HermanTheGerman Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Well, the thing is that Chessington have all of Zoo Days included in their figure, as it's based on total annual attendance. (hence why after a poor year, Thorpe have suddenly started doing FHT again...) Also, last year was just genuinely really busy. Second most attended year ever I think after 1995? The Easter period had an average attendance of 15,000, with a couple of days hitting 17,000... Then of course was Howl'O'Ween, with 16,000 on a few days as well. Scorpion Express clearly had the impact that were hoping for, but you also have to factor in that for the first three months of the season, Chessington were the only park with anything new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 17'000 people at Chessie in a day? This explains a lot, they must have raised the max capacity a wee bit... I remember when the days of 15k guests were a rarity happening once or twice a year if you were lucky... Helped by the rides tending to push throughputs a lot better as well (as much as they could of course, but I never worked on Buccaneer and had a 45 minute queue)... Of course, some of the smaller rides aren't helped by the addition of Fastrack, which adds a fair bit of time to the queueline... Maybe not doubled but still adds a chunk on, doesn't excuse 80 minutes for Dodgems though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rover2012 Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Apparently today Kobra & Ramases closed, Vampire and Monkey Swinger not yet open. Dragon's Fury alrwady at 2 hour queue... Ouch!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Yeah I just told the wife she broke Vampires yesterday, it was so shocked she went on it went into meltdown and now won't let anybody on until she returns to show it some love. I'm not a popular bunny today haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Apparently today Kobra & Ramases closed, Vampire and Monkey Swinger not yet open. Dragon's Fury alrwady at 2 hour queue... Ouch!! What a farce. Chessington are becoming the worst operated park in the UK very quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Funny that we were all saying the same about Thorpe a few months ago Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Thorpe do have some pretty shocking operations. They did have 2 months where 3 main flats were broken and 2 coasters on low capacity,not helped by the constant excuses for 1 train operation. Over the weekend stealth and swarm opened on one train despite it being a bank holiday so god knows what caused that. That being said thorpe do have rides that can cope (just) with the crowds they have. Whereas cwoa does not. The lack of new attractions over the last 15 years and the ever increasing gate figures is taking its toll on guest experince. 80 minutes for the dodgems is just a joke. What park would ever allow some dodgems to 80 minutes and what human with half a brain would ever join a queue for some dodgems at 80 minutes. Theme parks are known for bad queues but when you are reaching 2 hour queues for some pretty bad rides things need to be done. I'm aware it is hard for them to get planning permission for anything but really that should just mean merlin has to argue a better case. Coaster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Merlin should offer to redevelop the road outside the attraction, that usually works for most councils. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 This is what I don't get with merlin. Other parks around the world help out the locals by up keeping roads, investing money to encourage jobs ect. In return they can build bigger and better attractions. Whereas what merlin seem to do is almost nothing and as a result they have to follow a crazy amount of restrictions. Disney has its own motorway. Cedar point own 4 lane road and invests huge amounts to Sandusky. Alton, cwoa, legoland single lane road causing massive congestion and annoying the local residents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 There's a massive difference between UK and US planning laws... Plus of course, where would a 4 lane road go outside Chessie? Or a motorway to Towers? It's not exactly black and white for any of the parks in the UK to be able to just say, create a bypass in the local area when another huge company pretty much owns half the local land and doesn't want to give it's land just because... Bear in mind as well that Chessie's expansion potential is limited by the Green Belt land behind it, not just because of the council/locals... Half the time it'll come down to the park/council not wanting to fit the bill for a road redevelopment but the park/council not willing to make a deal about it either... pognoi 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Don't kid yourself about the green belt being an issue, down here (10 miles as the crow flies), the government reclassified a large plot of green belt land as brownfield then built 500 houses on it, despite everybody (including the local authority) objecting. It's only a controlling factor at the moment because if Merlin were to develop it, they would benefit. When the government decides they need the land for housing, it won't be an issue for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Plans to sort out traffic are being worked upon. As Benin said, there isn't the space to build to a wider road, so instead the issue will hopefully be rectified by redesigning the car parks so that they can have a faster intake. Of course its the council's fault really, they complain about the traffic, yet they wont let the park concrete the grass areas. And the fact that its on a hill causes only makes matters worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 The council are idiots, they put traffic lights in a quarter of a mile down the road at a cross roads rather than a roundabout (I can't remember if the lights were there before, but generally traffic lights = long queues, roundabouts = steady flow). We've come out the park before at 5pm on a regular off peak day, and it's taken us an hour to get to the M25, so when the council start saying no to expansion because of traffic flow problems, I'll be the first in the queue (excuse the pun) telling them they are talking out their arse. Infact it took us less time Monday to get home than it usually does just to the M25. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Unfortunately there are a lot of problems at Chessington at the moment and I'm not sure when and how they can deal with them. 1/ despite only installing 4 rides since 2004 (32 of them major), the park's attendance levels seem to be rising at an amazing yet concerning speed which probably due more to the increasing population, addition of two themed on site hotels on top of it being the most rounded of age ranges of the South East parks plus also being the closest 'big' park to London. 2/ the bulk of the park's rides were built between 1987 and 1998 which seeing as many are nearly their 30th birthday shows a lot of park rides are getting very old (one could say it was a much smaller Europa in its hey day considering how much of the core is by Mack and the themed areas too). 3/ most of the ride's suffer poor throughputs with falls so far the only one which can get 1000 currently with most other primary rides mostly between 500-700 PPH which considering the average queue has been 90 minutes for primary and 60 minutes for secondary rides is not a great sign. Whilst Legoland's rides are often criticised for low'ish throughputs, the park has at least three rides capable of 1000+ PPH with the dragon getting 900 on three trains (the queue wasn't more than 20 minutes from steps near the entrance) on top of improving park wide throughputs with things like a 3rd lane on boating school, doing two shows on the lighthouse and replacing a 10 digger thing with a 40 seater Disko coaster. With some major work I think black Buccaneers, vampire & tombs could easily take on near 1000 an hour. 4/ the road and infrastructure still needs sorting and whilst Legoland's here is clearly worse with tailbacks on exit 90 minutes after close (turning left is clobbered) and the fact Chessie slightly improved things in 2010, it is still a serious issue that needs sorting plus not to mention a big chunk of the main hotel car park is hotel guests only which makes parking here much harder now. I think Merlin need to realise despite its planning difficulties (which are even worse than the others with their own difficulties), they need to invest lots in to Chessington in the future in both rides and infrastructure to bring a park with a hub spoke design from the 80's/99's to present day to cope with its projected 2 million per year guests and unfortunately a new show & penguin enclosure (as great as they are won't make much difference). jon81uk and dk3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dk3 Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 Black Buccaneer = 55 mins, Monkey Swinger = 60 mins - I'm gutted I can't be there today... Does anyone know if the Vampire's operating on three trains again (as reported by Riderater last month)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 Black Buccaneer = 55 mins, Monkey Swinger = 60 mins - I'm gutted I can't be there today... Does anyone know if the Vampire's operating on three trains again (as reported by Riderater last month)? To bump that up, I just had a peek and it appears queue times have increased even more from what you have just stated...Vampire: 90mins. Falls: 80mins. Black buccaneer: 75mins. Fury: 70mins. Bubbleworks: 65mins. Monkey swinger: 60mins. Tiny truckers: 50mins. Scorpion express, Zufari, Safari Skyway, Peeking Heights: 45mins. Rattlesnake, Tomb Blaster: 40mins. Seastorm, Tuk Tuk, Jumbos: 30mins. Sounds like pure fun today Also, vampire is still operating a two train service, the reason for the confusion was due to the park stating it was back to "full capacity" and this was believed to be three trains however in reality is only two trains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 Yeah I can confirm it was two train on Monday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDan Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 Black Buccaneer 75? Hahaha! Cal 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 I dread to think what it'll be like in the summer, At this rate I can see the park hitting capacity and primary rides exceeding 2 hours and secondary passing 1.5 hours with the rest being 45 or more. TPJames 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dk3 Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 If all rides are operating and if they employ a few extra staff so that all rides have a minimum of two ops then I think they could just about manage it, but with two rides down (like Rameses & Kobra today) and some others with just one op (Black Buc) the whole park appears to descend into chaos. I blame The Sun free tickets! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 Oh gawd, Vampire's currently on a 100 minute queue time. What do you even do with kids in a queue for that long? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dk3 Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 End up killing them more than likely:) I see Bubbleworks is down now too. Come on Merlin, spend some decent money and give the engineers something to work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 I see Bubbleworks is down now too. Come on Merlin, spend some decent money and give the engineers something to work with. Are you really complaining because Bubbleworks was down for 5 minutes? Every ride has short shutdowns which can't be helped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HermanTheGerman Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 Errgh! I hate one host opp. It just slows things down immensely. Especially seeing as Kobra and Rameses are down. Those staff should be distributed around the supporting flats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJ Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 Bbbut they're not tRaInEdD. Kobra and Rameses being down would only free up 3 attendants anyway and the flats are all on different teams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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