pluk Posted August 23, 2012 Report Share Posted August 23, 2012 What you have to remember, its your joice to pay for the Fast Pass even though realisticly is not needed, and you will find the £2.00 for parking your car, is far cheaper than parking your car at disneyland despite the condition of the surface. Also this is Merlin with a limited budget, not disney with an unlimited budget (within reason!!!) I don't mean to be rude, but this response to someone's rather poor day out actually angers me with its stupidity. - It's not 'your choice' to wait in line twice as long as you should do because other people have purchased farcetrack. That many people should not be allowed to purchase, that is the point and the problem. -£2 for parking is a lot more than it is worth, regardless of what you compare it to elsewhere. If they are not doing even basic maintenance with the insane amount of income this unnecessary charge is generating it is frankly disgusting. -Disney don't have any magical unlimited budget, they run with a huge amount of debt. What they have done though is realise you have to speculate to accumulate, to deliver quality attractions, operations and ultimately day out and then visitors will return with a smile on their face and an open wallet year after year. Merlin want to bleed you dry and leave you with a bad taste in your mouth with all round lack of value, then bribe you back with a deal or poorly delivered new attraction next time. It is a depressing short term view and is killing our parks, but we shouldn't moan, eh? Some people say 'enthusiast' views are worth less some how than 'the public'. That our expectations are too high and we look at too much detail. I see the opposite. If even an enthusiast cannot enjoy a day out at a park, someone who is a self confessed obsessive and wants to be there more than pretty much anywhere else, if even they can't enjoy it things must be pretty damn bad. And they are pretty damn bad right now, all round. Mark9 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted August 24, 2012 Report Share Posted August 24, 2012 Also this is Merlin with a limited budget, not disney with an unlimited budget (within reason!!!) I've seen smaller parks do greater things with tea cup rides then Merlin can do with 12 million pound plus rollercoasters. Disney always comes up with as a comparison, well how about our European neighbours like Phantasialand or Parc Asterix who probably have similar budgets but do much more with their money and passion. And are rewarded with returning customers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted August 24, 2012 Report Share Posted August 24, 2012 What even about the European parks which have even smaller a budget? Places like Plopsaland (at a guess here, maybe they just have a company who know what they're doing), or the quality of the last additions at Hansa Park, or places like Toverland? Disney run at a loss because a company that big and across multiple industries probably will do regardless... However, they seem to approach business with a whole "add things that'll bring quality" (excusing California Adventure and Paris Studios, but, they were both still better than many other parks in the world), instead of worrying about the balance, because they know that they will more than likely make the money back, whether that's through the theme parks or another section of the business... Merlin seem to be focused on being sustainable, but because of that, the last few years have been rather lacklustre, especially the last two years (2010 was a decent year aside from Saw Alive), add into this the cost cutting methods poorly applied to the parks and the overall price per entry (even with a low percentage actually paying on the gate costs), it does leave a bad taste in the mouth... The car park is still grass? Ew, dunno if I prefer that to Thorpe's gravel pit tbh... Both are pretty damn awful really... Although £2 for Chessie is much cheaper than both Asterix and Plopsaland, even with conversion rates... Though I expect it might well go up soon to get in line with the rest of them... I'll agree on the staff factor, but that might be a UK thing, as working at a park for 90% of the people is seen as a part time job just to do whilst on the weekend/summer... Of course there are those enthusiastic lot somewhere around the park, but at Chessie and Thorpe, the majority seem happy to just natter to each other... Moaning about having to stay behind to get people on Vampire though is silly, if they really cared about getting home, they'd get people on the ride faster... It's not hard to get rid of a 45 minute queue after closing in 30 minutes after park closure on 2 trains... Although Vampire on 2 trains these days is just dire... The overselling of Fastrack is the park's problem... And needs to be nipped in the bud by the rides managers getting at the retail lot for overselling... It does happen because the retail people get told to take advantage of the demand, but more often than not, overselling screws EVERYONE over... I dunno what methods they could use to improve it (assuming it will never be free (and easy to abuse as it was back in the day)), perhaps bringing in timed slots again or the introduction of a Q-Bot system might help prevent both overselling and also help spread the crowds of Fastrack... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confuzzled Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 I think that Q bot is a amazing idea but knowing merlin, they will either sell them dirty cheap and everyone will have them or they will sell them at a stupid price and no one will have them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 No one having them = Fewer people skipping the queue = Queue doesn't get held up It's amazing really how batching/fastrack affects queuetimes, Fury and Vampire easily get eaten up at the end of the day when neither of these things happen... I assume the same happens elsewhere... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragon2000 Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 I see Chessington are still quite happy with making their guests hate their day outs, mainly in terms of fastrack over-selling and the car park situation. A few quotes from the wonders of faceboook: 'I can't believe it. I am at chessington in the vampire queue its a 70 minute wait and there is only 1 train going!!! why?" "Had fab day today at chessington although some things put a downer on it....the HUGE ride queues (we ended up spending most of the time in the zoo), the unbelievable terrible carpark that we had to pay £2 to park in ON TOP of the £42 to get in! The biggest joke was queuing for 20 mins for doughnuts, paid, then told to join another 10 min queue to hand in my receipt and collect my doughnuts???? What an awful system!?" "Please sort out the vampire queues...." "Over two hours to get on!" "The sign at Dragons Fury said 20 mins that was 1 hour 10 before it broke down and we still are not at the front!!! We can't go anywhere and the coasters not working. Great day out. Not!!!" "The rides keep braking down we have had to wait for both the vampire ride and dragons fury twice now wasting my day! Sorry but the money you charge this is unacceptable" In reply: "Yep same... Tomb Blaster aswell." "I went to chessington just yesterday! And yeah it is amazing and I love it there. But the queuing is unbelievable! I waited 2 hours to get on dragons fury, and 100 mins for vampire which I didn't get to go on! Also the bins stink! When queuing it makes you feel sick.. But overall I just think they should sort out the queuing, cuz its awful " "Sort your car park out! Full of pot holes, especially the huge one by the left hand exit barrier!" "I agree the carpark needs tarmacing, it was full of potholes and bumps when I went last yr, it will damage tyres if they aren't careful!" "We had a great time in the park yesterday looking for the Moshi Monsters!! The kids loved it. Only down side was that I'd wish they sort out the car park roads as there are SO MANY pot holes, you have to be very careful!! Come on Chessington, with all those £2's for parking you must be able to do something!!!" "My only negative comment is the state of the roadway/track, we parked in the leopard field. On the way into the park roadway was bad enough with some very big potholes, but leaving the park the roadway is a total disgrace. Pls pls pls get this rectified asap because this is seriously letting the park down. My car grounded out with one pot hole, I hope there's no expensive damage to the underside of the car." "I have been a loyal annual pass holder for a few years now. I need to make one point though. Chessington is closed from November - March. That is 5 months. The south car park is not used AT ALL in that time. Why then, can you not do something about the APPALLING state of the roads in that car park? It would be an easy fix, to grade them and flatten them out, or better still, to tar them over. They are a disgrace, and I wouldn't be surprised if some cars are damaged just while trying to exit that car park. Truly, they are in a dreadful state and have been for a couple of years, at least. I would love to hear that there is a plan in place to fix them during this year's 'closed season'. Any chance?" "I hope the money u are now collecting for the car park wil be used to lay tarmak on the way out them pot holes are dangerous! fort I damaged my tyres" "Finally - what is going on with your car park. Returned to car at about 6.25 and the queue to get out took 45 minutes on an unmade, bumpy and dirty road - and you have the cheek to charge £2 for this honour. Same at Official LEGOLAND Windsor a few weeks back - 45 minutes to get out of the car park at closing time." You'd think Chessington would sit up and take notice wouldn't you? On the facebook page they came up with the same copy & paste reply each time saying how their maintenance team check the car park surface daily and make improvements. Utter lies. Have seen no improvements made to the surface aside from the very closest car park being gravelled over the past 3 years, let alone on a daily basis (we tend to visit and keep a check on these things every 2/3 weeks). I have seen Chessington staff in their 4x4 pickup truck *once* this year, and they were pretty much ramming people off the road as they tried to squeeze between queueing cars and a metal gate. Setting a good example... Chessington just don't seem to be able to grasp that the the car park and the 'roads' they have got to enter/exit them are full of craters! I would love to see the person who types comments onto Chessington's facebook page get into a little city car and drive through the car park - just to see the pained look on their face as their car bumps up and down along the road... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 The queue complaints are silly, quite clearly went on Sunday (when at capacity)... Why people think going on certain days won't make it busy I have no idea... Of course, another high capacity throughput coaster and replacing the crap throughput rides with good ones would help, but how many parks can really handle their capacity well? As for South Car Park, can they even pave it? Someone did claim that but I have no idea if that's true... To be honest that entrance does need redoing though, make it bigger and able to withstand the people entering from that end of the park... Really, the only complaints that should be paid attention to, are the state of the car parks, although it is possible that they can't pave over (sure someone will know)... The rest are a result of a park at capacity and hence should be deemed relatively trivial... The only solution to that is increasing the park's capacity or throughputs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragon2000 Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 I don't think the queue complaints should be dismissed. Certainly I've visited on similar busy days in previous years where the park has been at capacity and the rides (primarily Fury & Vampire) have had such slow moving queues. When I visited the park last week the park wasn't massively busy but still queues were crazy. Over 2 hours for Vampire when the queue is around the black wooden wall 'tunnel' just isn't right. Clearly overselling of fast track is happening. I think one of the quotes was from the Sunday, but the rest were not - so again, you can't just dismiss them as 'Bank holiday busy'. I've seen the issue for at least the past 2 weeks now. Apparently they can't pave over all the grass car parking spaces due to green belt land. But this is not the problem! The grass (when it's not wet and muddy) is actually ok. It's the dirt access roads - aka to get to/from the main road to the parking spaces that have the many many potholes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted August 29, 2012 Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 I've never been in that car park (at least not in the past decade) to comment on it's overall quality... The queues are (in comparison to things that can be dealt with like the car park situation) not as major an issue, as they aren't as easy to manage when you have a generally busy time of year (not just the bank holidays, expecting school holidays to be empty to beyond ludicrous)... There are methods of improving these queues, but that's for another paragraph, let's look at Fury and Vampire... Fury has always had a slow moving queue (and quite regularly is on of the longest queues on any day, let alone a holiday period), it's just the nature of the lack of throughput the ride system has, the staff can go as fast as they can/want but will forever be limited by the ride... This is a really impossible one to fix... As for Vampire, 2 hours from the mini tunnel? Ew much? This might not just be down to fastrack though, as the lack of 3rd train and poor ride staff will also mean the queue will be longer... But 2 hours? Sommat's up with it really... I think the 3rd train being removed for good really killed Vampire's ability to take on a queue in the summer... As I've never seen (personally) the queue be that long when the line is full, but considering the times I went last year how slow that queue moved (not because of lots of fastrack), I'm not surprised it's gotten worse... A shame, cos that queue used to get blitz through... It kinda coincides with other complaints about the staff's general attitude you hear these days... You can tell I haven't visited this year yet can't you? Wait till Saturday night, I'll be trumpeting the "Chessie staff need a kick up the arse" view once again (and have done since 2011 tbh)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted August 31, 2012 Report Share Posted August 31, 2012 Hey guys! I'm a first time poster, long time lurker. So sorry if this is the wrong place to ask but about how busy, in your experience, do you think the park will be this Monday? Am I kidding myself hoping it will be quieter the week schools go back or will everyone have the same idea as me? Typically I drag my family off late September, missing the school children and beating the Halloween event crowds, but this year my niece starts big school and I don't want to risk going in the October half term and getting poop weather. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted August 31, 2012 Report Share Posted August 31, 2012 It looks like schools aren't back til the Tuesday so some people may have the same idea as a before school treat! I'm not really sure but that's my guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 Since when did Chessie have some rides open at 9:30? A complete and pleasant surprise to get on Vampire so quickly... More to come when I get home... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben1990 Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 Fury has always had a slow moving queue (and quite regularly is on of the longest queues on any day, let alone a holiday period), it's just the nature of the lack of throughput the ride system has, the staff can go as fast as they can/want but will forever be limited by the ride... This is a really impossible one to fix... I have, in the past, been an attendant on Dragon's Fury and I do largely agree with you- the job of the attendants is very simple and they are as fast and efficient as the ride allows them to be. From experience, if there is a car in front of you in the station, you will 'attend' to it as quick as is required- so throughput is pretty much unaffected by the speed (or lack of) by staff. What DOES make all the difference with Fury is the guests themselves. Assuming 7 cars are on the track, the ride can quite easily reach its throughput of 550 so long as guests are quick to get in and out of the cars. This means cars can largely move through the station without stopping, maintaining some sort of flow and thus the queue moves steadily. What often kills throughput on this thing is when guests take too long to get in/lock their restraints with a bag still attached/disabled guests not sitting in allocated seats etc. All of these things can lead to manual releases and mean the cars pile up in the station/on the breaks while these things are seen to. On busier days this seems to happen more and more- leading to ridiculous (and unnecessary) queue times! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 Benin also used to be an attendent on Dragons Fury Besides 550, you mean you guys aren't going for the 800 anymore?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 I was spared the dreaded slow moving Fury queue today because it died... As Marky Mark said, I know the burdens of guests on Fury (and Vampire for that matter), but my point is more towards that the ride system can barely be really pushed in a similar way as multi train rides like Vampire, Inferno, Colossus, etc. (although 550 is a target now? What was it back in 2009 Mark?) Instead, Tomb Blaster had 4 trains and Kobra's staff decided to load several rides with around 20 fastrack AND exit riders... That was ridiculously bad... Also, finally saw Jumbos in real life... LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchada04 Posted October 9, 2012 Report Share Posted October 9, 2012 So Chessington is having another AP weekend next year on the 16th and 17th March 10-4. http://www.chessington.com/plan-your-trip/opening-times.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted October 29, 2012 Report Share Posted October 29, 2012 So Chessington is having another AP weekend next year on the 16th and 17th March 10-4. http://www.chessington.com/plan-your-trip/opening-times.aspx Do you need to pre- book or do you just turn up to the event? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted November 21, 2012 Report Share Posted November 21, 2012 Do you need to pre- book or do you just turn up to the event? It doesn't seem to say yet, I guess they'll announce nearer the time. Also in the calendar are the dates for next years Halloween event which looks to be a massive 7 days long and sticking with the daft 19.00hrs close. Another year I won't be going then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted November 24, 2012 Report Share Posted November 24, 2012 (edited) It doesn't seem to say yet, I guess they'll announce nearer the time. Also in the calendar are the dates for next years Halloween event which looks to be a massive 7 days long and sticking with the daft 19.00hrs close. Another year I won't be going then. You're being sarcastic right? 7 days in really short and only open to 7:00pm! I'm annoyed by Thorpe park too as they have a normal closing of 5:00pm and Fright Nights only open till 9:00pm again. Edited November 24, 2012 by Tommy Spelling, grammar, and overuse of punctuation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchada04 Posted December 27, 2012 Report Share Posted December 27, 2012 The November part of the calender has been added meaning another 4 days of Halloween at 10-7. What surprised me was the week leading up to half-term (19th-24th October) is open 10-5 but classed as Halloween obviously meaning they will have the Halloween extras open then. I would much rather they save the money from paying the actors that week and go back to 8 pm closing over half-term. As for the AP weekend, on the back of the Zoo Days map it says that you will be able to book your ticket from February so it will be just like this years event which I have no problem against because they can set a sensible limit of people allowed in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted December 27, 2012 Report Share Posted December 27, 2012 Wait so how many people is it per pass? I would like to bring my friend along but maybe for £10 or cheaper than a price of a ticket! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted January 11, 2013 Report Share Posted January 11, 2013 How busy is the park likely to be during it's opening week in March? I know weather will play a factor but typically is there a surge of people when it first opens or does it take time for crowds to build? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted January 11, 2013 Report Share Posted January 11, 2013 You mean the weekend or midweek? Tbh, very rarely does Chessie ever get exceptionally busy outside of school holidays/inset days/bank holidays... Opening weekend is usually decent aside from the usual long queues on Vampire and Fury... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 #BunnyGate Yeah, the 'power' of social media rears it's ugly head once more in the case of bad PR for theme parks, and it's Chessie receiving the brunt of it this time... The problem? Some person from an animal shelter complained about the park's lack of effort regarding taking in some rabbits that had been abandoned (not given to) at their doorstep... Naturally being a zoo and unable to take in said rabbits due to laws and legislation, it seems they called the shelter in to deal with it... A member of staff apparently (according to the shelter person of burden) stated it was "not my problem" when the rabbits were picked up... Naturally with Chessie 'rejecting' the rabbits, this has caused outrage as the poor animals designed for outdoors life might have frozen/been eaten to death (assuming Chessie left them in the car park) unattended... The FB page is like reading the Daily Mail, with people stating they will boycott the park as they let someone else (probably more qualified for the job of sheltering rabbits, as Chessie are not a shelter, they are a zoo) do it for them... Amazing scenes really, and once again proves the mob nature of the country ("Ohhhhh someone's complained about something, I will too!") and the general ignorance of people making assumptions about the situation and not attempting to understand why Chessie could not take the rabbits in... And breathe... Merry-go-girl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 I say let them win their little war. I mean it is such a non issue in itself. Don't visit the park then. The world weeps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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