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Safari Skyway


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  • 1 year later...

Going to drag this topic back up again. Sometimes I wonder if its just me who has this opinion of Safari Skyway.

It's a fantastic ride, popular, often getting queues (especially in the summer) that stretch the length of the cattlepen queue line. It covers around half the zoo lets say and has a good commentary to help first time guests discover more of what the park has to offer.

With this in mind, just way is this ride in such a state? It's true that Chessington have probably been working hard 'behind the scenes' for the upkeep of the ride, which is fair play to them. The trains are so bad now. As I said in my trip report, some of the doors don't close and guests are having to shut them themselves (especially if they are on the operators side who can't leave their post). They are rusty, peeling and altogether in dire need of refurbishment. Paint, anything!

As somebody else mentioned on another thread, the track and supports are in a pretty good condition. The point is, if this ride is so popular, why are the park letting it get into this kind of a state. I know and realise they probably don't want it to look like that and they probably have bigger fish to fry. But we've seen what years of neglect have done to Dragon Falls and The Runaway Train recently and thats meant, not only keeping them closed in the open season but spending shed loads of money on keeping them running for another few years.

I think the ride itself has a good few years left in it yet IF the park do something about it this season or next. What are your thoughts? Does it need refurbing? Do you like it? Do you think it will stay? Do you think it SHOULD stay?

I'd be really interested to hear your views, to see whether I'm the only one!!

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I remember my second visit ever to Chessie back in 2007 and the ride felt like it was falling apart. Six years later and I can only see the ride being much worse. Sky ways is a great scenic ride around Chessie (on the areas it covers) but has crying out for refurbishments for years and may not receive for a few more years.

I hope this ride will get the treatment it deserves in this refurbishment plan as it needs new/refurbished trains and a general station clean up at the least.

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The train wobbles so much I sometimes think it may fall off the track!

I'm sure a re-route is highly unlikely, as it would be very costly, time-consuming, and probably subject to planning acceptance. But if it did ever did happen, an idea would be to build a second station near the park entrance near Fury, therefore the ride would cover another area of the park.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 5 months later...

This is what frustrates me so much... It should have all been done before they open for the season, and things like this happen every year by the sounds of it!

it's so very easy for you to sit behind your screen and demand that it all be done by opening day, but you just don't know if there were complications behind the scenes. Judge once you know all the facts!

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it's so very easy for you to sit behind your screen and demand that it all be done by opening day, but you just don't know if there were complications behind the scenes. Judge once you know all the facts!

I think it is fair to say there are consistently problems, things incomplete and things that should have been addressed at the start of every single season. Yes, there will be unforeseen problems that cause it, but are these things really unforeseeable?

With such a long closed season every single year I've got to agree with DGC that it is pretty shoddy how incomplete and unprepared the parks are on opening, which from the available info seems to be mostly due to a lack of planning.

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I wasn't there yesterday and I never saw it testing either, if that helps?

Although if it is closed so as to not scare the new animals why would they test it at all? It's the big yellow metal clouds noisily floating by that'll scare them, not the people inside.

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The only way I knew it had moved when we walked round (my son was excited for some reason..!) was the fact the test train was removed from the track and an actual train was poking out the station and that someone had appeared on the entrance telling guests it was closed. Don't think for one second it was ever planned to open nor do I buy in to the animals settling in reason, the amount they have added and changed the line up in the past year along with heavy noise from a hotel being built. The ride was used as a dumping ground all closed season, it was sitting on the welded track only on preview day still filled with rubbish I just don't think it was ready or a priority to open

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