Mattgwise Posted August 30, 2015 Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 But its not even that the park hasn't got high capacity attractions. Both Tomb and Vampire should get through a much higher throughput like they did in the past. Its the way things are run and excessive health and safety protocols that lead to the long waits and prevent them running as they should, eating through the queues much faster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshuaA Posted August 31, 2015 Report Share Posted August 31, 2015 This isn't Europa though this is Merlin. The day we see the revoke of fastrack is the day Chessington becomes the Uk's no.1 again (it just don't happen I'm afraid). Chessington could have new/replaced rides by doing the following 1/ new large coaster on Toadies/Peeking site 2/ new dark ride on Tomb's site (watered rumours have appeared pending how wellWC16 goes) 3/ new coaster/dark ride on Temple/Lorikeets area 4/ Chiapas style flume to replace falls 5/ Sky ways to be rebuilt (would be worth it) Then re-enhance Bubbles, give sea storm the Columbus dinghy treatment and another stage for more entertainment. Vampire is the concerning one as though it's (technically) the park's most popular ride, at 25 years it's now coming towards the end of its life (25 being the general expectancy of these suspended rides) and even though trains snd hardware was replaced 13/14 years ago, it cant have a long left and when it does fail beyond repair, there's the sticky issue with planning as something similar to the ride could not be built there. It's a shame Chessington cant invest the level of dedication they in to hotels in to the main park as then we wouldn't have a lot to complain about. The food outlets are slowly improving, fish & chips was a start and chicken shack should help too (no doubt Pizza Pasta & Chicken Co. Will be next). 1: Toadies yeah, but I don't think a large coaster could fit on the PH site. 2: I think it might be a little redundant specially with not much throughput increase. 3. Yeah I agree. 4: I think dragon falls should stay, just with a spruce up and a retheme. 5: To be honest Is SS is really 100 percent relevant, specially with Zufari. Personally I think the park should just have a spruce up, with the new coasters focusing on being family friendly and high throughput. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt10 Posted September 6, 2015 Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 So does anyone know why tomb blaster and rattlesnake have been closed for at least the last month or so, and if they are going to reopen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted September 6, 2015 Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 Rattlesnake is still closed due to the Smiler incident. No one knows when it will re-open, but staff have been seen being trained on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyLovesVortex Posted September 7, 2015 Report Share Posted September 7, 2015 So does anyone know why tomb blaster and rattlesnake have been closed for at least the last month or so, and if they are going to reopen? and safari skyway. that's been closed for a while too now. rattlesnake- because of the smiler safari skyway- no idea, but it was shut a lot last year towards the end of the season too (and shut for the remainder actually!). I don't remember them opening that even for the halloween event toom blaster- it's unnatural for that ride to be closed. terror toom/ 5th dimention used to be shut a lot (I remember that). either toom blaster is closed because it's waiting for a part (vampire at the start of the season), the staff are fixing some of the broken targets, or, it's closed because they are retheming it to the halloween atraction (I know that has something to do with a forbidden toomb) and toom blaster seems a good place to do it though if the latter, they are keeping it a big secret. when hocus pocus hall was closed, they said on the site- this ride is closed because we're refurbishing it to the mystery of hocus pocus hall. the same can be said for vampire and the start of the season. they actually said, vampire's closed.. we're waiting for a part. I think toomb blaster has gone seriously wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted September 7, 2015 Report Share Posted September 7, 2015 Safari Skyway should be shut for the rest of the season yet again (good to see they've kept the tradition going). Tomb Blaster on the other hand is just busy proving to everyone why it needs to be replaced. I'm sure that given the current circumstances they'll be desperately trying to rectify the issue, maybe even get it open for Halloween. But who knows, maybe we'll be lucky enough to have two rides SBNO this season! Yay. Rattlesnake is as others have said, closed due to The Smiler incident. We might actually have a hope of that reopening. MattyMoo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt10 Posted September 7, 2015 Report Share Posted September 7, 2015 But rattlesnake did reopen after the smiler for a week or two then closed again and whenever I go its testing around 3pm and in the station it seems as if there are new traction wheels, safari skyway really just needs to be removed, even when it was running this year it was on such reduced capacity... And tomb blaster is either broke, or it could be getting a retheme or the closure could be related to the sort of Egyptian howloween thing that I've forgot the name of.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted September 7, 2015 Report Share Posted September 7, 2015 I thought Rattlesnake remained open for a few days after Smiler's incident, then closed down and has been closed since? I wonder if there's other issues they've come across during its original downtime (because of Smiler) that they've also decided rectify in one go? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt10 Posted September 7, 2015 Report Share Posted September 7, 2015 I just for some reason have a feeling they are designing a new ride system, similar to what happened with slammer... But what makes this even worse, is that because of these closed rides everyone is allowed to go back for free which is good, but just makes the park a lot busier and without some of these rides, cos lets be fair tomb and rattle are pretty big and cwoa and safari is up there, so some rides are ridiculously long... As well as this is there something up with bubbleworks because it always seems to have a 2 hour queue minimum when I have been in the latter half of this year so far, when only two of the four rows of the cattle pen are filled? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraX Posted September 7, 2015 Report Share Posted September 7, 2015 The thing with management at Merlin, they put a positive spin on everything and think they have the right to operate so shi#ty. They overlook, and have been over looking this park for years, and it almost feels that it's finally at breaking point. The hilarity on Trip Advisor, Facebook and here, should be enough to start SERIOUS work on pulling it together. It's utterly embarrassing to see what it once was, and what it has become, and I wish that Merlin would see past the gate numbers, and really understand what a dive of a park it has become. SteveJ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted September 8, 2015 Report Share Posted September 8, 2015 It's also ironic that Chessington is the only park they own the freehold of, you'd think that as they owned the place outright, they'd put the effort in, or perhaps that is the issue, no freeholder dictating maintance / upkeep terms to them, so they just ignore it. Yes Josh that is what happened, it was a few days after Smiler that Rattlesnake and Fury closed for the now infamous 'new safety protocols' to the implemented. Personally I think because Rattlesnake is so old (I first rode that when it was at Littlehampton nearly 40 years ago iirc!) and from what I remember riding it, there is no way for them to stop the cars while they're going round, there are brake runs but they're barely long enough to slow the cars let alone stop them (I could be wrong) so I think they looked at it and thought sh*t we got to do something about that, it's probably taken them this long to design a shutdown system and build some evac platforms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappomatic Posted September 8, 2015 Report Share Posted September 8, 2015 It's also ironic that Chessington is the only park they own the freehold of, you'd think that as they owned the place outright, they'd put the effort in, or perhaps that is the issue, no freeholder dictating maintance / upkeep terms to them, so they just ignore it. Yes Josh that is what happened, it was a few days after Smiler that Rattlesnake and Fury closed for the now infamous 'new safety protocols' to the implemented. Personally I think because Rattlesnake is so old (I first rode that when it was at Littlehampton nearly 40 years ago iirc!) and from what I remember riding it, there is no way for them to stop the cars while they're going round, there are brake runs but they're barely long enough to slow the cars let alone stop them (I could be wrong) so I think they looked at it and thought sh*t we got to do something about that, it's probably taken them this long to design a shutdown system and build some evac platforms. Rattlesnake is not 40 years old! It was brand new when it was installed for the 1998 season. The cars can stop perfectly well on the block brakes however it did have an incident some years ago where a car on one of the block brakes somehow came free and slammed into the back of another stopped car, causing whiplash. Merry-go-girl and pognoi 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyMoo Posted September 8, 2015 Report Share Posted September 8, 2015 Are the Lorikeets still SBNO? dk3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFarmerDean Posted September 8, 2015 Report Share Posted September 8, 2015 I'm now worried to visit this Sunday... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted September 8, 2015 Report Share Posted September 8, 2015 Yes you're right littlehampton had another coaster that went to flamingo land according to the internet. When you get to my age, one coasters origins blurs into another lol. AJ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt10 Posted September 8, 2015 Report Share Posted September 8, 2015 The park really has been deteriorating since really I would say since after vampire went in because everything after that has been of a much lower quality and doesn't seem as well thought out..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme Posted September 9, 2015 Report Share Posted September 9, 2015 rattlesnake currently has a 5 minute queue, tomb, safari skyway and bubbleworks remain closed http://www.chessington.com/plan/today-at-chessington.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted September 9, 2015 Report Share Posted September 9, 2015 Rattlesnake is closed at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashleyrose-66 Posted September 9, 2015 Report Share Posted September 9, 2015 Rattlesnake is open. CWOA Twitter has confirmed it is open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted September 9, 2015 Report Share Posted September 9, 2015 Rattlesnake is open. CWOA Twitter has confirmed it is open. Humorously, it opened about 10 minutes after I posted that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshuaA Posted September 9, 2015 Report Share Posted September 9, 2015 Just a example of Chessington's very consistent reliable rides.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Han30 Posted September 9, 2015 Report Share Posted September 9, 2015 Are the Lorikeets still SBNO? Has there actually been any access to the Lorikeets at all this season? I love going to see them and buying that nectar stuff - I usually go round several times. As for Rattlesnake - I remember riding it on the year that it opened and it felt quite new - although even back then a bit whiplashy (is that even a word?!) Great to hear it has reopened - always a fun ride, sometimes painful on those turns! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt10 Posted September 10, 2015 Report Share Posted September 10, 2015 About time rattlesnake reopened, of course being just after I last went.... But I remember at the end of last season one of the lorikeet staff saying about a disease or something similar that had been found.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rygr Posted September 13, 2015 Report Share Posted September 13, 2015 I reckon this is the last we've seen of Safari Skyway. It would seem pointless for them to plough money into a ride which works for half a season and doesn't deliver. Although this is Chessington…. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted September 13, 2015 Report Share Posted September 13, 2015 Well, after last year's fiasco, there was very strong vibes that the ride would be removed or at least be in for a major update, and well, one year on its still there, offending our eyes and all. Though, seeing a this is now the second time its done its thing and kicked up a fuss, maybe Merlin will actually listen and give the park money that they need. Its ridiculous how many things are wrong with the ride to be honest, and it'll only get worse if they just continue to poorly patch it up here and there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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