HermanTheGerman

It runs with two operators during the summer peak season; or at least it's meant to.

I'm thinking Octonaughts...

To be honest, laying down some wood/bark chips over the ground would make it look so much better. It just looks terribly out of pace at the moment.

^ Hopefully it's just it's temporary location to promote Howl'O'Ween. It doesn't look particularly great just plonked there, it must be said.

It depends if you can be bothered to go Guest Services or not...

My feelings towards this project are rather mixed. I don't want it to flop because, as others have said, it would probably result in Merlin ruling out any form of dark ride development ever again. But on the otherhand, from what I know about the attraction, it does sound rather dull. Hopefully they've outsourced most of it though, then we might actually stand a chance...

One of the reasons Chessington became a theme park was because there was already the infrastructure such as drains inplace, so it is highly unlikely that they have been replaced since 1931.

Skyway is just being Skyway. I.e it's totally knackered and really shouldn't have been running the past fifteen years. I wouldn't be surprised if it spent the rest of the season closed either. The ride is just bad in every way. Its really quite funny.

Ok so Inferno and Saw are the only major coasters open, and Rush is 60 minuets. Well done there.

So all the birds have just died? That's horrible, truly horrible.

What a lovley girl. Such a shame it's something that will affect her life forever. Also, she seems to have a greater and more reasonable understanding of ride breakdowns than most of the general public!

God only knows what's up with Lorikeet Lagoon. I fear it may be closed to be demolished to make way for the proposed Glamping facilities. Or perhaps, more favourably, they're installing a second entrance to the area, giving activities to guests of the Explorer Glamping site. God knows.

On the subject of planning, recently, Chessington have acquired the habit of advertising (and in some cases opening) things before planning has even been submitted. So I doubt the lack of an application so far has too much to do with the scale of the actual attraction.

Is it though? Thorpe is very short on green space, and finding places for people to sit and rest is quite a task. All Samurai really does these days is waste both guests and engineers' time. It being open is very rare, and when it is open, its running a pitifully dull cycle. So surely it would be better just to ditch it in favour of a nice picnic field?

A lot of Toaide's was actually repainted for this year, so it is getting some attention. And the only reason it would have had a queue that long is because it only runs three cars.

Dragon Falls won't have it's theming replaced ever, or at least I'd be very surprised if it did. The reason behind that though is not laziness, there's a much bigger issue blocking any developments to the ride currently.

Queue lines are on the floor = park's future is dire. Hmmm. If anything, its these safety overreactions that are making the next five years a little more interesting.

The Chessington marketing department are great, they really are; but what the hell is up with their massive obsession over selfies?! I mean, that's all their social media campaigns have been about for over a year.

I personally never understand why people get so annoyed over resort developments. Overnight stays do, in my experience, really improve the theme park experience, so more variety and availability can only be a good thing surely.

Curse of the Lost Tomb has a higher age guidance than Haunting... Maybe we're in for something a little more fun this time! Wheeee! Hocus is most certainly missing from the line up, it is totally ignored on the website, which I find strange, as it was the most popular last year. Although, both shows are also missing, so maybe they're saving a few details for now, though I doubt it. As bad a TMOHPH was last year, it would be a massive shame to lose that amazing soundtrack so early on. Maybe they're thinking of ways to sort it up for this year, either that or Treat in the Woods is in it's place. Though by the sounds of it, I would imagine that to go in the Christmas grotto area.

Finally! This sign might actually be useful! Although I will miss the old ticker-tape and "Waiting time currently 20 minutes minutes".

The lack of marketing for this is very strange. Maybe it's to do with the fact that the park have a new marketing director? Just a guess, but still a possibility.

Chessigton is actually the most profitable park in the Merlin Group. It's expensive to run, but like you said, it's a massive success revenue wise that it doesn't really matter.It's strange, with Thorpe being the one that struggles profit wise you would have thought that it'd be the park with the shortest hours, yet for some reason it seems to be the other way around.

I'm gutted by this, its a massive shame, but I guess this will be one of many set backs and cost cuts put in place after The Smiler's crash. While it is a very disappointing move, you can't really blame them. The only thing that really baffles me is why was it Chessington over Legoland? I mean, the park's target audience aren't exactly going to be up for a full ten hours at a theme park surely? Whereas at Chessington, there's been a big demand for longer summer hours for ages.

That's a load of rubbish I reckon. The Flume's got a good few years left (scarily), and they've certainly got the manufacture wrong. As Benin said, I'd imagine they'd want to push forward with the development, to allow for a new major coaster to shadow The Smiler. They'll want something else to take the spotlight basically. Anyway, I'm not entirely sure it can be a trusted source. In my eyes, if anybody has been told anything of sorts, there is no way they would be allowed to post about it as a trusted(ish) source. Sensitive topics like this will always be kept close the to people involved and no one more.