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Tiger Rock


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The name should have just been Tiger Falls, but the area name sounds awful, especially with Land of the Dragons already in the park. It's amazing to think people get paid to think of such awful, unoriginal names. I guess I got to be grateful it's not an IP:)

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When even the concept / promotion artwork doesn't make something look good you know in real life it really is going to be crap.

 

So we've gone from those wonderful majestic drop surrounds, to a bare trough off of a warehouse roof through a small splash through tiger head at the bottom.

 

Progress!

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Really it's just a redecoration with an easy rebrand to sell it as something bigger than it is. The ride will probably feel exactly the same, sadly. Good that the drop zone will no longer look awful, but it should never have got into that state in the first place.

 

It will be a huge insult to paying visitors if the tunnel is not properly sorted during this refurbishment. It has been terrible and embarassing since they removed the second half, so all the back end of various buildings are exposed, and the waterfall effect gone missing, and the dragon falling apart.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I had my hopes up when I saw it announced, being the first non IP attraction chessington have done in almost five years you could say I was excited. However now, looking at it, I can tell it will be somewhat of a disappointment. The attraction can either be a great addition to the park, like the addition of the fairly new Wild Asia area, or it will be a failure. 

 

First of all let's start off with the name of the attraction. Tiger Rock. I understand if Chessington want to move on from the horrifying Dragon Falls (Post 2013) but to me Tiger Rock just doesn't fit. It should have been changed to "Tiger Falls". It just clicks more...Tiger Rock sounds like an I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here camp name. Let's not forget the name of the area. Land of the Tiger. This is actually so stupid and uncreative considering there already is a "Land Of The ___" in the park. GP members who have never been to Chessington may get confused between Land Of The Dragons and Land Of The Tiger plus it also makes the park look lazy having two different areas named almost exactly the same thing!

 

Next let's move to the concept art. I have NEVER seen a more boring concept art for a leading Theme Park. Its in the same dull style of that you would see in council building concept art. Plain and simple, if the concept art for a ride that hasn't even been built yet looks bad then you can garantee the ride will be bad. 

 

Chessington has a lot of potential but I hate the way Merlin treat it. They're constantly adding "new" rides, using the term new very lightly considering it is just a retheme of an existing ride, when all they need to do is refurbish the attractions, not completely gut them, find a sponsor to do an IP with if possible and add some slightly more lazy, no effort theming and label it as "NEW RIDE" all the time (I wouldn't have a problem if they did it once or twice or did it well but they do it every time they are due a new ride and it always ends badly). Merlin could do so much better like bring back some of the original ambience from The Vampire queue line and/or maybe remove Tomb Blaster and Ramases Revenge and build a new coaster in their place, completely changing the areas theme and building a new array of rides and attractions and not just changing what's already there. Or, in Tomb Blasters' place they could build a better dark ride with a better, more modern transit system (not the one from 1987 that surprisingly still works somehow!) and build it in a new show building that does NOT interfere with the trough on Tiger Rock/Dragon Falls.

 

Chessington, stop these lousy re-themes and IP's please!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Chessington have confirmed that Land of the Tiger and, as such Tiger Rock will be opening on May 5th.  They have also said that the the for new tigers are coming from Kolmarden, Sweden.

 

Interesting that it's taking 8 months for them to get this done.  Presumably that's more down to get the animal enclosures built and prepared, rather than extensive work to the ride itself?

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According to the park's instagram page, the new tigers are already on park. I do wonder where they are being kept as the new enclosure is obviously far from habitable thus far.

They wouldn't be allowed to house them with the two much smaller Sumatran Tigers (provided they're still at Chessington and haven't been sold off. Then the new ones could temporarily be housed there until May?). The new Siberian / Amur Tigers are far larger and it is good that they will have a modern closure rather than the tiny things the current Tigers and lions live in. (But chessie do do a god job keeping the animals occupied in the challenging spaces)

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You've got to remember, they will have have to operate the ride and cycle it a stupid amount of times in order for the animals to get used to it. I really hope they've remembered to include that in their timescale, otherwise the tigers going anywhere near the ride will be as likely as me visiting the park this year.

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  • 2 weeks later...

European First, haha. Merlin, you are pathetic! Nothing can't just be unique, interesting, one-of-a-kind or imaginative. It HAS to be a "first". I'm fed up and sick of it being mentioned on every single project Merlin does. For crying out loud it's just a bridge that won't have anything on it 90% of the time.

On a positive note, the tiger themed logo is actually quite good.

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I'm under the impression it's going to take hours and hours and hours of training to even get the tigers to go on that thing for food. Once the training is over (if they bother finishing it), it will be fully up to the lazy tigers if they even bother with it anymore.

 

So to sum up, it's not a thing worth bragging about because it most likely won't even be used.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 07/02/2018 at 12:11 AM, Stuntman707 said:

European First, haha. Merlin, you are pathetic! Nothing can't just be unique, interesting, one-of-a-kind or imaginative. It HAS to be a "first". I'm fed up and sick of it being mentioned on every single project Merlin does. For crying out loud it's just a bridge that won't have anything on it 90% of the time.

On a positive note, the tiger themed logo is actually quite good.

Have you considered from a Marketing perspective, maybe the Worlds first is what's needed to get an article within the Daily Mail, and to build up some excitement around the attraction. If I had a zoo with a USP I would want to shout about it and I am really looking forward to the expansion!

 

 

Some other examples include:

Six Flags: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH4ThJn8HEk  

Europa Park: https://www.europapark.de/en/food-drink/foodloop-first-looping-restaurant-worldwide

 

 

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I still don’t think a bridge is anything to brag about. Be it a European first or not. There’s a bridge for the gorilla enclosure at ZSL London so it’s technically not the first enclosure bridge in Europe. I don’t know about tiger specific bridges but I find it very tedious marketing are going to these lengths to claim any first they can think up of for something new. Even if it’s not a world first anymore now.

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