February 22, 201312 yr comment_150905 Because Chessington is popular and the sooner Merlin realise that the better. It has so much potential which I think Merlin have just worked out. I see good times ahead for Chessie
February 22, 201312 yr comment_150909 As far as I am aware the park are not supposed to tell you why a ride is not open! When rides break down they just tell you they dont know whats going on. They would have all sorts of pronlems if they told you why. Imagine when Stealth's cable snapped if the had a sign saying that it was closed dut to part of the ride snapping, there would be sll sorts of rumours going around and people exaggerating and being put off of riding. Yep - they don't tell us, so the likes of forums like this cannot set tongues wagging! But somehow, someone always finds out and it's talked about, so they may as well end up telling us! Also, Stealth's cable hasn't snapped...or was that something I missed last year?
February 22, 201312 yr comment_150917 Stealth's (and a few other Accelerators) have had their cable snap a few times in their lifespans...
February 22, 201312 yr comment_150948 They tell you what rides are open by the massive scrolling LED board at park entrance, and at each ticket booth. The parks are being bombarded by our annual pass guests.. and for some reason normal guests, yayay.
February 22, 201312 yr comment_150953 When I was there it just said: ' Welcome to chessington, zoo days will be avalible from 10am-3pm on weekends and school holidays' or something like that, it just kept scrolling over that again and again! EDIT: because bubbleworks will be closed for the rest of the zoo days- the park seem to be trying to get black buccaneer and the carousel running for the zoo days to compensate...
March 5, 201312 yr comment_151802 I think if I had a Facebook account I'd make daily reminders to all that it's a fan resource and not bloody customer services.
March 13, 201312 yr comment_153002 The map for the 2013 season has been released and follows the same stlye as the last few ones which is great as I personally love this style http://www.chessington.com/downloads/chessington-2013-gatemap.pdf Or an image of it for those who can't be bothered to open it up in a pdf. Flying Jumbos are now labelled as in Zufari which makes sense as the entrance bridge is right next to them. They also appear to be grey now instead of the pink so hopefully this means they have been rethemed slightly.
March 13, 201312 yr comment_153004 Chessington has the best map design IMO. Great to see a lot of positive changes there and fingers crossed jumbos will receive a (much needed) paint up.
March 13, 201312 yr comment_153008 Perfect map design. You can use it as a map, and it fits the parks marketing. Sorted.
March 13, 201312 yr comment_153018 It makes the park look so square when it's not, same for Alton's map.
March 13, 201312 yr comment_153019 It makes the park look so square when it's not, same for Alton's map. Still, at least it gives some idea where everything in the park is located.
March 13, 201312 yr comment_153023 At least Flying Jumbos are better suited now they have sneakily put them into the "Zufari" land on the map rather than Forbidden Kingdom!
March 14, 201312 yr comment_153073 Passholder weekend has been cancelled! By way of trying to make up for this disappointment, on your next visit to Chessington, we would like to offer you an exclusive fastrack ticket for a ride of your choice. Please take your original passholder weekend confirmation ticket along with your Merlin Annual Pass to one of our Xtra Adventures kiosks and they will exchange it for your fastrack ticket (there will be a limited number of tickets available on a daily basis but they will be available for the whole season so you will get plenty of opportunity to use it).
March 14, 201312 yr comment_153074 Oops! So Thorpe balls it up the other year, Chessington this year. What a let down, good job I wasn't going. For those who have loads of free time, another waiting until the 20th won't hurt!
March 14, 201312 yr comment_153078 This is disappointing as I was hoping to attend with my folks this Sunday. Oh well, I will have to wait longer for a ride on Vampire.
March 14, 201312 yr comment_153082 I'm not surprised by this at all. They kept holding back on releasing the information for AP day like something wasn't right and clearly it wasn't. From reading that they've also pushed the opening of Zufari back a week. So each one of the Merlin parks over here aren't having their new ride open at the beginning of the season (Zufari, X, The Smiler and Duplo Valley). Good start to the season!
March 14, 201312 yr comment_153087 It's a shame it's not going to be ready for this weekend, but I am sure it's not a decision they have taken lightly and it's obviously not safe enough to open so soon. We went during half-term, and where Burger King used to be was a complete building site, and there was still scaffolding up. I said at the time that it looked like it was some way off being finished, and that appears to be the case. The exterior looked nearly complete (I think it's called Vampire Bites or something) but inside was a mess.
March 14, 201312 yr comment_153088 The Burger Kitchen is finished now and ready to go, as far as I'm aware.
March 15, 201312 yr comment_153162 I would much rather they do this than open up a mess of a park and piss everyone off on the day. Good decision.
March 15, 201312 yr comment_153166 ^ Not with my 5 year old who was ecstatically happy to be doing her first ever Vampire ride! If anything it's gonna be Legoland. But looking at the weather forecast probably not gonna go anywhere!
March 15, 201312 yr comment_153186 It's a real shame that this has happened but, as Pluk says, it's better they cancel it and offer compensation than give everyone a poor day out. I've also heard that Dragon Falls and Runaway Mine Train won't open with the rest of the park due to work on their theming..
March 15, 201312 yr comment_153188 I would much rather they do this than open up a mess of a park and piss everyone off on the day. Good decision. Me too. For anyone who was going Sunday, they can go on Wednesday when the park fully re-opens. 3 days isn't going to kill anyone. I saw on a Theme UK update that the main path past Hocus Pocus Hall and the Chicken Shack has been resurfaced this year. It looks very smart and smooth, but that's the last area of the park I expected them to resurface. The old one seemed OK and although a little gritty, it looked nice and blended in with the surroundings nicely.
March 15, 201312 yr comment_153192 I can't wait to visit Chessington to experience this new for 2013 path.When it comes to Chessington, "infrastructure refurbishment" somehow sounds exciting! I assume their are referring to the Transylvania fixes, but perhaps there have been other changes this year as well. I heard the 3-year plan started last year with Toytown changing its theme, so that area is done; the remaining areas that are in need of improvements are Mystic East and Forbidden Kingdom, which we may see next year.It's nothing too interesting, as both "Africa" last year and the Burger Kitchen turned out to be quite basic refurbishments (painting a few walls, some new decorations), but they are improvements nonetheless. Also they have updated their website to include the Burger Kitchen. Hmm, there's something not quite right about that building on the left...
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