insider9150 Posted May 30, 2015 Report Share Posted May 30, 2015 Looking at some of the engineers I saw on my visit, I saw 3 of them in there new uniforms, I wouldnt trust them with changing a fuse in a plug. They didnt have a clue on vampire when it broke down today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celia Mae Posted May 30, 2015 Report Share Posted May 30, 2015 I went today with a group of young disabled people from my workplace, and the disabled/fastrack queues were almost as long as the normal ones... Also I didn't notice the usual board out the front saying which rides were closed and that some were on reduced capacity...? Or was I just distracted working Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted May 30, 2015 Report Share Posted May 30, 2015 Looking at some of the engineers I saw on my visit, I saw 3 of them in there new uniforms, I wouldnt trust them with changing a fuse in a plug. They didnt have a clue on vampire when it broke down today. I do hope they haven't employed a certain person I know, he was one of these new apprenticeship kids, came with a book thick full of paper qualifications, but lastest less than a week in my mates garage after putting the brake pads in a car the wrong way round. I don't know about changing the fuse, I wouldn't trust him to remove the plug from the socket.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJ Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 Well just to defend the tech services.. A lot of them have been at the park for years, and they really do have an enormous amount of work to do with stuff going wrong daily. I'd think the idea that "they spend more time wondering around than fixing rides" is quite an exaggeration as we don't really know how their shifts and schedules work. dk3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 I think in light of what happened at Tomb Blaster in 2012, the park would never hire anyone who they didn't 100% trust to do their jobs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 Well just to defend the tech services.. A lot of them have been at the park for years, and they really do have an enormous amount of work to do with stuff going wrong daily. I'd think the idea that "they spend more time wondering around than fixing rides" is quite an exaggeration as we don't really know how their shifts and schedules work. Agreed with this, the engineering department can only work with what they have, if they don't have the right budget or resources to carry out the necessary tasks then they can't so it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDan Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 Chesington needs: - To drill ride teams about throughputs on busier days. - To limit Fastrack sales as rides cannot cope - Stop removing theming - Add a high capacity ride This needs doing as soon as possible. dk3, SteveJ, Matt 236 and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 It would be great if they could boost attraction awareness also. On busy days the amount of people who complain about only getting on 3 or 4 rides is ridiculous. So many people just head for the 'big' rides and miss out on everything else they've paid for. When I went in July next to no one was going into Hocus Pocus Hall but as soon as me and my nieces made a beeline for it there were queues for the rest of the afternoon. It would improve queues if people were aware of what else there was beyond the thrill rides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJ Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 That's not really a problem I've ever come across. There aren't many "big rides" so they will always get disproportionate queues on busy days no matter what. Most supporting rides get unreasonable queues too. But a couple like Hocus Pocus do lack ridership because people don't realise it's an attraction or in the case of Griffins don't know it's even there.. That really doesn't have much effect on other ride queues though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDan Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 It would be great if they could boost attraction awareness also. On busy days the amount of people who complain about only getting on 3 or 4 rides is ridiculous. So many people just head for the 'big' rides and miss out on everything else they've paid for. When I went in July next to no one was going into Hocus Pocus Hall but as soon as me and my nieces made a beeline for it there were queues for the rest of the afternoon. It would improve queues if people were aware of what else there was beyond the thrill rides.You say that - and somewhere like Alton it would be fine - but at Chessington you've got huge waits for a scenic monorail, even half an hour for a seastorm or 40 minutes for a pirate ship.At most parks, this kind of ride would be walk on, supporting larger rides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 Chessie don't just need to add one high capacity ride, they need to remove a few of their current stock and replace those with higher capacity rides as well... Imagine if they removed/replaced the following: Peeking Heights (and the crappy trampolines) Tiny Truckers Berry Bouncers (or whatever they're called now) Toadies Toadies could easily be replaced by a small supporting cred and maybe even a flat ride or two, especially if Bouncers got the boot as well... Peeking Heights should be an obvious choice for removal, and it's pathetic (and always has been) for any park to have a ferris wheel that they can barely use the capacity of; again, this area could probably fit in a flat ride, or maybe even two... Truckers should just go because I hate it... Then consider attractions like Playhouse, Capers and Temple of Mayhem... If those were replaced by either an actual ride (Vekoma Madhouse in Wild Asia anyone?) or another restaurant (another thing Chessie does lack is a choice of massive sit-down restaurants in my opinion), then you've further expanded the infrastructure of the place... Add a small wooden coaster in the field above Wild Asia and boom, it's pretty much all sorted... Though still leaves the park crying out for a water ride, but that's for another time... Though of course, since Tomb is pretty much a ticking timebomb, I'll imagine that we'll get something replacing that (and presumably Falls) instead... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 Another problem with Chessie is not just that their two main rides struggle with crowds (gaining an average queue of 90 minutes each day) but that one was originally temporary and the other has passed its life expectancy. I think the park could add a decent family coaster on toadies site and while they're at it Peeking heights too, something like Juvelin, fire chaser express or even a ground hugging Mack launch coaster. The park could do so much but unfortunately has stagnated to a degree that most of the park (excluding the zoo & hotels) needs a major refurb, rides like tomb blaster & Bubbleworks could do with a great facelift and become decent dark rides again if done right. The concerning thing is the council at least since Vampire's existence have hated the park and most things planned by the park have been refused including an inverted coaster (like Nemesis) at some point in 1998 which is why Rattlesnake exists on top of those long lost rumours of that island ride and topple tower. On the assumption this is probably still the case, the council need to realise how popular and successful the park is regardless of how little investment the park has received (outside of Hotels) which outside of animal enclosures has only received a Ferris wheel, disco coaster and Safari ride since 2005. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 Local Council is Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, county is Surrey. Surrey County Council is run by a bunch of idiots who wouldn't know a winning lottery ticket if it was presented to them on a gold plate, I had the misfortune of working for them many years ago. Tbh, Merlin should play hardball with them, tell them the park must have some major modernisation or it will have to close, the area not only has the park but also one of Merlin's regional offices, if they threatened to do an HSBC I'm sure someone would sit up and take notice. I can't see that a couple more coasters would hurt if put in in the right place, certainly nobody lives close enough to be majorily disturbed by another ride, and as I pointed out previously, traffic congestion around the site has nothing to do with Chessington itself as it's the same in the dead of winter when the park is closed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchada04 Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 Everyone moans about Chessie's council but have they been that bad of late? They allowed the park to build a new hotel which is only going to make it busier and that lead to them closing off half the North car park so the south one would become busier. The council will see that Chessington is getting ever more popular year on year without any significant investment. Chessington haven't put any plans in for any substantial new ride for ages, we can't say the council would reject it as we've no idea. The only way to find out is if they receive plans for a major investment at Chessie and say no to it, then the reasoning will be laid out. If the park was getting stuff denied like Lego then I'd understand the Council hate but in this case I can't quite see it. The other problem is green belt. Council's can't just decide they want to build flats on green belt, they'll still go through the National Trust or whatever. Right by me, McLaren were looking at building a third factory for their applied technologies HQ and it got turned down multiple times as it was proposed for green belt land, nothing to do with traffic as they have hardly any affect on the area. Surrey Council being the top of the tree means little around here. They essentially control the school term dates and roads (neither of which they do very well especially as my old secondary school has had a two week October half term approved starting this year). Yet, Runnymede Council (Thorpe's district) allow almost anything within reason, a lot of the time Thorpe's original plans are changed or removed by the park, not because the council says no. It's all to do with the locals and people on the committee, very little comes down to the reasoning. I also hate this argument that the parks can get stuff approved if they play hard ball. The old "Thorpe could get a 400ft coaster approved if they wanted by persuading the council it'll provide more jobs" is nonsense. Every park has terms put upon them to keep development to a sustainable limit that allows the parks to grow without destroying the local area at the same time. The council aren't stupid, they wouldn't instantly give in if Merlin threatened to close Chessie because one, Merlin wouldn't and if they were someone would snap it up. Anyway, locals might heavily be in favour of Chessington closing so whilst it would probably have a negative affect in the long run, the locals might lap up the idea at first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 You know, their planning application history does make interesting reading. The latest 'ride' application was for something called "Flying Island" way back in 2005 that was given the go-ahead, I can't tell from the plans but did this end up being Dragon's Fury? Before that was 2003, a load in the early 2000 etc. etc. But you are right, nothing since 2005 for rides, it's all either the hotel or infrastructure (new turn styles, sea life building, penguin enclosure etc.). So maybe we are being a bit harsh on the local council if the stuff on their website is anything to go by, they've turned down very little in the way of planning apps in the last 20 years. I still think the monkeys at Chessington would do a better job of running Surrey County Council though lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 The Flying Island turned into Peeking Heights... No new rides since 2005? Kobra is a wonderful figment of my imagination then... Chessie pretty much know they won't get any major rides, hence the lack of planning... Let alone that they cant themselves decide what to build... Probably tied into that their budget ends up being spent on other things like new flat and safe queues... Merry-go-girl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 I'm didn't say they hadn't installed new rides, I said they hadn't applied for any planning permission for any since 2005 (contrary to what your imagination may think, they're two different things ), but they could have put them in under different names, I found several listings for planning applications for the park made under different Merlin subsidaries, I only checked the biggest which had 380+ planning applications. The area Kobra is in was part of a bulk application made before 2005 iirc, just because they put in an application doesn't mean they'll build the item immediately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted June 2, 2015 Report Share Posted June 2, 2015 Kobra / Wild Asia's planning application was submitted in mid-to-late 2009. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted June 2, 2015 Report Share Posted June 2, 2015 Kobra / Wild Asia's planning application was submitted in mid-to-late 2009. Late August if I recall, since Beanoland closed in September... Was certainly between my returning back from holiday that year, since all the staff were informed during the time I was away, meaning I got a private "in-the-know" session Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted June 2, 2015 Report Share Posted June 2, 2015 Yes I read that wrong, was that area previously called 'Beanoland'? (Benin beat me to it) There's one there dated 14/7/09 but it just says redevolpment of beanoland and is linked to another planning app from 2004. The council seemed to either grant them unconditionally, or on 5 year condition, and the park has to re-apply again later on, the big sign at the north entrance has this type of permission, they'll need to apply for an extension otherwise it'll have to come down in November. Who was it was saying about needing bigger food outlets? Application pu in last week: "Erection of a single storey extension to the existing 'Fish & Chips' building." Guess that's a start... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted June 13, 2015 Report Share Posted June 13, 2015 Just found this gem on the Chessington facebook;"Came today 13/06/2015 for a family day out and was in a collision on the safari skyway train first thing this morning. I am disgusted with what was done about this. Was given £10 in vouchers to use in the park and was told by the staff on the skyway train we're sorry and didn't realise what had happened! There was 5 of us 4 adults and a toddler on this aswell as 4 other visitors in the back carriage. Our carriage kept on going when it was meant to come to a stop and collided with the carriage in front. This ride was then still being used after this had happened. Something needs doing about this. Thanks"Don't let this one on Tuk Tuk, she'll try to bring up criminal negligence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted June 13, 2015 Report Share Posted June 13, 2015 Don't wish to jump to conclusions, but is it possible this is someone trying to cash in a bit after Smiler? It just sounds very unlikely that staff wouldn't notice such an incident, that the ride would keep going straight away after such an incident was reported and that Merlin would only give them a £10 voucher in response... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam P Posted June 13, 2015 Report Share Posted June 13, 2015 To be fair I've been on it when it has and I've seen it, few years ago now. It's slows right down ours was a minor bump, we laughed it off, I'd have taken a tenner! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted June 13, 2015 Report Share Posted June 13, 2015 It's pathetic, this seems to be a normal occurrence for the ride, what is wrong with people these days? If it was a painful collision than I'll take that back, but I can't imagine it being so with the speed that Skyway travels at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted June 13, 2015 Report Share Posted June 13, 2015 To be fair, I wouldn't mind them having to scrap Skyway, something needs doing to it... It does crash everyday... Which isn't good, irrespective of the speed it happens at... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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