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Chessington General Discussion


Ash

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Rattlesnake was very stop start. It valleyed in the morning, and then blew it air pressure after opening for about an hour. They evaced the ride and it started again 30 mins later.

 

I imagine by "it blew air pressure" it was most likely a block shut down, the ride makes quite a loud noise when all the air is released and the brakes close. There quite frequent in early season due to new staff on the ride or issues with the sensors. Strange it needed to be evacuated though. :huh:

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Three of the six main attractions closed at the start of the season (if you include Scorpion), not a very good start here at all considering they've had weeks to sort these things out snd get them ready. Makes Thorpe's closed rides almost forgivable.

Glad I'm finally hopefully getting to some proper leading parks this year (starting with DLP).

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From Chessington's Facebook - no Vampire until further notice. Let the complaints commence!

 

"Hello Adventurers, due to some unexpected maintenance issues, Griffin’s Galleon, Bubbleworks, Rameses Revenge and Dragon’s Fury will not be operational until the weekend of 21st and 22nd of March. We are working very hard to have these rides up and running as soon as possible. Unfortunately Vampire will also be out of action until further notice due to a delay in receiving essential parts. We are working with the manufacturers to have this rectified as soon as possible, but in the meantime we apologise for any disappointment this might cause. We look forward to welcoming you all very soon to enjoy Year of the Penguins. Be sure to watch our Penguins of Madagascar Live! Operation Cheezy Dibbles, our brand new show!"

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I'm off there tomorrow. I just cannot understand how so many rides are closed on opening day.

 

Now, don't get me wrong, things will break and with it being cold and some rides being old, this is likely. I'm sure this is the case with The Vampire. But, how on earth was this not sorted a few months back. It seems these parks (at the moment) start the rides up a matter of weeks/days before the park opens to find it needs a major part replaced. If they had closed it down properly in November and then began their maintenance procedures on it in early-mid January we wouldn't have had this issue.

 

Bubbleworks was open at Xmas, so why is it closed now? That's just poor planning. Dragon's Fury was in pieces, given, but was testing last weekend (on one car). Now, they knew it was being stripped, filled and re-built. We didn't have an overly-cold winter nor did we have the snow we have seen in recent years, so what was the delay?

 

I also have a friend who booked to stay at the hotel this Saturday, and booked the Safari experience to feed the Giraffes; forking out over £100 for her party. She was contacted yesterday to be told the safari vehicle was down and they couldn't fulfill her experience this weekend, but have offered it to her the following weekend (when she isn't staying). This is yet another blow; they've had 5 months to sort out any issue, they cannot expect to have happy customers if they simple open like this.

 

Think about other (worldwide) parks that are open seasonally; not only do they get their new rides to open on opening day (like the old Merlin way) but they have all their rides up and running. Some in worse weather conditions than here. 

 

I am a huge Merlin fan, as are a lot of us, and therefore we are sometimes the first to jump in and attack them but sometimes it is justified. Ride downtime is fine, it happens, but if budgets have been cut then this needs to be fixed. It is awful.

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Lets hope rides like Bubble Works are getting some real good TLC during this closed period, I'm shocked Fury isn't open, Saturday they had 6 cars on the track for the whole afternoon and was clearly staff training.

 

It's a shame about Vampire, but on this one alone you have to assume a large problem has occurred late in testing, as for the rest think they should be open.

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They've had all winter to do the maintenance on their rides, they clearly haven't got a big enough maintenance team, or have left the work too late!  Even if there are unforeseen issues, they should have planned to allow for flexibility, as having this number of rides closed on opening day is not acceptable.

 

As for suggesting that they haven't opened yet, it's nearly the end of March, they've had more than enough time to do the work needed, other parks (with less financial backing I may add!) have managed it with rides that require much more maintenance work.  I'm not sure where things have gone wrong, it could be poor planning, not enough closed season workers or other issues, but someone needs a good sacking!

 

I challenge anyone to defend Merlin or Chessington on this one (I'm not sure whether this is down to the park, Merlin or both), it's a complete farce.

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Earlier I was wondering if it would be possible for Vampire to undergo ANOTHER overhaul to make it more into one of the newer Vekoma SFCs...

 

New trains, new lift hills (tyre driven, removing the noise issue) and perhaps a way in which to make the station actually make some semblence of logic and reason would certainly improve the ride no end...

 

Perhaps next year they'll ride the new SFC at Paultons and realise what a fantastic idea this is...

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You say that but September/October/November I think are the worst times for ride reliability. The best time in theory should be march however it would seem merlin has failed on that one. Alton should have their rides ready as they seem to have some sort of management in their engineering department. Then again you never know. 

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