Cal

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.

Stealth has rolled back 3 times so far today. Anyone been lucky enough to catch one?

Unfortunately not. Doesn't look like there are plans to fix the fire effect either. Great to see some TLC regardless, but it would be nice to have all the effects in the area working again as well as it looking fresh.

Unpopular opinion but I'm a big fan of the backwards row facing the other way. Kids love a front row and this will essentially provide 2 very different front row experiences with it being a shuttle coaster Think there was a drive at Chessington for more flats for throughput reasons, hence why they got Thorpes Rockin tug even though they've already got one. We all know Chessington can't cope on busy days. With that logic though it really doesn't make a lot of sense they've gone for this coaster when there are loads of different family coasters which would've provided a much better throughput...

Sad news, its back on the app

Its been confirmed via the pass holder group that the single rider queue trial on SAW last year was successful and they're looking at what other rides they can expand it to this season which is great to hear. I can't see this working well on any other coaster apart from Stealth, but having this even on SAW and Stealth and maybe a couple of flats would be great to see! They've also confirmed a lot of work is currently being carried out in the Swarm queue line, including replacing the damaged queue line and station panels, removing graffiti and replacing and repairing the queue line TVs.

Was Swarms fire effect on at all last year? Its probably best they try and get 1 working reliably before they try and get 2 on the go ...

Little update after a trip to energylandias winter kingdom event, I'll likely write a little report up 1) Kondaa 2) Nemesis 3) Zadra 4) Taron 5) Hyperion 6) Wodan 7) Kumba 8) Silver Star 9) Stealth 10) Oblivion

It closed midday on the end of season annual pass day and didn't re-open for the rest of the day, so I imagine something happened that day causing it to be down for a while