Chessington World of Adventures Resort

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Justin
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Thanks for the photos, Chris! :)

I am so pleased that they have taken the times to address the problems of the field car parks. Honestly, considering the size of some of the potholes, you could have easily mistaken them for sinkholes! Basic maintenance that will make a massive difference!
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Wickerwoman
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I was surprised to see how much of a queue it had yesterday! I didn’t get the chance to ride it, but hearing the state it is in now is so sad.
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alicheesy
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I saw these issues on Sunday too and it's a shame :'(

We went there for our first ride of the day and the "5" minute queue ended up being about half an hour. Then as you said, lots of effects are down and it feels very tired (although the trommel tunnel was working surprisingly). The newer shooting system with the big clumsy lights and squeaky guns also ruins the theming and atmosphere.

It's easy to see that even the staff are frustrated with the low throughput and the ride seems to be at the end of its life, so it would be good to see a big ol' revamp. I'd love a new dark ride with an original theme to happen, with new animatronics, audio etc. (However if it is rethemed, it'll probably be turned into another Julia Donaldson book ride).
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Justin
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That is very disappointing to hear. I have found memories of this ride prior to its recent incarnation, so to hear that it is in poor condition is disappointing. Hopefully Chessington have identified this as an issue and are working on a rebrand!
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Michelle
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It's really disappointing to hear this, I don't get to Chessington often but I always loved Tomb Blaster. I love dark rides , I just wish they were maintained better and this truly sounds like it's being left to rot.

Like Alice says I'd really like a new originally themed dark ride, but it's unlikely we'll get one, the chance of it eventually being another Julia Donaldson theme seems high.
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Justin
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To be honest, if it is another Donaldson IP then I am all for it. It reaffirms Chessington as a family park. Zog would suit this ride well!
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I think it would be a terrible business move for Merlin to have more Donaldson IP. Unless they outright bought the IP, having so many attractions attached to a single owner, could mean they become really stuck, should anything sour with that relationship or license renewal costs increase.
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ProfBurp
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So it seems Black Buccaneer, Seastorm and Tiger Rock still haven’t completed winter maintenance which is disappointing considering Chessington has been open for the 2019 season for a bit now. Has anyone got any updates on these. I’m going on Weds but looks unlikely they’ll be open soon from what I’ve heard from those that have visited so far.
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Jared
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ProfBurp wrote:So it seems Black Buccaneer, Seastorm and Tiger Rock still haven’t completed winter maintenance which is disappointing considering Chessington has been open for the 2019 season for a bit now. Has anyone got any updates on these. I’m going on Weds but looks unlikely they’ll be open soon from what I’ve heard from those that have visited so far.
Tiger Rock is due to re-open in May due to large refurbishment works on the ride system, which has seen all new controls, ride sensors, conveyors and alike installed. It's part of the rides 2 year renovation project. Seastom shouldn't be too much longer, engineers were installing new posts for the boats to sit on, as well as what looked like refurbished motors onto it last weekend. Black Buccaneer will be delayed opening again due to large amounts of refurbishment work going on with the rides frame.
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ProfBurp
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Jared wrote:
ProfBurp wrote:So it seems Black Buccaneer, Seastorm and Tiger Rock still haven’t completed winter maintenance which is disappointing considering Chessington has been open for the 2019 season for a bit now. Has anyone got any updates on these. I’m going on Weds but looks unlikely they’ll be open soon from what I’ve heard from those that have visited so far.
Tiger Rock is due to re-open in May due to large refurbishment works on the ride system, which has seen all new controls, ride sensors, conveyors and alike installed. It's part of the rides 2 year renovation project. Seastom shouldn't be too much longer, engineers were installing new posts for the boats to sit on, as well as what looked like refurbished motors onto it last weekend. Black Buccaneer will be delayed opening again due to large amounts of refurbishment work going on with the rides frame.

Awesome thank you so much for this update. If that is the case for Tiger Rock, why don’t they update the website to say that it’s opening in May, rather than completing winter maintenance.....which for another month doesn’t sound very good! Sounds like it’s work that needed doing though, so definitely a positive move.
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Dan
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According to the Chessington app, Tiger Rock and SeaStorm have re-opened, leaving Black Buccaneer as the only attraction still undergoing winter maintenance.
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richard.davies.98871
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Was at the park yesterday and Tiger Rock was open until it broke down in the afternoon. They were sending round empty boats at around 5pm so not sure if it reopened. SeaStorm Open but Black Buccaneer in pieces, boat in place, A frame absent.
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richard.davies.98871
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Mini review of the attraction.....
Went to Chessington yesterday and experienced a Room on the Broom. The park was not very busy, most queues around 15 mins or walk on in places at times. Only Vampire, Rattlesnake, Dragons Fury had anger queues at times. The queue for Room of the Broom stated 75 mins at most points of the day. Yes, it is a new ride, but the length of the queue in terms of people was not excessive, it’s the throughout of the ride, due to the walk through nature and number of guests in each group it moves extremely slowly.
The queue line area is uninspiring, we queues basically down one path and up the next to the photo shed, could only have been a couple of hundred in front of us and took an hour to do that section (the coffee booth at the end of the first length of queue would have been handy, if the machine had been working - no hit drinks!). Eneventually got to photo shed and asked how much queue beyond it. The attendant said no more than 10-15 minutes. So altogether we waited 75 minutes as advertised. 
Got in, in a group of 15 (there were 7 of us), and we were led round by a member of staff, quite quickly!
Couple of observations....
Speed of queue was painful. 15 people going in every 3-4 minutes part of explanation. Family at a time into the photo booth, which is fine, but the other side the queue was still full, so that isn’t an issue. Fast tracks - maybe too many, slowing up the flow of main queue when it moves slowly anyway? Not sure of solution.
Group of 15 was just about ok. Even so, on a couple of sections you were crammed in to see what was going on the screen etc. The size of the rooms is another issue, larger groups that they tried initially would not work at all. Smaller groups slows the queue.
The attraction itself is really well done. Good mix of effects, interactive sections for the children, very clever overall.
Staff member guiding us round was not in any special uniform or themed gear and seemed in a rush to move us on, which is understandable.

It’s just a shame the queue moves so slowly, my mother in law asked one of the staff what they’ll do in the summer when it is really busy, they didn’t know. Several families gave up and left queue and complained. At the end there were staff doing a survey about the attraction.

In the grand scheme of things a 75 minutes queue on a new attraction is nothing, however, this was a quiet day and I can’t see a solution to the throughput. 

Great attraction once you’re inside, but size of rooms, lack of imagination in the queue line, perhaps too many fast tracks joining queue are issues that I’m not sure that can be solved.
Swarm Chris

Sadly there is nothing that can be done to the throughput of this attraction, other than larger groups or being pushed through faster, which would both have significant negative impacts. The site it is in was simply never designed to handle large groups. I suspect at peak times the queue will still max out at around 70-90 minutes, as I can't see families wanting to wait much longer than that and will just skip the attraction. Merging in any fast track and Ride Access Pass riders I suspect will become extremely tricky the busier it gets, with a group size of 15 people any more than about 2-4 people from outside of the main queue-line entering would make the queue feel like it simply isn't moving. I could easily see those queues having a 30+ minute wait, which of course is not how the RAP system is meant to work.

This is why Disney very quickly realised such attractions are best suited to having some form of transport like a boat or Omnimover, as the throughput and experience will be far better than if you let people walk through the attraction. 
Swarm Chris

Anytime I look at the Chessington app, the queue time for Vampire is hurrendous. It's been getting closer to the 3 hour mark this last week.

Even in peak summer during Tussauds days, I'm sure it was rare to even get to the 2 hour mark. At this point they either need to purchase a third train again, completely rethink the rides operations, or invest in a new high capacity attraction. This is just crazy for a regional family theme park.
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Justin
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I think they are in need of another train and another high capacity attraction to be honest.

Chessington are moving in the right direction and I like the way that they are refurbishing attractions, but this will only go some way. Apart from Tomb Blaster, they will have to move on to smaller attractions soon, so something new would help!

I really enjoy Vampire though, but hate the queue times as they are so hit and miss. I know Dan and I did it a year or so back and the times were completely off and we got on straight away and kept going round.
Swarm Chris

The Chessington queue boards have definitely been on the over cautious side more often than not in previous years. Could often find a 60-70 minute Vampire queue was only 40.

But, after I laughed at the Tomb Blaster 40 minute queue a few weeks ago, and then queued for nearly 40 minutes with barely 100 people in front of me, I don't know how over cautious they are this year.
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ProfBurp
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It’s certainly not running very good operations these days. Back when I was working on the ride as an operator/attendant we were running a 3 train operation, it was then decided that as sometimes the trains were not dispatched quickly enough (due to guests not getting on quickly, needing to re-check restraints etc) the 3rd trains would frequently stop on the 2nd lift hill and put pressure on the chain. The chain then snapped (not endangering anyone) but the decision was then made to not run a 3 train operation for the future, following this occurrence. It has been running on a 1 train operation several days this season however which given the length of the ride and loading means that it gets far too long a queue even on off peak days let alone on busy peak days the park recently has been having.
Swarm Chris

That used to be an entertaining feature of the Vampire, especially on the original trains. Will you get stopped on the second lift hill and then be able to wave at people at the game stands?

Makes me wonder how it operated so well for so many years, but then suddenly dispatch times slowed massively? Granted you could take your bags with you and the operations staff would literally run the length of the train checking harnesses.
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ProfBurp
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Swarm Chris wrote:That used to be an entertaining feature of the Vampire, especially on the original trains. Will you get stopped on the second lift hill and then be able to wave at people at the game stands?

Makes me wonder how it operated so well for so many years, but then suddenly dispatch times slowed massively? Granted you could take your bags with you and the operations staff would literally run the length of the train checking harnesses.
I remember having to literally run up and down! It was such a laugh though! But yes agreed I’m not sure how it ran as well as it did for as long as it did!
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