June 20, 201411 yr comment_185570 A high capacity ride like this only has two trains running? Come on Chessie! Baring in mind on one of the trains a lot of lasers are broken and maybe they don't want to run them to "disappoint" younger guests!
June 20, 201411 yr comment_185580 Whilst Chessington has improved compared to the last 2/3 seasons there's still a lot that needs to be done before it's up to the high standard it used to be (pre-2004 season). The following rides could really do with a refresh. Dragon Falls Tomb Blaster Skyway Bubbleworks Rattlesnake Plus fury and Vampire could do with some lick of paint (and vampires queue line). Falls & Tomb Blaster especially need the most TLC ASAP as falls just looks bare and naked ATM and that tunnel section is over before it starts now (since some of the structures been removed). Tomb Blaster meanwhile has broken guns and pretty. Uh all the targets between the mummy scene and the giant snake don't work.
June 20, 201411 yr comment_185610 Tomb cannot operate on less than 3 trains. However 3 trains leads to dispatches every 5 minutes. So that's whats likely to be happening according to above posts.
June 27, 201411 yr comment_185978 Chessington are now doing Behind the scenes animal tours. It's 2 hours long and it costs 125, which includes theme park entry. More information on there website - https://secure.chessington.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&catalogId=11051&storeId=10654&productId=235663&altEntryPoint&visitDate
July 4, 201411 yr comment_186319 I hate asking as I know it's difficult to know for sure... but planning on going chessington this coming week on tuesday, and never been that time of year before, my friend wanted to go thorpe park and I said how full it would be with year 11 school trips etc. plus hinting I wanted to go chessington as I haven't been yet this year - just a case of hoping it's not too busy, just don't have a clue how busy to expect it to be. any help/past knowledge would be appreciated
July 4, 201411 yr comment_186321 I did visit about that time last year and the park is packed with school trips and children who queue jump. I don't remember particularly well but I remember waiting 45 mins for the monkey swings just because of school trips. I think vampire went up to 2 Horus and dragons fury and Kobra 90 minutes. Most queues were over an hour until the school trips left when they dropped to about 10 mins(3-4pm onwards for all rides). It is really busy until the school trips leave but then empties out after that. A shame really as these weeks should be off peak and have short opening hours.
July 5, 201411 yr comment_186338 I'm sure it's gotta be quieter than thorpe though lol, and didn't realise that many younger kids went on school trips... I never got to do anything when I was younger!!! cheers for breaking the bad news to me aha, at least I know what to expect
July 5, 201411 yr comment_186339 It is less busy... The throughputs are the things making the queues long. I may be wrong because I visited last year and it may be different but have a nice day either way
July 5, 201411 yr comment_186340 I went last Thursday (3rd) and whilst there were a few school groups no queue exceeded having to wait more than 20 minutes. I don't know if things will change between now and then but it was pretty quiet when I went
July 6, 201411 yr comment_186373 I'm visting today, I know it's not a weekend but I can tell you roughly how busy it was maybe?
July 6, 201411 yr comment_186405 Whenever I hear the theme tune, it's basically always calling me back to Chessington! (hence the name of the track)
July 8, 201411 yr comment_186546 I was really surprised by how many families with school-aged children I saw in the park yesterday. I was expecting to be dodging school trips but we only saw two parties. I thought there were huge fines for taking your kids out of school? Queues weren't too bad though. Had to pass on Dragon Falls when we were threatened with a 45 minute wait and didn't even bother with Skyway looking at all the people lined up. But other things (Hocus Pocus, carousel) were practically a walk on.
July 8, 201411 yr comment_186615 Nah, just now every school in the country is rewarding their kids by taking them all down to a theme park. Same with thorpe, legoland, or just about any attraction that teachers can bribe kids with.
July 8, 201411 yr comment_186620 Well today I was surprised how busy it was although how quiet the queues were, as I was looking at the queue times throughout yesterday reaching 1 hour+... Today looked like maximum 30min queues, and I waited 10 min max which was for dragons fury and the southern fried chicken fast food! Amazu was closed, and the area was closed off with builders working on it... Wondering what's happening there as I swear it has been open? The park looked really tidy in general which was nice, especially the new compass in the centre. New lighting in bubble works finale was nice, and best I have ever seen it... But still no bubbles, I swear that needs to be the whole point of the ride! Scorpion express exceeded my expectations and I loved it, and the scorpion is great ( I hear people saying its the identical ride to flying fish, but this one is slightly larger ).
July 8, 201411 yr comment_186638 Just found out that all the posh private schools already broke up. So that's the mystery solved.
July 12, 201411 yr comment_186914 ...and I've been on holiday MUCH longer than them! SIT DOWN YOU BUNCH OF PRIVATE AND POSH WEIRDOS!
July 17, 201411 yr comment_187205 I was looking through old news articles on Joyland Books.com when I found this article dating back to 2001. [19/7/2001] Chessington has been granted planning permission for a twin-track racing roller coaster. First announced in July 1998, the ride will be part of the further development of the new Beano Land, on the site of the former Circus World area. The planning permission allows for the "redevelopment of circusworld to provide twin track coaster ride, dodgems ride, round ride, show venue building with ancillary catering, retail and games buildings, landscaping and water features." The park now has five years in which to install the ride before the permission lapses. Chessington has been granted planning permission for a twin-track racing roller coaster. First announced in July 1998, the ride will be part of the further development of the new Beano Land, on the site of the former Circus World area. The planning permission allows for the "redevelopment of circusworld to provide twin track coaster ride, dodgems ride, round ride, show venue building with ancillary catering, retail and games buildings, landscaping and water features." The park now has five years in which to install the ride before the permission lapses. Does any have any recollection of this twin tracked coaster proposal? Seems like one of those rumours that just pop up and go before you have time to blink.
July 17, 201411 yr comment_187209 ^ I'm pretty sure that was ditched for Dragon's Fury. Either that or it was Charterhouse being cheap again...
July 17, 201411 yr comment_187215 Wasn't there also plans for Colossus (or, at least, a multi-inversion coaster) for Chessington at one point too?
July 18, 201411 yr comment_187237 I would guess Tussaud's decisions to push Thorpe as thrills and Chessington as family rides and a zoo was one of the reasons nothing inverting has been built at Chessington since Tussaud's bought Thorpe. I think that will continue too, it looks like most of the investment is going to be refurbs and animal attractions.
July 22, 201411 yr comment_187494 If they dropped anything for Dragon's Fury, then they made the right decision as that coaster is just perfect for Chessington.
August 13, 201411 yr comment_188631 Incredibly busy day on park today (I know, I know, it's the school holidays!). Didn't help that both Dragon's Fury and Dragon Falls were down (Falls I believe has something to do with the conveyor belts as there was a specialist conveyor belt company van on the park plus the belt on lift 2 had been released and was coiled up at the bottom of the 2nd hill. There were also engineers at the top of lift 2). Everything else was 60mins (apart from the smaller 'LOTD attractions & Buccaneer). Vampire didn't come down from 100mins all day (I also read they weren't accepting fast track on it today). Absolutely everything had queues, Mexican Cantina was out the door, queuing for male and female toilets and all the kiosk outlets. Very frustrating that none of their drinks vending machines were working. Are they trying to do away with these, as literally all of them were broken or had labels saying they were broken. Wouldn't surprise me, so you actually HAD to queue up in the shops just to buy a drink. I personally think the park struggled with the queues today, A LOT.
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