August 3, 201510 yr comment_213793 Ramesis's queue line should've have money spent on it and been re-enhanced to its golden days, instead they did a cheap half cooked job of destroying the old entrance and moving the entrance to the ground near the shop and just plonking the restrictions sign there.
August 3, 201510 yr comment_213796 The park want to eliminate elevated queues since the 2012 accident. Same happened with Runaway Train's queue and will eventually with Tomb's
August 3, 201510 yr comment_213824 Great! There goes my optimism for the park's future (Hello bland Cattle pens)
August 3, 201510 yr comment_213829 Queue lines are on the floor = park's future is dire. Hmmm. If anything, its these safety overreactions that are making the next five years a little more interesting.
August 3, 201510 yr comment_213834 It is a shame that more theming has been removed from what were classic rides with good theming. The new entrance/queue is truly miserable to see compared to what went before. Dragon Falls had theming removed, which was not replaced. And now the same can be said of Rameses.
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213849 True Rameses never gets a long queue anymore, and the 2012 incident probably is at least part of the reason, they could at least have done a better job than that. And it hasn't exactly had it's theming removed, more just... cut off from the public. And hopefully Falls will get its theming back for the 2016 season.
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213857 The Tomb incident is the reason they've changed it, nothing else... I like the fact that they left a bin on the walkway... Dunno if it's still there now...
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213866 It's a shame that following the inspection of the queues and pathways 'at height', that they first decided to throw in the knee-jerk railings, before another quick response to close it all together. Doesn't anyone think long term at Chessington? The irony of them wanting a high ropes course as Towers is also fairly amusing..
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213867 And hopefully Falls will get its theming back for the 2016 season. Dragon Galls won't be getting it's theming back, at least not any time soon. Chessington confirmed there are no plans to bring it back in a reply on Facebook.
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213869 Doubt Facebook responses should be used as fact in regards to park plans...
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213871 Dragon Falls won't have it's theming replaced ever, or at least I'd be very surprised if it did. The reason behind that though is not laziness, there's a much bigger issue blocking any developments to the ride currently.
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213872 Doubt Facebook responses should be used as fact in regards to park plans... I agree to an extent Which is why I added at least not anytime soon. However it is unusual for Chessington or any merlin owned attraction to reply to a comment if they haven't found out or aren't completely sure.
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213873 Dragon Falls won't have it's theming replaced ever, or at least I'd be very surprised if it did. The reason behind that though is not laziness, there's a much bigger issue blocking any developments to the ride currently. Like what? You can't just say something like that and leave us hanging, surely!
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213874 When part of the ride is built on top of Tomb's building, and said building isn't in the best of states, gotta get the priorities right unfortunately... Arguably, the park is better off being closed for a year just to refurb everything in one go..
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213878 The day Falls gets new theming is the day ticket prices don't go up. It definitely seems the park is in a very poor state currently and Glamping & High ropes are definitely not the solution.
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213881 Exactly that, what Benin said. The park are very well aware the dreadful state that it's in. They just can't decide what needs doing first. Tombs plan is/WAS in motion due to the H&S concerns of the interior. Falls is being discussed as it looks, AWFUL, and the same for Bubbles that is always on the to do list. The problem with Chessington is that they are all talk. The entire resort needs someone to come in with a vision and weed out the fools that have no idea what they're doing. There always seems to be very nice, small things happening like Market Sq/Fish and Chips, but they are irrelevant. The park needs to update it's dreadful rides, NOT keep adding things that guests do not want. Hotel extensions (yawn)/Glamping (yawn)/rumored High Ropes course (yawn).. these are NOT the answer. I wonder what the future holds for the place, as it relies on guests who knew it when it was a fantastic theme park, and are now they're taking their kids... thing is, it's not a fantastic theme park any more, and their kids, the next generation for sure won't be taking their own, when it's fallen into such disrepair. It's terrible they've got themselves into such a disgusting state.
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213909 Chessington has been on this lurching trajectory for 15 years now. Merlin have owned it for 7 years and very little has really happened.
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213932 Dragon Falls scenery could have gone straight back up not long after it was taken down. It could also go up this year, because after a bit of umming and erring the ride is now going to be around much longer. Tomb's building is going to stay, its the inside that is causing problems and there was some overreaction about how bad the building actually was. It just needs an infrastructure refurbishment. But they've had a few years without any scenery, complaints about appearance wouldn't have reached the threshold to get noticed, and there's no "Did Dragon Falls looking like a building site spoil your day?" question on the touchscreen surveys (which is pretty much how they choose where to spend the extra money), so now they don't see much reason to rebuild the scenery. As long as guests/staff keep turning a blind eye to people paying loads and queueing hours for a clearly poor ride experience, and the satisfaction stats maintain, nothing will happen to Dragon Falls or the rest of the park that's been half demolished in the near future.
August 4, 201510 yr comment_213938 To be fair, that last sentence could be applied to any Merlin park... The obsession over KPIs is slightly problematic... All well and good to see what aspects of the park need improving, but it seems that every decision is solely rested upon whether the survey points mention it... Then again, we live under the presumption that theming doesn't get the guest numbers coming in... Which results in most of it decaying until it causes injury to someone before anything is done to it...
August 5, 201510 yr comment_213982 But with dragon falls we have been waiting years for the re theme that they first scheduled for 2013 and then said post submissions and we will choose the best one for a retheme over the 2014-15 close season, instead it closes in 2015 for a few months putting up metal fences that ruin the immersion even more, Chessington just hasn't been looked after properly and as everyone else has said they don't think forward... Next thing were gonna see is the dragons falls bridges being removed because they are too high off the ground....
August 6, 201510 yr comment_214048 The general feeling I get with Chessie at the moment is, just when you think the park couldn't get any worse - it does. Really is such a shame - I'm living on the memories of the good old Chessie of the 90s!
August 6, 201510 yr comment_214059 I'm in agreement with MattyMoo - I remember a completely different Chessington back in the good old 90's - I hope at some point it can return to being just as good. Although they clearly don't get much ££££ invested in the park, I do always find that it has a good atmosphere. My sister, who recently visited Thorpe Park again for the first time since 2003 said she prefers the atmosphere at CWOA
August 7, 201510 yr comment_214151 What? No! Chessie's one of my favourite parks, (hence my name) they can't not replace ANY of the amazing theming! Chessie really do need to sort out a lot of their rides, especially rides like Toadie's, which is in a state of refurb-or-remove. And to be honest, refurb seems like a better option to me, because I don't know about you but every time I visit it actually has quite a queue. The other day it was insane, 45 minutes I think and one of the longest on park. Tiny Truckers would be a better fit to remove because it's basically the same ride, just with different vehicles and next to no scenery.
August 7, 201510 yr comment_214155 A lot of Toaide's was actually repainted for this year, so it is getting some attention. And the only reason it would have had a queue that long is because it only runs three cars.
August 7, 201510 yr comment_214157 I think Toadie's location is probably one the reasons why it receives high queues (much like Spinball, a Truckers & Storm Surge) not also helped by the fact park just can't cope with guests numbers its receiving its current state seeing the park's attendance surge in the last 5/10 years despite few major additions which will likely reach or exceed 2m by the end of the decade. Toadie's site could be home to a great medium sized family coaster along the lines of Juvelin or fire chaser express which would add a worth while addition, not to mention improve throughputs a little (heck remove peeking and the site then is even bigger).
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