Chessington World of Adventures Resort

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Swarm Chris

If the scenes have the same quality or greater than Gruffalo, then this would be nicely done. There's really not much they can do with the space they have in the Burnt Stub Mansion, but a completely torn out and redone walk through attraction I think should be really nice.
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Ladyofthelake
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For those who may not have seen, SouthParks has a review from the first day of Howl'o'ween 2018.

I visited on the first day of the event on Saturday 13th and have to say I was quite impressed. Creepy Caves surprised me with its intensity, and easily beats some of Thorpe's offering! There were sections of the maze which were genuinely disorientating, and meant I was never quite sure where the scare were coming from next. Curse of the Lost Tomb was fun, not the scariest, but that is to be expected for its target audience. Trick and Treat Woods was a nice surprise and contained a range of interesting characters, although was better after dark.

I was also impressed with the live stage show in the Gruffalo Arena - it featured some great dance routines, and the male lead had some particularly impressive vocals. Perhaps the only thing missing was some roaming entertainments to add some atmosphere in areas like Market Square.
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Muppet738
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I would have to agree we went for Howl-o-ween and we thought they had got the balance right. Like you say the show was great along with the Creepy Caves. I went through with my son and his mate although they where scared out of their skins, they did admit to really enjoying it, and when we left around the exits they did have roaming actors interacting with the crowds even blacked hooded caped demon actors that were joining in with the kids flossing with was quite amusing. Well done Chessington this year!
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Ladyofthelake
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It's been a while since we had any news on the Safari Lodges, however, as reported by SouthParks News, the Resort have now submitted revised plans for a much smaller development comprising of just 34 lodges.

The 11 premium lodges, the bar named The Watering Hole, and the dedicated reception building have all been removed from the proposals. Instead, lodge guests will check in either via an app, or at a desk within the Safari Hotel. Food and beverage facilities will be provided by the exisiting infrastructure which may worry some as, like with some of Merlin's other hotels, the restaurants are already frequently fully booked in main season.

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Swarm Chris

Why do Merlin have such an aversion to building restaurants, especially for their 'resort' offerings? This is something that they have done well in the past and is surely something they could be capitalising on more. Chessington certainly could have proper themed restaurants - something else for the annual passholders to do during the day and then to feed those staying at the end of the day.

At least the lodges look nice externally from the plans. Little concerned over the 'use your own device' key. I had that option recently with a major chain hotel and it didn't work. Merlin's mobile apps don't have the greatest reliability as it is.
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Justin
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If they are like Enchanted Village lodges then I am happy. We should be grateful they didn't change the offering to pods!
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Chris
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It's a shame the bar has been cut, but still has the potential to be a lovely development.
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DerpyQuark
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I like the look of these, but I don’t like them as much as the Stargazing Pods. And Chessington doesn’t need more accommodation!
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lewis97
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A document added to the application today, gives a planned completion date of March 2020 for the development, with it intended that construction will start in April 2019.
Swarm Chris

Forget Room on the Broom, the real development we should be excited for is that Chessington are requesting permission to start removing the southern car park dirt tracks and install a proper tarmac road! See planning application 18/10417.

The plans show the entire perimeter road of the car park as having the request to be upgraded, with just the lanes to the rows remaining gravel. Whilst it would have been great to include the main arteries as well, it's the perimeter road that is the absolute worst on site.

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From the covering letter:
There is an urgent need for CWoAR to resurface the existing trackways within the Southern Car Park. The majority of these currently consist of uneven, gravelled routes that are unable to cope during periods of wet weather, when the car park becomes “boggy” (see Figure 1 below). This can often result in cars getting stuck and needing to be towed out, ruining a visitor’s experience of the Resort and creating traffic and associated operational challenges. These issues have been ongoing for many years; it has reached the point that CWoAR has to take action to resolve the situation. 
The covering letter suggests Chessington believe they should be able to do this under existing agreements, with the application essentially be a covering themselves exercise.

This is great news if it all gets accepted and should mean that the first ride of the day at Chessington, isn't getting into the car park!  :)
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Morgan
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I'm surprised this hasn't been done sooner but this is a great move. I haven't used the car park in ages but it's an absolute nightmare for anyone if there's even a single mililitre of water involved.
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Jared
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Chris wrote:It's a shame the bar has been cut, but still has the potential to be a lovely development.
Just to confirm, the bar hasn't been 'cut'. It'll be part of a secondary expansion application once the initial set of Lodges is built. Essentially, Chessington ran into huge problems with the original application due to issues with London's planning department (basically a lot of politics got in the way). It was rejected, but in order to speed up the process, Chessington has submitted a new application that is less than 1000Sq meters in order to avoid the need for it to go to the planning departments in London. It's all to do with the greenbelt etc and it's all rather complicated, but this new approach speeds things up and gets it built in two phases.
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Jared
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Sorry to double post, but it was approved on Christmas Eve.
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Chris
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Jared wrote:Sorry to double post, but it was approved on Christmas Eve.
Great news!
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Dan
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As announced on the Merlin Annual Pass Facebook page:
Saturday 9th March is Chessington World of Adventures Resort's 2019 Annual Passholder Day! You can also get a sneak peek of their BRAND NEW Room on the Broom – A Magical Journey from noon onwards ahead of its official launch on Sunday 10th March. Remember, you must be a valid Merlin Annual Passholder and pre-book a ticket to attend the Day – tickets will be available to book soon – keep your eyes peeled on our Facebook page…
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Also confirmed this morning is that ‘Room on the Broom - A Magical Journey’ will officially open on Sunday 10th March.
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Chris
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Here's our new sunny Kobra POV to brighten your cold and dark Sunday evening. Is it a must-ride on your visit?
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Michelle
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Can't say Kobra has ever been a 'must do' purely based on the queue times it usually gets, it is a fun ride though, as long as I tie my hair up first :lol
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Justin
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I do enjoy Kobra, but I do agree, the queue times can put you off. Time it right and you can walk straight on or with a short wait :)
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ProfBurp
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Has anyone heard anything further on what exactly the new room on the broom attraction will entail? Obviously from the concept art it looks as if there is going to be a riding the broom type element, "is there room on Witch's 'truly magnificent broom'" as quoted from the CWoAR website. I'm guessing perhaps something similar to that of the bus in Shrek's adventure. HPH was definitely due a replacement, it is just a shame it had to be another IP, but at least this should hopefully mean it is done properly.
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Justin
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With Room on the Broom, I think we are on to a safe IP. We can see what they have done with Gruffalo and Shrek, so it will hopefully it will be a quality experience. 
We should know more on the preview day, so watch this space :)
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