jmgpannal Posted April 14, 2013 Report Share Posted April 14, 2013 Chessie are restricted on what they can do with the grass car parks. It is green belt and they aren't allowed to Tarmac them. A few years ago they redid the drainage on them, but seemingly it wasnt effective. Zufari29 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RideAddict Posted April 14, 2013 Report Share Posted April 14, 2013 I live 8 miles from the park and can drive there in about 15 minutes without traffic delays. Most times I go, I get a train and bus. OK, so that can take upto 30 or 40 minutes in total but it's worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted April 14, 2013 Report Share Posted April 14, 2013 Chessie are restricted on what they can do with the grass car parks. It is green belt and they aren't allowed to Tarmac them. A few years ago they redid the drainage on them, but seemingly it wasnt effective. What about those little stones, they're environmental, kinda? Would sure be better then letting it turn into the bog of eternal stench every summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmgpannal Posted April 14, 2013 Report Share Posted April 14, 2013 ^ Yeah, I did thinks about them. Enviroblock I think they're called. I know it's been mentioned before and there was a reason why they aren't used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted April 15, 2013 Report Share Posted April 15, 2013 Money? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmgpannal Posted April 15, 2013 Report Share Posted April 15, 2013 I think the council said no in their usual we don't like Chessington very much manner! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted April 15, 2013 Report Share Posted April 15, 2013 Chessington are trialing a new meal deal. Try our great NEW food package and save up to £6.95* Our Family Meal Deal allows you to grab a meal (including drinks) for each member of your family for just £5 per person. Offer only available when booked in advance Valid for one use 30th March – 27th April Only available to families of 2 - 6 people PLUS 5 free donuts per transaction. http://www.chessington.com/plan-your-trip/family-meal-deal.aspx Sounds like a good idea if you want to budget your trip! Going back to this if I may, the T+Cs have been update since the original post, they are... Child meal deal £5 per child (ages 0 - 11 years) Adult meal deal £5 per adult (ages 12+) Minimum family size of 2 people, maximum size of 6 people. All family members must eat in the same restaurant. The customer must show and surrender the meal voucher before ordering. Strictly one meal deal per voucher. Please ask a member of Staff if you are unsure what is included in the offer. Family Meal Deal is valid at Mexican Cantina, Fried Chicken Co., Noodle Noodle, Oriental Express, Creaky Café and Vampire’s Burger Kitchen. If you lose your voucher, it will not be replaced. Not to be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount Canned/bottled drinks (excluding bottled water), alcoholic drinks and Innocent products are not included. Subject to availability and restaurant opening hours. The service is strictly non-refundable. The family meal deal is only valid on the date booked. The Chessington Resort will not accept liability if you feel that you have not made satisfactory use of the Family Meal Deal offer. No refunds or compensation will be available. All seems good, in fact too good. Am I missing something? I read it that it can be used for a group comprising exclusively of adults as they are the same price and it doesn't state otherwise. I presume it includes the standard meal deals from each location? Has anyone actually used it? Would like to know how it went. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted April 16, 2013 Report Share Posted April 16, 2013 What sort of day should I expect if I were to head to the park Friday the 26th? I'm assuming queues won't be a big problem, does that mean fewer 'sideshow' services on offer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted April 17, 2013 Report Share Posted April 17, 2013 Chessington are trialing a new meal deal. Try our great NEW food package and save up to £6.95* Our Family Meal Deal allows you to grab a meal (including drinks) for each member of your family for just £5 per person. Offer only available when booked in advance Valid for one use 30th March – 27th April Only available to families of 2 - 6 people PLUS 5 free donuts per transaction. http://www.chessington.com/plan-your-trip/family-meal-deal.aspx Sounds like a good idea if you want to budget your trip! Going back to this if I may, the T+Cs have been update since the original post, they are... All seems good, in fact too good. Am I missing something? I read it that it can be used for a group comprising exclusively of adults as they are the same price and it doesn't state otherwise. I presume it includes the standard meal deals from each location? Has anyone actually used it? Would like to know how it went. To answer my own questions, in case it helps anyone else: I used the vouchers for all adult meals with no problems. They are the standard meal deals (usually c£7). It is 5 free doughnuts per transaction. There were 4 of us, we booked as two twos and got 10 free doughnuts. Don't book a family of four! Only downsides -selection on quiet days; our first choice Mexican and second choice Orient Express were both closed. We went for Fried Chicken which was quite delicious anyway. -you have to use the tortuous line of chaos where clueless customers discuss at length with clueless staff the limitations of their multi level annual pass to pick up the pre booked voucher. Give us a simple 'pick up a ticket' line Chessington! The deal seems too good to be true, but it is true! If you plan to eat in these places you'd be daft not to use it while it is available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted April 18, 2013 Report Share Posted April 18, 2013 It's quieter around here....is that a perma ban or a weeks cooling off ban, may I ask? MattyMoo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted April 19, 2013 Report Share Posted April 19, 2013 Anyone managed to complete the feedback questionnaire on the Chessington website? It seems to have decided what answers I should give! Only lets me click on one random number on each question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted April 19, 2013 Report Share Posted April 19, 2013 Just tried, and I'm getting the same problem. Found it quite amusing that the random number I got for 'Value for Money' was a 2... I'm fine with the how strongly do you agree style questions, just the number-rating ones. Strange.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJames Posted April 19, 2013 Report Share Posted April 19, 2013 Anyone managed to complete the feedback questionnaire on the Chessington website? It seems to have decided what answers I should give! Only lets me click on one random number on each question. I managed to complete it perfectly fine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmgpannal Posted April 19, 2013 Report Share Posted April 19, 2013 Yup, no problem here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 Who broke Flying Jumbo's, own up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake C Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 Who broke Flying Jumbo's, own up! Its on the same power supply as Runaway Train, so it will be down for a while I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 At the weekend there were several diesel generators in front of Runaway Train that appeared to be powering that area of the park, possibly including Flying Jumbo's. With that in mind, it's possible they're only running the ride on busy days to save fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 Wait so, despite work having not even begun on Runaway train we're not allowed to ride it and on top of that as a direct consequence we will only have limited use of Flying Jumbo's? Well that's incredibly poor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted April 24, 2013 Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 Well if the rockwork is unsafe, I'd much rather it be closed even if they're doing nothing to it, than open. Just write it off for this year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted April 26, 2013 Report Share Posted April 26, 2013 http://www.chessingtonbuzz.co.uk/interviews/nick-varney-2013/Chessington Buzz have been fortunate enough to interview Nick Varney, CEO of Merlin, with regards to Chessington in general. It's quite an interesting read really. One thing which stood out to me the most: 6) Alton Towers, Thorpe Park and the various Merlin attractions abroad seem to have a constant stream of Large / Medium / Small investment years, why is this not the case at Chessington?A) All of Merlin attractions work to fixed investment cycles involving years of low and high expenditure (broadly a high every four years). Zufari at over £6m represents a significant high year investment for Chessington and is a truly unique and exciting experience. The one difference with Chessington is that we are having to spend relatively more on infrastructure works than the other parks due to the under- / non-investment between 1997 – 2007. This is mainly to do with essential Health & Safety works but also ‘hygiene’ issues like toilet facilities. So, Zufari's investment was over £6million (quite a long way off the rumoured £10-12mill I heard!), and this is a significant high year for Chessie. Now, maybe it's just me, but when we consider Thorpe and AT's 'significant high year' investments are in the region of £18-20million, and the last medium investment year for AT (2012) was £6million, it shows that the amount being invested in Cheesie is still much less than the other Merlin. The first question also says £12million was invested since Sealife was installed, in 2008. As much as I don't like comparing, that is still A LOT less compared to Thorpe, AT and Lego... BigBobJones 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted April 26, 2013 Report Share Posted April 26, 2013 Especially when half of that is Zufari... Bugger all has been invested in Chessie for years, simple as... Problem is most of any budget going into it would be required for fixing the place up, hence in days of needing to attract people being placed at the door of new attractions over the state of the park, it's hard for that to happen... Zufari also had it's budget slashed from like £10 million... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spider Posted April 26, 2013 Report Share Posted April 26, 2013 With this budget information in mind, I'm beginning to question whether Zufari was the best use of investment. It's a great idea in theory and a good fit for the park, but whilst I haven't been on it yet general word seems to be middling and I dont see it having the long term appeal that, for example, a decent coaster would. I hope some decent investment continues and Chessington can continue to expand their ride offerings over the next few years - theres a massive black hole of investment that has left it far behind other parks. On a side note, this is something I've been wondering for a while. Where did the land uses for Zufari come from? Have they always owned it? If so, why was such a big bit of space never used before? Also, is using such a large space for one ride going to be a good idea in the years to come? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted April 26, 2013 Report Share Posted April 26, 2013 Always owned it but I think it was Green Belt land, and they managed to wangle it so they could build on it but could only have animal based stuff there... Hence it made the most sense for Zufari... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted April 26, 2013 Report Share Posted April 26, 2013 One thing I'm quite surprised about this ride is the height restriction, 1.1M seems quite high when you consider X is 1.0m. For a ride at the more family park, I was quite surprised about this. BigBobJones and Coaster 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted April 26, 2013 Report Share Posted April 26, 2013 Fun (possibly not that true) Fact - Zufari has more airtime than Tonnerre de Zeus, and only a (possibly broken) seatbelt to hold you in! It is a big flaw in the ride though... Disney's has NO minimum height limit, and it has been a major sticking point for guests (especially as you can't SEE the animals well without going on it)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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