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Zufari


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  • 3 years later...

Oh dear, that is worrying - they haven’t even said it’s til the end of the season or “until further notice”…

 

Zufari would be an odd one to close permanently because all the animals are there anyway, they might as well have an attraction showing guests around for what it’s worth?

It was odd enough closing this on off peak days this year as it was!

 

I know it’s been around for a long time now but Zufari still feels like a new attraction to me somehow. And actually quite a staple attraction, given the theme of the park with the animals etc.  Will be odd if that goes.

 

Are Merlin in a lot of financial trouble?  They seem to be shutting up shop.

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7 hours ago, Inferno said:

 

I know it’s been around for a long time now but Zufari still feels like a new attraction to me somehow. 

 

I guess it's 11 years old now, but - until Jumanji - it was the newest big thing. So that gives it this feeling of being new-ish still.

 

Bluntly put, the experience was a bit rubbish. I wonder if there's a logic of "this ride scores lowly in guest reviews, let's close it to increase the average guest experience and save money". But then of course, as Inferno says, they still have to tend to the animals anyway, so they're a sunk cost if the whole attraction is closed.

 

There have been rumours that the park are considering scaling back in the zoo / animals on park. A closure of Zufari, leading to the associated animals being moved elsewhere, would therefore fit in with that.

 

The thing with the removal of animals is that whilst it would save on running costs, the park still need to fill the voids they'd leave, which would also be very expensive. 

 

It's certainly an...interesting time at Chessington. 

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Was one of the worst designed rides in Merlin's ownership. Not helped by having no budget for the finale, which presumably was wasted on the god awful interactive preshow.

 

Chessie's future does seem at a crossroads mind. Probably realising how much of a drain on finances the zoo is. However to remove that would remove the history of the park's roots and require a LOT of clever replacing. Can't exactly put a  coaster right by the hotels. 

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Its worth noting that the normal entrance through the bridge by croc drop has been closed for a while as they're doing maintenance to the bridge. You have to go a long way round to get to the ride, near the hotels I believe. Maybe this has had an impact on ridership and therefore isn't worth opening? 

 

I do agree the experience is crap though and it seems they've just given up with it, when is the last time anything in the cave has actually worked? Last few times I've been on you just drive through it nothing happens ... 

 

Will be interesting to see what happens next year.

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Oh, definitely... Zufari is, and always has been, dreadful.   I totally get why this would be towards the bottom of the list of 'rides worth running' (apparently such a list actually exists for Merlin's parks).

 

Ditching the animals is an odd one, as it's quite a big part of the whole theme. One of the main selling points for the hotels is the views over the animals and all that sort of stuff so that'll take some doing to still make it unique and appealing (if they're bothered about that sort of thing anymore, who knows).

 

It would be expensive and awkward to move away from all that, and re-theme things, but SeaWorld are managing it well. Not long ago the idea of SeaWorld not having any killer whales would be a ridiculous concept, but it's happening.

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