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Chessington General Discussion


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23 hours ago, Coaster said:

without situations such as 1 hour RAP queues like in those photos


What was I saying earlier in this thread about RAP queues ending up being longer than the main queue? Almost as if the system is being completely abused and a RAP pass is a right of passage for children who are used to getting their own way and just don't like queuing very much instead of having an actual medicial condition or disability that is deserving of a RAP pass. I'd love to know how many people on the MAP facebook group DON'T use RAP....

 

It's a shambles. Think Benin nailed it there with entitled idiots to be honest. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Went today, everything was pretty much walk on  to 5mins. 
 

Overall operations were pretty good, only shutdowns noticed was Croc Drop, the modified tiny truckers was back down to 4 car train.

 

Food was poor on park with some units/ restaurants being weekend/ peak days only

 

 

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On 5/4/2021 at 11:41 PM, pluk said:

How is Chessington coping off peak midweek these days? Thinking of visiting fir the first time in a couple of years but don't fancy a day of explaining to a 2 year old why we have to wait hours for everything!


Not really much help but I’ve been today and had one of the best days there in a long time - staff were lovely, social distancing far better than Thorpe in my opinion and it just looks like it’s had a lot of TLC.  We don’t often venture into the zoo areas but really enjoyed seeing the animals.  The only downside which isn’t the parks fault is that we had to eat outside but once restrictions are lifted that is sorted.  Also flying jumbos is much prettier with the repaint and new music 🙌

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I visited on a random Friday a couple of weeks ago, and it was probably the best day I've ever had at Chessington. Pretty much all the rides we were interested in were walk on, and the only rides that got any queues whatsoever were the lower capacity children's rides, like Jungle Rangers and River Rafts, as you'd expect really. I loved Croc Drop, as others have pointed out the ride is nothing special, I still found it fairly fun but I also hate drop towers, so what's my opinion worth haha. The theming, though, is. Pretty much every angle looks good, and it's fairly imposing, especially when approaching from the pathway under Dragon's Fury.

 

The whole park has had some TLC, Mexicana looks brilliant with lots of colourful new theming everywhere, although that area might not be for everyone. Dragon's Fury's entrance has had an interesting bright yellow and red repaint, Zufari has had some changes in the cave, lots of signage has been replaced and there's been lots of small repaints everywhere. It's certainly a far cry from the Chessington of a few years ago where everything was either beige or falling apart. Blue Barnacle is... probably the second best pirate ship I've ever ridden in that pit, it looks good and it's decently themed, certainly more so than Black Buccaneer was although some of the pirate figures are a bit tacky. There's also been some new audio around the park, most notably around the entrance area where they've remixed the previous entrance music and added bits from Vampire, Tiger Rock and Croc Drop. Mexicana has a nice, but quiet new soundtrack, and Croc Drop's audio is all quite good. Adventure Point had some... interesting music playing, not quite a fan of that.

 

Overall, not really many negatives, if any. This year is, in my opinion, the best Chessington have had while I've been interested in theme parks.

 

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I also visited for the first time in a good few years and had a great time. It's great to see a park that in my opinion was going downhill transform itself. 

 

- Park as a whole is looking fresh, much better than the last time I went

- Although I loved Ramesis and sad to see it gone, Croc drop is a great addition and for families and I enjoyed it much more than I expected

- Park audio on the whole was good and don't think it needs a complete overhaul like Thorpe, but couple of dead spots that need sorting

- Vampire area and station looking the best it has in years. I hate the new audio in the station though and it doesn't create the same atmosphere as the old one. Don't fix what isn't broken

- No water jets on monkey swinger, apparently this is due to covid somehow

- Blue Barnacle isn't as good as Black Buccaneer but glad it has been replaced and the area looking fresh.

 

Also worth noting opening hours are great this season. 4pm closures have been scrapped so its 5pm every weekday, and 7pm every weekend and peak day the whole season. Great to see Chessington and Alton having better opening this season and hope that works out for them.

 

Chessington really is in need of a high throughput major coaster to help with the busy days, so I really hope it actually goes ahead this time. 

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19 hours ago, ThorpeAddict said:

I also visited for the first time in a good few years and had a great time. It's great to see a park that in my opinion was going downhill transform itself. 

 

- Park as a whole is looking fresh, much better than the last time I went

- Although I loved Ramesis and sad to see it gone, Croc drop is a great addition and for families and I enjoyed it much more than I expected

- Park audio on the whole was good and don't think it needs a complete overhaul like Thorpe, but couple of dead spots that need sorting

- Vampire area and station looking the best it has in years. I hate the new audio in the station though and it doesn't create the same atmosphere as the old one. Don't fix what isn't broken

- No water jets on monkey swinger, apparently this is due to covid somehow

- Blue Barnacle isn't as good as Black Buccaneer but glad it has been replaced and the area looking fresh.

 

Also worth noting opening hours are great this season. 4pm closures have been scrapped so its 5pm every weekday, and 7pm every weekend and peak day the whole season. Great to see Chessington and Alton having better opening this season and hope that works out for them.

 

Chessington really is in need of a high throughput major coaster to help with the busy days, so I really hope it actually goes ahead this time. 


I have been told by a friend that works there that actually the park audio is having a big overhaul at the moment and over last the closed season. Still a work in progress but I believe there has been a lot of dead spots sorted (with some more to go) and the backend systems have been replaced and changed to a new setup.

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2 hours ago, professorb said:


I have been told by a friend that works there that actually the park audio is having a big overhaul at the moment and over last the closed season. Still a work in progress but I believe there has been a lot of dead spots sorted (with some more to go) and the backend systems have been replaced and changed to a new setup.

 

Good to hear. As I said on the whole the park sounded great, there was only very few spots with no audio like Dragons Fury and broken speakers on Kobra.

 

1 hour ago, Mattgwise said:

This is very bizarre considering it operated 2020 with the jets. It's definitely not been on at all this year. Shame its what makes it a stand out Waveswinger. 

 

Oh that is odd. The operator said he's not aloud to use it at the moment due to covid but that doesn't make sense if they were using it last year. Who knows

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On 5/18/2021 at 4:15 PM, RobF said:

New restaurant in mexicana opening soon...

Tortilla 

 

 

F1F0F536-29D0-43C2-9BDE-2698BF29E799.png


My friends partner got food from there on Sunday and it looked absolutely vile - apparently it didn’t taste much better than either.

 

Also - what is up with Tiny Truckers?  I was on the jumbos with my friends little boy and was thinking wtf then walked past it and all the trucks are stuck together 🤣 - it looks bizarre

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15 hours ago, Han30 said:


My friends partner got food from there on Sunday and it looked absolutely vile - apparently it didn’t taste much better than either.

 

Also - what is up with Tiny Truckers?  I was on the jumbos with my friends little boy and was thinking wtf then walked past it and all the trucks are stuck together 🤣 - it looks bizarre

They joined them together running 5 trucks again and joined together to speed up the queue

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5 hours ago, Matt Creek said:

I think the change to Tiny Truckers is an improvement, because it teaches the kids what the M25 is realistically like when to drive on.

Teaching kids that the M25 moves at all is giving them false hope, surely?

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/9/2021 at 8:48 PM, Stuntman707 said:


out of the parks I’ve visited this season (Thorpe, Chessie and Lego) I’d say that Chessie have been the best but honestly those queues are insane!!

 

I was there on Saturday and we decided to get an early lunch to avoid the carnage so went into Burger Kitchen at approx 11.45 - all tables cornered off and I asked the young girl what was going on - apparently they were short staffed!  We were in there a good 20 mins waiting so I dread to think what it would have been like later.  Also - the fish finger buns they sell are pretty dry and disgusting.
Then at the end of the day we were hungry so went to the chicken place which was about to close - placed my order which was taken and paid for (fries and a coke) to then be told “oh we’re not doing any more fries” so I paid £2.50 ish and ended up with THREE mozzarella sticks which I really shouldn’t have eaten as it sparked off my IBS but that’s another story.  Totally understand that it was the end of the day but maybe tell people while they order that you can’t provide what they’ve asked for rather than take their money then order a substitute.

 

On another visit I got some dirty fries and they were that dry I was actually glad when it started raining 😂

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  • 4 months later...


Creepy caves POV, tbh not impressed this year. Bar the first room where has all the story gone of 2 years past, skipping last year as not sure if it was the same.

 

A room for disinfection and then there’s no longer any lab/ plant, rather just purge style masks and barrels to bang on? To the tune of the Prodigy and Rammenstein, I just don’t get it. Will be interesting to see if it wins any awards the sparks do look cool though.

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I did Creepy Caves last year and thought it was brilliant - there wasn’t a solid storyline but the tight spaces in there and the actors really made it fantastic - I was shaking when I came out.  Also at £6 (£5 for passholders) it is far better value than Thorpes offering in my opinion.  It’s pretty short but it packs a punch and it genuinely made me scream/jump a few times

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