HermanTheGerman Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 Well, with Fury and especially Falls being down then I would expect the queues to have been that length. Just be thankful you weren't there last summer, as at one point queues peaked at: - Vampire 240mins (train two was broken) - Bubbleworks 100 minuets - Tomb Blaster 120mins - Fury 120mins - Zufari 180mins - Kobra 120mins - Rattlesnake 90mins - Falls 140minuets Yes those were actually wait times late August last year. But still, today can't have been far off capacity with both those rides down? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattgwise Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 Last summer was dreadful. I remember reading complaint after complaint with regards to long queues, slow operations and wasps. Certainly has improved this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 It's embarrassing how the park still does not have the infrastructure to deal with days that get busy... The lack of rides with any form of decent throughout kill it completely... Even if Fury and Falls had been open, there would just also be long queues for them, especially Fury... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragon2000 Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 They really do need some more high capacity rides for the busy weekends, summer and holidays. Visited last week and though everything was open, after the first hour all the queues were 45mins+. Fury stayed at least 70mins all day and Vampire sat at 100mins+ all day. We got in the queue for Fury in the last couple of hours and waited 70mins and got in the Vampire queue at 5.58 and waited 90mins! Thank goodness for the zoo, at least can do something other than standing in a queue during the day. They keep getting more and more people staying over with the hotels but no major increase in headline ride capacity. The early ride time thing they are trying to do is also one hell of a mess. Only hotel people and day visitors who booked online get given a wristband. Annual Pass holders are excluded (presumably because so many of Chessington's visitors are AP holders?). It seemed like they were giving out a leaflet explaining but still everyone with wristbands were soooo confused. People with wristbands were going in the fastrack queues (like they should), but people with wristbands also went in the normal queues. Some of those people in the normal queue then thought half way through that the wristband meant they could push past everyone else and get to the front, rather than going out and into the fastrack queue. The fastrack queue probably would end up taking longer than normal queue, apart from staff members then feel the need to let through a ton of fastrack and virtually no normal queue. So if you don't have a wristband, be prepared to be screwed over with people pushing in front of you with wristbands and long queue times from the park's opening time! Absolute nightmare. pluk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 Chessington in peak season is just outrageous, I don't know how people put up with it. For a start the early ride time makes no sense, it should be BEFORE park opening from 9-10am before normal guests and allowed in. This would mean that it has no effect on normal guests and the system would work functionally. Unforunately, some stupid brain decided that it would be better to increase queue times at the emptiest point of the day by letting loads and I mean loads when it's online bookers aswell into fastrack lines. This means the staff just let fastrack through instead of having a care about the 2-3hour main queues lurking around the corner. I have not visited this peak summer because of what I have heard however visited at the beginning of July and despite the park not being too busy, the operations are still awful. They are slow, rides only have one staff when they should have at least two if not three. Amount of fastrack let in compared to main queue is a ridiculous ratio and this is not helped by the awful operations. The ride opening punctuality was also dreadful as the vampire team could easily see a 60minute queue waiting in Transylvania at about 10:15(luckily we were at the very front of it!). I can only ride vampire once a day at chessington because the queue times and operations for it are awful meaning I have to be the first in the queueline at the beginning of the day. Anyway, I'm blabbing but I think you get my point. They try to bring more and more guests in without adding ANY high throughput rides at all. The opening of a new ride just means that it gets 2hour queues like the rest instead of reducing queues at all. Can anyone tell me if ANY of chessingtons rides actually hit 1000pph. Not the theoretical throughput do any of them actually hit 1000pph when operating because I would be very suprised if they did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 None of them I reckon. Falls is the only one that gets close to 1000 people per hour. None of the others are capable due to Chessington's operational procedures. (For example, Buccaneer could before the removal of air gates and introduction of new height restrictions and second platformer). TPJames 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 After looking at Chessie's FB page, I noticed someone has written a small message of disappointment: Hallee Startin not happy aswell we went yeserday alll looking foward to dragon fury and falls but all shut down and want to know why queing was absaloute rubish mostly every ride said wait is fifty mins and it was 90 mins actuly not impressed at all my family are reporting this and hope toget a free day there with all of thrides are open you know they should give you a discount if a ride or rides are shut down ! I only got on 4 rides and we were there for 9 and a half hours ! defantly never waiting in one of the ques again thnk its backto fasttrack and thorpe park as they are right on waiting times and rides are never shut down ! HA, hilarious! She cracks me up! Kerfuffle and pluk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerfuffle Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 Thorpe Park? Top Quality??? Don't give me that, whoever wrote this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 Rides that reach over 1000 riders per hour Thorpe Park Colossus Inferno Stealth Saw Swarm Loggers Rumba Tidal Wave (on a good day) Plus Fish and X probably get close on a good day Chessington Falls Tomb Blaster (on 5 trains which is rare these days) Vampire (when it used to run but only uses 2 now) Buccaneer (in its hey day) After this only Scorpion gets any where near To think Thorpe's lowest throughput ride Depth Charge gets around 350 an hour (probably less) when many of Chessie's rides get less than that (truckers, toadies, jumbos, jungle bus, rattlesnake and peeking to mention some). That being said I'm sure Chessie completely is a better place to be this summer compared to last (not to mention scorpion & rammy open again) plus operations this year are slightly better, at least it's not like Oakwood where speed is in 1 car op and fast pass is being used (least vampire does have a spare again now even if it only runs 2). TPJames 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 ^ A) Saw doesn't get over 1000pph, its target is around 950. (D) Colossus requires a dispatch as soon as the second train hits the brakes in order to get close to 1000pph. C) Rattlesnake was getting just under 500pph (which I know, isn't great) the other day, dispatched as soon as one had cleared the lift. D) Zufari's (achievable) target is 1000pph during peak times when it runs all trucks. E) Monkey Swinger with two hosts can also get over 1000. Other than through Chessie's throughputs are pretty poor. The only ride not mentioned that gets near its target is Rameses when only running one cycle (which it does in the Summer), the other day, it was achieving just over 830pph, a full ride was being sent by the time we had finished exiting and were by Jumbos! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJ Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 A different system is now being used where only early riders are let on the ride via fastrack, until 10:00 when the rest of the guests may enter the main queue. ER still lasts from 9:30 until 10:30. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 Other than through Chessie's throughputs are pretty poor. The only ride not mentioned that gets near its target is Rameses when only running one cycle (which it does in the Summer), the other day, it was achieving just over 830pph, a full ride was being sent by the time we had finished exiting and were by Jumbos! I can't believe Rameses gets that much - Ripsaw gets 750 on one of its shortest cycles and that's loading guests the SECOND the ride stops (cos they have a batching area and everything is designed to get the maximum from it). As for MattCreeks throughputs they're all completely out. None of those attractions gain over 1000, bubbleworks is no different to its hey day (they have the same amount of boats on the system, holding the same number of riders...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted August 15, 2014 Report Share Posted August 15, 2014 ^ A) Saw doesn't get over 1000pph, its target is around 950. (D) Colossus requires a dispatch as soon as the second train hits the brakes in order to get close to 1000pph. C) Rattlesnake was getting just under 500pph (which I know, isn't great) the other day, dispatched as soon as one had cleared the lift. D) Zufari's (achievable) target is 1000pph during peak times when it runs all trucks. E) Monkey Swinger with two hosts can also get over 1000. Other than through Chessie's throughputs are pretty poor. The only ride not mentioned that gets near its target is Rameses when only running one cycle (which it does in the Summer), the other day, it was achieving just over 830pph, a full ride was being sent by the time we had finished exiting and were by Jumbos! A lot of "if it has' going on there. Falls is the only ride then that can realistically get over 1000 people without any extra effort required then. Extreme doubts about that Rattlesnake 500 throughput as well. I ran a pretty efficient ship during my time operating it and 500 would have required the slickest operation and every car going out with four people in them. Very doubtful knowing the idiocy people go through to get on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerfuffle Posted August 15, 2014 Report Share Posted August 15, 2014 Throughputs...throughputs...throughputs! Where's the variety? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted August 15, 2014 Report Share Posted August 15, 2014 Throughput is the thing that cripples Chessington more then anything else. If you've got something better to talk about in the general Chessington discussion, why not start something, instead of putting all over the place. Fred and dragon2000 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted September 6, 2014 Report Share Posted September 6, 2014 Where has the ride availability page gone on the website? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattgwise Posted September 6, 2014 Report Share Posted September 6, 2014 It hasn't gone anywhere. I have just looked at it. http://www.chessington.com/plan/today-at-chessington.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted September 6, 2014 Report Share Posted September 6, 2014 It hasn't gone anywhere. I have just looked at it. http://www.chessington.com/plan/today-at-chessington.aspx Thanks, they had changed the name of the link. Mattgwise 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Does anyone know where the annual pass office is in chessington, I have to take a detour there to sort mine out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Right by the main entrance (Lodge nowadays) right by the toilets... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Right by the main entrance (Lodge nowadays) right by the toilets...Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Looked at the ride status today, think its disappointing how lots of rides aren't opening till 11 or 12 and some are only open for 3 or so hours during the day(along with skyway down). I know it's an 'off peak' day but is this really an excuse for limited ride openings like thorpe's excuse that a 40minute queue is not long enough for 2 train operation? Personally I think merlin needs to stop money sucking and work on good operations and customer satisfaction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Looked at the ride status today, think its disappointing how lots of rides aren't opening till 11 or 12 and some are only open for 3 or so hours during the day(along with skyway down). I know it's an 'off peak' day but is this really an excuse for limited ride openings like thorpe's excuse that a 40minute queue is not long enough for 2 train operation? Personally I think merlin needs to stop money sucking and work on good operations and customer satisfaction. The thing is, when the park at this time of year only gets about 200 people in the park, there is actually zero point in them runnig things in a similar fashion to a normal weekend... The park literally isn't busy enough to warrant it, even with things like Wild Asia opening at 11 the area can be fully done by 11:30 at a snail's pace... Not comparable to Thorpe's starting with one train on coasters even on weekends... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Not comparable to Thorpe's starting with one train on coasters even on weekends... Or Towers opening their HIGHEST CAPACITY RIDES an hour after park opens (Congo River and Skyride!) Personally, I think its quite impressive that they don't just shut the park on these days, I think they need to have over 500 people in order to make a profit, hence why they shut the rides for a hour or so to counteract the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Or Towers opening their HIGHEST CAPACITY RIDES an hour after park opens (Congo River and Skyride!) Personally, I think its quite impressive that they don't just shut the park on these days, I think they need to have over 500 people in order to make a profit, hence why they shut the rides for a hour or so to counteract the issue. Don't they get over 500 on a quiet day anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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