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Chessington World Of Adventures | Croc Drop | Zamperla Sky (Drop) Tower

Ethan

Strata Poster
Probably a smaller park somewhere far away. A lot of former UK coasters are now running in less affluent countries, so I guess flat rides could potentially go the same way.
See this is true, and I did think this. But this thing looks way more tired and decrepit than the other former UK rides that come to mind. Maybe a park in India or somewhere similar will take it, would match that sort of standard.
 

bdrizzyb

Roller Poster
Hey new member here, been browsing the forums for years. this Chessington investment is mediocre tbf. but I believe they get away with this sort of investment because merlin obviously have a huge ,monopoly on the UK theme park industry, to the point that they are trend setters (e.g. fast pass) there great at theming which is cool, but they could market a second hand frog hopper as Kingda Ka, haha, and still pull in the punters (e.g. thirteen) that's how clever they are. they have few competition at the moment and the marketing strategy is on game. but not for long as Paultons is creeping up, so I do expect Chessington too step up there game in the next five years too keep up with the competition. the more competition merlin have in the UK the healthier the UK amusement/Theme park industry is! Just look at Germany!
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
Please excuse my terrible photography, but this is now vertical...

cd1.jpg
cd2.jpg

Merlin recently filed to trademark the very bland name 'Croc Drop', which will presumably be the name of the ride.

It's still planned to open in 2021. The park are also getting their new pirate ship next year (was meant to be this year, but Covid seems to have caused issues with shipment...)
 

oriolat2

Giga Poster
A new pirate ship? Didn't they already use to have Black Buccaneer? That was a great one and didn't seem in that bad a state.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
A new pirate ship? Didn't they already use to have Black Buccaneer? That was a great one and didn't seem in that bad a state.
They did, but they’ve ordered a new pirate ship ride to replace it named The Blue Barnacle.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
I am really confused. Why would they? Most parks don't invest in something they already have unless it's strictly necessary.
I think it was an essential like-for-like replacement, as Black Buccaneer was aging, and I think it had some sort of parts failure, correct me if I’m wrong? It was shut for ages during 2019, so something was definitely wrong with it.
 

oriolat2

Giga Poster
As Matt says, the original ship needed major work. It was closed for the whole of 2019. It ultimately worked at as better to get a whole new ship rather than fix the old one.
Thanks for clearing that up. It's been ages since I last went to Chessington and rode their ship. Back then it ran a great, intense ride cycle!
 
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