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Chessington changes for 2012

Ben said:
I just wonder how long it'll take everyone to realise Chessington are ****.
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They will never realise because it is not ****. The park is perfect for what the target market is aka Families. They haven't had anything good since 2004 but there is still good stuff there. They spend more time on training the staff to be really nice and good at their job, and less time on trying to build huge rides. Thorpe Park is about 45 min away from Chessington, so there is no point trying to build anything big.
 
^I never said it was perfect. But Chessington isn't bad. Chessington is very good for what it was meant to do.
 
I am not bumming the parks in anyway btw but please tell me how a small private park like Dryaton, Flammingoland, Adventure Island and Poultons have the budget to add more to their parks then Chessington?
 
dominoes said:
^Ah, and with that my argument is invalid... :(
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To be fair, you did say "The park was perfect for what the target market is".

To be honest with you, I'd like to see some areas of the world introduced that the park don't already have, such as South America or Australia. I guess they could slightly alter and rename Pirates Cove to the Caribbean, but it's a very small area.
 
I was going to say I think people are going a bit ott on this.
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I agree, I think the proposal for the building retheme we've seen looks nice.

What I don't like is they way they keep changing what they are doing. Why has the monkey bird garden been cancelled?! It looks from the outside like a right joke. Wish I knew wth was going on. I keep assuring myself that there must be a logical reason.

I am not bumming the parks in anyway btw but please tell me how a small private park like Dryaton, Flammingoland, Adventure Island and Poultons have the budget to add more to their parks then Chessington?
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Yeah, I often wonder the same. I think the crux of it is that these parks have smaller profit margins than Merlin parks. They don't expect to make as much. Merlin push for growth every year.

Chessington's an odd one though because we've heard again and again that it's not doing very well, which we've put down to years of neglect on investments, but it's certainly seemed to be bustling this year. And if that's true and it's because of Wild Asia, why haven't they got the gist yet that if you build something, anything, people will come???
 
Well, they must make one hell of a lot of money, especially the lack of major development they've had the past few years. This should be a good investment.
 
Kids want rides and themed areas that are COOL, not a park that's entirely themed around a zoo.

I understand where the park are going. It would have worked about 15/20 years ago, but i don't feel as though the guests are as suited for what they're building these days. Families these days care more about stuff like Ben 10 and stuff. Obviously I'm generalising. But Based on who I've seen at the park this year, they couldn't give a rats arse if you were in an African themed area.
 
dominoes said:
Ben said:
I just wonder how long it'll take everyone to realise Chessington are ****.
Click to expand...

They will never realise because it is not ****. The park is perfect for what the target market is aka Families. They haven't had anything good since 2004 but there is still good stuff there. They spend more time on training the staff to be really nice and good at their job, and less time on trying to build huge rides. Thorpe Park is about 45 min away from Chessington, so there is no point trying to build anything big.
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The problem is, very few people will visit a park based on nice staff. It is almost agiven that staff at a theme park will hopefully have some basic politeness and are competent in their roles. What Chessington seems to have forgotten is that it cannot rely on rides like Vampire, Dragon Falls and Tomb Blaster forever. At some point these rides will become to expensive to run. With only two real significant additions in the last ten years, the park will really struggle if one of its staples comes undone.
 
I see your point, AJ. But even then, I don't really think that themes matter to them at all. And I do quite like the idea of theming each area to a specific area of the world. I think all they really need to do is theme it in a way that makes it exciting, so that it really does add to the experience.
 
Am I missing something here as I thought they were just doing up a shop that needed doing up?

I did not think they were adding anything else. How will a shop bring in new people?
 
Mark9 said:
What Chessington seems to have forgotten is that it cannot rely on rides like Vampire, Dragon Falls and Tomb Blaster forever. At some point these rides will become to expensive to run. With only two real significant additions in the last ten years, the park will really struggle if one of its staples comes undone.
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However Vampire is very iconic and it did have a train conversion in 2000 to 2001.
Granted Chessiengton does need something new to grab more visitors to the park.
 
TP Rich said:
I don't really think that themes matter to them at all.
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Pretty sure that's what I said?



This will do NOTHING for the park, other than make the managers/park planners happier that it's one step closer to getting the park themed to a zoo.


No one gives a rats arse about re-themes if they're this minimal, it won't draw anyone new in. BIG new areas with significant changes like new rides will draw people in.
 
I do wonder if Merlin are pushing Chessington to be a "zoo with rides", rather than a "theme park with a zoo"?

Merlin have Thorpe for the teens and up, Legoland for the youngsters and Chessington sitting uncomfortably in the middle. Maybe they've seen it as the ideal location for the zoo attraction with benefits and are pushing the park in that direction?
 
^If that were the case surely Monkey Kingdom would have been pushed through as much as possible? And any issues with the council quickly changed in order to ensure that the zoo continues it's refurb...


Don't think ANYONE knows what to do with the park tbh...
 
Well, Chessington was originally a 'zoo', then it became a 'zoo with a playground', 'zoo with a fairground', 'zoo with a theme park' to the modern 'theme park with a zoo'. But I don't see anything zoo-related in the plans, just a stage and area retheme. No animals seem to be involved.
 
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