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Chessington Howl'o'ween


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31 minutes ago, HermanTheGerman said:

So you're saying this cheap and zero effort decoration should be encouraged because its better than nothing at all? That's silly. This thing looks so bad its crude... The 59p roll of Halloween caution tape from the Tesco seasonal aisle is frankly laughable much like this whole campaign

 

Disney, or any other company Merlin claim to be in league with, must be shaking in their boots. 

Not saying it should be encouraged, like Benin says they're all equally bad (arguably you don't need them to be good; they're essentially the same as construction sites).  Just a shame that when parks do little things like this they get laughed at... 

 

 

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3 hours ago, BaronC. said:

So Chessington do some low key theming and advertising outside one of their mazes and get slated.  Thorpe and Towers do nothing but fencing and shipping containers outside and that's cool.

 

Never happy are enthusiasts..

Caution tape from poundland, a sign made on paint and an already there fire exit sign don't count as theming.

 

Do it properly, or don't do it at all. 

 

The difference with THORPE & Towers, is that there is nothing now, until its complete. 

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7 hours ago, StevenVig said:

Caution tape from poundland, a sign made on paint and an already there fire exit sign don't count as theming.

 

Do it properly, or don't do it at all. 

 

The difference with THORPE & Towers, is that there is nothing now, until its complete. 

I bet you also hate the castle thing at the side of Vampire's lift hill, something they didn't have to do and is alot better than just staring at a chain link fence, but "ugh cheap!"

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4 minutes ago, ChessingtonSam said:

I bet you also hate the castle thing at the side of Vampire's lift hill, something they didn't have to do and is alot better than just staring at a chain link fence, but "ugh cheap!"

Well to me, it looks awful, cheap and just weird. I would much rather it to never have been built so money could be better spent somewhere else.

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1 hour ago, ChessingtonSam said:

I bet you also hate the castle thing at the side of Vampire's lift hill, something they didn't have to do and is alot better than just staring at a chain link fence, but "ugh cheap!"

This is the issue with the entire park though, when they do most things it's always a half-arsed job, theres no passion or effort put into what they do. 

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2 hours ago, ChessingtonSam said:

I bet you also hate the castle thing at the side of Vampire's lift hill, something they didn't have to do and is alot better than just staring at a chain link fence, but "ugh cheap!"

Haha that's exactly the kind of thing we mean though... In fact, much like this Halloween "theming", that print-out looks like it was recycled from the local primary school play. I used to love as a child looking around and pulling at the trees from the Vampire lifts, they really made you feel in the thick of the woods (even though you were meters from the main road), by boxing you in with this cheap homogenous banner, they're just boring you buy not giving anything real to look at.  

 

Not being mean or unnecessarily cynical, but stuff like this just cheapens the product... A cartoon-style printout looks bad glued to the side of the lift, surely anyone can see that? To theme a lift Hill and have it not look bad and tokenistic is quite a big thing to try and do. They obviously don't have the budget for something like that; so yes, in this instance, doing nothing really would have been better. Much like StevenVig said, if you're not going to do it properly, don't do it at all. 

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1 hour ago, Benin said:

There a pic of this? Sounds like the old Great Wall tarp they put up on Dragon Falls a few years back...

You can sort of see it here. Yeah it's cheap, and quite easy, but it's better than this. I see no problem with it at all.

 

EDIT Plus it looks like those trees have been trimmed, and isn't there a back of house area over there as well as the road? Maybe you could see through and they wanted to cover it up.

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6 minutes ago, ChessingtonSam said:

You can sort of see it here. Yeah it's cheap, and quite easy, but it's better than this. I see no problem with it at all.

 

EDIT Plus it looks like those trees have been trimmed, and isn't there a back of house area over there as well as the road? Maybe you could see through and they wanted to cover it up.

The old way looked a lot nicer. Now your eyes are drawn to the unecessary ugly wall.

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It's a bit grim and nonsensical really... Think a lot of parks forget that adding stuff just for the sake of adding stuff isn't always the best solution to something...

 

Though that has made me imagine a what if the Vampire lift hill was completely enclosed, you'd be deaf by lift 2 sure, but would probably have some potential...

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1 hour ago, Benin said:

It's a bit grim and nonsensical really... Think a lot of parks forget that adding stuff just for the sake of adding stuff isn't always the best solution to something...

 

Though that has made me imagine a what if the Vampire lift hill was completely enclosed, you'd be deaf by lift 2 sure, but would probably have some potential...

I was imagining the other day if Lift 1 was completely enclosed, that would make the station incredibly dark, and that opens up so much potential for a good experience within said enclosed lift. But this is Chessington.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Chessington have been slowly making improvements to what appears to be the entrance for Creepy Caves, and this is what it's currently looking like:

20170909_135433.thumb.jpg.717c0e2e8383557472c20ce82c71de44.jpg

I understand this doesn't look great, but there's a bit more theming behind that fence  (some tanks and stuff), some lighting and behind the gate is some green lighting on what looks to be a big spider web. There's also some sound effects  (zombie growls and something in a bush) and smoke!

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  • 2 weeks later...
7 hours ago, StevenVig said:

I just remember when this used to be the standard ?

 

fright2004freezer.jpg

The Creepy Caves entrance doesn't look anywhere near finished to me. Plus, from what's been released so far it fits the theme really well. Will it be as good as this? Probably not. But at least reserve your judgement until it's complete and open.

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  • 1 month later...

Wow, okay. I take it all back.

That is absolutely terrible.

 

Apparently, though, inside it's terrifying, and this TripAdvisor reviewer says the age rating should be increased:

Quote

We had a fantastic day at Chessington. The new Gruffalo ride is absolutely beautiful and a visual treat! Chessington was great fun in the dark, especially the Vampire ride. The staff dressed in Halloween costume were brilliant and stayed in character all day. My only gripe is the Creepy Caves Unearthed attraction. We paid £6 each as it said it was suitable for 10 plus. This was absolutely not suitable for 10 plus!!! My son was terrified to tears,as was every 10 and 11 year old boy we saw leave, one actually threw up at the end he was so scared! Thus is a brilliant, well thought out attraction and does what it says it will do, terrifies you. However your rating is wrong and this attraction is absolutely not suited for 10 year olds and you should consider raising the age suggestion to 12. I would also like to enquire about a refund for the £12 as my 10 year old was so terrified we didn't make it past the entrance scene !!!

 

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Did Creepy Caves Unearthed yesterday and I think they are going to get a fair few complaints - not because it is bad but because it's a family park and I believe the attraction is too much for young ones - I would say they should have an age recommendation rather than a 'bat' rating (I think TOT woods is one bar - caves is 3)

 

I wasn't expecting much even though Curse is pretty good - we went in along with a mum and dad and their kids and 2 girls that looked about 10-12 who were by themselves.

Its actually pretty good, has a story line, the length of the attraction is surprisingly quite long.  There are some really dark areas inside and a good few jump scares.  

From the start the 2 girls didn't like being at the back so I let them go in front of us and once the maze started it was pretty much screaming from the kids all the way through, at one point everyone was just huddled into a group clearly scared  so we went ahead and sort of lead the way - at the end I could see the kids were terrified - one of the younger ones got carried through pretty much the whole attraction by I'm assuming her dad, and the 2 girls that went in by themselves looked close to tears.

 

Because this is a paid attraction I can see people wanting a refund because there really is no warning about the nature of what is inside - I personally didn't find it scary (jumped a few times) but for their target audience of families, in particular those with very young kids in my opinion it isn't suitable.  I have a 13 year old niece who I think would be fine with it but there's no way I would even consider taking my 7 year old nephew in it.

 

The odd thing is that you don't have the usual safety speech by a staff member warning you of things such as smoke effect etc etc - instead you have an actor who asks what you are scared of and sort of jokes that you'll be put in a small dark room with spiders before taking you into the attraction - and because it is done in a light hearted manner, it doesn't really prepare you for what is inside.

 

I would recommend if any of you are going to CWOA to try it out as it's interesting to see what they've done inside and it's actually a good attraction - but in terms of taking little ones in there - I'd say give it a miss 

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