Cal Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 Accroding to the queue times, Kobra, Rattlesnake, Skyway and Toadies are all open now. Very poor start of the season from Chessington. Yes Thorpe had a lot closed, but at least only 1 was a main attraction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 Josh, there is zero excuse for this... Same thing with Thorpe... Hiding behind it as a 'preview' weekend shouldn't be the case, especially as who are those visiting? MAP holders... Shocking display from both parks this year... Coaster and pluk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashleyrose-66 Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 Toadies has opened - Safari Skyway is not open! Haven't been over to see the others yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 Josh, there is zero excuse for this... Same thing with Thorpe... Hiding behind it as a 'preview' weekend shouldn't be the case, especially as who are those visiting? MAP holders... Shocking display from both parks this year... I just find it difficult to slate the parks about ride availability when the park is opening for what is technically a preview day. It's not something the parks have to do, it's before the park is technically "open" and (in Chessington's case) they did at least make it clear that those major rides weren't going to be open. Maybe they shouldn't have opened as early as they have done, but that's a slightly different story in my eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashleyrose-66 Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 I agree to a certain extent and I think people would understand if it were just the pre-listed rides closed. But to arrive and find a lot more rides also closed is really disappointing and you wonder why they are not ready! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mer Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 I'm more curious about why all the animals in Zufari yesterday had pink darts in them and seemed very relaxed (even coming close to the vehicle!) - presumably they'd been sedated, but whether this was deliberate so that friends and family could actually see the animals, or for some other reason, I don't know. I'm not sure how I'd feel about them sedating animals for the purpose of the public tbh! Tomb Blaster seemed...cleaner? Fresher? Not sure what (if anything) has been done, but the theming just seemed more noticeable and like things had been spruced up. Some of the targets weren't on at one point though (forget which scene) and I don't think the seats vibrated either Oh and Ghozi is now an Australian male Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 I just find it difficult to slate the parks about ride availability when the park is opening for what is technically a preview day. It's not something the parks have to do, it's before the park is technically "open" and (in Chessington's case) they did at least make it clear that those major rides weren't going to be open. Maybe they shouldn't have opened as early as they have done, but that's a slightly different story in my eyes. I find it difficult to understand why people are defending the parks for all these ride closures, when our parks have these four months of closures every winter. If it's too much pressure to get these rides open for the AP days then they shouldn't be happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huzzellio Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 I'm there tomorrow. What were the queues like with so many attractions down? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Users Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 Spare a moment for those poor guest services staff today Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam P Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 No queues at all at Guest Services today, at the entrance everyone was given fast track for a future visit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 Queues throughout the rest of the park were virtually non-existent. Biggest I saw was 15 for Tiny Truckers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 No queues at all at Guest Services today, at the entrance everyone was given fast track for a future visit. The solution to everything Seriously though, it's a nice gesture but I just wish it was something other than Fast track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 Well there isn't much else they can give a park full of annual pass holders. jon81uk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 Well there isn't much else they can give a park full of annual pass holders. Vouchers for food\drink? Shopping vouchers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted March 14, 2015 Report Share Posted March 14, 2015 Both of those end up in the park loosing money. A fastrack doesn't cost the park anything and encourages them back to spend more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted March 15, 2015 Report Share Posted March 15, 2015 I find it difficult to understand why people are defending the parks for all these ride closures, when our parks have these four months of closures every winter. If it's too much pressure to get these rides open for the AP days then they shouldn't be happening. You see, this is the thing - I do agree that if the parks can't get everything open in time, then they shouldn't be opening up so early. But for me as a passholder, if a park runs a preview day for passholders, and not all rides are operating, I'd be fine with that (as long as they've warned in advance, etc etc). If there was too much closed for me, then it's a simple case of "Thanks, but not thanks". It's different when the park is fully open and, despite what's going on behind the scenes, I totally agree that a significant number of ride closures isn't good enough. In the case of Thorpe, for example, possibly another week or so should have been given. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted March 15, 2015 Report Share Posted March 15, 2015 Thing is, a few years ago, these Passholder days had 100% ride availability... Then again, what with all the various limitations placed upon passholders, it's no surprise Merlin continually treating their loyal customers with a little bit less disdain... Cal 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Users Posted March 15, 2015 Report Share Posted March 15, 2015 You see, this is the thing - I do agree that if the parks can't get everything open in time, then they shouldn't be opening up so early. But for me as a passholder, if a park runs a preview day for passholders, and not all rides are operating, I'd be fine with that (as long as they've warned in advance, etc etc). If there was too much closed for me, then it's a simple case of "Thanks, but not thanks". It's different when the park is fully open and, despite what's going on behind the scenes, I totally agree that a significant number of ride closures isn't good enough. In the case of Thorpe, for example, possibly another week or so should have been given. The event is supposed to be "Look at how nice the park looks this year! You should totally renew!" not "Yeah you already bought your MAPs, we don't actually care about you guys now". It's why cheap +1 tickets used to be offered in the hope they would have a great day and buy a pass. Mark9 and JoshC. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted March 16, 2015 Report Share Posted March 16, 2015 Thing is, a few years ago, these Passholder days had 100% ride availability... Then again, what with all the various limitations placed upon passholders, it's no surprise Merlin continually treating their loyal customers with a little bit less disdain... Prescisely. Gone are the days where one ride like Buccaneer are closed, now you're lucky to even get 75% ride availability. Chessington in particular, really shouldn't have opened as it was just a Zoo day with Falls and Rattlesnake thrown in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mer Posted March 16, 2015 Report Share Posted March 16, 2015 ^And Zufari. With darted animals and not all the effects in the cave working Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted March 16, 2015 Report Share Posted March 16, 2015 Oh, Zufari was in horrible condition! The speakers in the trucks were broken, paint on the giraffe house was peeling, and like you said. The cave was broken for all but the final waterfall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashleyrose-66 Posted March 16, 2015 Report Share Posted March 16, 2015 Prescisely. Gone are the days where one ride like Buccaneer are closed, now you're lucky to even get 75% ride availability. Chessington in particular, really shouldn't have opened as it was just a Zoo day with Falls and Rattlesnake thrown in. Even that wasn't open on Saturday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashleyrose-66 Posted March 16, 2015 Report Share Posted March 16, 2015 The park was very quiet on Saturday. No real queues for anything, but that may be because a lot of people left after a couple of hours. I was standing outside the SeaLife centre at about 12.30, waiting for my kids to come out, and there were a lot of people making their way OUT of the park. I think people had just given up by then as there were so many rides unavailable. We knew that Vampire, Dragon's Fury, Griffin's Galleon and Bubbleworks would not be operating, we found out via Twitter on the morning that Rameses Revenge would also be closed, but to get there and find that Rattlesnake, Kobra and Safari Skyway were closed and Toadies didn't open before 12pm on top of the advertised shows such as the "Wild Factor" not running, and the Zufari water explosion not working - I am not really surprised that people decided to leave early. Chicken shack was also closed all day! All-in-all, it was very disappointing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchada04 Posted March 16, 2015 Report Share Posted March 16, 2015 Rattlesnake and Kobra were open, Kobra opened at 10:15 and died for a few hours straight away but was running in the afternoon. Rattlesnake was open by about 1 but at the entrance to begin with it was on the closed list. I think the thing that annoyed most people was Fury testing nearly non stop all day for staff training. Couldn't they have got some trained staff in to run that and then have the newbies shadow them and do the rest of the training today? Not an expert on it but everyone kept expecting Fury to randomly open as it was running fine. HermanTheGerman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashleyrose-66 Posted March 16, 2015 Report Share Posted March 16, 2015 I'd left by about 1.30 so didn't see that Rattlesnake and Kobra had finally opened a good 3 and a half hours late! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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