May 30, 20178 yr comment_250045 I wouldn't put my trust in Wikipedia as fact, but yep that's pretty much what happened, it was mostly a H&S thing dressed up as an "upgrade", also rebuilding the laser system because it was on its last legs. The ride is now so embarrassing, especially lighting, effects and audio. No professionalism or quality control at all. They need somebody to tell them their standards are terrible, because as far as the park is concerned the Tomb redo was a great success. The "4 minutes" thing about evacuations I am not sure how that figure came about, or if it was just something staff kept saying enough that nobody questioned it anymore. The ride had a good evac plan, it was more the serious lack of maintenance on the sets requiring a respray for fire retardancy that was the issue. 4 minutes for a ride of that size seems very bizarre. I am confused why they poorly bolted in a new fire exit to the station, when there is already one direct to the outside about 4 metres right along an evac platform, I don't know. Maybe a new tighter regulation on fire escape distances, who knows. It should have been done better. It now makes for a horrendous entrance to the queue, and could have easily been made to look right if it wasn't such a rush job.
May 30, 20178 yr comment_250055 I do remember this being mentioned before but what caught me off guard today was that the treasure room and Jukebox Jewel (I still call it that even today) both had the trains stop for about a third of the time it used to. This of course led to a lot of the audio being out of sync...and I'll be damned if it's affecting the skeletons as well, seeing neither the lights or the animatronics themselves worked. All in all the ride's a mess nowadays. I suppose people these days wouldn't notice or care about the slightest things in theme park rides that don't function as intended but it's as if Chessington know that and go with it.
May 30, 20178 yr comment_250058 People do notice when things are good. They might not come out of the attraction and think "xyz was expertly timed", but their overall satisfaction with the attraction will be greater if it's looked after. The park just have the complete wrong attitude- if no one complains it's alright. Which is exactly why we have disasters like Vampire's station (and crypt, cave and queue for that matter).
May 31, 20178 yr comment_250061 When you look at things like Trip Advisor a common complaint at most parks (even Efteling) is tired looking rides and scenery... Add in poor operations and it's probably surprising that Chessie manage 3.5 stars...
June 2, 20178 yr comment_250097 Had 3 rides on Tomb Blaster yesterday with a couple of friends. We thought we'd worked out the scoring system (yellow = 100, blue = 50, red = 25) but somehow managed to get scores ending in 20, 45, 60 and 85! Can anyone enlighten us? Our top score of the day was 32,025 sitting on the back row (as we realised we could still get points after the ride stops at the end before moving back into the station!). My best was 26,845. Sorry in advance if anyone has posted about this before!
March 11, 20187 yr comment_256495 How terrible does Tomb Blaster look this year?! No music at the start, boulder not working, audio jumping in the axe scene, light not switching off meaning you can see the effect resetting, STILL no mummy audio at the end?! How can they let it get as bad as this? Absolutely shameful.
March 11, 20187 yr comment_256496 Tomb Blaster hasn’t been in a great state now for a number of years, but from what I witnessed yesterday, it is perhaps the worst I’ve seen it. No music or sound effects on the opening scene Broken lighting between the Mummy and Dog scene Music keeps breaking after the Mummy scene, Thats on top of the still awful lighting setup, Music sync and the fact the exterior and ride overall are in an appalling state. The ride looked well maintained 5-10 years ago compared to now.
March 11, 20187 yr comment_256500 Oh wow I love how the mummies at the end just don’t move, but then the last one does!
March 11, 20187 yr comment_256509 The amount of UV lighting in there is actually overkill. What's that Chessie? You need a new name for the ride? "Purple Tomb". There. Done. Thank me later chaps, I'm off to the pub...
March 11, 20187 yr comment_256510 I wonder if they should consider deliberately making it worse so Merlin give them some money to replace it. The ride in its current state looks dreadful and, just like the bubbleworks was, should just be torn down and changed into something else.
March 12, 20187 yr comment_256514 I wouldn’t be surprised if “Egypt” is the next area to be redeveloped at Chessington. Rameses didn’t have a particularly strong preview weekend, and I am surprised it’s outlived Ripsaw given it was older and the target market of CWOA etc. With Land of the Tigers coming in; I could see a refurbishment coming for that area soon, along with the demise of Rameses; a rebranding of Tomb Blaster (and away with its current queueline) and a new interaction of animals and rides again much like LOTT is going to be which could also link Zufari into it somewhat. Tomb has always been weak in my opinion. It just sort of exists for me at Chessington and I’m not sure why. Merlin just have far more fun shoot rides IMO such as Duel, Ramses il Risevigo and I’d dare say Laser Raders. *mic drop*
March 12, 20187 yr comment_256519 On 11/03/2018 at 10:57 PM, Project LC said: I wonder if they should consider deliberately making it worse so Merlin give them some money to replace it. The ride in its current state looks dreadful and, just like the bubbleworks was, should just be torn down and changed into something else. I’m almost certain that’s what they’re already doing. There’s now way its this bad by accident. They wanted to re-do Tomb properly years ago, back when they were told it barely passed the safety tests Runaway Train and Dragon Falls failed. For whatever reason (perhaps because of the need to do it sooner rather than later), they were granted a small budget to sort out the problems in 2016. So it’s quite likely they’re pushing to make the ride worse in order to follow through with their original plans.
March 12, 20187 yr comment_256524 Hate to admit it but the ride has definitely gone down a similar route to how the Bubbleworks. The ride audio, scenery and exterior remain in an extremely poor state. The Bubbleworks in it’s final year comprised broken effects, generally poor lighting and audio missing from key scenes (although some actually repaired). With the current stste of the park, I can see Tomb Blaster ( along with Forbidden Kingdom as a whole) being one of the next areas on the chopping board for redevelopment. Then again a reduction in Park capex who’s to say when that may be. Hocus Pocus Hall too is probably on borrowed time (with it’s missing glasses thing).
March 12, 20187 yr comment_256525 I think it's sad that park staff feel like they have to make a ride so awful just so it can actually be fixed up... Like, that's no way to run a park...
March 14, 20187 yr comment_256589 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!
March 14, 20187 yr comment_256590 On 11/03/2018 at 10:57 PM, Project LC said: I wonder if they should consider deliberately making it worse so Merlin give them some money to replace it. The ride in its current state looks dreadful and, just like the bubbleworks was, should just be torn down and changed into something else. Who's to say this wasn't their plan all along with Tomb and Bubbleworks? It's either that or sheer idiocy on the part of who looks after the attractions. Either way, Chessington and by extension Merlin's budget strategy don't care for quality or for entertaining the many thousands of paying guests who go through these attractions every day. An absolutely insulting and ridiculous situation. The ride is a joke and an embarassment on what it used to be! On 12/03/2018 at 1:21 AM, Flipper said: a rebranding of Tomb Blaster (and away with its current queueline) Oh yes I'm sure they have tried to remove its queueline. The only alternative is a cattlepen shoved in the available space on the ground. Trust only Merlin, "second largest entertainments company globally", to not be able to 'do' first storey queuelines or look after them properly.
March 14, 20187 yr comment_256594 Either way, Chessington and by extension Merlin's budget strategy don't care for quality or for entertaining the many thousands of paying guests who go through these attractions every day. 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".
March 19, 20187 yr comment_256703 Rode this mess yesterday, f**king appalling... The girls behind me were openly mocking how pathetic it was, of course not as creatively as me. As for the staff, I'm almost impressed power can go that far to your head in 2 days but Christ they were disgusting.
March 19, 20187 yr comment_256705 14 minutes ago, Mega-Lite said: Rode this mess yesterday, f**king appalling... The girls behind me were openly mocking how pathetic it was, of course not as creatively as me. As for the staff, I'm almost impressed power can go that far to your head in 2 days but Christ they were disgusting. The juxtaposition to this from the General Discussion post is slightly hilarious...
March 19, 20187 yr comment_256706 Just now, Benin said: The juxtaposition to this from the General Discussion post is slightly hilarious... If you say so... Not sure how they relate at all though.
March 19, 20187 yr comment_256707 22 minutes ago, Mega-Lite said: As for the staff, I'm almost impressed power can go that far to your head in 2 days but Christ they were disgusting. Why what happened with staff? Can’t have been an easy weekend for any of them tbf.
March 19, 20187 yr comment_256708 1 minute ago, Ringo said: Why what happened with staff? Can’t have been an easy weekend for any of them tbf. The Tomb ones were just rude and unprofessional, no not your normal early season nerves but on power trips. One of them slagging off their team leader to another member of staff, infront of guests, was grim.
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