Chessington General Discussion

[JoshC.]

“There’s nothing on the website, in the brochure or in the terms and conditions about having to take three steps.

 

A simple check on Chessington's website; go on 'Plan Your Trip', then 'Disabled Guide'.  That gives all the information they would need (admittedly it doesn't specifically say there's a 'Three Step Rule', but it highlights what rides require to be able to walk unaided).  The information is very clearly there and if they didn't think to check 'Plan Your Trip' to see if that had any information for guests in wheelchairs, it is somewhat there own fault..

 

She told The Argus: “The whole park itself is not designed for disabled people.

 

There is something I want to point out here.  Try pushing someone in a wheelchair around Chessington.  You very quickly realise how many little holes and dips there are in the ground, which make pushing someone in a wheelchair a very difficult task!  Whilst I doubt this is the main point she's getting at here, there is actually something worth raising.

 

But the family did end up going on three rides they technically shouldn’t have, including Tomb Blaster, pictured right.

 

Now this is concerning a little.  The rules are there for a reason.  Yes, this family have had a disappointing day, but does that mean they should be allowed to break the rules and go on rides they're not allowed to?  No.  What if one of the rides he shouldn't have gone on had broken down and required evacuation, and this boy needed to walk to get out?  Chessington would probably get into a fair amount of trouble, and also the family probably wouldn't have been happy either..

[J.S217]

Looking at this way every ride has a restriction back problems he wouldn't of been able to ride anyway.

[JoshC.]

In fairness, his condition just stops the muscles from working and, by the sounds of it, it was only affecting his legs.  So there's nothing stopping him from bracing himself, and it probably wouldn't cause him any pain.  

[SteveJ]

I'm fairly sure they have got the "Three points of contact" rule mixed up with "three steps" whatever that is. Sounds made up and arbitrary to me, either a mistake at Guest Help or nonsense

[Ian-S]

Based on our experience I'd say electricBill is correct, the article states they phoned in advance and were given a list of the rides he could go on (21 in total) and nobody told them anything about this 'three steps' rule.

The un-answered question here is this, she does not state whether the mother was riding with him, and I think this is the absolute key to any discrimination claim she tries to bring, if she was riding then yes, she has a case for discrimination, if not, then she doesn't...

Now why is this key? Because it's Merlin rules that any disabled guest under 18, no matter their disability, must be accompanied by an adult onto the ride, having attended Thorpe with my cousin who's wheelchair bound, this was made very clear to me, they cannot ride alone. It is the able bodied person's responsibility to do loading/unloading in the event of a breakdown, in essence, you must be capable of taking the disabled guests off the ride yourself without help.

So if they were trying to ride with his sister and mummy sat on the sidelines watching, then this would be why he was refused entry to the ride, because there's no way his sister would be capable of carrying him off the ride in the event of a breakdown and he cannot evacuate himself. If mummy was riding, then they have a strong case because a persons ability to access the ride cannot determined their ability to use it (that's the law). I've seen plenty of wheelchair bound users on rides at both Chessie and Thorpe, the only time they need to walk on, is if riding alone.

I suspect given the description of the ride operators reactions, mummy wasn't riding with him like she should have been.

[Fred]

Now why is this key? Because it's Merlin rules that any disabled guest under 18, no matter their disability, must be accompanied by an adult onto the ride, having attended Thorpe with my cousin who's wheelchair bound, this was made very clear to me, they cannot ride alone.

Whut? That's not Merlin policy.

 

Each park is different, but Alton's is... Disabled guests need to be accompanied by at least one helper (over age of 14). They're there to assist of loading and unloading of ride, reassurance should the ride break down and to assist in evacuations.

[Ian-S]

Yes, the info is different between the two booklet I have for Thorpe, one says 18 (the photocopied version) and the pre-printed version says 14. The website was also saying something completely different earlier in the year too, but it's now been updated to 14.

Ride Access Passes and Carer Passes are not the same thing, they have different requirements and conditions, and when I say it's Merlin policy, I don't know how hard is it for people to understand, Merlin operate the parks, so it is their policy. Individual parks have their own management teams who make decisions on a day to day basis yes, but those decisions are based on policy handed down to them by Merlin, the parks themselves are merely subsidiaries of the larger company.

[dk3]

I visited last Thursday/Friday (stayed over in the Safari Hotel) and on the whole had a great time. Thursday was completely dead - walk on/stay on on every ride and we had great weather too. Friday was noticeably busier. Anyway, here are some points we made note of:

 

Black Buccaneer

New wooden fence surrounding the whole ride. 

 

Bubbleworks

The ride took quite a bit longer to complete the circuit (due to the low water levels).

Feather duster still missing in the toe tickle test.

Various bulbs not working.

Left-hand coaster not working.

The back black wall looked really terrible and seemed to be more noticeable as I think the finale lighting in general was brighter. Get some [proper] mirrors back. Now!

No strobes.

Smell of bleach throughout. I thought [dreamt?] that the fruit smell had returned last year. If it had then it was absent again.

No lighting at all in the bit after the finale before re-entering the station.

[What did they do all winter?]

 

Dragon Falls

The water was completely clear (not green coloured). Not sure if this is a new thing but it appeared different to me compared with last year.

The laundry clothes line theming before the main hill was still absent.

They've removed the dreadful advert banners (that were above Tomb on the big curve before the main drop) meaning we now have a great view of the countryside for miles around!

The elephant looks beyond fixing and needs to be replaced (or removed).

 

Dragon's Fury

Some track/posts are now so pink they're in danger of becoming white.

I'd never realised that two riders get a different ride experience depending if they sit next two or behind each other - we had some fun experimenting with this!

 

Monkey Swinger

The length of time on the ride seemed quite a bit longer that previously - which was good!

Most water jets working too.

 

Rameses Revenge

Improved fountains - great!

Second cycle - excellent!

 

Rattlesnake

The broken animatronic man climbing the rope was in such a state - one of his arms looked like he'd been savaged by wolves.

Nearly half the flickering bulbs in the queue line were out.

 

Safari Skyway

It seemed to be running on very few trains. We could see a couple in the holding area next to the station...

No speaker working on our train although I heard it on another while it went over our table in the Chicken Shack garden while I was having a pint.

 

Tomb Blaster

The big rolling boulder was out of sequence, resulting in us catching a quick glimpse of it right at the bottom just as we started the ascent.

The middle rotating tunnel wall section was broken [not turning] which completely ruined the rotating effect of the other two sections.

 

Vampire

No chandeliers meant that the station was too dark.

Bizarrely, the organist was working in the morning but was still as a statue by the afternoon.

The new announcement isn't clear [or loud] enough, and ruins the musical soundtrack. Either make it clearer or ditch it.

 

So summarise - a great visit but the park seemed more 'ready' on my first visit in April last year compared to this year.

[Ian-S]

I forgot to say my point wasn't to argue about the policy or it's origins, just we only got half of one side of the story, anybody that has been to a park and used the ride access pass knows the pass user has to be accompanied onto the ride by an able bodied 'adult' (well someone over 14 as you say) there's no mention of that in the article and it does clearly say on the back of the ride access pass that ride operators can refuse entry if they feel there is a danger, I'd say sending the kid on with his similar age sister instead of an adult falls into the category.

But we don't know whether that happened or whether they even went to client services to obtain the pass, because the article doesn't clarify this.

I know, me defending Merlin, what a strange concept.

[pluk]

[What did they do all winter?]

 

This should be the parks new strapline!

[Fred]

Ride Access Passes and Carer Passes are not the same thing, they have different requirements and conditions, and when I say it's Merlin policy, I don't know how hard is it for people to understand, Merlin operate the parks, so it is their policy. Individual parks have their own management teams who make decisions on a day to day basis yes, but those decisions are based on policy handed down to them by Merlin, the parks themselves are merely subsidiaries of the larger company.

I'm definitely talking about the Ride Access Passes - they're not Merlin Policy. Each park themselves choose what who they can allow for Ride Access stuff, who needs to accompany them etc. (Lego wheelchairs use main queue on most rides, Thorpe used to only allow a maximum one helper onto rides whereas Alton it's 3... stuff like that).

 

The only thing I think which is a universally adopted policy is the admissions free carer ticket - anyone with DLA/proof of disability can get a free carer, and that seems to be the case throughout all Merlin attractions so is therefore probably a Merlin admissions policy. But Ride Access isn't standardised, so isn't Merlin policy.

[Merry-go-girl]

Imagine if instead of a hotel expansion we got a multistory car park, that would have been nice. 

[Matt 236]

tbh the way the park's going, they might need one eventually, but then with the green belt thing I doubt they will.

In fact this year they have actually halved the main car park for hotel users, not a good move IMO.

Chessington is just a game of tug of war at the moment.

[SteveJ]

There were often no spaces for hotel guests in the car parks and they'd have to park in the grass car park, rather than the logical place of right next to the hotels. They always end up using the south entrance anyway so might as well send most cars there from now on. I heard there's a lot more they want to do until it becomes the main theme park entrance.

 

The north car parks are pretty rubbish anyway even though they keep improving bits. What they really need is a big overhaul but there are more important things to sort first.

[Merry-go-girl]

If you put a multistory in place of the current tarmac car park I wonder what percentage of spaces you'd gain. Definitely seems worth it to me but then, I don't know much about running a multimillion pound entertainment venue. 

[Ian-S]

The locals would complain about a multistory.

What the locals need to take into account is how much the park contributes to their local economy, it is often far more than they realise.

[pluk]

Or does it? How many people spend a single penny outside of the park itself, especially now it has its own hotel? It does provide jobs, but they are mostly poorly paid and seasonal.

I don't think that's a great trade off for the locals with all the disruption it brings.

[Benin]

Or does it? How many people spend a single penny outside of the park itself, especially now it has its own hotel? It does provide jobs, but they are mostly poorly paid and seasonal.

I don't think that's a great trade off for the locals with all the disruption it brings.

 

Quoted for truth...

 

It's always something that we enthusiasts take for granted, presumably because we'd love to live next door to a theme park...

 

About the only things that might produce regular income outside of the park that I'd consider local are Monkey Puzzle, and the shops at Chessie South station...

[pluk]

About the only things that might produce regular income outside of the park that I'd consider local are Monkey Puzzle, and the shops at Chessie South station...

 

... and that speed camera about a mile from the park!

[Pete_A]

On my day / overnight visits to Chessington I have bought diesel from the Petrol Station going to the M25, used the M&S as well.  Got Pizza from Pizza Hut, used the Tesco Express and off licence from further down the road.  Gone to a few pubs in the area.

 

So looking at it, I contribute a lot to the local area, which if Chessington wasn't there, I wouldn't.

[Ian-S]

On my day / overnight visits to Chessington I have bought diesel from the Petrol Station going to the M25, used the M&S as well. Got Pizza from Pizza Hut, used the Tesco Express and off licence from further down the road. Gone to a few pubs in the area.

So looking at it, I contribute a lot to the local area, which if Chessington wasn't there, I wouldn't.

^^ This is what I meant....

[pluk]

I'd suggest the percentage of people doing anything like that is minuscule in comparison to the downside of it being there and the numbers effectively passing through.

 

It is rather unfortunate that pretty much all of our parks have grown in inappropriate places rather than in any of the great swathes of acceable countryside up and down the land.

[Tom]

And I wouldn't call buying petrol on the M25 contributing to Chessington's economy

[Pete_A]

^

 

Its the petrol station opposite the garden centre just up from the Premier Inn, not the M25  !!

 

I also spend money in Staines / Chertsey / Weybridge when visiting Thorpe.  On the other side of the coin when I go to Alton, I spend zero in the village itself.

[Merry-go-girl]

If the locals really wanted to cash in they could charge for use of their driveways.