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Chessington Park Operations


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20 minutes ago, Matt Creek said:

People complaining about throughputs? That is new.

I was more talking about multiple people going from ride to ride queueing multiple hours only for the ride to break down and therefore only getting like three rides in

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Its starting to show more and more how much the park needs a couple of high capacity rides, I'm sure even on a like for like basis space wise rides like Tiny Truckers, Peeking Heights and even Griffins Galleon could be replaced relatively cheaply.

 

Its also quite sad that the Vampire is still "the ride" after so many years, with the parks history now its never going to be accepted as a zoo again. There are a lot of single minded people on Facebook comments, much like with the other parks, but Chessington easily have not only the worst through puts but generally the slowest loading of all.

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4 hours ago, Adam P said:

Its starting to show more and more how much the park needs a couple of high capacity rides, I'm sure even on a like for like basis space wise rides like Tiny Truckers, Peeking Heights and even Griffins Galleon could be replaced relatively cheaply.

 

Its also quite sad that the Vampire is still "the ride" after so many years, with the parks history now its never going to be accepted as a zoo again. There are a lot of single minded people on Facebook comments, much like with the other parks, but Chessington easily have not only the worst through puts but generally the slowest loading of all.

Vampire is still "the ride" after two and a half decades as its the only ride built at the park in twenty six years to have the right fundamentals behind its design. Sure, its awfully built for access and throughput, but all that hardly matters. If you simply put your mind to the entertainment, and work hard to get a show that truly works, people will be amazed. These same people then come and visit twenty years on with their own kids, and we have the situation we see today. Its the beautiful Gothic drama and perfectly executed showmanship that helps it stick in people's minds and give them memories to last a lifetime. All this is pretty evident in the fact that the attraction is so popular, when to be frank, the roller coaster itself is rather naff.

 

Ever wondered why the park have so many old rides around? Or why they have to desperately try and get people to ride Zufari? Its because since around 1995, they've completely lost their way in the sense of what actually makes a good theme park ride. Nobody need worry about "omg, what if they remove the Vampire???!?!?? :o " because they're too scared to do such a thing, for they haven't a clue how to replicate something so special. They don't actually know how to put on a good show. So the Vampire will still be "the ride" until someone realises its not just "a fan favourite" or "oh, well its our big rollercoaster isn't it, of course it will be popular" and actually looks to see what makes it so special.

 

Maybe it won't be so popular though if they continue to carelessly rip the soul out of the station... You know, the bit that actually impresses people...

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  • 4 weeks later...

Operations today were awful. RR had its daily hissyfit, Vampy had its almost daily hissyfit, Dragon's Fury didn't want to have a hissyfit but was forced to, and Tomb Blaster was just... Just incredible. Rattlesnake was absolutely flawless. Behaved brilliantly, and with a good throughput too.

 

RR and Vampire: No need to explain

 

Tomb Blaster: Queue board constantly showing 5 minutes despite a 45 minute queue, and then broke down at about 3:45 and stayed broke.

 

Dragon's Fury: Some type of problem, tried to get on single rider (that's when I found out), people in the queue when it shut where being let on and it was testing, but told it wouldn't open til 4:30, half an hour before closing. THIS WAS AT 2PM. After everyone in the queue had gone on it stayed shut with nothing happening for about an hour before opening again. If people were allowed on it before why not now? So frustrating.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

So this morning two staff on monkey swinger. Took about 10 mins for three cycles. Joined the same queue just now and one staff  member and 8 mins between ride cycles due to slow attendant who goes to exit. Slowly walks to priority passes, faff about then waits for them to be seated before coming to general queue. Then waits so for people to be seated. Goes into cabin and takes a seat ready to do a 35 second announcement. Finally checks every single strap by shaking them. Shocking compared to earlier

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Was good to see Dragon Falls open for the whole day today! Although slight incident where a guest (who obviously knew the staff on duty) hit the emergency stop button in the station. The staff and the guest were in fits of laughter, not sure it was actually that funny.

 

I did, however notice 2 operators going above the 'norm' today. On Dragon's Fury we heard "attention all riders in the station and queue line it's 'XXXX's birthday today, we are all going to sing happy birthday to him. Fair play to the op as he got everybody in the queue line, station and ride singing happy birthday with a smile on their faces. I thought this was a guest who's parents or friends had told the staff it was their birthday. It turns out it was actually a member of staff (as the girl on the batch gate told us). Either way, it was nice to get everybody joining in regardless.

 

Similarly on Dragon Falls, the operator was having a full conversation with the platformer. She kept booming over the speakers 'Hey, XXXX what do you prefer Mario or Luigi?', then 1 minute later 'Peanut butter or marmite?' and the guy responded. However, the whole station was shouting back their favourite option, which again was making people laugh and smile as they joined in.

 

I know there's probably an unwritten (or maybe written) rule somewhere that states you shouldn't use the PA unless absolutely necessary or you shouldn't use it for your own personal use, however it seemed to entertain people and it was nice to see somebody not just sitting there twirling a pen and watching the monitors.

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2 hours ago, rygr said:

I did, however notice 2 operators going above the 'norm' today. On Dragon's Fury we heard "attention all riders in the station and queue line it's 'XXXX's birthday today, we are all going to sing happy birthday to him. Fair play to the op as he got everybody in the queue line, station and ride singing happy birthday with a smile on their faces. I thought this was a guest who's parents or friends had told the staff it was their birthday. It turns out it was actually a member of staff (as the girl on the batch gate told us). Either way, it was nice to get everybody joining in regardless.

 

This exact same thing has happened on my last two visits, haven't they got bored by now? But if it is entertaining guests then I guess that's fair enough.

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  • 1 month later...
11 hours ago, imindetonator said:

Operations where absolute dire today..

Especially Vampire, which was running one train, and loading slowly too, I dread to think of what Throughput was..

 

How long was the queue for Vampire out of interest?

 

One train is very poor, especially when you consider that the only other ride in the area is closed so that will have an effect on the number of people on Vampire.

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