March 7, 201312 yr comment_151960 http://www.chessington.com/zufari/app/ Zufari also has its own app! Just installed it now - seems good and suits! Brilliant stuff by Chessington yet again with this project!
March 7, 201312 yr comment_151962 Okay, just had an actual nose around on it. There's a little game on which is recalling sequences of animals. Gets a bit difficult near the end, but I've completed that now. Will definitely keep younger kids entertained for ages though, as it's a nice game to play again and again! Then there's an Explore section, giving lots of info on the different species that feature in Zufari. Finally, there's a 'Win' section - a little competition for during the year where you send in a photo of 'someone enjoying Zufari' and have a chance to win 1 of 5 Chessington Family Passes. All in all, a nice neat little app. Certainly designed with families in mind, but it mixes educational features and a bit of fun all in one. Great piece of marketing and in general, just great!
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152339 So, the new Burger Kitchen is open. Have a guess what they have done to the exterior facade... Yes, it's a garish paint job that looks worse than it did before as Count's Cauldron! Congratulations Chessington on yet again missing an opportunity to do something good! Yay! Really I am quite disappointed. I have been following this Transylvania refurbishment eagerly because it seemed that it was finally getting the restoration it deserved. But instead they have made it more garish and less coherent. It's even more of a patchwork of old and new ideas. Now usually I love the colour purple, but it looks so wrong here! Vampire should never have been associated with purple. At least it has a hanging sign. That's vaguely European. This has been a rubbish day. Maybe it's just a bad dream. I'll wake up soon, and it will turn out Chessington have actually built a beautiful, quirky Bavarian-style cookhouse facade, and Logger's Leap has got a brand new tunnel, etc..
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152344 Uuugh, the facade looks horrible and I thought Counts Cauldron looked an eye sore. Creaky is definitely an improvement but this isn't. Anyone have pics of the inside?
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152345 The inside looks exactly the same except with "100% BEEF!!!!!!!!!!" written on the walls. A member on Towers Street took some photographs, see here.
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152347 Looks fine, it's part of the village, rather than the cauldron which was a castle (meaning the place had two castles in the area, LOL LOGIC!)... Think we're over-reacting slightly... Although the interior lack of theming is a valid disappointment... Such is the way of brand recognition (yes, look how similar this is to other Burger Kitchens in the Merlin chain)... The old buildings looked tired, and this looks TONNES better than what's behind the photographer...
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152348 Looks flat, out of place, unexciting, uninviting. Inside looks a bit garish. Such a shame when they could have done anything they wanted.
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152349 I just feel strangely kicked in the face at how it was all going so well in the right direction, after years of looking dirty and aged, and then... they paint it purple and just leave it like that. And the silver just looks oddly depressing, for some reason? It should be brighter, more cheerful. There's no personality outside or inside like the Black Forest Chateau had. And it now has less detail and character than the Count's Cauldron. And I never really liked the Count's Cauldron and was initially glad to see it removed. At least the food will potentially be better. this looks TONNES better than what's behind the photographer...Are you referring to BubbleWorks or have they fiddled with something else as well?
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152353 Referring to Bubbles' pink with blue/yellow/red trim... And if you think THAT'S bad you haven't seen the shop interior yet...
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152355 Inside to me looks very much like it has from the previous years except for new chairs and a repaint which isn't exactly a bad thing. I suppose the fact there's 100% beef burgers now can only be a good thing.
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152378 I actually really like it, would need to see it properly in person though.
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152379 For comparison purposes, here's the interior of Tower's major Burger Kitchen...
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152393 Oh. My. God. I dunno whether to laugh or cry. It's liked being slapped in the face with a wet fish. At the moment it looks so bland and out of place, but we'll get used to this. But I'll never like it. The name doesn't even shout at you! I need a flaming microscope to read those pissy little signs! The interior looks OK but shouts Burger King to anyone who remembers the inside before. And the word "in" on the wall is missing its I. Note too how it's the Vampire's Burger Kitchen - not Transylvania's! Morons. I blame CWOA, Merlin, and Eclipse Developments, the refurb company who did this. Adam from Theme UK gave us some good updates, although I didn't like the changes throughout, I recall a graphic of a chap and a big burger placed on the wall - obviously that was shelved. Picture below:
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152394 Agreed with Ryan, looks quite nice and quirky. Will be interesting to see if it's as fitting when looked at in real life.
March 9, 201312 yr comment_152400 The final facade should've been similar to the original Black Forest cateau. It's bright colourful, quirky, full of character and fulfills its appearance as an eatery.
March 10, 201312 yr comment_152419 I don't hate it. In fact I'm relieved After seeing the pictures half way through construction I had major fears they were moving away from the Transylvania theme for the restaurant so although it's quite lazy and uninspired to me this is very satisfactory. To be honest, it fits with the area's theme better then the previous façade did.
March 10, 201312 yr comment_152428 It looks alright to me, I don't like nor hate it. The purple goes well with the Vampire and it has a Vampire logo on. Looking on the inside, it's bright clean, somewhere I want to visit, plus they kept the trees which give it a lot of atmosphere. The fact money is they are investing, I'd never go to the old Burger king as the prices were a complete rip off, but I'd visit the Burger Kitchen if the prices are ok.
March 10, 201312 yr comment_152429 I recall a graphic of a chap and a big burger placed on the wall - obviously that was shelved. Yes that was the Black Forest Chateau signage that had been there since 1990, hidden behind the Count's Cauldron facade. They were never planning to use that in the new Burger Kitchen. Talking about Black Forest Chateau, it's clear how uncreative they have been. The Burger Kitchen as you see it today is basically Black Forest Chateau from 1990 except painted purple. I presume that original facade was deemed too bland, because they quickly changed it with more windows, a different half-timbered pattern and striped canopy, as you can see in this image from c1992. This was back when they had an animatronics show in there and it sold special "vampire" burgers. Then in 1998 they went too far and adapted it again, to make it the McDonalds castle. This always stuck out as inconsistent to me with its goofy gargoyles and turrets - not what you would find in a European town at all. This was also when they removed the animatronics show to free up more seating space. Then, this year I praised Chessington greatly for unexpectedly refurbishing the whole building, when they could have simply replaced the Burger King logos with Burger Kitchen ones. Instead they went further and actually uncovered the first exterior that had been unused for over 20 years. But if it was bland 20 years ago then it's still bland now, they have simply regressed rather than been creative. At least the area looks much fresher than it has for years, but for the wrong reasons. They messed it up at the painting stage in an attempt to make it look "fun" on a low budget, to the detriment of the whole area. However, maybe there is more to be done. If you look at the beam over the entrance arches, you can see wires protruding, possibly for lanterns or some other theme detail that is yet to be installed. In my opinion the restaurant's second appearance from 1992-1997 was the best it ever looked, although a little bland for Chessington's current image. Oh well, maybe in another 15 years they will have the money to finally get it right. In the meantime, I am looking forward to eating a burger there.
March 10, 201312 yr comment_152478 Whats it look like towards vampire entrance? Exactly the same as McDonalds?
March 19, 201312 yr comment_153638 The past... The future... I know getting annoyed about these things is a stupid waste of my energy, but this makes me angry. And not just because it looks crap now, that is not the point. The point is the colossal waste of money spent on making something look worse than it did before at a time when all of Merlins parks seem to be scrambling around for scraps of funding when it comes to anything other than entirely new attractions. I am referring specifically to the chairs. The old eatery had a tonne of chairs that were black and themed in a gothic style, almost looking like little graves or something. They worked, you sat on them and they prevented your bum hitting the floor. They didn't need replacing. Then as part of this 'improvement' those have been scrapped and replaced with generic fast food seating, looking like some sort of crap classroom. With their shiny silver frames and garish upholstery they couldn't look less in keeping if they tried. Now I know they buy in bulk etc to keep the costs down but those chairs will not have been cheep, there's a hell of a lot of them in there. So with the actual attractions falling apart, millions cut off of the budget of the newest ride and blink and you'll miss them opening hours this is what they have spent thousands of pounds on. New chairs, not anything like as good as the old ones. What a sickening waste of money and materials. I would like to find the person that allows this to happen and with the element of surprise introduce the side of their face to a fast moving large wet fish. Man from Merlin, this is for you...
March 19, 201312 yr comment_153642 The main issue is BK take all their furniture with them when they leave. So, for some reason they would've taken it, even though they wouldn't be any use to any other BK site. Perhaps they just leased the tables and chairs or something.
March 19, 201312 yr comment_153644 The furniture was there long before BK came to town, in fact that picture is from the McDonalds era. Surely it was not theirs to take?
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