Chessington General Discussion

[OldFarmerDean]

This morning started off a bit worrying with unavailable rides, lots of people etc... But managed to do the majority of rides in the end and didn't queue more than 45 mins all day, and had the best ride ever on vampire (front row at end of day), so glad I went

[yeah]

Someone got wet paint on their coat at Chessie today so they gave them some bits from the shop, a hoodie, a big toy from the game stalls for both of their kids, and the money for the coat. Great stuff from the management.

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[StevenVig]

Someone got wet paint on their coat at Chessie today so they gave them some bits from the shop, a hoodie, a big toy from the game stalls for both of their kids, and the money for the coat. Great stuff from the management.

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Chessington gave money away! They barely have enough for themselves as it is.......

[Imagineer]

Someone got wet paint on their coat at Chessie today so they gave them some bits from the shop, a hoodie, a big toy from the game stalls for both of their kids, and the money for the coat. Great stuff from the management.

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Guest recovery like this is great. When I used to work at Disney we had the power to do things like this as regular cast members - made life so much easier!

[Ian-S]

FYI, went to collect our MAP's today to find the Annual Pass building is no longer outside the park, it's been moved inside to the Mexicana section by Rattlesnake, so you now have to go to the advanced ticket collection office, pick up an entrance ticket (that is free obviously) and then walk over and do the stuff.

So bear this in mind when scheduling time to collecting your pass.

The only complaint I had was there were two staff members in the office when we joined the queue, but one thought it more important to stop serving and top up the park maps and other leaflets than it was to serve the ever increasing queue, leaving the poor, obviously very new guy behind the counter to muddle his way through with a customer who was equally clueless about what an annual pass was. It was only when my son cheekily asked her whether she was going to be serving anybody soon, since the queue was ever increasing it's length out the building, that she look up, said 'oh I didn't see the length of it' before serving us (to which I laughed as she'd said 'excuse me' to people in the line half a dozen times to get from one side of the room to the other).

Other then that, got five rides on Vampire (twice front row) and three on Fury in the 45 minutes we had left, that's probably double what we'll achieve this Friday if we stay on park all day. Park looked great though, or the bits we saw did.

[yeah]

FYI, went to collect our MAP's today to find the Annual Pass building is no longer outside the park, it's been moved inside to the Mexicana section by Rattlesnake, so you now have to go to the advanced ticket collection office, pick up an entrance ticket (that is free obviously) and then walk over and do the stuff.

So bear this in mind when scheduling time to collecting your pass.

The only complaint I had was there were two staff members in the office when we joined the queue, but one thought it more important to stop serving and top up the park maps and other leaflets than it was to serve the ever increasing queue, leaving the poor, obviously very new guy behind the counter to muddle his way through with a customer who was equally clueless about what an annual pass was. It was only when my son cheekily asked her whether she was going to be serving anybody soon, since the queue was ever increasing it's length out the building, that she look up, said 'oh I didn't see the length of it' before serving us (to which I laughed as she'd said 'excuse me' to people in the line half a dozen times to get from one side of the room to the other).

Other then that, got five rides on Vampire (twice front row) and three on Fury in the 45 minutes we had left, that's probably double what we'll achieve this Friday if we stay on park all day. Park looked great though, or the bits we saw did.

Great job Chessington.

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[TPJames]

FYI, went to collect our MAP's today to find the Annual Pass building is no longer outside the park, it's been moved inside to the Mexicana section by Rattlesnake, so you now have to go to the advanced ticket collection office, pick up an entrance ticket (that is free obviously) and then walk over and do the stuff.

So bear this in mind when scheduling time to collecting your pass.

Erm... So someone could potentially claim they are collecting an annual pass and enter the park for free?

[Ian-S]

Well yes lol, I had the paperwork in my hand so the guy didn't ask for it (at the advanced ticket collection point) but I guess they'd ask for you to show it.

[yeah]

Just to let you know I'm going to Chessington today, will post lots of pictures as well as a full blog post later. Anything want to see something in particular?

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[HermanTheGerman]

Can I have a zoomed in image of the hole in the Tomb Blaster firepit, please?

[Ian-S]

No.... but I can tell you none of our passes scan, not even on the pda's which made for hilarity at Thorpe this morning.

So if nobody else beats me to it I'll snap the photo when we go to get our passes fixed.

[yeah]

Can I have a zoomed in image of the hole in the Tomb Blaster firepit, please?

Tomb Blaster was closed all day.

Here are the pictures I managed to get before my phone ran out.

Done up entrance

Rattlesnake was also closed. It was testing at the end of the day though.

Repainted Mexicana. The MAP desk is in the second building along and is named "The Hub".

Looks nice, also comes with some new audio in the outdoor seating area.

Sweet shop looks really nice, I don't think I got it in the picture but there's a house-shaped tunnel in the wall as an entrance for little ones.

Trail of the Kings

A new treasure hunt thing.

New for 2016!

Welding in the lion enclosure

Great touch

Hard to see but a tiger statue near the tigers

Nice new interactive stuff.

More theming near the tigers. The stone tiger head above the bolder actually has "emerald" encrusted eyes.

Theming

Just what we feared.

Newly decorated.

A nice detail.

Pandamonium video.

https://vimeo.com/160463285

How can animatronics be so adorable? Bit disappointed he doesn't do much though.

https://vimeo.com/160463328

Repaint

And that's all. Most rides closed at least once today and those rides were testing. Toadie's, Tomb Blaster, Rattlesnake and Griffins Galleon all unavailable.

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[yeah]

Sorry for double post but have Merlin signed a new deal with Cadbury's? There were literally Cadbury vending machines in every area of the park and cadbury chocolate in all the shops?

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[Han30]

Absolutely LOVE that tribute to Ashok!

[HermanTheGerman]

The new Sweet Shop is dreadful this year. Why ruin the cute and pretty exterior that was only remodelled two years ago anyway? Sure, the inside was a bit unfitting, but they've only gone and made that worse.

It was a pretty and traditional style outlet the last few years, with nice signs and a little reference to that Arthur character. Now it's just all flowers, rock sweets and boring Grilled Cheese font that isn't at all English Market Town-esque. But yay, there's vinyls. 

I just don't get it. Why when everything else this year has been done so well, did the manage to cock up so spectacularly on a Sweet Shop refurbishment that didn't need doing anyway. Ahhh, help me.

[RobF]

I'm sure the walkers contract went to pringles aswell so several contracts have changed

[pluk]

 

 

Those entrance huts look nasty.

 

Is Bubble station lit up by your camera, or is it lit really badly in person?

 

Absolutely loving Ashok tribute though.

[yeah]

Those entrance huts look nasty.

Is Bubble station lit up by your camera, or is it really badly in person?

Absolutely loving Ashok tribute though.

It's my camera, but it is quite bright in real life.

I prefer the entrance huts before, however I do like these ones plus the others are painted like giraffes and zebras and such.

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[yeah]

I'm sure the walkers contract went to pringles aswell so several contracts have changed

Great. I hate Pringles.

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[SteveJ]

BubbleWorks had all its lighting bodged (even more) over winter when new LEDs were installed and now all scenes are randomly mixed colours pointing in different directions or just bright white. Because it's not as if lighting is an art or anything that could look amazing if done professionally

[Matt 236]

I definitely prefer the old lighting on Bubbleworks as it gave the ride a little more atmosphere.

Am I the only one to like the new huts though as they look OK from the photos.

Least Bubblew isn't in Tomb Blaster's shoes though.

[HermanTheGerman]

Who doesn't love white LED light?! It virtually screams "WE'RE CHEAP, WE'RE CHEAP", perfect really.

[SteveJ]

"That awkward moment" when even the thoughtless 2006 design was better than it is now.

 

 

Scary stuff

[CharlieN]

Lighting does a great deal for a rides charm and atmosphere. The latter looks cheap and tacky which should be the opposite of the desired feel of a dark ride.

[Project LC]

I'm sure there is something left to ruin. Not sure what but there must be something.