2023 - World of Jumanji

[Glitch]

3 minutes ago, JoshC. said:

All for rows facing the other way, but having one is just very odd.

 

The choice of mandrills for a winged coaster is still taking some getting used to. I get the idea, but I guess I still have the preconception that if a winged coaster has an animal theme, an animal with wings would make sense.

 

1.2m rides all round is good. The concept art looks good, and is something that feels realistically achievable.

 

I'm still concerned about the throughput and how this will cope in terms of popularity, especially at first, but we'll have to wait and see on that front.

 

[Benin]

 

 

Top quality from MMM /s.

 

Why do Merlin always fall down on detailing? As an entry sign it's cheap and will be ruined fairly quickly, but would a big archway have detracted from the mountain (?) focal point?

 

Strange design decisions. 

 

[MattyMoo]

Tin shed station is looking very shed like from the recent Shane Sandwich update. Also they mention about lots of planting still to be done - I would bet money on the fact that Merlin don't buy in established trees/plants as per the photos and just hope they'll survive and grow! 

 

Mandrill Mayhem track and main theming statue looking gooood though. I do like that green a lot. Petition to make Exodus' track not black/brown/grey plz.

[JoshC.]

Testing, 1, 2, testing...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark9]

It's been completing its full test runs as well. It's exactly what I expected it to be and yet that giddy thrill of a real, proper, big manufacturer modern rollercoaster at Chessington just fills me with pure joy. 

 

I love it 

[Benin]

Bonus boost before the helix spike just to make sure it makes it round the track.

 

Weirder every time as we get closer to opening.

[Benin]

Couple of goon groups did construction tours yesterday.

 

The launch at least looks to be better than Icon's. The rest of the area seems to be decent.

 

Laughing at all those who seemed to believe that there was a magical method of increasing throughput. 

 

Due to open 15th May so get ready for those 2 hour queues!

[MattyMoo]

Lots of talk of "lots of planting still to be done" and such but spoiler alert, plants need time to grow.

Wouldn't surprise me if there isn't much more greenery come opening...

 

Also according to Shane Sandwich, the garden bits around the logo aren't going to be fenced in, so cue hundreds of kids trampling and damaging the plants anyway...

[Mark9]

7 hours ago, Benin said:

Couple of goon groups did construction tours yesterday.

 

The launch at least looks to be better than Icon's. The rest of the area seems to be decent.

 

Laughing at all those who seemed to believe that there was a magical method of increasing throughput. 

 

Due to open 15th May so get ready for those 2 hour queues!

 

I mean it has a similar capacity to Fury and that always top out at around 60 minutes on peak days. Maybe it will do a Swarm and be a complete and utter failure.

[MattyB]

I'm surprised they didn't opt for a full circuit layout like the one that's gone in at Legoland, allowing a 2 train operation.   A friend of mine that works in the industry (not for Merlin) commented that it looks "cheap". From the various vids posted yesterday on Youtube the launch actually looks quite nippy.  Still undecided on this addition.  

[MattyMoo]

When you factor in that approximately 92% of MAP holders also hold an RAP pass judging by the MAP group, the queues for this thing are gonna be GRIM.

[Benin]

53 minutes ago, MattyMoo said:

When you factor in that approximately 92% of MAP holders also hold an RAP pass judging by the MAP group, the queues for this thing are gonna be GRIM.

 

Wonder what percentage of those would kick off if they implemented the rules correctly and it stopped being "free Fastrack".

 

Let alone those who abuse it generally.

[Benin]

 

 

Our (new) Lord and Saviour John Burton telling us... what we already know.

 

[MattyB]

Mandrill Mayhem POV on-ride

[Mark9]

Wahoo, now open. Few comments from me.

 

Park did a little opening ceremony, which was nice. Even though Jumanji is open for hotel guests (9am-10am), it was still good for something to recognise the significance of the new area. Short speech done, area opened. So to ride Mandrill Mayhem you need to join a virtual queue. This does create a massive bottle neck right off the bat but 20 minutes later there's no one waiting outside to get their QR codes scanned. Its launch day was quiet in the park with only the Jumanji rides having any significant wait times (for reference, Vampire was less than 10 minutes all day). This ran out around 3:30pm so just as a warning, on a busy day it could run out a lot earlier.

 

 

The most we waited for Mandrill was 30 minutes and the team working it were doing the best with the limited capacity. They made a point of filling every seat, deliberately holding back single riders to pair them up with groups of three or other single riders. This being an intense, geek heavy day there was a lot of single riders so I wonder if this will continue on a more traditional park day. 

 

The station is fine, the thing I like is that unlike the Swarm where you just wait on either side of the station (and one is significantly longer then the other), here you are pre batched and let pretty much straight onto the ride. But this does create a bigger problem where the train is still for several moments as you can't get onto the platform until a staff member opens a gate. There were points that the staff were only one on each side, its a lot of work for one person. Again, low capacity ride being made lower. Trains felt exactly like the other Wing-riders, it begs the question, could The Swarm be a 1.2 metre ride or is there something I'm missing?

 

 

The ride itself is surprisingly good. I had reservations about this being a proper lower tier B&M but actually its a pretty varied ride experience. The spike for example as you launch out the station is full of hang time particularly in the back part of the ride. The launches feel really nice, sitting between Mack and Intamin. The turns are full of whip. I love the turn coming out of the station heading in(or out) or the zero g roll. It's so snappy. The Zero G roll is really good. It's taken at the perfect pace and is in the perfect location over the entrance to the area. The helix around the monument is surprisingly forceful on the right hand side of the train. The backwards return journey is lovely too. We had 6 rides overall and it was pretty unanimous in that this is a perfect fit for Chessington and a good step up ride for those that want a bit more then Dragons Fury but aren't quite ready for Thorpe. I think one of its main positives is a weird one in that the earlier B&M Wing-riders were very graceful rides, The Swarm for example has a natural flow and each element works in conjunction with the next. It always feels in control. The newer ones such as Fenix at Toverland and Mandrill have jerkier elements and feel less refined weirdly. And I kinda like that. So yes, a nice surprise. It has all the strengths that you'd expect from a B&M in that it's reliable and efficient and is a strong Premier ride for the park. It perfectly fits in next to Vampire, Kobra and Dragons Fury and I'm very happy and hope it brings the park the success to take it through the next decade. 

 

Ostrich Stampede isn't great to be honest. Takes way too long to load and only one has twenty seconds of really good jumping energy. The rest is a bit meh with you just spinning around. Mamba Strike was much better and weirdly jerky and seemed to be the busier of the two rides. Both of these rides were doing the job well of support flat rides and makes the area feel more complete and rounded. 

 

So to conclude it was a successful launch for a park that really needed the investment. With Croc Drop two years ago, Blue Barnacle, Trawler Trouble and Barrel Bail Out last year and now Jumanji, the ride offering has seen significant and much needed changes and I hope to see this continue. I love Chessington and I do bring out the rose tinted glasses out for it. it has so much potential that has been locked away for what feels like two decades. This needs to be the start of something because Chessington can be a great park again.

[MattyMoo]

Monkey Coaster down and will not be opening today, according to the CWoA app. Hopefully not something terminal with Bank Holiday coming up...

[Mark9]

It's definitely open today. 

[MattyMoo]

Oh good! Misinformed by the MAP group and the app 😱

[MattyMoo]

Merlin definitely taking the "second only to Disney" mantra seriously by introducing a £12 one shot fasttrack for the Winged Monkey Boi Ride.

[Mark9]

I can ride Peter Pans Flight in 5 minutes time for only 13 euros so I guess it is exactly the same as Disney.

[Cal]

Rode Mandrill for my first time today, and I really enjoyed it. It still isn't the coaster of choice I would've gone for Chessington, but it rides really well and fits in perfectly. 

 

It now has a single rider queue and you don't need to use the virtual queue for this. 

 

Wonder how long they'll keep the virtual queue for? I'm amazed they bother with it on off peak days. It was walk on all day and they were allowing rerides in the station, yet they're paying 3 members of staff to stand at the entrance all day to scan people into the queue? Unnecessary faff

[Matt N]

If anyone’s interested, I rode Mandrill Mayhem and saw the World of Jumanji for the first time today.

 

I’ll split my review into two parts; a brief review of the land as a whole and a longer review of the main point of interest, Mandrill Mayhem.

 

Let’s start with the area as a whole…

The Area

Overall, I have to say that I really liked the area itself! It’s got some very nice theming; the main jaguar shrine centrepiece provides a really striking visual, and there are some other really nice sight lines and really nice bits of theming within the land.

 

In terms of some of the subtler bits of theming, I quite liked the Bazaar section; to me, it gave off almost Animal Kingdom-esque vibes! There are also various other nice bits of theming around the land, and while the landscaping is still a little scant at the moment, I think it will look really nice and make the area look really wooded when it’s grown in!

 

One thing I did notice is that while I like the area soundtrack and think it’s quite a cool, motivating piece, the loop is quite short. I can imagine that it might get a little grating to hear the same thing over and over if you’re in the area for any extended period of time. Short music loops do seem to be quite a Chessington-wide thing, though, so perhaps I’m just being overly pedantic…

 

If I’m being pedantic, it is also somewhat lacking in seating. As far as I could tell, I couldn’t really see any benches or anything for people to sit down on.

 

Overall, though, I did really like the area; from a visual standpoint, it certainly looks very nice, and overall, I think it’s quite well executed and will grow to look really nice once the landscaping is bedded in!

 

Now let me move onto the main point of interest…

Mandrill Mayhem

I was interested to ride Mandrill Mayhem, as it’s certainly one of the more unique contraptions I’ve ever seen from B&M. I was very intrigued to see how a family launched wing shuttle coaster rode, as to me, that seemed like quite an eclectic combination of ride types; I, for one, was certainly very surprised when Chessington announced that Mandrill Mayhem was to fuse all four buzzwords together! But did Mandrill Mayhem live up to the hype and the fairly positive reviews for me? Well, I’m sorry to say that overall, I was definitely somewhat disappointed with Mandrill Mayhem as a coaster. I had 3 rides, and don’t get me wrong, it’s far from a terrible coaster, but I wouldn’t say that it was an especially brilliant one either, and it wasn’t one I overly rated.

 

In the interests of fairness, I’ll start with the positives…

The Positives

• It’s a very striking ride visually; B&M track is always very visually attractive, and Mandrill Mayhem is no exception, with the track winding around the Jaguar Shrine making for a very nice visual!
• I think the audio sequence in the station is quite good fun. I particularly liked the “not that way!” when the train shot backwards!
• The initial sequence of elements is quite good fun, particularly towards the back. The swing launch sequence has two reasonably potent launches that are fun and punchy, the little mild pop of airtime off the launch track is quite fun, and towards the back of the train, the Junior Scorpion Tail provides some very fun floater airtime! It’s an element that I felt worked really well on Ice Breaker back in June, and it’s an element that works well here too. The Junior Scorpion Tail didn’t really do anything on the front, though; that one is definitely best experienced towards the back, in my view.

As inferred by my initial line, however, there are quite a few negatives I feel I need to discuss…

The Negatives

• Once you get past the initial swing launch sequence, I honestly found the layout a little bit bland. It just lacked a certain spark, a certain… je ne sais quoi for me. I just found it a bit something of nothing, if I’m being totally frank. There were bits that I thought looked quite spicy and like they might provide some really fun moments before I rode, but they didn’t really do anything for me when I actually rode. I also don’t really think the layout plays to the strengths of the Wing Coaster as a model, and that was a concern I had from day one. In my view, it could quite easily have not been a Wing Coaster.
• I wasn’t a fan of the principal helix stall at all. The helix itself was perfectly OK, but I found the stall at the top very uncomfortable and awkward to experience; it’s a part of the experience that looks a lot better than it rides, in my view.
• While it’s absolutely not horrifically rough in the same vein as, say, an SLC, Mandrill Mayhem definitely isn’t smooth for a brand new B&M roller coaster. I found it to have a very noticeable rattle in both the inner and outer seats, and on all 3 rides, I came off with a bit of a headache. In a somewhat linked point, I’d also argue that in some aspects, the ride generally feels a little bit awkward and unrefined in its execution and the way it navigates the layout. For instance, in some of the more dynamic parts of the layout such as the dive to the left out of the station and the s-bend before the principal helix, the train almost seemed to shudder up and down quite noticeably, and the whole backwards lap felt a bit awkward, in my view. I don’t think dynamism and snappy transitions are really where the Wing Coaster shines as a model, and I think Mandrill Mayhem evidences that quite well, personally.
• In terms of the trains, I feel that it shares the same flaws as The Swarm in that I don’t find the vests particularly comfortable, and the restraints do seem to tighten and leave you feeling quite uncomfortably constrained during the ride. That is more of a general Wing Coaster flaw than anything specific to Mandrill Mayhem, though, so that’s by the by.
• Away from the ride experience itself, I do also feel that the throughput is an aspect that leaves much to be desired. The ride was being operated very well by the staff on the ground with all things considered, but I think that even for the type of ride they went for, there were some ways that throughput could easily have been increased. For instance, they could have found some way of running 2 trains and some kind of dual station mechanism on the ride, and in terms of a simpler fix, even installing full height airgates in the station would have increased the throughput by not forcing riders to wait off the station platform and only cross onto the station platform when the ride has ended. Mandrill Mayhem was the highest throughput coaster at Chessington today by my measurements, but I think the park needed a queue muncher and I don’t think Mandrill Mayhem fulfils that particular brief, personally.

So overall, then, I liked the land, but was disappointed by Mandrill Mayhem itself. The land is nice and Mandrill Mayhem itself is by no means terrible or without merit, but I do personally question whether this coaster was the right fit for Chessington as a park, or the best 1.2m calibre coaster they could have built.

 

Perhaps I’m just somewhat out of touch, though. I am not the ride’s target demographic; it’s aimed at kids riding their first big coaster, whereas I rode it as a 20 year old enthusiast who was riding his 111th coaster. It did seem to be going down quite well with the kids who were riding, from what I could tell, and that is the important thing after all!

 

I apologise if I come across overly harsh or nitpicky, as I’m aware that some of my points are quite pedantic, but those were just some of the thoughts I had.

[Benin]

Went today.

 

Mandrill is... fine. Rode it twice and its already bouncing along the track which is concerning.

 

The operations are meh. Wasn't especially busy today but I dread to think what the throughput was. Though ops across the park weren't that good so not the only one, but as the brand new addition comes under more strain.

 

The online thing borked up second go as the booking disappeared from the webpage. Fortunately the staff member could check and let us on.

 

As mentioned, the ride itself is fine. Floaty and the launches are fairly punchy. There's no fanfare to the ride kicking off which surprised me. The hangtime in the helix of forever was a bit uncomfortable as expected. 

 

If this hadn't been the first new coaster at Chessie in nearly 2 decades it would probably have a good role within the park. Its currently a very peculiar ride that doesn't really alleviate many of the current problems. 

 

The area doesn't look great. Might improve with the greenery but it just looks incredibly sparse. Though of course the focus feature of the jaguar head is a good element to centre around, but it just doesn't help set the scene much. The bazaar section is probably the best bit but is located in about 5 square foot of the entire area.

 

Didn't do the accompanying flats. 

 

Will pass more thoughts on the park later.