The Monkey Puzzle should embrace their neighbour. If it were me I'd capitalise on the situation by renaming the pub to something like the Shrieky Bat and market towards Chessington guests who need dinner after they leave the park.

What, The Shrieky Bat?!

But yes, from what I gather there is no chance of another rollercoaster bein built on Vampire's location, unfortunately.

It's better then the Nag's Head.

What, The Shrieky Bat?!

But yes, from what I gather there is no chance of another rollercoaster bein built on Vampire's location, unfortunately.

Really? if you replace one roller-coaster with another (as long as it is not taller/louder or takes up space in the green belt, I really can't see why this could be rejected.

Because by today's local planning laws Vampire is illegal as it is or something like that. They are allowed to keep it probably until the end of its lifetime but nothing as big will be built on that site afterwards.

That shouldn't rule out a smaller coaster being put there in the future, I think.

I hope the day the Vampire is at the end of its life is the day vekoma make swinging coasters similar to those of the defunct arrow so they can just retrack it. Then, technically it cannot be condemned planning permission.

vampire is great and certainly one of the parks signiture attractions , so I doubt they would get rid of vampire tbh. Its the first ride people want to do and its the last ride they do before they go home. I was supprised to find out that it was desinged by john wildly , you would have thought he would have got rid of some of the straight sections and added more banked turns , to give the trains more oppertunity to swing and to be slightly more interesting, but to be honest I still love it !!

you would have thought he would have got rid of some of the straight sections and added more banked turns , to give the trains more oppertunity to swing and to be slightly more interesting, but to be honest I still love it !!

With the original, heavier trains the ride did flow a lot lot better. The weight of them meant the swinging was higher and followed a wider arc, the track was really cleverly designed so the turns flowed into one another naturally and the straight bits weren't taken flatly as they are now. The lightweight Vekoma trains don't carry the lateral momentum out of the turns and just sort of flop to the middle awaiting the next manoeuvre. That is not how it was designed at all.

Definitely think it has time left in it, but only with a major refurbishment, maybe some new trains. And some areas of retracking, theme the tunnel section of the vampire. Definitely add more theming elements through the forest and add a facade around the whole building.

Would Vekoma be able to replicate the arrow track to do a retrack? You're only in the tunnel for a split second anyway so theming it would be a little pointless.

 

I've bought up Vampires future previously and I'm quite astonished how long it's lasted. Loads of Arrow suspended coaster have bit the dust with only a handful remaining around the world.

 

I think it could get refurbished in the near future as most of us understand that Chessie needs Vampire to be operating to draw in the crowds. Depending if the potential new coaster that's possibly coming can become Chessies main attraction then maybe Chessie my start planning the end of life plans for Vampire.

From what I can tell, Chessington is stuck between a rock and a hard place with Vampire.

 

The ride is aging, and parts are likely getting harder to find, but Kingston Borough Council have also forbidden them from replacing it with anything of equivalent size, so unlike many other parks with Arrow suspended coasters, they can’t just rip it out and bung a new family coaster onto the site. If/when it goes, they really are stuck in regard to replacing it.

 

Personally, I think the ride will either have been refurbished or removed by the end of the decade. As much as it is iconic, it’s also getting on a bit now, and the new coaster in 2023 may well set the wheels in motion for making Vampire a less integral part of Chessington.

 

It’s a tough situation for them to be in…

18 minutes ago, Matt N said:

The ride is aging, and parts are likely getting harder to find, but Kingston Borough Council have also forbidden them from replacing it with anything of equivalent size, so unlike many other parks with Arrow suspended coasters, they can’t just rip it out and bung a new family coaster onto the site. If/when it goes, they really are stuck in regard to replacing it.

Yeah it's a real conundrum isn't it? In an Ideal world they should of left Bubbleworks alone and when the new proposed coaster would open in the current picnic area would be the perfect time to bulldoze transylvania (minus trees) to get ready for a new dark ride. Could also plan on getting rid of Tomb Blaster as well as that's been on its last legs for a while now.

Unfortunately most of the park is on its last legs. But that's what happens when most of your rides are 30 years+.

 

I'd love if they could get Vekoma to do a full retrack of it given their new style SFC units. Especially with their tyre driven lift hills as that would negate the noise issue somewhat.

 

Unfortunately I feel that it's very unlikely that much will be done until its scrap metal.

I wouldn't rule out a Vampire retrack; both Colossos at Heide Park and Shaman at Gardaland had like-for-like retracks funded by Merlin, and given that Nemesis is rumoured to be receiving the same treatment within the next few years, I certainly wouldn't put it past Merlin to greenlight this for Vampire, especially given that they can't replace it with anything of equivalent size.

 

Admittedly, Vampire may be a little more challenging given that Arrow no longer exist, but given that Shaman was retracked by CSM (a Dutch steel fabrication company) as opposed to Vekoma, as well as the fact that Vekoma and S&S (both common servicers of Arrow coasters, particularly S&S) build very similar models, I think Merlin would be up for the challenge!

Let's reignite this discussion. Now that Chessington are constructing a B&M winged coaster. Could this be the investment that allows Chessie to retire the Vampire?

@Marley I would like Vampire to be refurbished rather than removed. Vampire is my favourite of all the Chessington Rollercoasters. Vampire is too Chessington what Nemesis is to Alton Towers. Due to this I think it’s likely a retrack will be arranged.

It's a tough one; I think they're stuck between a rock and a hard place with Vampire, really.

 

It's an old ride built by a defunct manufacturer with parts that are likely hard to source replacements for, but at the same time, Kingston Borough Council have made it very clear that they will not allow Vampire to be replaced by something on the same scale.

 

Personally, I'm not sure if I see it getting retracked. It's certainly possible, particularly seeing as bespoke retrack jobs are becoming easier than ever with the likes of Taziker (who are gradually retracking The Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach) entering the market, but I'm not sure that Vampire is quite as iconic as Nemesis was, and there are other things working against it compared to Nemesis.

 

Nemesis remains world-renowned 28 years on from its opening, is located at the UK's most popular theme park, and is an example of a ride type from an operating manufacturer that's still being actively produced. With Nemesis being located in a bespokely made pit, it would also be a herculean task to replace it with, well, anything.

 

With Vampire, on the other hand; while it was the ride that made Chessington back in 1990, I'm not sure that it has quite that same iconic reputation as Nemesis. While unique, it's not world renowned in the same way, and arguably not iconic in the same sense either. Also, while the council have said that Vampire couldn't be replaced with something on the same scale, they could replace it with something quite easily and build it a spiritual successor of sorts elsewhere in the park. Not to mention that with Arrow now out of business, getting new parts for it would be easier said than done.

 

I think it could happen, but I'm not so sure that it will because I think that numerous things work against that possibility for Vampire compared to Nemesis.

Would a retrack to a slightly different profile require full planning approval, IE retracked with Vekomas Junior suspended track/trains

1 minute ago, RobF said:

Would a retrack to a slightly different profile require full planning approval, IE retracked with Vekomas Junior suspended track/trains

That I don’t know. I’d like to think that profiling changes wouldn’t matter so much, but if they changed any of the layout, then I think it would.

@Matt N hopefully Vampires possible retrack is years away. I’m sure Chessington are working on a plan for when the time comes to rebuild Vampire. Chessington know how beloved Vampire is,so I doubt they’d remove it. Vampire was the UK’s first ever suspended Rollercoaster after all.

21 hours ago, Theme Park Fanatic said:

@Matt N hopefully Vampires possible retrack is years away. I’m sure Chessington are working on a plan for when the time comes to rebuild Vampire. Chessington know how beloved Vampire is,so I doubt they’d remove it. Vampire was the UK’s first ever suspended Rollercoaster after all.

Didn’t nemesis pip the post ?

1 hour ago, RobF said:

Didn’t nemesis pip the post ?

It didn’t, actually; Vampire came 4 years before Nemesis, so it was indeed the UK’s first suspended rollercoaster.

There's a difference between suspended coaster and inverted coaster here. 

 

Suspended coasters, a la Vampire, have the ability to sway and swing. Inverted coasters, a la Nemesis, do not. Vampire was the UK's first suspended coaster, Nemesis the UK's and Europe's) first inverted coaster.

 

It's a pretty fernickty and largely pointless difference tbf.

 

As for Vampire retracking and potential planning permission. I believe the Nemesis application wasn't a full application, and instead something that was done to check the legality of doing it without full permission. And indeed I believe full permission is not required. So that could be the case for a like-for-like track replacement. 

 

The trickier thing is that the location of Vampire is much more contentious. There's a long standing and believable rumour that if Chessington removed Vampire, they wouldn't be able to use that space for a new ride due to its location. Would the council, and locals, really be a fan of a retracking job?

Small Thing I noticed (I'm always on the look out for the small things)

 

Before the Winters Tale event, Chessington listed Vampire as one of the open rides along with 3 of the Shipwreck coast rides, The Adventure tree, Room on the broom and Tiny truckers.

 

Now it does not list vampire as an open ride, but has added the Jungle bus and the flying jumbos

 

Could  there be unexpected work for Vampire? 

It closed midday on the end of season annual pass day and didn't re-open for the rest of the day, so I imagine something happened that day causing it to be down for a while