Many of you guys know; I love Chessington, at one point I even lived and breathed it. The truth is, along with Alton Towers, I have some extremely special memories at these parks and I’ve sort of grown up with them and seen them develop and change into what they are today. Whenever I talk of these parks, it is from my deepest passion and enthusiasm for them, their beauty and the potential that they have and genuinely, how much I want them to succeed. With that in mind, I’ll begin…
This rather sexy fellow (below), our friend Kirsty and I, decided on a spontaneous visit to Chessie earlier this week.
We spent the afternoon at the park, from around 1pm. So not very long at all, but still, it’s not as though we’ve never done any of the rides at the park a thousand times before and we always enjoy a chilled out pace, taking the day as it comes. We spent absolutely ages just enjoying the beauty and awesomeness of the park. Particularly in Wild Asia, where we spent about an hour chilling by the fountain, observing guests in the area and how much everyone was enjoying themselves. Some of the guests comments were brilliant and very interesting. It’s a very humbling and facinating thing to listen to what guests actually think and say. This is why I feel Chessington truly have got Wild Asia spot on in every single possible way imaginable. Excellent.
Let me also say, operations from the front line staff were consistently very good indeed all day. Very pleasant and went out of their way to ensure our visit was special. Not once did we feel as though we were just a number in a long conveyor belt of people, but actual individuals. Top work. There was also a lovely girl who offered to take the time (probably coming back from her break and she did not need to offer at all) to take a group photo of us at the Jeep by the Trail of The Kings entrance.
Now, if anyone from Chessington is reading this- and I know you are *waves*, then please take the time to pass on the praise, just as she took the time out of her day to make our day great. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch her name, however she was wearing black so I’m assuming she was from Pizza Pasta in F&B. I will officially send in the good comments but in the mean time, I just want to get that out there.
However, from an operational and guest satisfaction point of view, the health and safety restrictions on Black Buccaneer really put me off from riding this. There was just one ride’s worth of guests in the queueline, yet, it took more than 10 minutes to load this ride. Or at least, we had been sitting there for that long- I hadn’t seen it go round for ages before that. It’s a bit shocking when you think about it. It’s ironic, these Health and Safety rules designed for the enjoyment and safety of the guests actually does the complete opposite. I’m pretty sure Chessington do not need to go to such extreme measures on their age restrictions for guests; if the restrictions do not need to be there then for the sake of hindering guest enjoyment, please get rid of them! I heard several guests complain about this, which is a shame because it’s such a good ride. I know I’ll think twice about riding again. So frustrating!
More Wild Asia goodness- it really is awesome.
So, getting to the crux of what I want to say; with the exception of Wild Asia and a few other spots, the park is sadly looking very tired and not in the best condition. This is a Merlin- wide comment I suppose. It’s all well and good creating themes and investing in scenery, but you need to maintain it please, provide these parks with the money to keep everything looking as though it was built yesterday. By this I mean, keep the illusion going and don’t let things deteriorate so much that guests can see the construction methods behind it. It really breaks my heart. Honestly does. A couple of examples:
There have been some great improvements across the park this season, which really shows the passion from the park management about this great park. However, you can clearly see that these are low budget additions, I’m clenching my whole body in anticipation that the park will eventually get the budget to properly redo some of the scenery at Chessington. The coyboys that have appeared on the Mexicana facades are great, excellent, but then you take a few steps to Runaway Train and see a faux mountain literally crumbling away so you can see the dated construction method underneath. We know it’s been like this for years but it’s still there and it hasn’t changed.
I’ll make a few, brief observations from my visit before going into more detail about Vampire:
Smells in Bubbleworks are great, music is great (but not when it still doesn’t loop), lighting in the lift before the drop is still my fave throughout the ride. Really can’t polish a turd though, the ride is still pants, even by UK standards.
Falls- station interior I love, station exterior however, looking very tired and needs to be cleaned and re-painted. I’m putting a very critical eye here, but I hate seeing cables for things such as lighting, sound equipment and general infrastructure blatently on show to guests. It seems so silly but these small things really impact my enjoyment. Perhaps this is just a reflection of the “that’ll do” culture that we have in the UK though.
The landscaping team have done a marvellous job across the whole park and it’s beautiful.
I got my picture taken with Cinders, she was standing in one spot on her podium. But once I actually approached them for a photo, the ents team were great. It should be them interacting and approaching me though- makes all the difference.
Vamp’s interactive tombstones are more or less destroyed. You can see the polystyrene that they used to make it completely blown all over the place, huge chunks of it missing, looks pathetic.
In fact, going into Vampire in more detail. Well, the good- the music has returned to a decent volume within the station and ride operator was using the PA very well and at a respectable volume, not loud at all. Well done Chessington. I’m sitting on the fence about my next comment:
I love that they’re changing things with with the lighting and I’m pleased to report that the organist is moving quite well at the moment. However, I am not a fan of the slight lighting change. It does look quite nice but I can’t help but think it all feels a bit “discoish” in there now. The green was fantastic, I loved the red and blue combo too. Thought this, in addition to the green and other minor lighting changes makes it feel too colourful and it just doesn’t quite feel right. Personal preference perhaps.
I’m definitely not a fan of this though….
Having worked operations before, I totally get why this has been done. To make the lives of the staff easier, perhaps to try something different, to make things clearer for guests… there are plenty of reasons why and I totally understand why from an operational standpoint, these could be very useful. However, it just looks so unprofessional and tacky. I’m sorry, but I hate them. I hate them on Tomb Blaster as well. In fact, my Team Leader and I ripped them down in 2008 (but have since returned) because, well, it’s not very theme parkish is it?
I’d love for there to be a budget to get studios to make some proper themed ones, make it all fit in and make the aesthetics flow, but sadly, this is another area where the park have been neglected. Hell, I’d even make them some for both Tomb Blaster and Vampire if they wanted.
I’ve come to the end of my slightly critical report I guess. What I will say is that I still had an absolutely brilliant time at Chessington, this is due to the fantastic staff, interactive family rides, variety of experiences and great atmosphere the park does provide. However I think I’ll think twice before visiting any of the UK parks until next season (or perhaps Halloween). I genuinely am very fond of our theme parks, they just need to cash so that it can be splashed!
I’ll leave you with some yummy food from the Monkey Puzzle and a um, “interesting” photo opportunity. 
Cheers for reading guys.
The Adventures of an Escapist 
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