SteveJ Posted September 13, 2014 Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 The staggered openings are to encourage guests to spread around the park on quiet days, otherwise you'd get clumps of busy areas and other rides with almost no guests. Griffins Galleon only opens for 3 hours because hardly anybody rides it in the morning or late afternoon anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted September 13, 2014 Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 The staggered openings are to encourage guests to spread around the park on quiet days, otherwise you'd get clumps of busy areas and other rides with almost no guests. Griffins Galleon only opens for 3 hours because hardly anybody rides it in the morning or late afternoon anyway. Hardly anyone rides Griffins full stop... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyMoo Posted September 13, 2014 Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 Hardly anyone even knows it's there or how to get to it...! I see Tomb Blaster and Ramases seem to be open again. I shall report back how dead the park is when we go on Tuesday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted September 13, 2014 Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 Am I right in thinking that ERT is not available for Merlin pass holders? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted September 14, 2014 Report Share Posted September 14, 2014 Or Towers opening their HIGHEST CAPACITY RIDES an hour after park opens (Congo River and Skyride!) Skyrides been open since 10 for a couple of months now. It's only the water rides and barely rode first thing which are closed til 11 (A reminder: Rapids, Flume, Terra, Ripsaw and Hex). As for ERT.. there's no Early Rider for Annual Passholders at Chessie. pognoi 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted September 14, 2014 Report Share Posted September 14, 2014 I was very impressed with Chessington today. They really have turned things around since last year, especially appearance of the park. However I was not happy that Rameses Revenge and Safari Skyway were closed all day, as well as numerous breakdowns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashleyrose-66 Posted September 17, 2014 Report Share Posted September 17, 2014 Apologies if this has been answered but I can't see it... Does anyone know why Chessington have changed all the electronic information signs at the ride entrances? Before they used to scroll along, now they are smaller signs with just the waiting time permanently displayed. I guess everyone would just prefer to know how long the wait is without having to wait for the "Welcome to Chessington...." blurb first, but I just wondered what prompted the change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyMoo Posted September 17, 2014 Report Share Posted September 17, 2014 I was surprised to see those signs being used. You wouldn't necessarily know they were a wait time as all they say is just a number, not even "minutes" after. I was surprised to see an old-style queue board on Scorpion Express. The new queue summary boards are very good though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted September 17, 2014 Report Share Posted September 17, 2014 I really like the new queue boards there, much nicer than Thorpe's IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyMoo Posted September 17, 2014 Report Share Posted September 17, 2014 In case anyone hasn't seen - new central queue boards, plus the minimal queue time board above Tomb Blaster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted September 17, 2014 Report Share Posted September 17, 2014 Like the new central queue board however is there still only one of them because I think they need 2/3 planted around the park. Don't really like the tomb blaster one though, are the rest of the rides like this, unclear as to what is '5' as such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyMoo Posted September 17, 2014 Report Share Posted September 17, 2014 There's a board at the main entrance by the Otters, there's one near Wild Asia and there's an even bigger board in Market Square. There might be another near Hocus Pocus Hall but I might be wrong! Yes I thought the Tomb Blaster style queue boards need a little more information on them... I mean you'd probably guess that was the queue time, but you'd be forgiven for not realising. Also - the queue times were more like 0 minutes yesterday, not 5 - yet CWoA doesn't seem to like saying 0 minute queues TPJames 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted September 17, 2014 Report Share Posted September 17, 2014 ^ Neither do Thorpe... Kerfuffle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyMoo Posted September 17, 2014 Report Share Posted September 17, 2014 Towers seem to have no problem showing 0 minutes anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted September 17, 2014 Report Share Posted September 17, 2014 I always take the 5 minute queue thing as the walking through the queue line and the ride itself. pognoi 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toby Tidal Wave Posted September 17, 2014 Report Share Posted September 17, 2014 Don't really like the tomb blaster one though, are the rest of the rides like this, unclear as to what is '5' as such. Wait and see, we may be suprised! There's quite a bit of space around that number display. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted September 18, 2014 Report Share Posted September 18, 2014 Apologies if this has been answered but I can't see it... Does anyone know why Chessington have changed all the electronic information signs at the ride entrances? Before they used to scroll along, now they are smaller signs with just the waiting time permanently displayed. I guess everyone would just prefer to know how long the wait is without having to wait for the "Welcome to Chessington...." blurb first, but I just wondered what prompted the change. The small boards will have signage around them. Chessie has decided to put the signs in beforehand. These boards are all linked up - you can change them from a central point (or from the rides themselves.. unsure if they have those yet) and then they'll show absolutely everywhere. Alton got this first with the new boards and CBeebies Land. The remainder of the rides will have the same entrance boards from next year I believe. Should lead to better Queue Time information (or at least not having boards saying other things!) SteveJ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 In other news, seems that Chessie were really in the deep end in 2013... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29366602 Chessington fails to ban park safety critic Chessington has lost a court fight to ban an email campaign criticising its safety record.The High Court ruled Dr Peter Cave, a critic of operator Merlin Entertainments, had the right to speak his mind about the Surrey theme park.Dr Cave's survey consultancy Peer Egerton identified 2,000 safety issues in a report for MerlinMerlin said his campaign of harassment stemmed from a financial dispute and it did not agree with the judgement.Dr Cave sent 80,000 emails to Surrey residents and members of Merlin's staff and set up campaign websites.His campaign began after Jessica Blake, of Sheerness, Kent suffered a fractured skull, a bleed on the brain and broken ribs in the 14ft (4.2m) fall while queuing for the Tomb Blaster ride at the park. Judge Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing told the court Merlin had spent £4.6m on remedial work, some of it urgent.Following financial disputes between Dr Cave's consultancy and Merlin, Dr Cave had unsuccessfully sought a court order banning the park from re-opening after the 2012 winter break. Asking the judge to order him to stop his campaign, Merlin described his "baseless" criticisms as highly alarming, distressing and disgraceful.However, refusing to grant an injunction, the judge said the issues he raised about Chessington's management and the regulation of theme parks were matters of public interest. The judge ruled Dr Cave's statements did not cross the line between robust comment and unacceptable and oppressive personal attacks.Merlin said it was considering whether to appeal against the decision. It said Dr Cave's issues with Merlin date from his "totally spurious" demands for money, which had since been dismissed by the court and his company's appointment was not related to the Jessica Blake incident. "Dr Cave's continuous campaign of allegations concerning the safety of our attractions is entirely without foundation," it said in a statement."As a business, Merlin is governed by very stringent technical and health and safety regulations, and we invest many millions of pounds every year to ensure that our attractions not only meet or exceed these, but also in continually improving our procedures." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 ^ Dr Peter Cave can go suck a dead dogs nose. HermanTheGerman and Kerfuffle 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 ^ Dr Peter Cave can go suck a dead dogs nose. Why? Considering his job was to survey the park for issues, he found lots, but the park's solutions weren't checked independently whilst Merlin wanted to keep things quiet... Doing his job really... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 No, not really. He was asked to survey the park, nothing more. Bet it was him who banned Vampire and three trains... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 Hang on, park has over 2000 safety issues but he's in the wrong for trying to get the park to sort them out whilst the park and Merlin just want to cover up the problems and pretend they don't exist. Bet it was him who banned Vampire and three trains... Don't be so ridiculous. We'd be having a completely different conversation if because of Merlin's negligence, someone had been killed at the park. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 No, not really. He was asked to survey the park, nothing more. Bet it was him who banned Vampire and three trains... Nope, since Vampire on three trains was stopped in either 2009 or 2010 (I forget which one)... Think you'll also find surveyors will assess the risks of the park (what he was asked to do), but also will look to get the problems rectified... Once the problems are solved they SHOULD be assessed independently, rather than internally, as bias (or Merlin's pursestrings) can be an issue... As said, Merlin wanted to cover up the problems found by the surveyor, which kinda goes against the whole idea of getting the guy in the first place... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 It's hard to judge this matter unless you know the exact context of his concerns, and whether they were genuine danger hazards or not. pognoi 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 TBH though his appearance may have been for the better though as the park have done a lot of changes for this year and many are strongly positive ones as well, market square 2.0, Mexicana etc. plus this just goes to why 2013 was perhaps the epitome of Chessington's existence. I wouldn't be surprised if this was one of the leading factors to why pass holder weekend was suddenly cancelled last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.