March 14, 201510 yr comment_205096 Accroding to the queue times, Kobra, Rattlesnake, Skyway and Toadies are all open now. Very poor start of the season from Chessington. Yes Thorpe had a lot closed, but at least only 1 was a main attraction.
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205098 Josh, there is zero excuse for this... Same thing with Thorpe... Hiding behind it as a 'preview' weekend shouldn't be the case, especially as who are those visiting? MAP holders... Shocking display from both parks this year...
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205099 Toadies has opened - Safari Skyway is not open! Haven't been over to see the others yet!
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205101 Josh, there is zero excuse for this... Same thing with Thorpe... Hiding behind it as a 'preview' weekend shouldn't be the case, especially as who are those visiting? MAP holders... Shocking display from both parks this year... I just find it difficult to slate the parks about ride availability when the park is opening for what is technically a preview day. It's not something the parks have to do, it's before the park is technically "open" and (in Chessington's case) they did at least make it clear that those major rides weren't going to be open. Maybe they shouldn't have opened as early as they have done, but that's a slightly different story in my eyes.
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205102 I agree to a certain extent and I think people would understand if it were just the pre-listed rides closed. But to arrive and find a lot more rides also closed is really disappointing and you wonder why they are not ready!
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205110 I'm more curious about why all the animals in Zufari yesterday had pink darts in them and seemed very relaxed (even coming close to the vehicle!) - presumably they'd been sedated, but whether this was deliberate so that friends and family could actually see the animals, or for some other reason, I don't know. I'm not sure how I'd feel about them sedating animals for the purpose of the public tbh! Tomb Blaster seemed...cleaner? Fresher? Not sure what (if anything) has been done, but the theming just seemed more noticeable and like things had been spruced up. Some of the targets weren't on at one point though (forget which scene) and I don't think the seats vibrated either Oh and Ghozi is now an Australian male
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205118 I just find it difficult to slate the parks about ride availability when the park is opening for what is technically a preview day. It's not something the parks have to do, it's before the park is technically "open" and (in Chessington's case) they did at least make it clear that those major rides weren't going to be open. Maybe they shouldn't have opened as early as they have done, but that's a slightly different story in my eyes. I find it difficult to understand why people are defending the parks for all these ride closures, when our parks have these four months of closures every winter. If it's too much pressure to get these rides open for the AP days then they shouldn't be happening.
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205123 I'm there tomorrow. What were the queues like with so many attractions down?
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205126 No queues at all at Guest Services today, at the entrance everyone was given fast track for a future visit.
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205127 Queues throughout the rest of the park were virtually non-existent. Biggest I saw was 15 for Tiny Truckers.
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205128 No queues at all at Guest Services today, at the entrance everyone was given fast track for a future visit. The solution to everything Seriously though, it's a nice gesture but I just wish it was something other than Fast track.
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205130 Well there isn't much else they can give a park full of annual pass holders.
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205131 Well there isn't much else they can give a park full of annual pass holders. Vouchers for food\drink? Shopping vouchers?
March 14, 201510 yr comment_205132 Both of those end up in the park loosing money. A fastrack doesn't cost the park anything and encourages them back to spend more.
March 15, 201510 yr comment_205192 I find it difficult to understand why people are defending the parks for all these ride closures, when our parks have these four months of closures every winter. If it's too much pressure to get these rides open for the AP days then they shouldn't be happening. You see, this is the thing - I do agree that if the parks can't get everything open in time, then they shouldn't be opening up so early. But for me as a passholder, if a park runs a preview day for passholders, and not all rides are operating, I'd be fine with that (as long as they've warned in advance, etc etc). If there was too much closed for me, then it's a simple case of "Thanks, but not thanks". It's different when the park is fully open and, despite what's going on behind the scenes, I totally agree that a significant number of ride closures isn't good enough. In the case of Thorpe, for example, possibly another week or so should have been given.
March 15, 201510 yr comment_205198 Thing is, a few years ago, these Passholder days had 100% ride availability... Then again, what with all the various limitations placed upon passholders, it's no surprise Merlin continually treating their loyal customers with a little bit less disdain...
March 15, 201510 yr comment_205220 You see, this is the thing - I do agree that if the parks can't get everything open in time, then they shouldn't be opening up so early. But for me as a passholder, if a park runs a preview day for passholders, and not all rides are operating, I'd be fine with that (as long as they've warned in advance, etc etc). If there was too much closed for me, then it's a simple case of "Thanks, but not thanks". It's different when the park is fully open and, despite what's going on behind the scenes, I totally agree that a significant number of ride closures isn't good enough. In the case of Thorpe, for example, possibly another week or so should have been given. The event is supposed to be "Look at how nice the park looks this year! You should totally renew!" not "Yeah you already bought your MAPs, we don't actually care about you guys now". It's why cheap +1 tickets used to be offered in the hope they would have a great day and buy a pass.
March 16, 201510 yr comment_205231 Thing is, a few years ago, these Passholder days had 100% ride availability... Then again, what with all the various limitations placed upon passholders, it's no surprise Merlin continually treating their loyal customers with a little bit less disdain... Prescisely. Gone are the days where one ride like Buccaneer are closed, now you're lucky to even get 75% ride availability. Chessington in particular, really shouldn't have opened as it was just a Zoo day with Falls and Rattlesnake thrown in.
March 16, 201510 yr comment_205233 ^And Zufari. With darted animals and not all the effects in the cave working
March 16, 201510 yr comment_205236 Oh, Zufari was in horrible condition! The speakers in the trucks were broken, paint on the giraffe house was peeling, and like you said. The cave was broken for all but the final waterfall.
March 16, 201510 yr comment_205239 Prescisely. Gone are the days where one ride like Buccaneer are closed, now you're lucky to even get 75% ride availability. Chessington in particular, really shouldn't have opened as it was just a Zoo day with Falls and Rattlesnake thrown in. Even that wasn't open on Saturday!
March 16, 201510 yr comment_205240 The park was very quiet on Saturday. No real queues for anything, but that may be because a lot of people left after a couple of hours. I was standing outside the SeaLife centre at about 12.30, waiting for my kids to come out, and there were a lot of people making their way OUT of the park. I think people had just given up by then as there were so many rides unavailable. We knew that Vampire, Dragon's Fury, Griffin's Galleon and Bubbleworks would not be operating, we found out via Twitter on the morning that Rameses Revenge would also be closed, but to get there and find that Rattlesnake, Kobra and Safari Skyway were closed and Toadies didn't open before 12pm on top of the advertised shows such as the "Wild Factor" not running, and the Zufari water explosion not working - I am not really surprised that people decided to leave early. Chicken shack was also closed all day! All-in-all, it was very disappointing.
March 16, 201510 yr comment_205241 Rattlesnake and Kobra were open, Kobra opened at 10:15 and died for a few hours straight away but was running in the afternoon. Rattlesnake was open by about 1 but at the entrance to begin with it was on the closed list. I think the thing that annoyed most people was Fury testing nearly non stop all day for staff training. Couldn't they have got some trained staff in to run that and then have the newbies shadow them and do the rest of the training today? Not an expert on it but everyone kept expecting Fury to randomly open as it was running fine.
March 16, 201510 yr comment_205242 I'd left by about 1.30 so didn't see that Rattlesnake and Kobra had finally opened a good 3 and a half hours late!
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