Chessington Trip Reports

[BigBobJones]

It seems to have a bit of downtime too, newer trains would be welcomed as there is nothing wrong with the ride, just needs some TLC

[pluk]

I LOVE safari skyway but yeah it is cracking on a bit.....anyone know which year it opened?

1987, as part of the very first wave of zoo to theme park transformation. So it is old, but I remember it feeling kid of rickety even when it was new.

[SteveJ]

It opened before the other rides had been built, didn't it? I heard it was a tour intended to build excitement for the construction of the theme park, although it only visited the existing zoo areas.

And its only purpose to this day is to be an advert! Although I haven't been on it recently, I assume they still have annoying voiceovers on it.

_________

As for Chessington this year...

Is Abdab still in the Vampire queueline? Please say he has gone back to storage and learnt his lesson.

Has the recycled Rodeo cowboy made no reappearance? He seems to have gone from under the drop, thankfully.

[Mark9]

Skyway did indeed, it opened in 1986. Even when I operated Skyway in 2007 it was clearly on its last legs. How they can have a Safari skyway that avoids seeing a lot of the Zoo is beyond me. Mack can quite clearly extend it as they have done at Europa Park so really, the only thing stopping Chessington, is Chessington itself.

[RideAddict]

It doesn't help considering parts of the zoo were shifted to install the Sea Life Centre

I assume they still have annoying voiceovers on it.

Yes, they still exist but aren't always used.

[Coaster]

Visited today.

RIDECOUNT:

Zufari x2

Rattlesnake x3

Vampire x1 (Absoloute farce in operation of the ride today. Most ineffective two train service I have ever seen.)

Rameses Revenge x1

Bubbleworks x1

Tomb Blaster x2

Kobra x1

Monkey Swinger x1

- Zufari opened approx 2pm.

- From what I could see Dragon's Fury was only loading two people in most of the cars - I was not prepared to wait for it with a long queue it it was not running to capacity.

- Vampire station operations were a farce today. Also wasn't impressed with the first aid people/paramedics - someone collapsed in the queueline (don't know why) and instead of getting a stretcher they just left her there in the cold (they were still there but didn't seem to know what to do). Poor girl!

[dragon2000]

- Vampire station operations were a farce today. Also wasn't impressed with the first aid people/paramedics - someone collapsed in the queueline (don't know why) and instead of getting a stretcher they just left her there in the cold (they were still there but didn't seem to know what to do). Poor girl!

Oh gawd, another year of poor operations on Vampire here we go

[rygr]

It's been a while since I've posted on here, so I thought I'd write a trip report from my short trip to Chessington today.

Arrived at the park at around 10:45am. The north car park was about half full, so I was pleasantly surprised, as I was expecting to have to park in the south car park. We (myself and my friend) had come to the park to pick up our annual passes. It had been about 3/4 years since we had last got an annual pass, so we went for the standard Merlin one. I was expecting to queue at the kiosk next to the guest toilets just outside of the gates, but the booths that were used for day tickets last time I went had been changed to just deal with annual pass processing. The actual online process I found to be quite easy and was pleased I was able to upload a picture to have on the pass. It was processed within about 2 minutes. Great service.

Once inside the park, we headed straight to the Bubbleworks. I personally liked the exterior of the Bubbleworks. The music playing in the area is great too, one of the tracks 'Clarinet Polka' is a particular favourite of mine! The grey seems to fit much better than the contrasting red/blue/yellow that it had before. The actual exterior building does need some TLC though. The ride itself had a 5 minute queue. The ride itself was still bad. People often ask me why I still ride it (they say to me 'it's for kids'. This may be true, but for me it brings back some of my childhood. Admittedly, not so much anymore since its all about the ducks, but hey, the ride will always be special to me). I found the lighting in the finale to be improved this year. The transitions to each colour were quicker and it was much more colourful and 'flashy'.

After Bubbleworks, we headed to the Safari Skyway. I really liked how they had got rid of the bamboo roof in the upper queueline. They have added a wire type game for children to complete whilst waiting. The actual ride is in such a sorry state. I have always loved Skyway and it upsets me to see it in such a state. As somebody mentioned in another topic, the actual track itself is in a fine condition, but the trains are absolutely awful. For instance, the doors don't all close at the same time, some stay open. I actually observed a guest closing the doors themselves on one of the trains, as it was on the operators side of the platform and the platformer was unable to reach over to pull it shut (she did manage to lean over and check it was closed in the end). Due to this and the fact the platformer has to check every door has shut properly (I don't recall them having to do this pre 2012) meant that the dispatching of the trains was extremely slow. At one point 5 trains were stacked up OUTSIDE of the station. I really hope they do something to this ride soon, it may not cover much of the zoo, but in the summer it still pulls in the crowds.

After Skyway, we took a walk over to Dragon Falls. It really does look extremely bare without the faces by the drop. The water was running down the drop (although this stopped later in the morning). I wonder if it will open on the 10th April. It was interesting to see signs all around it asking for adventurers views and sketches on what it should look like. I wonder how many guests will respond to this. Peeking Heights was next. I really think you get some amazing views around the park and its a nice gentle ride to see whats happening around the park.

Our last ride of the morning was the Black Buccaneer. I see they have added 'rows' this year. You are told where to sit by a host. I can see how this may be frustrating for some guests who may want to sit on the back rows and get the middle ones instead. Before, it was more of a luck of the draw and most people got to sit where they wanted to (when I rode at least). I always find the operators of this ride to be really enthusiastic, I think they have more freedom on what they can say on this ride and its always amusing to hear what they come out with. I think the boat has had a bit of a touch up (where the cross bars are) too, which looks nice.

We broke for lunch in the Pizza Pasta buffet. We were seated within minutes and the staff were very friendly. The pizza's were constantly replenished so a big thanks to those staff who worked so hard considering how busy it was. The park itself was absolutely freezing, and by the time we had finished our lunch, the queue for the buffet had reached the doughnut kiosk. I wonder how many people actually wanted to just come into the warm rather than have Pizza! (Although, the 'Burger Kitchen' was of a similar queue, people were standing, leaning on walls eating burgers, literally!

After lunch, we went to go on some more rides, but they were literally shutting down around us (due to the weather). Vampire, Safari Skyway, Rattlesnake, Rameses, Tomb Blaster and Dragon's Fury were all down by 1pm. We decided to leave and drive up the road to Thorpe Park.

We got into the car and drove up to the turnstyle to exit. However, due to the fact I had never driven before to the park and the fact we had a Merlin pass, we didn't pick up a car park ticket (we knew you had to pay, but where if you have a pass?!). So I had to run back in and pay £2 to exit. I expected to do this, but before I had paid for day tickets and got asked if I had a car in the car park, so I'll remember this in future!

All in all, a good day, but as mentioned above, I'm hoping Chessington are putting this £5 million to good use, there's so much of the park that needs some of that money!

Ride count:

Bubbleworks x 1

Safari Skyway x 1

Peeking Heights x 1

Black Buccaneer x 1

[JoshC.]

So, went to Chessington today. The plan for a while had been to go during my Easter break, but whilst schools and colleges had gone back. The original plan was to go at the end of March, but due to the weather and the general case that Chessie seemed to be a bit off their game meant we decided to go this week. Today seemed to have the best weather, but unfortunately it seemed loads of local kids had an Inset Day, making it for quite a busy day, with queues avergaing between 20-40 mins (that I saw), and Fury peaking at 60mins, though it looked more.

After popping to AS to pick up my Nan's disabled band, we moved on to Rattlesnake at just after 10, which has become a sort of traditional first ride these days. Unfortunately it wasn't open, and we were told it'd open soon, but how long was unknown. Instead of waiting around, we moved over to Tomb Blaster, made our way through the Disabled Exit to be told it was closed, though would be open soon as they were doing final checks. It did indeed open in a few minutes, and the staff member there was very nice and had a good chat with him, but surely all these final checks should have been done before the park had opened to guests. If the park is opening at 10 (and expecting it to be quite busy due to Inset Days), surely the rides should be ready to run at 10? Oh well.

Had a ride on Tomb Blaster and my gun wasn't working properly. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. It was a bit annoying, and I did inform the staff who offered us another go, but we declined as we weren't too fussed by it really. We headed over to Zufari and did that. I'll do a review in the Zufari topic, but in a word - average.

Of all the animals featured in Zufari, the Oryx are my favourite. Loved this ones strange 'one big, one little' thing it's got going on..

Hit up Wild Asia with Kobra and Lorikeet Lagoon. Personally, I think Wild Asia is one of, if not, the, best area Chessington has to offer, and Lorikeet Lagoon is quite possibly my favourite part of the park. It's just brilliant. Fantastic. Amazing. Any positive word in the dictionary describes it beautifully. We then headed over to Rattlesnake, which was now open. It is something I really do love, but it felt a bit more jolty this time, guess it is aging though.

<3

My 'trying to not look awkward and failing' face.

Scruffy lorikeet.

It was time for lunch, and after realising that the Fish and Chips place was closed, we tried the Burger Kitchen. Okay, I don't know the best way to put this, but here goes...DO NOT EAT HERE. I'd heard it wasn't exactly great, but did think some of it was people expecting too much. But dear me, the burgers were awful. The cheese was vile, it wasn't exactly a nice thing to look at and it's just the eptiomy of bad. When it comes to food, I normally have a pretty strong stomach, but it did make me feel physically ill (nearly was a couple of times as well...), and in honesty, my stomach still feels a bit dodgy now. We did make a complaint as no one enjoyed the meal, and did get a full refund (speaking of money, am I the only one who thinks it's ridiculously expensive?!). We were told they've got new "high quality" cheese, but when melted, it changes, or something like that. Just not impressed by it all, and they said they've had "a lot of feedback" about BK. Hopefully they'll finally take the hint that it needs a complete rethink and the food needs sorting. On a more positive note, there was a great member of staff in the Burger Kitchen who was extremely friendly and helpful - gave him a good word at AS!

So yeah, that's a quarter pounder burger...

So, the rest of the day was spent more enjoying the Zoo and such, and not going on rides. The park doesn't look as good as it has in previous years, and in general the park seems of lower quality. It is such a shame that the park 'feels' different to me, as I normally enjoy the place loads (and that's even if the park wasn't on top form), but, I dunno, it just seems to be 'too off form' at the moment, which just isn't good..

Just looks awful at the moment.

Meerkat!

Nawwwwwww

Normally I end my Reports or Reviews with some form of closing statement, maybe a bit philosophical. But in this case, all I have to say is Chessington need to get back on their game, and soon.

[TPJames]

I visited chessie yesterday and forgot to post a review, so here goes! Sorry I didn't take any pictures as I was having so much fun

I went to chessie with my friends on Monday 15th march and we expecting it to be empty as we had thought most schools would have gone back(ovbiously not ours). We got there at 9:30 and after picking up tickets etc. we headed into the park at 9:45. By this time the park was well and truly open but only a few rides seemed to be running. We headed straight to dragons fury to be greeted with a 5 minute queue. Dragons fury was great, I hadn't been on it in ages and that first drop was so fast! The queue was building up by now so we decided to head on and try and get to another ride with a short queue.

We saw rameses revenge running so me and one of my friends(the other didn't want to) headed into the queue. I had never been on rameses before and was really looking forward to it. We got straight on and went on the back row, middle. The first cycle was pretty scary, as when you went round upside down, you properly came out of your seat. It even hung is upside down for a while too! The second cycle was less scary than the first but was much more fun unfortunately, we had a stingy operator who didn't even bother to raise the water.

Afterwards, we decided to try and ride tomb blaster, however that was closed along with quite a few other rides we could see not moving. Being next to the zufari entrance, we decided to head onto that. The wait time said 15 mins but was more like 30 as you had to queue before and after the pre show. The pre show was cheesy and I did not enjoy it. The actual ride was OK but the area they were in looked bare. I guess only time will improve that. The final cave was better than I expected, it had quite a few good effects and I got soaked by this hose squirting at me! The waterfall was good too and I got drenched as I was sitting on the outisde! The overall experience was OK but I didn't particularly enjoy it.

We got a bit lost and ended up heading back to the park entrance where we saw hocus pocus hall had finally opened. We went straight in and whilst this experience is a little bit boring, it was a good laugh and we all enjoyed it. We decided to do the mirror maze with our eyes closed as the line on the floor really ruins everything!

We headed into Transylvania to find vampire had a 80 minute queue. We decided to give that a miss but bubbleworks was displaying 10 mins so we decided to ride. It was more like a 20 minute queue but that didn't bother us as it was a good laugh. The ride is fun, but it is not exactly 'exciting' in anyway.

We decided to head back to dragons fury but seeing as it was displaying a 60 minute queue, we gave it a miss.,we headed into wild Asia but Kobra had a 45 minute queue so we also walked past that. We noticed that dragons falls was finally open so we headed towards it! There was absolutely no one there so we got straight on. Even though the main drop is a bit bare, the rest of the ride seems absolutely fine. I would have liked to get more wet though

Tomb blaster was open but was displaying a 60 minute queue so we decided to pass that. Rameses revenge was once again walk on so we decided to tackle it again. Once again, it was a great ride. However, the operator only tempted us with the fountains and didn't actually get us wet!

Rattlesnake was displaying a 20 minute queue so we had a ride on that. The actual queue was 30 mins but the exit riders seemed to be taking up most of the carriages. The ride is jerky but we had a good laugh, and the dips are really good fun!

We then decided to do black buccaneer as it was walk on, we didn't get batched to back row but 2nd back which we were pleased with. I love this ride and if you push up on the rail when you are in the air, you feel like you are about to fall out! A great ride and we really enjoyed it.

Dragons fury was now only displaying a 30 minute queue so we once again decided to take it on. It was once again a great ride and we had a really fast spin! I love that bit where you go over the overbanked curve at the start!

We then headed towards tomb blaster which was still 60 mins, we decided to do it anyway and it was more like a 50 minute queue. The exit riders, once again, were taking up most of the trains but you can't do anything about that. My friends enjoyed tomb blaster but I hated it, I got 100 points and even the little kid infront of me got 10300

We then went into wild Asia to take on monkey swinger as it was walk on. I used to love this ride with the water but the water was broken and the ride was just boring without it. I would not wait for this ride unless the water was actually on.

The Kobra only had a 15 minute queue now so we decided to head onto that. It was a good ride, but the restraints really made me feel uncomfortable once it had ended. I actually enjoy this ride, it is really great fun!

We headed to market square to look at the queue times and vampire was now displaying a 90 minute queue. We decided to head towards rattlesnake and as it was displaying a 25 minute queue we rode that. The queue was realistically more like a 15 minute queue but that was better for us the ride was as fantastic and jerky as always!

We then did rameses revenge for a third time, which had a short queue. Unfortunately, it broke down in mid air and took a while to reset itself. So after a little extra wait, we were on rameses for the third time! This round was the best and the cycles seemed better than before! And guess what, we got drenched! The operator squirted the water right into our faces and we got soaked. I came off drenched and I have to say, rameses revenge is the best ride in chessington.

Rattlesnake was now 5 minutes so we decided to do that. It was a great ride once again and we then decided to do it again! We met two members of staff who had been working on rameses revenge and tomb blaster and said hi

The time was past 5:00 now but the rides had been extended until 5:30 because it was so busy and most of the rides had opened late. We got onto black buccaneer again and had an amazing ride! We started to panic though as the time was nearing 5:30 and we wanted to get on vampire as the last ride of the day!

We got to vampire just in time to be greeted by a 40 minute queue we queued for it and we were on the ride about 6:10. At this point, vampire was the only ride still running in the park. Most people had gone home, and all the rides were closed and not running. Vampire was OK but we were on the back and our seats barely swung. I have to say, I thought the ride was just average.

It was now 6:15 and we decided to head home, with a stop at the sweet shop and the donut stand on the way. It was a great day overall but it was much busier than we had expected!

Ride count:

Dragons fury-2x

Vampire-1x

Black buccaneer-2x

Rameses revenge-3x

Rattlesnake-4x

Hocus pocus hall-1x

Bubbleworks-1x

Dragons falls-1x

Kobra-1x

Monkey swinger-1x

Tomb blaster-1x

Zufari-1x

Overall we did 19 rides in a time frame of 9:45am-6:15pm

Key points:

-zufari was lacking foliage but I guess this will come in its own time.

-monkey swinger's water was broken

-runaway train and griffons galleon were closed

-lots of rides opened late in the day

-vampire broke down several times during the day

-vampire's queue line was lacking scenery and was just a windy, purple queue line with a couple of objects here and there but the station was well themed

Hope you enjoyed my trip report

[Jake C]

Both your reports were great, thanks for taking the time to write them up, I really love reading through them. You both picked quite a busy day to go as a lot of schools around the area were closed for inset days, I think there were about 8,000 people on park. You both seemed to get on a fair amount of rides though, especially you James 19 rides on what turned out to be a peak day is pretty impressive.

Also James I think that might have been me on Rattlesnake where you the boy who told me you had seen me at Tomb Blaster earlier?

[TPJames]

Both your reports were great, thanks for taking the time to write them up, I really love reading through them. You both picked quite a busy day to go as a lot of schools around the area were closed for inset days, I think there were about 8,000 people on park. You both seemed to get on a fair amount of rides though, especially you James 19 rides on what turned out to be a peak day is pretty impressive.

Also James I think that might have been me on Rattlesnake where you the boy who told me you had seen me at Tomb Blaster earlier?

Are u Charlie?!

[Mattgwise]

Are u Charlie?!

I believe there is a small chance his name is Jake.

[TPJames]

I believe there is a small chance his name is Jake.

Well I'm sure the guys name was Charlie :/

[J.S217]

maybe Jake Charlie?

[TPJames]

maybe Jake Charlie?

Maybe I'm not sure if that name is right but if I am right the 'Charlie' person was working on the bars and sending people to rows on tomb blaster and the ride op made 'don't dispatch row 4 Charlie' and on rattlesnake he was helping people unload. That is the guy we said hi to- the other person we said hi to was a guy who had been working on rameses revenge earlier!

[dragon2000]

Recovered from my trip to Chessington on Monday (6/5/13) enough to write a report...

One line summary: I've never seen so many people at Chessington!

The combination of bank holiday plus the gorgeous weather meant everyone was there.

We had a fun day out, mainly as we visit a couple of times each month, but if this was your one visit of the year you'd be pretty frustrated with the lack of rides you could manage in the day due to queues...

Our day started off with being turned away from the main car park at 9.20am due to it already being 'full'

Luckily we managed to park in the gravel car park fairly with few issues, however we could already see the beginnings of a large queue forming down the main road. We later heard from another guest that when they arrived at 10.10am it took them an hour to park - wow!

Got in the park by 9.30 and Fury was still just running for hotel guests. Rushed down to Transylvania (where people for some reason were queueing outside the entrance of Bubbleworks - it didn't open until past 10). Thankfully Vampire was already open and we were into the station within 15mins.

I have to say, in 20 years of riding Vampire I had never seen such poor operations as I did on Monday. Such a shame as only a couple of weeks ago things seemed bearable. The batcher at the outside of the station was letting in too few people, and not often enough. This meant trains were sitting half-empty in the station waiting for riders. Four attendants on the platform just hanging around waiting for riders, despite a queue outside the station. Then there was the batcher inside the station. This member of staff was slower than a geriatric snail. Seriously, guests have already been height checked twice - once at the entrance to the ride and once outside the station, there is no need to check again! Now the group of people sent through to the station were backing up on the station ramp, waiting to be told where to sit. SO FRUSTRATING! I jokingly told the member of staff politely that if he didn't go faster the ride would end up with a 2 hour queue... Guess what was on the queue board for the remainder of the day after 10.30? 110 minute queue. Well done Vampire team...

The rest of the day was really a case of trying to avoid the worst of the queues. We ended up doing:

Zufari x2 - Once after Vampire (20min queue) and once as our penultimate ride (40min queue despite advertised as 90mins...)

Safari Skyway - In the morning (20min queue). Batcher could not be bothered to call for 2s so we ended up waiting longer than necessary.

Sealion presentation - Got to praise the animal care team, they are fantastic and very passionate.

All the zoo - All the animals were out and about. Crowds were loving the baby gorillas. Also love the petting zoo - goats

Lorikeet Lagoon - Lots of the birds hiding in the bushes to get some shade. Cool animals.

Animal Antics - Again, well done to the team! Love Esmerelda.

Bubbleworks - Afternoon (40min queue). Needed a relax after lunch. It looks like some work has been done to improve the lighting (station, scenes, finale) and the majority of effects are now working, so we were impressed.

Dragon's Fury - Got in the queue at 5.45pm and ended up riding at 6.40pm. Ride broke down for around 15mins - luckily the mechanic had already come to the ride ready shut it down for the day so he was nearby to fix it! It ended up with both the engineer and one of the ride's managers working on the unload platform which was quite amusing to see. Unfortunately before this happened there was some real slow loading was happening on Fury. All 7 cars were on the track, one was running empty all day, and most of the time at least 2 cars were stacked up outside the station . Staff wished us a safe journey home after riding though which was nice.

Average queue ranges seen for the day:

Vampire - 110mins

Fury - 60-90mins

Zufari - 60-90mins

Rameses - 20mins

Kobra - 60mins

Dragon Falls - 60mins

Tomb Blaster - 45mins+

Bubbleworks - 40mins+

Rattlesnake - 20mins+

Sealife - queueing down the path to the main park entrance.
Even smaller attractions (Monkey Swinger, Griffin's, Bus etc) were getting some hefty queues.

Breakdowns: Fury (10mins), Rattlesnake (1 hour).

Ate at Pizza Pasta, delicious as always. I always have the pasta which there was plenty of, but pizza was running short quite often. Garlic bread always seems to be in short supply too... Were seated outside but were then ignored by all staff for 10mins. We asked one of the table cleaners if he could get someone to serve us, and it still took over 5mins for someone to come.

Basically I think Chessington were pretty unprepared for so many people! Massive queue for guest services too. Wouldn't have liked to be working in there on Monday.

Lots of management walking around the park. Shame they so often seem to be unable to see the little 'niggles' with the park. The park has a lot going for it, if only it's looked after and starts/continues to get some decent investment.

--------------------------------------------------------

If you've read the lot above, well done, and thanks. I know it sounds like a big old moan, but really we did have a nice day out in the fresh air. I only 'nit pick' bits of the day because Chessington is a place that I am so passionate about and care about. I hate to see it being run to less than its full potential. I'll slink back into the shadows now

[BigBobJones]

Good review and I agree if you had paid full price or this was your only visit this year you would be disappointed A woman at work said she tried to buy fast tracks, but they stopped selling them.

[pluk]

Glad you still had a good time, don't think I'd have managed to. Busy days like that are really not for me, especially with the frustrating operating issues you describe, they just don't seem able to raise their game when it is required.

Especially a shame to hear Vampire operation has fallen over again, a couple of weeks back with an empty park and one train operation it was dispatching like lightning when it didn't really need to (but was great and much appreciated by me that it was), now when it matters they fail. Something's not right there.

[Mattgwise]

Not a great day at Chessington today, got on 7 rides, but at least the park did extend ride opening until 6:30pm, although I think it should be open until at least 7 during August as Standard. I can also confirm the wasp saga really is not that bad. Saw more than usual but not too many and could comfortably hold food or drink (only had a wasp come near me three times in the whole day)

Upon arrival the park was already extremely busy and by 10:15 Vampire already had a 75 minute queue. 70 minutes later we were on. They really are useless with this ride. The whole ride system needs an upgrade, the staff need rockets up their bums and the third train needs to return. I timed on two occassions in the station 2m30s between train arriving in station and leaving. Then when I said to the worker that they used to dispatch in 45 seconds at one point he said that it was impossible and that I must be wrong!!! By the time we got off the queue had reached the 2 hour mark.

Next wandered over to Dragon Falls to be presented with an 80 minute advertised queue although 45 minutes later we were on. Why are they redeveloping this ride? Other areas look in much worse condition. In my view all they need to do is restore it back to it's former glory putting back the rock work.

After this headed over to Wild Asia. Attempted to join Monkey Swinger queue to be told it had shutdown and needed to be tested. We then headed over to Kobra which was advertised as 2 hours. We decided to leave that and lined up for Tuk Tuk Turmoil. 30-40 minutes later we were at the front and it started to kick off between to families as one tried to let people through the queue to join them. The staff member was very professional and dealt with the situation very well defusing the argument. Though we were going to have a repeat of Legoland at this point.

After this Monkey Swinger had reopened so waited 40 minutes to ride that. It is ridiculous that only one member of staff operates this ride, causing loading, unloading and checking to be painfully slow. What happened to the days of being counted into the batching area during the ride, not after the previous rides guests have left. At least 5 minutes passed between each cycle and of course large numbers of people using the exit gate, slowing the queue further. Also does anyone know how long the water has not been working, it was off or broken today and really reduces the experience?

Then had lunch in a deserted Zafari, which was pretty average.

Next headed to bubble works to be faced with a 60 minute queue.

After this was offered a free fast track ticket for Dragon's Fury by a random who had to leave the park early. As much as I HATE fast track of course I didn't decline. However we had to wait 25 minutes for the ride. I found this outrageous and would have complained to AS had I purchased the ticket.

Finally at 5:20 decided to attempt the 70 minute queue for Kobra. This ride is another that has a painful waiting time and I was horrified to find twice throughout the wait the operator announce that the next ride will be exclusive to fast track ticket holders and exit passes to reduce theirs and then the main queue time. Fast track was clearly over sold and caused even Tiny Truckers to have an hour queue. I mean seriously, an hour for that!!!!!

And by then it was 6:40pm and the end of the day.

Some other queue lines we saw included 90 minutes for Zufari, 100 minutes for Tomb Blaster, and Fury peaked at 2 hours 10 mins at one point.

Apart from the poor operations still tried to make the day a good one and have to say all retail staff were amazing.

[Tom]

Sounds like a standard day at busy Chessington.

Oh, and Truckers has an hour queue on quiet days so that seems pretty reasonable!

[Matt 236]

Wow, Chessito. Really need to sort out their ride operations and throughputs out. 2 mins 30 secs dispatch time is shocking and I bet that 2nd train was waiting in the brakes for a while plus over two hours on furys queue is crazy and Kobras is just as bad (if worse).

Sounds like Chessie is horrible during busy peak season with their dire throughputs. One hour for a little kids truck ride, seems a reasonable queue time to me .

[Mattgwise]

Insane day. Just look at the "Recent Posts by others" section of the Chessington Facebook page!

Yep the train was often waiting in the brakes and always came straight in after the other left.

I took a screenshot from the mobile queuetimes when Dragon's fury reached 2 hours 10 mins, but can't find an option to attach to here.

[Mark9]

Thats okay we trust you.

Its standard Chessington, not that I am making excuses but ever since the emphasis has been on friendliness and customer service, the operational side of the rides really isn't good enough. With no signature ride that can get over 1000 an hour and two rides down for the rest of the season, it's not great.

An hour for Truckers is standard fair, one of the problems for being a low throughput ride (200 people per hour) and being on the main pathway in the park.

[Benin]

25 minutes for Fury Fastrack?

You say the queue hit 2 hours...

That is not a valid complaint... Fastrack does not grant instant access to the ride, it shortens the individual's queue-time in comparison to the main queue...

Everything else sounds about right though... 45 seconds for Vampire was for 2 trains mind, 30 for 3 trains... Not surprised in the slightest the staff wouldn't believe it could be done...