JLV Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 Make that two full capacity days . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 So. I was reading TTF and a member posted . Then again, they're bringing fastrack to truckers, jumbos and toadies sooo...Now, I'm not an alarmist and I'm going to take that with a pinch of salt so far. I know fastrack is going to be added to other rides in the park but if what this person has said is true then it's quite possibly the stupidest decision Chessington's managers could ever come up with and quite frankly I desperately hope they re-look at it before they and impliment it.The issue here is simple. Fastrack can only work on rides if it has a throughput that can manage to still get through the main queue, a standby queue and any exit riders that may come to the ride at any point.I'm going to start with the ride that will be least effected, Toadies. That could just about get through the people and have no issues. It mostly has a 5 minute queue and the cars are big enough to be able to fill up seats and pair people up if need be.Jumbos is an issue. It's a very popular ride and realisitcally it struggles at the best of times. It's queue can spring up very quickly during summer and its not uncommon to see 40 minute queues.Toadies throughput is 260 an hour and Jumbos, if you're lucky, fast, reduce the ride time and are able to fill all seats has a throughput of 250 an hour.Truckers will not be able to take potentially three seperate queues. It's absolutely ludicrious that they can even be thinking that fastrack on a ride that you have to work bloody fast on to even achieve 200 people an hour is a good idea. The only possible way an operator on Truckers will be able to operate that ride in summer is for the trucks to only go round once. That is poor value for the amount people may have to queue. So yeah, Chessington, think of the sanity of your operators here. Trucks is a nightmare ride at the best of times... Sheepie and Benin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 Trucks needs to go die ANYWAY...Fast-track added on... It's just going to be a nightmare for everyone involved, I honestly feel sorry for those who have to work on it this year with that added on... Absolute shambles...It's very similar to Lego having Q-bot on loads of small attractions, but at least they are limited by the time-frame given to them, unless Chessie revamps the system here, the queue for Truckers WILL be an hour in peak days... And that's not right at all...Jumbos as Mark said is similar... It's always got consistently high queues in peak days, and it doesn't have the full overall capacity to allow easy acceptance of Fast-track...And Toadies? Just... WHY?I liked Chessie's low number of rides on Fast-track, especially as they were all rides that could take on the extra number of people without kicking up too much of a fuss aside from those exceptionally busy days... Why are Chessie wasting money on things like this when there are a lot bigger and more important things to do... It's not like they don't sell enough surely?And if they're doing it to help warrant an increase in price? What crap that would be, yeah I wanna go on Fury and Vampire before hitting up Truckers... Bloody brilliant... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted February 26, 2011 Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 Nah what I love about it is the sales & info desk right next to truckers queueline.Oh what does that make you think? The queues too long, I shall buy fastrack next door, and go straight into truckers queue to get on.Wow. How well thought out. Idiots.I think toadies would be added purely as like an extra to sell it at a higher price. It's like towers and having heave ho on their most expensive options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 Ah, remember that season where Bash Street Bus spent about 75% of it closed and then Marc said Thorpe had better reliability because of this. Those were the days. Benin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 Ah, remember that season where Bash Street Bus spent about 75% of it closed"The only ride that will be down all day is Bash Street Bus, Rides 1 please acknowledge.""That's received."<3 Mark9 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 "The only ride that will be down all day is Bash Street Bus, Rides 1 please acknowledge.""That's received."The day they forgot to say Bash Street Bus would be down all day. Rides 1 had to question if it was open and control were like.. "err.. no over"Those were the days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheepie Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 Haven't been around much these past few days and only found out about it yesterday, but here's what I wrote on TTF:I'm still in such a confused state at what they were thinking when they decided to add Truckers, Jumbos and Toadies to the Fastrack system.These are low throughput rides, particularly Truckers, which struggles to get 200 people an hour as its actual hourly capacity. Not only that, the amount of times this ride needs to be reset (and this sometimes can take time, as a Team Leader has to come and do it, and the pressure on them during busy days is already immense), children and adults get out of the cars and run havoc in the ride area... basically, what I'm saying, the ride shouldn't be there in the first place, let alone have Fastrack added to it.It's going to be an operational nightmare, not helped by the amount of Fastrack that the sales team sell.In a park where the vast majority of rides struggle to break the 1000 pph throughput, I can't help but find this an absolute facepalm of a decision from every possible angle you look at it.Of course, apart from financially, but I think that the amount of complaints and unhappy guests this will create will have a far more detrimental effect than anyone at the park currently realize. I feel like it's two steps forward, and then one step back. If it wasn't for all of the other positive improvements across the park, and some still to be put in place, then I would not have any reason to visit the park this season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 If it's any concilation, the amount of Fastrack will not increase, it is now simply the same amount but spread over more rides. Wether or not this will change though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 How much was Fast-track last year? Last I remember was 7 quid for 6 rides but that was in 2009...Thing is, if it's gonna work like that, gonna be some messed up pieces of paper... It makes little sense to have Vampire, Kobra and Fury on the same one as Toadies, Truckers and Jumbos... (Of course saying that, I of course will ride Toadies and Jumbos should the queues be acceptable)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maty22 Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 I think they would make a lot of money from fastrack of toadies, jumboes (and berry bounce). And after all, money is what it's all about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themeparkmad Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 How much was Fast-track last year? Last I remember was 7 quid for 6 rides but that was in 2009...I think it was £10. I think I remember some people saying that the price varied whether KOBRA was on the ticket or not. Ultimate Express Passes were £40. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 I remember them trialling it, at £3 for 6 rides back in 06 I think. Mmmm.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke_A Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 One thing I liked about Chessington... and Zoo was that Annual Pass holders got the Ultimate express pass for only £32, which imo, for someone like me who only visits around twice a year, is really good value, you could get on selected other rides as well as the fastrack ones, along with a few other rides like Monkey Swinger& Rattlesnake with the ultimate pass. I hope they still keep this offer on, even if the prices do go up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themeparkmad Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 One thing I liked about Chessington... and Zoo LIKE! One thing I liked about Chessington... and Zoo was that Annual Pass holders got the Ultimate express pass for only £32, which imo, for someone like me who only visits around twice a year, is really good value, you could get on selected other rides as well as the fastrack ones, along with a few other rides like Monkey Swinger& Rattlesnake with the ultimate pass. I hope they still keep this offer on, even if the prices do go up.... And I agree. I mainly got it during 2009 and it was money worth spending in my opinion. I think I remember, with AP discount, the total coming to £40 for two Ultimate Express Passes. I thought that was great. But now £40 each... Not quite so sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Zafari Bar And Grill <3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted March 10, 2011 Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 Double post, but meh, thought people would like to see this video someone sent to me of the park from 1990... Lots of emotions from this... Makes me wish I could go back to my first visit... Mark9 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Double post, but meh, thought people would like to see this video someone sent to me of the park from 1990... Lots of emotions from this... Makes me wish I could go back to my first visit...Thank you for sharing that Benin. I don't know why I justify my fondness for the park really. All I'd have to show is that video and say no more.Wonderful wonderful place Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 So the 2011 map is on the website now...http://www.chessington.com/downloads/chessington-2011-gatemap.pdfInteresting note on it that hasn't been picked up elsewhere yet, they've put designated smoking areas actually on the map now... Check by Rameses, Kobra, South Entrance, Buccy, Pizza Pasta and North Entrance... Interesting to see how that works compared to Alton's (read, it probs won't considering how much people moaned about it when you bothered to do it in Land of the Dragons)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electricBlll Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 Chessington's past is just so rich! It took me a long time to realise it, since I started visiting just as the park "fell into the wrong hands" let's say. But all the magic and the concepts are fascinating for an early UK theme park. These days I find one has to look quite hard to notice fragments of Chessington's old self still hanging around, but it is coming back I think.Fifth Dimension footage is great, really rare and interesting to see. Enough has been said about Professor Burp's Bubbleworks already, but seeing it in its early years really has made me rather nostalgic...Gah, I really want to go back to Chessington soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 So the 2011 map is on the website now...http://www.chessington.com/downloads/chessington-2011-gatemap.pdfInteresting note on it that hasn't been picked up elsewhere yet, they've put designated smoking areas actually on the map now... Check by Rameses, Kobra, South Entrance, Buccy, Pizza Pasta and North Entrance... Interesting to see how that works compared to Alton's (read, it probs won't considering how much people moaned about it when you bothered to do it in Land of the Dragons)...You can see the new 'Fastrack' logo too! eg. Near explorer gate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted March 11, 2011 Report Share Posted March 11, 2011 'New' being the operative word here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted March 12, 2011 Report Share Posted March 12, 2011 'new' for 2010 at Alton Towers: SONIC SPINBALL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted March 12, 2011 Report Share Posted March 12, 2011 Are Chessington still doing 'friends' tickets this year on Annual Pass day? I've heard from someone that each AP holder is allowed 2 friends who can get in for £10 on the day if they don't own an annual pass, is this correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themeparkmad Posted March 12, 2011 Report Share Posted March 12, 2011 Are Chessington still doing 'friends' tickets this year on Annual Pass day? I've heard from someone that each AP holder is allowed 2 friends who can get in for £10 on the day if they don't own an annual pass, is this correct?That is correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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