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Chessington changes for 2012

peep

CF Legend
No, unfortunately they aren't getting a 200ft 15 looping coaster that launches faster than the speed of light but they are completely re-theming (if plans are approved by the local council) the monkey and bird garden.

Sounds rather boring until you look at the plans which show that the area will now have several monkey walk-through areas, one of which will include rope bridges and tunnels and a giant bird avairy where multiple species of bird will fly around you, similar to the popular and very awesome Lorikeet Lagoon. The area will also include a small play area (doesn't specify as to what this will include) and a new theme. It looks like the area will be renamed Monkey Kingdom and will have mayan/incan style themed buildings and fencing.

All the plans can be viewed HERE

I think this will be amazing if the other walk-through attractions are anything to go by. Hopefully we will hear in the next couple of months about other additions as I'm really hoping this isn't the only addition for Chessington's 25th birthday.


Oh for those who like characters roaming parks, Chessington have added a whole host of random characters around the park after the very successful Ninja characters for the Mystic East event in April. The new characters include a Sheriff and Mexican (who does a fun little dance) in Mexicana, Vampires have returned to Transylvania (including running around the Vampire station), Pirates in Pirates Cove and a typical-looking British explorer who seems to roam the zoo areas.
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

Hopefully this will pan out beautifully.

I love the characters roaming element. It really does add to the atmosphere. However, as always, it will be worth remember that in budget cuts the first thing that normally goes is the Ents budget. Fingers crossed this will not happen to Chessie.
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

^ I saw the entire model of the thing at lunch when the studio came down last year. It looks amazing. From what I saw, it has a temple and those lion statue god thingies. Love the idea.
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

This thing literally looks amazing and will be about 10x more impressive than Wanyama (mainly as Wanyama is kinda lacking in stuff bar the plains currently)...

Let's just add a coaster now Chessie ok? Or any ride to be more precise... Just SOMETHING new (ride wise)!



And another point for more roaming characters... They are MUCH better than what was around the last few years (the Segways :fp1:) and the guest interaction is being turned up very nicely... Woo for that...
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

This will be so awesome when it's done. I don't think it'll ever be "stunning" but it will certainly improve the area a lot.

Also, yay for the slightly racist characters.
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

I bet the One show and Blue Peter will be having a field day
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

Why don't people have a w**k when Flamingoland put some new animals in their zoo?

Sorry, this is a zoo improvement. Yes it's part of the park, but it's absolutely not theme park news. I might as well start a topic to tell everyone that Chester Zoo has just managed to breed four cheetah cubs and stuck a new slide in. Hell, they have a monorail and a boat ride and everything, so it's practically an amusement park, right?

Anyway, to be slightly more on topic. When I see "park making improvements this year", as I've also just seen in the Oakwood topic, I take it to mean that they're not doing a great deal, but pretending that they are while investing a relatively small amount of money.
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

This is more than an improvement full stop in my opinion. It's making a new attraction out of an existing one. It also looks and sounds awesome. Free-flight aviaries you can walk through are amazing, and well themed ones even more so. The climbing environment is hardly just zoo stuff, so how is it not a theme park improvement?
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

Loving the new entrance to the monkey walk. Let's hope they pull it off :D
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

Its good they are sorting the zoo side of the park out.

But what happened to the five year plan where they were going to sort out all the themed areas of the park? To me it sounds like the original plan we were shown has gone which is a shame.
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

I went to chessington on Wednesday. Nothing unusual to report but it is surprising how much unused space they have to build new attractions!
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

marc said:
Its good they are sorting the zoo side of the park out.

But what happened to the five year plan where they were going to sort out all the themed areas of the park? To me it sounds like the original plan we were shown has gone which is a shame.

Someone at Merlin went "You want MONEY Chessie? You're having a laugh right?"...


Might be slightly paraphrased, but considering there were plans last year for Toytown which got cancelled around September/October time after the Summer ended, they were denied a chance to advance it...

It might still be on the cards... I'd imagine so...

Just hoping that this isn't the only major addition to the park next year... That Toytown retheme NEEDS to happen if they're going to do the continents idea, and even just one or two new rides would at least show a lot more intent on the park's front...
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

They could remove the outdated dodgems in wild Asia with a compact coaster...eurofighter?
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

Those dodgems are so lame. Unfortunately, seeing as how Chessie only re-themed them last year, that is not going to happen. There wouldn't be enough space in Wild Asia for a coaster anyway.
Sorry to be so negative.

I agree with Benin - the next thing that needs to be sorted out is Toy Town and the area with the fountain/clock - it looks so old and dilapidated.

As for a Eurofighter - don't even get me started!
I've just thought of the special power I would like to have (from the super hero topic). It would be the power to destroy all Eurofighters in a volley of fire and hate.
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

CoasterCrazy said:
They could remove the outdated dodgems in wild Asia with a compact coaster...eurofighter?

The dodgems that are still popular? With a ride type just down the road?

Nah...


There IS however SOME space in Wild Asia to put a ride/coaster, since the massive field behind it exists...
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

I've said it before and I'll say it again: wild Asia is a **** hole. I was really looking forward to seeing all the AMAZING theming everyone was going on about, and what I actually got was a slab of concrete with crappy tree in the middle of it, a disco, some delapidated dodgems and a few flea-ridden birds. It's awful.
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

Chessington need to add something of real note now though, I know they added Wild Asia last year which I thought was excellent but they haven't added a major coaster since Dragons Fury 7 years ago now. In that time Alton and Thorpe Park have both added 2 new 'major' coasters, the total that CWoA has in the whole park.

Chessington does seem to get the raw end of the deal from Merlin and it is pretty annoying to watch as its such a good park and in my opinion adding in a new aviary just isn't good enough, the park needs something more substantial than that.
 
Re: Chessington to make drastic impovements for 2012

They're getting something "big" in 2013. That's what park management told me anyway. Who know, it seems to chop and change all the time.

The problem is "something big" means a coaster in most enthusiasts eyes so we'll probably be disappointed if it's anything less than a coaster.

After Sunday's visit, they do need a coaster as they are the biggest crowd pullers. The coaster queues were at least twice as long compared to the flats...even Tomb Blaster's was shorter!
 
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