music and original dispatch audio being played in the station the other week. What a difference that made

If you go on a weekday term time, you shouldn't expect it to have a queue all day I went a couple weeks ago during the week and it was empty. It was running 2 trains, but they were only loading the front half of 1 train, which was a bit annoying as it meant I couldn't get a back row ride. They were dispatching the empty train as soon as the the other train was on lift 2, so it was nice having the 2 trains going round at the same time. A very rare sight nowadays

Bringing this back

The crows scare zone has started to be set up in the same location as the last couple of years. A small part of the Platform 15 tunnel has been set up and looks like it'll form part of the scare zone which looks good! Didn't take any photos but I'm sure it won't be long until someone gets some 😄

Rode Mandrill for my first time today, and I really enjoyed it. It still isn't the coaster of choice I would've gone for Chessington, but it rides really well and fits in perfectly. It now has a single rider queue and you don't need to use the virtual queue for this. Wonder how long they'll keep the virtual queue for? I'm amazed they bother with it on off peak days. It was walk on all day and they were allowing rerides in the station, yet they're paying 3 members of staff to stand at the entrance all day to scan people into the queue? Unnecessary faff

Stealth is back open thankfully

I don’t think we’ll ever see the return of the bass cannons unfortunately - I saw somewhere the reason for this was due to the sound traveling to the local area Do agree though would be nice if they turned the volume up in the station and the original dispatch audio made a return

Not yet no, however they have confirmed there are still plans to do this

I wonder if they lowered the capacity not knowing if they’d have Inferno? Very rare for them to reach capacity this time of year but looks like it was justified looking at them queues

Perfect timing with them coming up to a busy period, the park has sold out today too

Inferno has been testing today which is a good sign. I highly doubt they’d be testing it if there were cracks in the track as rumoured

Colossus is opening today It beat Ghost train by 1 day, just got Mr Monkey to go!

No messing about with Colossus, track fitted and it’s testing today

Saw the remains of one of the pigeons by the Ben and Jerrys unit, and there was blood on the floor at another spot too. Did the pigeons hit anyone or just the train?

Good news that the planned strikes have now been cancelled, and an agreement has been reached to resolve the matter. What a mess though. I’m surprised Merlin were even going to let it happen.

Chessington are going to remain open during the 4 weekends of strikes planned but they’re aiming for a 40% ride offering and opening times will be reduced to a 4pm close. They’re also no longer selling tickets for these dates - got to be a big hit for the park. https://www.chessington.com/industrial-action

It’s great to see the parks finally spend some money on appearance and new rides, but that’s no good if they’re not getting the basics right. It’s clear the maintenance teams are seriously stretched, especially Chessington. A family spending a decent amount of money in the Easter holidays stuck in long queues with rides on reduced capacity and 4 major rides closed aren’t exactly going to rush back are they? They won’t care about the new rides opening later this year. They’re killing their reputation. Why are rides like tiger rock running at nearly a third of their theoretical capacity? There’s no excuse.

Vampire, scorpion express, kobra and rattlesnake are closed all day today. Happy Easter kids.