Morgan.B

Yes, I do think Chessington is well kept.
 
Vampire's station, Fury's queue and the state of Tomb, Wild Asia, Toadies and Mystic East don't bother me to name a few.
 
Who needs the superfluous care and attention of Europa Park and Efteling when you have Chessington anyway.

Entrances - 2010 cheap themed signs and bamboo stuff already rotting/faded, very unsuitable car park and infrastructure for new South entrance.
 
Dragon's Fury - messy presentation, ad-hoc queue alterations making it a headache just to get on the ride, faded track and crowded exit, poor throughput for a major ride, lack of signage explaining single rider queue.
 
Wild Asia - 2010 wood built theming already fungi infested, faux stonework peeling off Kobra theming, lots of decoration already missing from area, faded paintwork, all the rickshaws removed from the paths for some reason this year.
 
Mystic East - bare bones of what it used to be, none of its huge theme structures (anymore except for buddha which is cheaply repainted - bad paint skill and gold already peeling off to show green in places), station bare with no ambient lighting, queueline fences falling over, new queue cheaply produced fencing built on plaza, dirty building, the ride is now a horrid tour through back-of-house areas, the Dragon tunnel is on the verge of demolition, the horrid half-demolished condition of the tunnel is easily viewed from above, missing ALL of its original animations and FX.
 
Tomb Blaster - vandalised set, cheap overbright lighting, poor attempt at a UV makeover, poor laser gun system, all effects out of sync or broken, audio terribly edited and hurts the ears, shadow of its former self, formerly atmospheric queueline now brightly lit with unnecessary evac lights, ridiculous unnecessary metal queue fences, the exteriors are green
 
Vampire - extremely messy lighting, missing audio throughout the indoor queue, bare concrete space where creepy themed crypt shelter used to be, poor quality trains from 2002 where used to be well-built trains, high quality animatronic abandoned in poor condition, station audio set up a mess with barely any speakers working, music so quiet, missing chandeliers, various FX long since gone, murals no longer illuminated, cheaply produced 2015 theming already lying broken on the floor in queue.
 
Hocus Pocus Hall - animations air leaking, extremely dusty props, lighting broken or lighting FX poorly replaced, UV murals very faded in places (the original painters are in business and could be called back), some FX missing.
 
Trail of Kings- very poor infrastructure, small spaces, needed demolishing and replacing years ago but they've decided to dress it up with patches of theming instead.
 
Zufari - unreliable cave FX, terrible cave FX, bland boring appearance, terrible queue system, terrible preshow, guests unable to find the entrance, etc
 
Front of house in messy condition. Parts are so far removed from their intended design, they are either poorly rethemed or structures demolished with no replacement, messy appearance, clash of old and new. Cables hanging slack over pathways between buildings, exposed back of house areas, many details still covered over with ivy. Many back of house areas in big need of refurbishment/replacement and aren't suitable. Hotels are lacking in many areas, cheaply produced and feel like decorated Travelodges.
 
Conclusion - It's not a fun day out anymore, don't keep going.

Built up hype for closing the factory...
 
15 minutes later... 20 second live video

BaronC more like Baron I can't see there's too much smoke

This wins the award for best shipping container related joke ever in my books - well done Mathew, well done.

That shipping container is going to be used for a special Halloween themed ice cream outlet: Frightrogenie.

There's two types of people...

Haha yeah same....
 
"omg I travelled 5000 miles and spent £20,000 'pacifically' to ride THE Stelf and dArren Browns ghost train and they ain't open - I want compo for this!"

It's not moving to Thorpe but I can confirm they are adding it to Dragons Fury to make it double the length

Gruffalo hotel
 
admit it, it's going to happen just like the Derren Brown one will at Thorpe.

But it's very obvious that it shouldn't be that way. £35 per person is an exploitative price for hot air. Of course people will pay for the nostalgia over a ride that was very famous for 15 years and then ruined for no reason

Had the park invested any upkeep in what guests see, had a team of people maintaining & restoring the animations, audio, scenery and lighting to at least attempt to address the daily complaints abou the ride's poor condition - then perhaps these tours wouldn't be such a blatant cash in.
 
Guests really deserve something faithful to the ride as a send off, not this. An actor in a cheap suit, that looks like the closest things the entertainment department could afford on a tiny budget.
 
Perhaps they should apologise for very poor retheme in 2006 that ruined a cherished attraction. The current attraction is still a favourite of children who obviously never rode the original, as it recycles so many props and sets just painted over  - so can you imagine how much more inspirational it would be to them if it was still all untouched.. That's the real loss.

The pricey tours are ridiculous considering the park have invested almost nothing in maintaing the ride scenes over the last decade. All a sudden they are making out they care for it as much as the fans, "bringing back" Professor Burp (management dont really know who this character is/was other than what's on wikipedia).
 
They've seen little worth in this "dinosaur" ride for 10 years, until now when they realise they can exploit people's interest in it for lots of money.
 
So many families & fans are going to be toured through the broken down remains of what used to be a classic ride, it's really odd how its ended up like this. Even just restoring general things would have made a big difference, like proper lighting in there (rather than cheap LED panels flashing on demo settings in every scene), fixing shattered effects, fixing the audio properly...
 
Sad to hear some people genuinely asking what changed in 2006, that brings home just how long it has taken them to settle the ride's fate. Before the refurbishment, it really was a perfect family attraction and, had it been properly looked after in the 2000s, would still be just as popular as Prof Burp's BubbleWorks now. The current ride is a modified, sterile version. Most the fun animations were disconnected or removed. The amazing colours and textures painted over in flat primary colours, the characters all made to look the same. All sense of humour replaced with an advert for Imperial Leather soap. It was probably the worst refurbishment in the UK and the most unnecessary.
 

Aside from the silly 'first ever' claim, I reckon this is a good move for the resort (given that they wanted to pursue a 4th piece accommodation to their line up).

They should set up a 360° video camera in a boat and send it round! Then anyone with a VR headset can download it and experience the ride forever lol

Isn't the crux of discussion that you can't truly judge dark rides unless you've physically been on them?  Dark rides, especially good ones, will never have their true justice served to them by POVs and pictures, but instead only ever by actually experiencing them. 

Wow! That was my first reaction after getting off Derren Brown's Ghost Train. So, it suffices to say I did enjoy it and, for me, it was worth the wait. However, I think this might be a bit of a Marmite attraction, and given some of the reviews on here, that does seem to be the case. Anyway, a review of sorts...
 
Why I enjoyed DBGT:
-Fab pre show featuring Derren was fab.
 
-A good, long, continuous story. I enjoy rides that have a story, and give you a reason for why you're there and what you're doing. Ghost Train does this well, with an interesting story which just works for me. It lent itself for some scares, some laughs and a sense of believability.
 
-Mostly great VR quality. I'm still dubious as to how big a thing virtual reality should be in theme parks, but Ghost Train utilises VR well. It's of a high quality, fits within the story - albeit loosely - and the fact it mixes in with the surroundings so well gives a sense of realism to it. And I can only see it improving over time as technology improves.
 
-Actually questioning what I saw. One big push for Ghost Train has been about questioning your perception, and not being able to tell what is real and what is not. After riding and talking to other people, I genuinely was left questioning what I saw. Though this was on some of the smaller details from the VR film, it was still a great touch that left me going "No, it was definitely this I saw...at least, I think it was?". A great thing to keep you thinking after the ride, and adds a real sense of re-rideability to it all!
 
-Hanging Victorian train in the warehouse is awesome in real life. And, in general, the theming inside is fantastic; it's very easy to forget you're at a theme park and not in a train! -It works. This sounds a stupid thing to say, but here me out. My biggest concern with this was that the attraction might feel disjointed, that there was too much going on, and it just wouldn't flow and wouldn't really work. But when I went through, it all flowed and just worked for me, which is fab.
 
 
Now, anyone reading this review might be thinking this is the best thing since sliced bread, or I've come down with a case of new-ride fever. So I do want to bring this review down to earth a bit, especially for anyone who is reading but has yet to ride. My review of course reflects my opinions, but as I said earlier, I feel this might be a bit of a Marmite ride and not to everyone's tastes, particularly in the enthusiast community. Here's why...
 
-A lot of VR. It takes up about half of the experience, which is certainly more than I expected. And this could be a problem for some; in particular, those who enjoy 'real' theming and those who enjoy being able to share their experiences with others in real time. Like I say, it was more than I expected, but it wasn't too much for me, since it all felt necessary. But for others, it might be too long, or just not want they want from a theme park attraction.
 
-Second VR film isn't as good as the first. Whilst I still enjoyed the second VR section, it is the weakest part of the attraction, and the graphics aren't quite as good as in the first section. Hopefully this is something that can be addressed over time though.
 
-A jump in story between pre show and main show. The pre show does nothing to set up the story of the attraction; it is much more akin to the introduction of a Derren Brown show than a theme park ride. That's not to say there's nothing to explain the story before hand, but it's just very subtle. So when the story in the main show starts, some may be a little lost / confused as to why what is happening, is happening. It's something that you need to go along with, much like with Derren's shows. But given in a theme park environment people seem to lose all common sense / reasonable thought, it might be lost on some people, and leave them too confused to focus on the attraction.
 
-The story and ride hardware. Simply put, I'm not sure everyone will like the story and / or ride system. There's nothing wrong with this, as everyone has different tastes and the like, but some people, especially enthusiasts, may just dislike the ride because of what it is and it just not being what they want.
 
The final verdict:
DBGT won't be everyone's cup of tea. It's a shame this is the case, as the first major dark ride in the UK for forever needed to be an instant classic for there to be more crop up in my opinion.  Hopefully, though, enthusiasts can appreciate how good an attraction this is for Thorpe, that it filled a space in their line up, and used up dead space on park. Everyone around me seemed to scream and laugh through the attraction, and leave with a smile on their face, which is great. And most importantly for me, I enjoyed it and can't wait to try it again.

Said no one ever?
 
Having just seen how Europa Park use VR on a couple of smaller coasters as a paid extra on a few seats, that seems like a much more sensible approach to introducing VR rather than trying to build a whole million pound new ride entirely dependent on fledgling technology. It's just asking for trouble.
 
 

Went on this today and have to say for a park which hasn't produced a decent attraction since the swarm back in 2012, I thought it was absolutely fantastic.
 
The first illusion is brilliant as its so difficult to understand how the whole ride technology works, with the fact that it looks like the train carriage is unable to move(obviously there is more than one carriage operating as well I believe but this confused me so much!) as its tied to the wall by chains yet in reality it does(and I have no clue how this works).
 
The VR technology is fantastic and the fact you can look around you in all directions and immerse yourself in the experience is incredible. The only downside was that I had to hold my head seat on as there were no instructions or time available to adjust it and it was falling off.
 
Considering the fact that I thought it was just the one train journey, to have the first journey, a scene in the middle and then the second train journey is brilliant. The scenes we got were rather awesome too and had me screaming a lot.
 
Yes, it could have been better at times and I think the photo points in the queue line are absolutely stupid(although they didn't stop us in infection check so not sure what this is) but for a new dark ride, considering dark rides is something the UK is seriously lacking, I think it has been executed to a high standard.
 
Obviously the technology is complicated as it opened a few hours late, broke down whilst we were in the queue then closed early which is quite incovenient for most people however we only waited 80 mins with a break down which was reasonable and I think the attraction was worth the wait. The whole queue line was confused however when it broke down and announcements played saying 'There will be a short delay, please remain seated' and suddenly the whole queueline sat down on the ground both annoyed and confused.

@Insider Timed tickets are working a treat 
 
 

There lucky, they got a free coaster climb.. 

I'd rate that comeback a solid 4.5

Well, having an opinion on something that you have actually seen in the flesh is very different to having an opinion on something that you've never seen before. 
 
 
I cant stress how important wording is on forums. For example, you said 'Universal is overrated' as opposed to 'Universal seems/looks overrated.' The latter clearly explains that it is based on POVs/ images/reviews rather than personal experience.

I don't think we will see any updates until it opens, as far as I'm aware the facade is complete

Q: Why did the baker have brown hands?
A: Because he kneaded a poo