Merry-go-girl Posted March 18, 2013 Report Share Posted March 18, 2013 Why send animals from a tropical climate to ours? Don't you think that's unfair? Not in the slightest, most of them are born in the UK and so there's no chance of any sort of unpleasant environmental adjustment. The animal's health is never put at risk, if the temperature gets too low they're brought into their enclosures. But as I say they're mostly born in the UK and adapted to the weather. The reason they come here is because we actually take good care of them. Unlike the archaic zoo's you find in a lot of warmer countries we don't make them jump through fire or allow children to ride them. Cold winters are the price they pay for a enriched and dignified life. On another note about the weather, the times when I've seen the Whipsnade animals at their most brightest and friskiest is early November. They seem to get a little buzz from season change. Doc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coaster_monkey Posted March 18, 2013 Report Share Posted March 18, 2013 ^ You know, you've made a point I never quite saw, from my own selfish perspective... and... You're right, I suppose after a few decades of animals being born here they climatise and are used to their surroundings. A forced evolution if you will. But when you point out the compromise of a better life to a colder climate is just what irritates me. But then, I guess you can't exactly help where the UK is based... our hemisphere is what it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted March 19, 2013 Report Share Posted March 19, 2013 And you're right, in a perfect world every animal would live in the location it evolved and adapted itself to live in. But I guess in a perfect would there would be no people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Coaster Man Posted March 19, 2013 Report Share Posted March 19, 2013 Compared to the concept art submitted with the plans, this looks terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 I was lucky enough to be on the first public ride today. Worth noting first of all that it was only open for 3 hours due to animals getting cold. The entrance to the ride is pretty standard as per the current theme of the area...think bamboo etc. The queue line is a typical merlin cattle pen made from bamboo. Half way through the queue line you stop for a picture against a lion king type green screen. You are then shown into a room where you are seated and watch the per ride video about ACRE etc. A cartoon character then appears on screen (can't remember what animal it is) and this is voiced by a member of staff watching the room on a camera. The member of staff then picks people out and gets them to do monkey impressions etc, calling them by their name. The ride itself is basically a dirt track through the animals with no real landscaping but you do get quite close to some of them. The cave finale is a case that you get told in the video not to go into the cave and when you get to the rhinos there is a tree down so you have to go via the cave and at this point you lose contact with ACRE. In the cave, I think it tries to simulate a flood, I can see what they've tried here but don't really get it, you then exit the cave by literally going through a waterfall which makes for a cool finale. I can see what they've tried to do here but the area needs more vegetation and the animals need to be integrated with the ride more. Families seemed to enjoy the ride but its nowhere near a high standard. All in all its a nice edition but not great, I think it suits the audience it's aimed at, I do think the 1.1m restriction cuts out a lot of potential riders though. Can't link to the pictures on my Facebook but if you search Graeme Donaldson there are a few in my mobile uploads pluk, Topsyturvy15 and SteveJ 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingVeveraine Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 ^ It appears I unknowingly sat next to you on the first ride! The horrible CGI animal was a lemur called.. Goatse. Goatse. Goatse. That made my day. Cornflakes and MattyMoo 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme Posted March 28, 2013 Report Share Posted March 28, 2013 Yeah the cgi was badly out of sync too! I was on the third row on the far right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoelPagett Posted March 29, 2013 Report Share Posted March 29, 2013 Went to the park yesterday, I have always been a fan but I am going to give my honest opinion now... What an absolute SHAMBLES. Updated the website on yesterday morning and it said nothing was closed due to the weather! Great we thought so we headed up only to find Vampire, Dragons Fury, Rattlesnake and RMT & Dragon Falls all out of action! We headed to Zufari and had to wait 30 minutes before they started running the ride. Zufari I thought that the ride was very well thought out, needs time to settle in and grow. The preshow was funny and I like the idea behind that and the talking lemur. The animals were all hiding because it was to cold but the expeirience was pretty good. I thought the cave finale was pretty poor though, there was no effort made in the slightest. even if it had some tiki masks or something it could make an improvement. All in all a good ride but not great. I would give it 6/10 but don't queue more than 45 minuites - 1 hour for it! Here is my video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2hsUXBrRRg Later on in the day things started to open as it warmed up but Vampire was on 1 train... with a 60 minuite queue (FML) so all in all a pretty rubbish day, if I had paid I would have been seriously miffed but as it was on the Annual Pass I couldn't complain to much. Dragon falls looks ghastly and RMT seems to have had nothing done to it either! Thanks for listening to my rant/review ;D Matt 236, pluk, Inferno and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RideAddict Posted March 29, 2013 Report Share Posted March 29, 2013 I'm sort of on your radar on this - it's OK, not the best, and does need time to adapt or weather. When they said how big it was on the pre-show video, I knew it would be about the size it is! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Coaster Man Posted March 29, 2013 Report Share Posted March 29, 2013 So much hype for such a terrible attraction. Shows that the marketing department did their best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoelPagett Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 I agree, the marketing has again hyped it up to be this ultimate safari, but in reality its 5 minutes long and the animals are all scared! The cave really disappointed me the most! Here are some pictures I uploaded to my Flickr The rest are on Flickr here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 The animal situation is something that will actually come in time, it's an unavoidable issue with such an attraction... But give it a few months and they'll be more sociable and interesting in the long run... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RideAddict Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 I agree, the marketing has again hyped it up to be this ultimate safari, but in reality its 5 minutes long and the animals are all scared! My ride lasted about 15 minutes yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam P Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 I'm going to go all out and say I really enjoyed it and really wasn't disappointed as it's what I expected for theattraction. The Pre-show is a great touch to get interactive with the guests even if it is a bit cheesy, the ride itself will only get better as it grows and the animals come out more, it's really just what Chessington needed with what they have got space wise. My only concern would be through put as it's very popular, took 8 minutes to get through the pre-show and onto trucks even with 90 people at a time is only 600-700 per hour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topsyturvy15 Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 So is there just one route for the trucks or can they take slightly different paths? In the long term it could help to vary it a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 There will be set path for all trucks to take... 5 trucks at a later point should hopefully mean around a 1000 pph mind... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 I don't want to have much of an opinion before having ridden for myself, but from POVs the biggest missed opportunity to me seems to be the pre record track when you have a real live driver on board who could be doing the same thing with some humour and interaction thrown in. May as well have a tracked ride if you're not going to do anything with the driver. That and the danger cave spectacular leaking tap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 I won't lie, whilst some aspects of Zufari look good I think that it looks dissapointing overall and a rushed job.I will be on park tomorrow so will experience it for myself, but as things stand at the moment (in my opinion) I can hardly say I'm excited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RideAddict Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 Have you actually rode it yet? The giraffe's are so cute! Very young, and they're not scared by the trucks. This is probably the best thing about the ride Although it's a great addition, I'm a bit of sick this African direction the park are heading in. With the themed hotel, Zafari Bar and Grill, Wanyama reserve, Africa, Wild Asia and now this, it's clear to see that about 50% of the resort is themed along this general line. And it leaves me wondering what's next and what is the park's themed future? The World of Adventures is not so universal anymore! However, Simba would be proud! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Have you actually rode it yet? No, I will be on it later today so will pass judgement afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkC Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Zufari shall be shut the week commencing the 14th of April for a 'upgrade' Merry-go-girl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubbles1 Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 And so Merlin studios has struck again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Source? If so, looks like I'm not going to Chessington till the Summer... EDIT: Please don't tell me I've been April Fooled... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkC Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 You've been April fooled. RideAddict and JoshC. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchada04 Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 It wouldn't have surprised me if it was true. They did it with N:ST and from what I've heard from reviews it could do with quite a few improvements, mainly the cave finale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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