ashleyrose-66

Rode Vampire on Sunday. Didn't have a ride time ticket as we arrived at the park at about 12pm, and they had all gone. However, the people at the queue entrance said that a few people had no-showed for their slot so we could go on. Still running on 1 train obviously, but the thing I noticed was when the train pulled back in to the shed, there was a parked train on our left that looked like it had been stripped down completely! There weren't even any seats on it, just the metal bars that would support the seats. It was obviously dark so couldn't see very well, but it is quite clear that they do not have 3 fully assembled trains right now.

Yep, have always been able to go straight in to Tussauds, the London Aquarium and on to the London Eye with our passes. In fact, I went to the Aquarium and London Eye yesterday and was straight in to both immediately with the pass. The guy at the Aquarium asked if they were premium passes (we were showing the photo and expiry date side to him) and when we turned them round to show they were he waved us through, so maybe it is only the premium passes they allow to fast-track?

Yep, would be very easy to manage and run, even if it were an arts and crafts area, like they do at LEGOLAND around Halloween! As you say, on busy days, it would have helped a bit with the queues. But no, the whole are is closed off and just sitting there waiting for next Christmas it seems!

Running on 1 train. They are issuing people with ride times vouchers at the entrance. You go away and come back to ride at the time specified to avoid a huge queue building up.

Back to the traffic problem on Winkfield Road, a large part of the problem isn't Winkfield Road itself, it's actually the A332, which leads to junction 6 of the M4. I have, at times, sat in 45 minutes traffic on this section of the road just waiting to just get on to the M4. And this road is a dual carriageway! So, whilst Winkfield Road can be a problem to manoeuvre down at busy times, it is actually further up the road that is equally as bad, and I can't see them solving that problem in a hurry, unless they get permission to build a road to Oakley Green (which will NEVER happen) from the rear of the park! I always leave LEGOLAND a good 90 minutes before closing for this very reason sadly!

Vampire is open today but on reduced capacity. You need to collect a ticket to ride at the ride entrance.

I was at Chessington on Sunday, and the park was absolutely rammed! The overflow car-park (on the grass at the Land of the Dragons side) was completely full - The front car park was closed as it was also full. I genuinely cannot remember seeing Chessington that busy in ages. The queue for the pizza/pasta buffet in Market Square was almost to the Adventurers Services building at lunchtime. Ridiculous! Vampire was closed, but they were testing. We saw the train go round with a member of staff sitting in the front seat on a couple of occasions whilst waiting for Bubbleworks. We hoped they may spring a surprise and open in, but nope. On Bubbleworks, it was finally closed all winter, so I thought they may have given it some TLC. Alas, I didn't notice anything different at all in there. If there have been improvements, please could someone let me know where? Ride times were very long for everything. Dragon's Fury was 80 minutes with the queue starting just inside the entrance when we got there! Also, does anyone know what they are planning for the area they used for Winters Tail? The wooden shacks and Christmas Trees are still there, but the area is closed off and there is nothing happening! Surely they are not going to just leave it like that until next Christmas? I hoped they would have some sort of Easter activity for the Children - Maybe an Easter hunt like LEGOLAND were doing, but nothing!!

Chessington Buzz on Facebook say they were testing Vampire today, but it has stalled!! https://www.facebook.com/ChessingtonBuzz/posts/924386277602086:0

Vampire to remain closed this weekend, and in to the school holidays. I know they said they are waiting for a part, but how long does it take?

I wondered if they would take the opportunity to re-route Skyway. The park is totally different to the park it was built to serve. The section behind the Sea Life Centre in particular is awful. Despite the ride being closed for almost the entire season last year, they haven't even given the trains a bit of TLC and it still looks so tired and dated. It's such a shame, as if it was re-routed to take in more of the park and new trains were added, it would be an absolutely brilliant attraction.

Dragon's Fury is currently unavailable... That didn't last long!

From Chessington's Facebook. It seems the £10.00 return offer has been replaced with a complementary visit... https://www.facebook.com/Chessington Hello Adventurers, following our announcement yesterday we would like to offer everyone that visited, is planning to visit or has pre-booked their tickets to visit the Resort on 18th, 19th and 20th March a complimentary return visit to the Resort on another day during this season, up to and including 31st July 2015. In order to collect your re validated tickets, please keep your tickets from your visit, along with the letter that you will be given upon entry to the Resort, and present both to our team at Advanced Collection when you arrive on the day of your next visit. The team will then re validate your tickets for that day. For any Adventurers who visited yesterday, but did not receive a letter, please keep your tickets and follow the above process and your tickets will be re-validated. We also ask any Merlin Annual Pass, or Chessington Annual Pass Holders who visit, or visited the Resort on 18th, 19th and 20th March to visit Guest Help & Information during your visits, or next visit. To reassure you, we are working very hard to have Griffin’s Galleon, Bubbleworks, Rameses Revenge and Dragon’s Fury available by 21st March, and please watch our website, and social media channels for further announcements. We hope that you will still have a wild adventure with the wide variety of other attractions that we have here at the Resort and look forward to seeing you all very soon!

They are charging a £2.50 per ticket "admin" fee, so that would be more than enough income to afford to pay for Dean Gaffney to attend.

Just checked the Chessington website - It's currently closed. As is Tomb Blaster. Wow! That's horrendous.

So, Safari Skyway is FINALLY open? Or did they run out of room on that sign to announce it is closed?

I'd left by about 1.30 so didn't see that Rattlesnake and Kobra had finally opened a good 3 and a half hours late!

The park was very quiet on Saturday. No real queues for anything, but that may be because a lot of people left after a couple of hours. I was standing outside the SeaLife centre at about 12.30, waiting for my kids to come out, and there were a lot of people making their way OUT of the park. I think people had just given up by then as there were so many rides unavailable. We knew that Vampire, Dragon's Fury, Griffin's Galleon and Bubbleworks would not be operating, we found out via Twitter on the morning that Rameses Revenge would also be closed, but to get there and find that Rattlesnake, Kobra and Safari Skyway were closed and Toadies didn't open before 12pm on top of the advertised shows such as the "Wild Factor" not running, and the Zufari water explosion not working - I am not really surprised that people decided to leave early. Chicken shack was also closed all day! All-in-all, it was very disappointing.

Even that wasn't open on Saturday!

I agree to a certain extent and I think people would understand if it were just the pre-listed rides closed. But to arrive and find a lot more rides also closed is really disappointing and you wonder why they are not ready!

Toadies has opened - Safari Skyway is not open! Haven't been over to see the others yet!

Kobra is also closed.

I'm here now a lot of stuff closed in addition to the listed stuff above. Safari Skyway is closed Rattlesnake is closed Toadies is closed They are, however, testing Dragons Fury at the moment, so fingers crossed!

Having Safari Skyway open will feel like having a brand new ride though...

So it seems Fury will be closed this weekend. Along with Vampire and Bubbleworks. Well played Chessington. Just imagine what the queue will be like for Scorpion Express?

Yes, it does run close to the Carousel. However the section that had been removed (and shown in a photo posted on here last month) would not have been visible from where you would have been peeking.