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Future Of Chessington


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Would you say Vampire needs a repaint? Never been so sure how light brown track blends in with it's surroundings! (spare the supports which look remarkably like trees in the queue)

To be honest nearly everything in Chessington needs a repaint in my opinion  :lol:

Vampire could definitely do with a repaint, but at least it fits in more than Dragon's Fury, which just looks knackered.

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I would love all the major rides at chessington to get repainted, but it's just not going to happen.

 

It's the same as all of the Colossus speculation at Thorpe Park, the GP don't care about it and therefore the ride will never get repainted until the public kick up a fuss. A ride's colour scheme is such a minor detail anyway unless the ride looks absolutely worn out and is in desperate need of a repaint.

 

There are lots of other areas I would rather get repainted and done up than rollercoaster tracks which really aren't noticeable to the GP. I'm not saying I wouldn't like it, of course it would be nice, however it just isn't necessary and the improvement scheme of areas like the Mystic East are far for important at this stage in time.

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Which at the time (and still to this day) people completely ignore and don't even comment on. You can even see it in this topic where people have ignored your post for more cheap shots at any of the Merlin sites. 

 

I think the problem is down to that repainting is something that should be done anyway, rather than ignored/left until the thing is completely unsafe... Oblivion is still the only example of a Merlin ride being fully repainted, and that was purely down to Smiler being built across the way...

 

Presentation is everything, something Merlin don't seemingly realise a lot...

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Refurbs are few and far between though... Should we be complimenting parks for doing something they should already be doing?

 

If Fury gets repainted, then it's good, but I'm not going to congratulate the park on something that they should be looking to do anyway, and only doing it because there's another reason behind it (a la Oblivion)...

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I think we should yeah. If the parks own 'fans' (word used lightly) can't be bothered to pick up this things then what incentive is there for the parks, beyond maintaining the rides into workable condition.

 

Shall we play a game of naming parks that refurbish their rides regularly. Disney is the obvious choice, but name a few more just for the fun of it.

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Shall we play a game of naming parks that refurbish their rides regularly. Disney is the obvious choice, but name a few more just for the fun of it.

Hmmm

Blackpool (they replace wood on coasters, redid Valhalla's facade, Revolution and recently repainted parts of dipper

Paultons (critter creek and cobra apparently got some repainted a couple years back)

Southend (their rides often get frequent maintenance closed season)

Three parks named (all in the uk) that do at least some noticeable care in to ride upkeep.

I think Nemy, Colossus & all of chessie's coasters (bar scorpion) could get a reprint

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I think we should yeah. If the parks own 'fans' (word used lightly) can't be bothered to pick up this things then what incentive is there for the parks, beyond maintaining the rides into workable condition.

 

Shall we play a game of naming parks that refurbish their rides regularly. Disney is the obvious choice, but name a few more just for the fun of it.

 

Europa Park do some serious work every year on 'non-essential' stuff (the Rapids getting an enclosed lift hill comes to mind)... Sure most of the other German parks are similar (though probably not to the same degree of Europa's work)...

 

It's also something not exclusive to rides, as seen by Towers Street looking very much left behind in the 90s... Should there be an incentive for the parks to make sure presentation to top notch though? It sounds like a poor excuse to put it towards fans not gushing at the bit because Forbidden Kingdom has received new tarps...

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I remember there was elation when Oblivion was painted and a lot of fans giving it a lot of attention when the new season began. Especially as Oblivion's image was its whole theme yet it had been looking awful for years.

But a track repaint's a track repaint, it doesn't really warrant a huge celebration, would just be good to have in the case of Fury and Vampire. The public DO notice as it all adds to the overall impression of the park. But why paint something that you don't even know if it will still be there in a couple of years?

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Refurbs are few and far between though... Should we be complimenting parks for doing something they should already be doing?

Yes. Disney fansites do about the most boring of crap (Follow insideDLP on twitter). So why don't we?

 

It's far nicer than someone making an effort and it being blasted - meaning those people don't bother doing it in future.

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Hmmm

Blackpool (they replace wood on coasters, redid Valhalla's facade, Revolution and recently repainted parts of dipper

It often gets overlooked that they replace a shed load of wood every year on the wooden coasters, repainted Revolution and Steeplechase, as well as lots of cosmetic work on the park such as the onion on Big Dipper (which has been repainted/replaced over this closed season), cosmetic work to the outside of Alice in Wonderland (also done over this closed season), major overhaul of the Flying Machines which has been ongoing since October, constant repair/maintenance/effect maintenance of Valhalla, and actually maintaining their dark rides, now if a park that runs at a loss can do all this then why can't Merlin?

 

The same applies for smaller parks, I would even say that the standard of paint on the rides at Brean is better than Merlin's!

I think we should yeah. If the parks own 'fans' (word used lightly) can't be bothered to pick up this things then what incentive is there for the parks, beyond maintaining the rides into workable condition.

 

Although sadly they don't even manage this in some cases!  :lol:

 

Don't get me wrong, I will credit them if they repaint something, as I did with Oblivion at the time and any other cosmetic work to the park, but if they leave things in a state then I think that fans of the park are right to express their frustrations/concerns.  I hoped that the Oblivion repaint would be the start of a turnaround in terms of park appearance, but sadly this hasn't been the case yet.

 

The trouble with Chessington (trying to get vaguely back on topic) is that it is based around themed experiences rather than just the ride hardware, and therefore poor maintenance of the park as a whole really ruins the entire experience. Examples are Tomb Blaster, Dragon Falls, Vampire, Dragon's Fury, the Bubbleworks finale scene and many other things across the park which really need addressing!  For example (and this is just one of many small points), the roofs of the buildings in Transylvania have green rot/moss all over them, it just looks dire and it really wouldn't cost the earth to clean it up!

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The Oblivion repaint got a reasonable amount of attention at the time, but people quickly forgot about that.  Unfortunately, I remember a fair amount of discussion (though I don't think on these forums, fortunately) being about how they hadn't painted the track inside the tunnel, which could be seen since the place where they stopped was visible from some angles...  

 

 

Anyways, future of Chessington...  Well it can't be any worse than 2013. :)

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I think we should yeah. If the parks own 'fans' (word used lightly) can't be bothered to pick up this things then what incentive is there for the parks, beyond maintaining the rides into workable condition.

 

Shall we play a game of naming parks that refurbish their rides regularly. Disney is the obvious choice, but name a few more just for the fun of it.

 

 

I think the average guest does notice. I've had friends say certain parts of a park feel dated or worn out but not "ride X needing a paint job is ruining the aesthetics of this area". It's the same thing for well presented areas. People will often pick up on it but not give specifics. 

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I think the average guest does notice. I've had friends say certain parts of a park feel dated or worn out but not "ride X needing a paint job is ruining the aesthetics of this area". It's the same thing for well presented areas. People will often pick up on it but not give specifics. 

Yeah, I've heard plenty of people in the queue for Colossus at Thorpe commenting on how rusty/old it looks, and it's not even old yet!

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See, in some instances, it doesn't really matter if a ride has been painted or not. For example, Vampire spends most of its time in the woods, with only a few sections close enough to the ground to be seen in detail. This is where the colouring of the track is not an issue. But for something like Colossus where there is a plaza and queue coming very close to the ride, its condition becomes extremely noticeable. 

 

If you spoke to a random guest about the condition of Vampire's track, I doubt they would notice, but with Colossus, it comes so close that its kinda hard not to notice.

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It's also something not exclusive to rides, as seen by Towers Street looking very much left behind in the 90s... Should there be an incentive for the parks to make sure presentation to top notch though? It sounds like a poor excuse to put it towards fans not gushing at the bit because Forbidden Kingdom has received new tarps...

 

You know that isn't what I am saying. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hmmm

Blackpool (they replace wood on coasters, redid Valhalla's facade, Revolution and recently repainted parts of dipper

Paultons (critter creek and cobra apparently got some repainted a couple years back)

Southend (their rides often get frequent maintenance closed season)

Three parks named (all in the uk) that do at least some noticeable care in to ride upkeep.

I think Nemy, Colossus & all of chessie's coasters (bar scorpion) could get a reprint

No idea where you heard thay but Cobra has not been repainted since it was put in...

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  • 2 years later...

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