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Vince800

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About Vince800

  • Birthday 02/26/1991

Previous Fields

  • Favourite ride
    Dragon Falls
  • Favourite Theme Park
    Chessington

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Interests
    IT manager with an interest in engineering... & rock music :D.

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  1. I must try to get over to Chessington at some point to ride this if improvements have been made. I haven't visited the park since 2016 but from what I've seen on YouTube it has been getting worse every year so it'll be good if they've at least made some improvements. It was becoming very "Office - The ride" for me though with the over bright, over the top LED lighting. Get a false ceiling up and LED Panels and it'll finish the job.
  2. Makes sense, at least it's not SBNO (some of the time) like a few rides at Thorpe are now.
  3. I understand you're enthusiastic but this will be a waste of time. Especially considering the ride is pretty bog standard all things considered. It's a significant part of Chessington's history but those days are long gone and the park is a completely different place now as @Mark9 said above. Someone else has probably mentioned it already (not read the whole thread) but if anything had even the slightest potential of being listed, it surely would have been the Bubbleworks and only if it had not been interfered with in 2006. I guess Vampire has the slightest slither of potential but again, very unlikely especially as long as others exist around the world.
  4. Wasn't expecting that at Chessington. Is Rameses still running in the meantime? I have admit I've not really looked into anything theme park wise in a long while.
  5. Vince800

    Logger's Leap

    Thing is, any water ride placed where Loggers Leap currently is would require a closed, filtered water system. I'm not sure how feasible that would be in the location that loggers is in.
  6. Vince800

    Logger's Leap

    Yes, I did notice on Youtube how other Mack log flumes from the same time period still have the original set up. I always assumed it was just a Merlin wide thing these modifications though as well as the new evac steps\platforms there was some structural work done around the trough in various places too. I never realised that Dragon Falls was in such a bad way. Admittedly I don't go to the parks much but the times I do, any evacs or estops were usually caused by people fooling around standing up etc. It's ridiculous really, the other Mack log Flumes around the world seem to go on without issue. As for lack of attention to detail with Merlin, a really obvious comparison is to look at the cosmetic state of Vampire compared with the other Arrows suspended coasters still running around the world too.
  7. Vince800

    Logger's Leap

    Interesting video. Superficially it isn't looking too bad and if the leaves were cleared out, it wouldn't look much different to how it did when it was running in recent years. We don't know however what it is like structurally and it doesn't have any of the mods which were made to Dragon Falls some years back. It still has for example the crude (for the present day) evacuation steps on the lift hill (which he partially walks down in the video). On Dragon Falls, these were replaced with the much more sturdy and safe metal steps as well as evacuation platforms throughout the ride. I think it's no coincidence that Loggers & the Flume closed around the same time that Dragon Falls had these mods done to it being as they are the same type of flume. In the case of the flume they were going to be removing it anyway and with Loggers, I guess they're just not sure what the plans are at the moment. In my opinion, if Dragon Falls was not so central to the park and such a substantial ride for Chessington (not to mention planning issues), this probably would have closed around the same time too. As for the lights being left on and the cameras, it's likely that this is part of a central system and not specific to the ride it's self. The camera DVRs may have other cameras from the old town area going back to those boxes as it's as good a place as any to store this equipment, I'm very surprised that it's all left unlocked though and seemingly easily accessible as the video shows.
  8. It's such a shame because these parks could be really good, they were in the past and that was with budgets a fraction of what Merlin could offer. The whole of Chessington's initial theme park idea (Dragon Falls, Runaway Train, 5th Dimenstion etc.) probably cost lest to build initially than what Merlin could supply the park with now. It wouldn't be too hard to bring it up to standard but it would take pride and investment. I'm not so much a theme park enthusiastic, I'm generally interested in engineering and theme park rides are absolutely fascinating in their workings. That being said I do like a good show with top notch sound & slighting and dark rides offer just that experience and when done well (Original Bubbleworks, Forbidden Tomb, 5th Dimension) they can be something absolutely spectacular. To me it seems that Tomb Blaster would be acceptable to run if the ride went round the track with none of the animations working, just the ride is running so "that'll do". There doesn't seem to be anyone there anymore who care about the show & if there are they're being ignored. By looking at the Youtube videos it seems to me that Tomb Blaster is getting lighter year by year and if they continue they may as well buy some LED light panels, put up a ceiling and call it "Office Block - The ride".
  9. Wow, what a joke! I can't believe that things like this are still continuing, do Merlin have no pride? It's reasons like that why I didn't bother going to any of their attractions last year. There is absolutely no defence for this behaviour, they really do not care about their customers, it's just fortunate for them that most people don't seem to notice or care about the state of their attractions. Some serious investment needs to be made in all of their parks. I do find it very amusing how they're publicising a little bit of painting here and there as if it's some big thing - no, it's day to day maintenance!
  10. Vince800

    Logger's Leap

    This confirms what I was saying before. It needs the same work as Dragon Falls did. I'm presuming The Flume would have needed these works doing too if it wasn't chosen as the site for the new ride.
  11. The thought of going on a water ride and getting wet... why do people bother if they're going to stand up to avoid getting wet. As draconian as it sounds, perhaps the park need to just make examples of people who do decide to foolishly stand up and just issue bans, the same way that there are consequences for doing stupid things on other rides, eventually people might get the message.
  12. Vince800

    Logger's Leap

    Yes, Dragon Falls is a good example. They've done various H&S upgrades as required but as they've removed theming elements for this, they've not replaced them. So although there is a what I am trusting Merlin is now a completely within spec log flume, it's all at the expense of any real guest experience & as a result, Dragon Falls is now just a generic Log Flume with the only real theming being remnants of what was set up in 1987. I've always assumed that both Loggers & The Flume require the same work as Dragon Falls (Corroded Metal Replaced, Evac Platforms throughout) and it's just that they're not budgeting for it (though it makes sense with the Flume as it was removed). They could just be deciding & budgeting for the future of the Loggers Leap site at the moment which is why they have put it to one side rather than carrying out whatever it requires to continue to run.
  13. It looks like fairly usual stuff for Rameses to me & RobF makes a good point. They'll probably keep it going as long as they possibly can, imagine the expense of getting it out of that pit. Didn't it have some extensive work done to it in recent years anyway? I'm sure I read that it had new restraints & a new PLC amongst other stuff. Of course this could be incorrect .
  14. Vince800

    Logger's Leap

    You know, I really don't like making posts with the boring "Merlin do *INSERT HERE* wrong" but really it's a complete joke. The bottom line is though, as long as people pay for it, they will continue to do it despite the fact they would probably attract a great deal more custom than they already do if they were to do things properly. They remind me of the Theme park version of Global Radio which again are all about watered down brands. They might have to pull their finger out when Paramount opens up though.
  15. Vince800

    Logger's Leap

    Merlin probably make more in a day than it cost to build Loggers Leap in the first place. I can't believe that they have a ride SBNO which isn't exactly completely hidden, it's a rather poor show. But as I've said before, it probably requires similar work to Dragon Falls which was quite significant, I suppose they had no choice to sort out Dragon Falls as soon as possible due to it's prominent position in the park and that's a core ride, not so much with Loggers Leap. I guess they're weighing up options and deciding which years budget it's going to come out of.
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