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Chessington General Discussion


Ash

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I gave Thorpe a hard time with the swarm being 1200 rather than what they needed of 1700. I'm glad I don't take much interest in chessington. If a park has problems with queues no new addition should even be considered if it has a throughput lower than 600pph. I know the skyway is old but it needs updating so it actually goes round the zoo, they may as well just get a completely new ride to replace it. Would solve the downtime, would improve the throughput and would allow them to install a proper fastrack queue.

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Even Legoland is (now) better at throughputs than Chessington.

Compare this:

Legoland

Atlantis 1200

Viking River Splash 1200

Jolly Rocker 1000

Dragon 900 (3 train)

Pirate Falls 700

Laser Raiders 500

VS

Chessington

Falls 1000

Tombs 600

Fury 550

Bubbles 600

Zufari unknown

Rattlesnake 350

Scorpion 500

Legoland isn't perfect but does seem to have better throughputs these days (says a lot ImO).

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Fury used to be aimed at 600-700 an hour too...

 

It's depressing to see their new throughput goals in the op boxes, given that there's usually a few hundred chalked off the majority of rides...

 

So many rides there have needed replacing with better throughput ones for YEARS...

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This is the thing right, they aren't even trying. Back in the years of the throughput challenges, Tomb Blaster was aiming for 1000pph and sometimes it actually made it, most of the time it got very close. Same with rides like Rattle, Fury, Falls and Runaway, they were all being pushed to get through as many people as possible. Now it's like they are aiming low deliberately so visiting on a quiet day is the only real option anymore.

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Well it's a shame you get that impression because there are still throughout challenges, just the rides in my experience are so knackered that they really struggle, or restrictions are imposed by engineers to overcome problems meaning max throughout is impossible most of the time.

Attendants still try very hard but doesn't help when you get added difficulties stuff like an ad hoc single rider queue on Fury, or too much Fastrack being sold.

The huge problem is the park was built when there were FAR less daily numbers coming into the park, and then there was no expansion for 20 years.

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To me it implies a lack of competition in the market. You want to go to a theme park of medium thrill in the south east. Due to there being very little competition they have the choice of CWOA or pretty much nothing. The other competitors (of which there are not many in the first place) are too small and as a result cant advertise like COWA can. The same can be said for Thorpe apart from that literally has no competitors which offers a place of big thrills. What should be happening is Thorpe, CWOA and Legoland should all be competing against each other. But they are owned by the Merlin monopoly so the market doesn't work. As a result merlin can do almost anything they like and they will still get customers. 

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^ You're assuming Paramount won't have the same corporate outlook, if there's anything I've learnt over the years, don't expect a new entrant into a market to shake it up, they are far more likely to toe the existing party line, especially if they see that existing heavyweights have got away with screwing their customers year on year (just look at the domestic electric and gas supplies in this Country which is also a captive audience, the supply chain was opened up to create competition, in effect all it did was create cartels as none of the competitors offer radically different packages from each other, 'new' suppliers don't massively undercut the existing suppliers, even though they can because it's not good practice to undersell yourself too much).

The only thing Paramount will bring is an alternative place for us to go that's not owned by Merlin, us Southerns are seriously lacking in non-Merlin owned parks, Paultons is the only one (easily accessible for South of River residents) of any consequence and that only has 2 decent roller coasters.

In other news, anyone considering a trip to Chessie on 15th May don't bother, the place will be overrun with hundreds of unrulely hyperactive school kids that day (my son's school has their annual visit).

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‘No compassion’ for disabled boy not allowed on rides at theme park because of his condition

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/12890397.___No_compassion____for_disabled_boy_not_allowed_on_rides_at_theme_park_because_of_his_condition/

 

It's been a couple of years since I visited any Merlin attraction so correct me if I'm wrong but does it not clearly state in the guidelines that people without the use of their legs cannot ride? As a disabled person I've never felt anything but welcomed by the staff so her shaking the discrimination tree seems a bit strange. 

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In that article the use of the word 'discrimination' is a load of tosh. The park are just keeping him safe, and if something like a breakdown happens, he wouldn't be able to get to the exit without his mother carrying him. As Lewish said, the staff are perfectly fine to people like my brother in the disabled line, not 'discriminating' at all.

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They do state it in multiple locations (admittedly most being in the park) that you need to be able to walk short distances for most rides for evacuation purposes. If it did stop on a lift hill and they had to get you off it suddenly becomes a major problem. I can understand that they would be annoyed and that they should make it clear on their website rather than the ride entrance however to play the discrimination card is a bit extreme,

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