Chessington Trip Reports

[Kevin]

New bamboo master queue line at North looks awesome, I presume they've done this at South Gate as they are redoing both.Pictures might not show it but the main turnstiles have been rethemed as well with sort of dodgy brickwork style, but all in all it's just a bit of a retheme.

[Fred]

Yay they've stopped making market square look like a building site during the winter. About time

[JoshC.]

Went to Cheesie today and had a great time!Was able to do next to everything. Got on Kobra twice in 30 minutes!Park was much quieter than expected; only 6000 were on park apparently. There weren't that many break downs that I saw; Rameses Revenge broke down and Kobra had a little blip. Apart from that and little bits of rain, it was an amazing day.A pic of me with a Lorikeet - sorry about the date; it's a camera setting I need to change. Today also seemed to be a day for meeting people. Met AeRo and Benin (didn't say him at first because I forgot he was on this forum) a couple of times during the day and was nice to finally be able to speak to him. Also spoke to Keith whilst he was on the Safari Skyway - and he seemed a little freaked out when I knew who he was! Was good to be able to put a couple of faces to names. Anyways, ride count:Kobra x3Tuk Tuk Turmoil x1Monkey Swingers x1Jungle Bus x1Lorikeet Lagoon x1Dragon Falls x1Peeking Heights x1Tomb Blaster x1Dragon's Fury x2Rattlesnake x6 (Front row x5)Vampire x1Bubbleworks x1Black Buccaneer x1Hocus Pocus Hall x1Sea Life Centre x1

[James6]

Awesome TR :mellow:Interesting how "quiet" it was compared to the Annual Pass day. What were queue's like ?

[JoshC.]

Longest I queued for was Dragon's Fury at about 40 minutes. I saw Vampire hit 50 minutes but that was only on 2 trains (I thought it was 1 :/). Kobra was peaking at around 45 minutes, but I wouldn't be surprised if it hit an hour. Rattlesnake never went over 10 minutes (doubt it went over 5 to be honest). I never was Tomb Blaster above 15 minutes, however Dragon Falls was probably hitting 30 minutes. Bubbleworks was on about 20-30 minutes. However, for opening day - and following AP day - I'd say all of these were very good.

[James6]

Yeah that's brilliant Thanks. Everything I hear is getting me more and more excited for my trips in a week or so!

[themeparkmad]

Today also seemed to be a day for meeting people. Met AeRo a couple of times during the day and was nice to finally be able to speak to him. Also spoke to Keith whilst he was on the Safari Skyway - and he seemed a little freaked out when I knew who he was! Was good to be able to put a couple of faces to names.

Sorry, it was because you dont have a DP so I was trying to think... ;)Nice to put a face to a name as you say though and I am glad you had a good day

[JoshC.]

Sorry, it was because you dont have a DP so I was trying to think...

Yeah, that's something I really should do. I'll do it tomorrow. Didn't end up going on Kobra again by the way; Rattlesnake called us. lol

[themeparkmad]

Yeah, that's something I really should do. I'll do it tomorrow. Didn't end up going on Kobra again by the way; Rattlesnake called us. lol

Rattlesnake is better anyways so good decision :mellow:I'll try and reconise you in future

[Kevin]

Anyone see a blonde boy shooting up and down the Vampire platform recently?I heard he's quite good.

[Mark9]

Ok so I said I wouldn't go but meh, couldn't resist. Well... Wild Asia. What a fantastic addition to the park and Kobra the most beneficial ride added to the park since Samurai in 1999. And yes I am deadly serious about this. So I'll start with the negatives really. The new area shows just how neglected the rest of the park is. Runaway train continues on it's steep decline of disrepair, Bubbleworks music, ride and atmosphere get worse, Skyway still looks like it hasn't seen a paintbrush since 1986 and don't even get me started on the vile toilets all over the park. So hwhat about the improvements? Well there is new sinage all over the park and the new car park layout is excellent and will certainly make entrance to the park safer. Reliability was excellent, we didn't see a single ride go down ( for those keeping count I've been front of the queue for breakdowns at Stealth, th13teen and Rush so far). I'll post my views on Wild Asia properly into the correct topic. Suffice to say, Chessie takes the early lead of the three old Tussauds parks... At a time when all three are at the top of their game

[themeparkmad]

Anyone see a blonde boy shooting up and down the Vampire platform recently?I heard he's quite good.

What about the amazing light brown haired guy?He seems to be doing quite well too...

[Ricky]

Had a poor visit Saturday - Walked in and within 5 minutes was whizzing down the road to Thorpe Park!

[rygr]

Thought I'd write a quick report of my visit to the park yesterday...Negative Points (for me) -- Safari Skyway has still had NOTHING done to it, and if the park want to keep it, its high time they actually do some refurbishment!- The new commentary on Skyway was confusing for me... as I for one don't know which side is portside and which side is starboard.- The same piece of music is used EVERYWHERE in the park, even on Skyway commentary, I know its new music and they want to make the park more of a lost theme, but one of the good things about the park previously was the fact different music was used in the different areas.- More of the staff could have been nicer, its something small, but saying thankyou for riding if opping Skyway really makes a difference to my day- Some effects not working, I thought all effects in Rattlesnake, Runaway queue were meant to be working now? - Cola Coaster on Bubbleworks was brokenPlus points -- Bubbleworks has been repainted (interior queue)- Vampire queue repainted- The park has made full use of the speakers above Bubbleworks and has the theme music playing now, I think they personally should do the same for the Vampire area- The elephant on Dragon Falls has been repaired, repainted and some random water sprays added just after the big drop- 98% of staff were fantasticI had more negative things to say this time, and I realise alot of staff are new and will get used to the way the park works, and I think the new staff were all working fantastically... but for me, the HUGE relaunch wasn't as huge for me, and there are still some smallish things as mentioned above that should be taken care of to improve my visit ;)Overall, a really enjoyable day with a ride count of 21

[StevenVig]

What about the amazing light brown haired guy?He seems to be doing quite well too...

I Heard different otherwise. Joke!

[Mark9]

Anyone see a blonde boy shooting up and down the Vampire platform recently?I heard he's quite good.

Really? I heard he got a disciplinary last year.. or so I was told.

[Benin]

Opening Day was rather exciting considering the whole news about the re-launching...Although Chessie did spend most of the day confusing me with most new additions (I.e. the new traffic lights), it looks very nice at North Entrance and once the trees bloom it'll look great (as all parks do)...Went straight to Vampire where Keith was... But guys, if you're not letting people in the back two rows, block them off first thing before guests arrive, and then don't turn to us and say you can't go there and then as we return have people waiting... Especially when there's no-one at the exit...Indeed, the ride running felt a bit dodgy all day on some things... Bubbles suffered a break-down due to the onloader letting 6 on and pressing fast-stop for example... It was very on/off but hopefully it'll improve, otherwise I'll spend a year of wanting to jump over gates in order to do the platforming myself :mellow:After Vamp did Buccaneer, good as always, then wandered up to the new area...It's fab... Seriously fab... It looks so much better than Beano and has the two best 2010 new stuff of any park... Banyan Maximus and the Lorikeets...Although we didn't go on Kobra in the morning we went to meet the Lorikeets, and they've now a very close second to my Meerkats... Falls was followed before meeting Monsterdan5, after a donut we went to Tomb, then Rattlesnake (which was smooth and not as painful strangely) and Mine Train...Hopefully Rob Bishop and co have great plans for Mexicana... It does look poorer and poorer every year... Hopefully as well they'll be putting the Falls rocks back up... I've missed them so much...Bubbles was next... Another ride that looks worse and worse with each passing year... It needs gutting and restarting with the theming... No two ways about it... Make it related to Translyvania, but 'happy horror', meaning it's accessible for kids...Lunch was called after some faff at the Goblin, where didn't have to wait too long and the chicken skewers are quite nice...Hocus Pocus Hall has been repainted (and had a few new bits and bobs), and it looks much better now... The 'well' effect is looking superb and had all the guests standing around it in awe... Well done there...Chessie's 3rd best addition for 2010 followed... In Market Square... A new costumed character... Pip the Meerkat <3 Much love was given to Pip and more points to Chessie...Vampire again was followed by Fury, both of which are running well this year, Vamp not as rough and Fury just as spinny as always...Griffins Galleon is still awesome...Back to Wild Asia, and went on the Dodgems... Which looks great... Although new deceptive queue is not fun... And the pillars at the back did not look very themed... But I like the garage theme is has going...Kobra at this point had problems with it's platform, resulting in a million staff descending upon it, but after 10/15 minutes it reopened and we joined the mob entering the queue...It's a great addition to the park... Brilliant... Everyone was having fun and that's what Chessie wants... The bouncing as well loves it...Went back to the Lorikeets and then did Swinger in a shower, so ended up just as wet on the inside as I would've on the outside... Jungle Bus was ridden since it had no queue... Showing how empty it was really... And was fun if difficult to get in and out of...Meerkat times called as well as Savannah construction, it looks massive and could be another great addition for the park, especially if it evolves into a safari ride...Back to Kobra for one last go, and still a fun ride... So the day was amazing, Wild Asia is an amazing benchmark for the park's future additions, and if they keep it to that standard the future is very, very bright...Ride Count:Vampire - 2Buccaneer - 2Lorikeets - 3Falls - 1Tomb - 1Rattlesnake - 1Mine Train - 1Bubbles - 1Hocus Pocus Hall - 1Fury - 1Griffins - 1Tuk Tuk - 1Kobra - 2Monkey Swinger - 1

[electricBlll]

Chessington yesturday was amazing. So much has been improved all over the place. Wild Asia was definately the highlight and its magical, immersive and clever touches all around made the experience great. Lots of areas around the theme park and zoo have not been forgotten and they all offered great fun. First of all, the park has been totally rebranded. All over the signage, logos and direction posts have been replaced with a great colourful image. It is not far off from their late 90s look, with that fun-looking font and all that. I really love the whole 'adventure' them, though. It suits the place so well, especially the new land and areas that they have recently improved.The entrances have been totally refurbished. We went in the south entrance (now called the 'Explorer Gate') which has been rethemed with bamboo fences, a desert jeep as well as other bits. It shows how much effort they are putting into making Chessington 'the new Alton Towers' as is their goal for the next few years.We went to Wild Asia, and what can I say? WOW! It is barely recognisable as Beanoland, with everything themed and decorated wondefully. The attention to detail is very good, but it even appears quite magical from the bigger picture. The front entrance is designed very well, with animal and pattern painted stone structures around as if you are walking into an temple or city. The view of Kobra is very clever with the huge snake statues at each end and the general ancient look of the buildings is great. You have to be there to see it really, it is very well done. The back entrance was also rather imposing as you could see the other snake statue from quite far off on the pathway. Tall bamboo fences now hide any view of the future development field in that area. Ambient sounds were playing throughout with some nice tribal-like music.The old Beanoland fountains have been fixed and rethemed (below), and the tree house has been replaced with a much better model, featuring a talking and squirting elephant head. Now, this is quite cleverly done because the elephant actually interacts with those near it, not just some prerecorded sound effects. I spotted the hidden window on the building behind where the man operating the voice and water squirter was looking out. It makes for a great little feature. All the rides are so much better now. Temple of Mayhem was shut, though I could just see bits and bobs inside. It looked good from the outside. The other rides were completely in a new lease of life. Monkey Swinger (sadly the tails on the chairs did not materialise) has been rethemed very well from Billy's Whizzer. The cheekiness of the ride along with the fountains has sadly gone, but the structure and experience is pretty good and a lot better. Jungle Bus has a much better location now and looks like it was actually being loved! It is a lot better in terms of appearance than the tacky cardboard theming of Bash Street Bus.Kobra is so good, it is already a classic Chessington ride in my view. The entrance and fences are adorned with stylised flags with detailed images of snakes and elephants on them, as well as bamboo fences continuing the Wild Asia them throughout. There are good views of the ride and the back of Mystic East from the queueline, and it is not too cattle-penish. The ride experience from the disc-o is perfect and suits Chessington and Wild Asia pefectly. It is fun, thrilling and different. Being the first ride of its type that I have been on, I think it was great. The feeling of rolling and spinning whilst picking up speed starts it off well, before the car goes too far and 'falls' over the top off the hill and dives into the other section! It then starts whizzing through it all, going very close to the edge of the track and shooting over the airtime hill. The restraints are very peculiar. it was certainly tricky to breathe if you were not pushing against the back pad, but the position and space to move added a lot to the rush.After Wild Asia, I found out that the rest of the theme park had certainly not been forgotten. It is, however, clear that a lot of the rides and structures are very old. The dragon animatronic in front of Dragon's Fury has been repainted, but was not working yesturday. Dragon's Fury itself also needs a repaint, which could be costly (they did it with Spinball, though).Transylvania is hideously showing its age despite numerous improvments. 20th anniversary this year! Bubbleworks was nice and fresh, even if Imperial Leather still sponsor the ride and there are still weird scenes (it is even stated on the map that Chessington is associated with the company, so I guess the contract was renewed). The music in some scenes play on full loop again, though the fairground and founatin finale have music in a poor state. The finale in particular was rather odd. Gone were the fantastic, climatic strobe effects from the old ride, now glaring spot lighting lights up the whole room making it look very small. I want to see a retheme in the near future. If they can do Beanoland so well, a refurbished Bubbleworks should be spectacular.I am glad that Chessington have expressed their plans to update and retheme the rest of the park. This means all the bad points I came across are likely to be fixed in the near future. Transylvania, Mexicana, market Square and Pirates Cove in particular.Vampire has had various good improvments. From the back entrance to Transylvania, there is a new Haunted Hollow-style walkthrough which I asume is left over from the Halloween attraction they had there. Along with tombstones and a replica hearse of the one at Alton Towers, it makes a good back entrance to Transylvania. Whilst on ride Vampire (it was going slow enough for me to see these things) I noticed there were BOSE speakers in the tunnel, but not playing anything at the moment... :-k I also caught sight of the waterfall near the entrance to Vampire, which is now blood red (as in Nemesis!).The previously horrific outdoor queue for Vampire is almost perfect now. The sturdy metal fences have been repainted and are much better than the wobbly wooden ones from a few years ago. The battered up gravestones have been removed, with the good condition ones left. In there space was some new theming. Well, I say new, but it was actually Abdab from Terror Tomb dressed in robes! I have not seen his face for years and he is pretty scary even now. A shame they are not animated and look a bit fake, but it they work really well in their positions and give something different to look at whilst queueing.The incredibly dusty station for Vampire NEEDS a refurbishment, though. Cables are visible and the bare cieling is disappointing if you catch sight of it. Apart from that, the music was loud and booming as it should be, and the fixed organist was light up to perfection with colours and strobe effects. The fake bat model from the queueline has also been moved as a piece of decoration on the wall of the operating cabin.Mexicana is yet to be fixed, with the mountain on Runaway Train stille mouldy and lots of old bits of theming lookign delapidated around Rattlesnake. Mystic East is pretty good, with all the fountains and effects working (including lights in the Buddah statue's eyes). A bit weird that the rocks that were recladded only last season have now gone tacky again.Forbidden Kingdom was looking spotless; I think the theming and facades have been cleaned. It makes you realise how great the theming in that area actually is. Rameses' Revenge's squeak has been WD40'd over and the fountains were running smoothly. It did not particularly want to get wet whis time, though. Tomb Blaster has also been improved here and there. All the effects were working, including some I have never seen before. There were some quivering bodies tangled in webs behind the track in the snake pit scene, as well as a cracking wall/lava sort of effect behind the track in the scene with the giant Anubis statue. A shame there are still dead spots where Abdab used to be in each scene, however. Oh, but I do like looking out for left over bits from Terror Tomb! Look closely under the Tomb Blaster sign and you can see the "Forb... ...mb" poking out either side. When you are at the top of the queue, look down out of the window at the sign below and all the lettering from "Forbidden Tomb" are still there. Thanks to the tall water balloon stands from Beanoland being larger than the fence, I found the ride graveyard. I took this photo from over the fence:Notice the water balloon stalls on the left, with Denis' large head on the floor in the middle next to a piece of fountain theming. Gnasher's head is visible far back and some old Bubbleworks boats are on the far right.Something that made my day was the zoo. Coming up really close to the (incredibly lively) animals was amazing. It was feeding time when we went in to Trail of the Kings, and the tigers were pacing up and down right next to the windows. The lions started eagerly shuffling about too, until they were locked into their little house for the zoo keepers to come out with the dead rabbits. The huge Asiatic lion came out first, already with a huge side of ribs in its mouth. It started crunching away at the meat, even found one of the rabbits and moved it closer so that the other lion would not get it. The tigers started going mad when they saw the food. Instead of pacing they went running and leaped up at the windows, making all the children jump! The Persian Leopard was also a great creature. We watched it try and attack a tough bag which started to stain with blood on the inside. It obviously had some sort of dead animal in it, but it kept fighting to get it out without succeeding. Eventually it made a hole and some of the fur came through... The zoo is certainly a great part of Chessington's 'wild adventure' and was being loved by eveybody there.The whole Trail of the Kings are is surprisingly well themed, actually. A lot of attention to detail that even the big cats enjoy. The gorilla enclosure was closed off and will be forever, it seems. They are building a bigger one on the picnic lawn near Hocus Pocus Hall at the entrance to Trail of the Kings. This comes after an inspection deemed the old enclosure too small to be satisfactory. Also, the construction for the new African Savannah Experience has started on that grassy knoll behind the hotel. A shame to hear that it will be "for the hotel guests", though. Hopefully they will open it to guests as well and mean the hotel guests will have the view from their bedrooms.Overall, I had an amazing day at Chessington. It is certainly a fantastic theme park for families, and with their new brand image and future plans I am sure the whole place will be given a better lease of life. Wild Asia is a place of great quality and has been pulled of really well. I am looking forward to seeing the changes in the next few years!

[MikeyT]

What a fantastic trip report! Thanks very much for posting, I found that such a great read.Seems like you had a great day at Chessington, I really cannot wait to go myself.

[Marc]

I was there for the 5 mins with Ricky on Saturday, but without being able to get hold of anyone decided to turn back and head to Thorpe, thats not to say Chessington was bad though.Wild Asia looks very nice and is very well done, the rides rethemes look fantastic in person and Kobra looks great, but 50 mins + for a Disko? No thanks.Apart from that the areas I did walk around look nice and refreshed, I also like the new entrance!

[James6]

Ah these trip reports look fantastic! Thanks ;)Really couldn't be more excited for my trip in a week or so

[TP Daniel]

Just a quick trip report from me:First of all I'll say this was a quick visit. This is because my parents are very much of the opinion "you've grown out of Chessington, why not go to Thorpe instead". This was meant to be a visit just to get an Annual Pass and then leave but I persuaded them to give me a couple of hours on park.We arrived at about 9:20 and I was impressed with the new theming at the entrance. We then went to get our Annual Passes. There were two groups in front of us and after about 10 minutes we were being served. This was quite funny because there was a incident with the tills. At certain points during the transaction the till pops up:Take 1: The till flies up...with our vouchers on it and these then fly against the glass.Take 2: Same thing happens.Take 3: The camera is on the till and this promptly makes contact with the glass.After this we got our passes but realised the dates were the wrong way round so these were reprinted. Even though she made a few mistakes, the woman at the desk was apologising about it so that was fine.At 9:55 we entered the park and went to Kobra. I had seen the pictures but was stunned with the theming in Wild Asia, to see it for myself was amazing. A very good job there Chessie! We went straight on Kobra which I thought was quite fun and had some good airtime but was not overly amazing. It fit the target audience perfectly though so all is well.Next up we went on Dragons Fury which was fun as ever. Nothing particularly notable to say here.Next up we went to Vampire and I was pleased I did. The queue looks great with the repainted fences. There was no queue so straight to the station, this was fantastic. Walking in I was hit with the audio blasting out the speakers, was really good to have it loud. Seeing the organist work again ignited the fanboy within me, something my brother neglects to understand! A solid ride with good improvements made. Next it was off to Rattlesnake. I enjoy this ride but as with Vampire, the last time I visited was two years ago so the drops seem a lot smaller. Coming out of this was brilliant though as the person at the entrance was singing and dancing to the music. Really great to see staff enjoying themselves.After this we went on Tomb Blaster which was walk on, I failed, as usual. Seemed to have some good effects I had not noticed before.Our final ride was Dragon Falls, again a walk on. A good log flume with some new sound effects and water effects. The elephant was working again, unfortunately this got me far wetter than the main drop. I liked the new music as you go into the dragon but they really should theme the inside of that, it looks horrible.Unfortunately that was all we had time for, really wish I could visit for longer and more often, I missed out on a lot. Was a great day though!

[AeRo]

Chessington on Saturday was excellent. Lewis and I met up with John and Benin at Wild Asia and headed straight for the Lorikeets.Many photos were takenCaptain BeninBenin the BirdmanWe then met Elvis He was gorgeousWe did Bubbleworks, after an breakdownDaniel will explain this one John and Benin were due one We then met the amazing Meerkat Fab TreeLorikeets were revisited!How many?Elvis was on a missionHe really is gorgeous, if only he came in blue Meerkats had to be visitedSpeculation was rifeWhat is this?Time will tell!A great first UK RGOT of the year, it was great to meet JoshC and monsterdan5 for the first time and to see Benin for the first time in years. It's been a whole 3 months since I had seen John too! We met up with some CFers too, it's always good to meet some old friends, and a certain Neal and Neal junior ... yes there is another one! Exit passes on Vampire and Dragons Fury were great, thanks to John and his contacts Full Gallery is Here

[AeRo]

I have no idea what you mean monsterdan5

[Dan9]

Reasons like this are why fanboys confuse me. They complain about everything breaking and nothing working, then they go to a theme park and then intentionally try and break something else.