Future Of Chessington

[Benin]

Mack launch k pls...

Couldn't care about Rapids, all the UK ones are dull...

[pognoi]

Yep, I'd love to see a 20ft drop on one like they have at Disney... That'd be something!

#chessierapids2019

[AJ]

Nice ideas I wouldn't be so optimistic! Not sure how long ago these rumours came about? I wouldn't get your hopes up just yet

Beginning of closed season - recent enough to spur discussion, as mentioned though - plans change and things and most like,y will not happen but from where I obtained this it leads me to be more optimistic than my standard response would

Now personally I am not bothered about a launch coaster at Chessington. Don't get me wrong it would be nicer rather than nothing - but if they were to build a new rollercoaster all I would like for the park to do is to literally build a simple sit down coaster with one loop.

Hell - even just one of those standard fair looping star coasters you find at Brighton or in the past at Dreamland but themed to a Chessington standard so it doesn't appear like a standard fair layout. Or to keep the haters at bay who say they won't do a good enough job a custom layout that is simple like one of those fair creations with the emphasis being on that ONE loop - to be marketed as a rollercoaster that you will take your first ever inversion on.

I personally would find it wonderful for Chessington to advertise a ride and emphasis it to be every kids first looping coaster. Nothing that special, just a simple principle

[pluk]

Isn't that whole area a bit flat for rapids, would surely take a massive effort to get the gradients required?

 

Rapids would be good I suppose but the place is screaming out for a solid coaster, ideally the two could come together and interact. I've always though the falls site could swallow up a nice interacting coaster too.

[SteveJ]

Beginning of closed season - recent enough to spur discussion, as mentioned though - plans change and things and most like,y will not happen but from where I obtained this it leads me to be more optimistic than my standard response would

Okay, I suppose they are thinking of something bigger in the medium term, and it would be a dream for them to open a major new ride like a rapids or rollercoaster. But for the next few years as far as I reliably know nothing exciting is happening.

A lot of money is constantly being spent but they've got to solve (read: demolish) the inherit problems of the last 15 years first.

[Tom]

Battle of the sources!

[AJ]

Battle of the sources!

 

To be fair, I haven't said it's happening tomorrow and could be as early as 2017 but more likely 18/19 which is in my eyes medium term so I'd have to agree with ElectricBill on that one. They would like it earlier but other things need to happen first.

[Matt 236]

I guess the park's current plans is to sort out land issues and revitalise the rest of the park. Whilst some areas have been a nice refresh recently, there still a lot of areas that could do with some touch ups. Tombs & Falls are the first to come to mind here.

[Deleted Users]

Yep, I'd love to see a 20ft drop on one like they have at Disney... That'd be something!

#chessierapids2019

 

 

Kali is one of the best examples of how to not do a rapids ride. Theming is great but the actual layout is bad. 

[pognoi]

Never been on it, but I've never experienced a particularly enticing rapids ride.

 

 

People have been saying a rapids AND a coaster.... Well this just happens to be something that meets that spec and looks quite cool:

(obvs ignoring the halfpipe)

[HermanTheGerman]

To be honest, I wouldn't even expect the park to know what they want as their next big thing. They have a few ideas, but none are really in depth. At the moment, it would appear that Chessington are focusing on solving the major capacity problems, and not just in the ride department either. They want to make sure that the park can handle the numbers it already attracts before they add anything more. Which to be honest, is a very smart move.

 

For the next actual addition, I'd set my sights on 2018, although that doesn't mean that noting will be happening from now until then.

[JoshC.]

^If the park are working on a 4 year cycle (which seems to be the more adopted strategy from Merlin now), then Chessington's next 'major' thing should open in 2017.  Given they'd have to submit plans in about a year, I'd hope they've got a couple of plans which are in some more in depth!  

 

Then again, one more major attraction won't help Chessington.  They really need to sort out Mexicana a bit more, give Mystic East (and particular Dragon Falls) some work, spruce up Tomb Blaster, do something worthwhile with the Skyway, do some work to Transylvania, the list goes on...  Being pedantic even, they should make Land of the Dragons actually fit in with the park too.

 

And for a family park, the park feels far too child-orientated for my liking - I expect that many kids actually do enjoy the park, but older visitors are left a bit bored by some of the attractions which are targeted for 'everyone'.  That needs sorting too.

[HermanTheGerman]

^If the park are working on a 4 year cycle (which seems to be the more adopted strategy from Merlin now), then Chessington's next 'major' thing should open in 2017.  

To be honest, I doubt Chessington do work on a cycle, their investments are very random and spazmatic.

 

Since Merlin they've had:

2008 Small 

2009 Small

2010 Medium

2011 Small

2012 Small

2013 Major

2014 Major

2015 Medium

 

There is no real system for Chessington it would seem, I could be wrong though. Don't take this all as a lack of investment at Chessington, infact, its quite the opposite. They look to be getting the most out of any Merlin park over the next few years, its just being invested in infrastructure and long term solutions. Wait, Merlin investing in infrastructure?!    I have no doubts that they will be developing the park whilst doing this, but I'd assume it all to come from re-themes and replacements rather than actual additions, again, this is mostly guessing, but look at how busy the place gets in the summer. People queue for toilets!

[Benin]

Are we really considering Scorpion Express as a major investment?

Low standards are low...

[CWOAfanMalcolm]

I think we are including the new hotel and amazu the hotel was quite a large investment.

[Matt 236]

I think the rotation of investment at Chessington is, High,Medium, Low, Medium etc.

2013 was definitely a high year as we saw Zufari (which was supposedly a major a ride).

2014 would be medium as we saw the rethemed Scorpion Express, updated Amazu alongside improvements such as Market Square (in addition to the hotel).

2015 is (of course) a low year as were so far just seeing a new penguin enclosure & show plus a possibly rethemed jungle bouncers.

2016 will probably be medium (a major ride may receive a major upgrade), which means 2017 is the next high investment year.

[SteveJ]

There's no real rotation cycle because building new rides is not a priority and a lot of money is being invested this year despite no major attractions. At least it's better than a decade back when nothing was happening… at all.

[Mark9]

As a former Peeking Heights operator I am beyond insulted that you would choose to forget that wonderful installation that changed the face of Chessington forever. Outraged even.

[HermanTheGerman]

Are we really considering Scorpion Express as a major investment?

Low standards are low...

2014 saw the biggest investment into Chessington on record. Thought you might like to know that.

[JoshC.]

I'm guessing that includes the hotel though?  If you take that away, I'm guessing that takes a large amount of the investment figure away.  

 

If you consider the actual investment in the theme park itself, as opposed to the resort as a whole (a funny thing to say perhaps, given Merlin's obsession with calling the places 'resort theme parks'), then it was low.  As someone who visited and has no interest in the hotels, a freshened up Market Square, an adventure trail and a boringly-themed powered coaster doesn't exactly feel like a park's "biggest investment" on record.  

[HermanTheGerman]

"Boringly themed powered coaster", please don't say that. What are our expectations for theming these days? Scorpion Express definitely has one of the most radical and bizarre themes seen in the UK for a long time. Not to mention how detailed it is. The flame tower also makes it interesting for those watching too, making it even less "boring". 

 

Also, around £8million without the hotel. Same cost as Zufari.

[pognoi]

I don't like how people go 'oh don't trash talk that' when they go and do it themselves on another park. I suppose I'm being a hypocrite, but takes one to know one and all.

 

Edit: It was directed at anyone who switches their own rules on politeness and address from park to park, myself included. Not just you Ben!

[HermanTheGerman]

One of my pet peeves on forums is people getting angry because I don't share the same opinion, so I am sorry that it feels like I have gone and done just that. 

 

JoshC, please don't take it the wrong way. I just wanted to prove a point about investment, and kinda got a little carried away with my love for Scorpion in the process. Apologies.

[JoshC.]

"Boringly themed powered coaster", please don't say that. What are our expectations for theming these days? Scorpion Express definitely has one of the most radical and bizarre themes seen in the UK for a long time. Not to mention how detailed it is. The flame tower also makes it interesting for those watching too, making it even less "boring". 

 

Also, around £8million without the hotel. Same cost as Zufari.

Hmm, maybe boringly themed was the wrong way to put it.  Lazily themed might express my view more accurately...

 

Scorpion Express is basically your bog standard wild west theme with a twist of "there's scorpions about".  The flamethrower effect annoys me so much (probably much more than it should do).  It's coming out of an oil tower / whatever the correct name is, so any fire effect should be like an explosion (like Swarm's fire effect, for example), not a line of fire shooting upwards.  The main scorpion just looks awful too.  The water effect stinks of pointlessness to me too.  It just doesn't really work for me.  There's a couple of nice little touches, like the scorpion shapes in the concrete and the mini scorpion statues, which I do like.  But on the whole, the ride just feels so lazy and boring to me.

 

One of my pet peeves on forums is people getting angry because I don't share the same opinion, so I am sorry that it feels like I have gone and done just that. 

 

JoshC, please don't take it the wrong way. I just wanted to prove a point about investment, and kinda got a little carried away with my love for Scorpion in the process. Apologies.

 

Oh, I'm honestly not angry about the differing opinion or anything like that either.  I do hope I'm not coming across like that!  Haven't taken anything badly either, so no worries.  I know a fair few people like Scorpion, but for me, I just find it so, so annoying.

 

As for the £8 million investment last year without the hotel, fair enough.  However, to me, it really did not feel like that amount of money had been invested in total.  Perhaps some nostalgia plays a part in my feelings, but the park felt so bad to me when I visited in 2014 - it's hard to believe it's the same park I genuinely loved visiting in 2012.  

 

I don't like how people go 'oh don't trash talk that' when they go and do it themselves on another park. I suppose I'm being a hypocrite, but takes one to know one and all.

 

Gonna call you out on this, as I assume you're referring to me, where I'm defending some of Thorpe's decisions, yet attacking Chessington...

 

As I said above, last season's visit to Chessington was just bad for me; one of the most disappointing days I've had there, and was mostly enjoyable because of the people I was with.  The place doesn't feel the same to me any more.  Maybe I expect too much from the place; set my expectations too high.  But I look back to the park I visited as soon back as 2012, and it just doesn't give me the same buzz and joy as it does now.  Hence why I'm not going to visit Chessington this year - I've been disappointed by the place too much.  Maybe a break from the place will help reignite my fondness of the place - I hope it does.

 

I won't go into my views on Thorpe or anything (let's no derail the thread hey!).  But simply put, I've lost a lot of love for Chessington recently and it's really disappointing.  I may "trash talk" the park, but I've got reasons for it, and I'm not going to be a hypocrite about it and go running back to the park at the earliest possible opportunity just so I can moan about it some more.

[Mark9]

I'm of the opposite opinion. Last years visit was the best I've had in years. A park thats starting to look rejuvenated and alive after years of misery. And I personally like Scorpion Express. Compared to the dilapidated and run down Runaway Train it was replacing, it looks great. Sure it could be so much more but then it could also be a hell of a lot less.