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CWOA | Mandrill Mayhem (World of Jumanji) | B&M Wing Coaster | 2023

Matt N

CF Legend
^ It’s not confirmed that the plans will be available. They’re entering public consultation surrounding the development due to the fact that where they want to build isn’t technically part of their development boundary.

The public consultation starts tomorrow for 2 weeks. We’ll learn more then. I’m at the consultation tomorrow so I’ll come back here and post what I find out when I get the chance.
Do you think we’ll discover any additional details about the actual ride itself, or do we think this will exclusively be just relaying the same stuff as is in that press release?
 

Ian

From CoasterForce
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I realise I'm late to this topic, but the release of this information almost coincided with the latest batch of London Resort/Swanscombe/Paramount concept art. Perhaps Merlin shareholder calming tittle-tattle? Hope the consultation etc goes well, and would really like to see more new stuff at Chessington, but five or so years since this first banded about smells a bit to me.

I don't think Chessie are too bothered about Paultons. It's far enough away not to be a direct threat - especially when Merlin have a much larger marketing budget and another family friendly theme park "rival" about 25 miles away - Legoland. If anything, the never-gonna-happen Paramount should put the willies up them more so than Paultons. Keep churning out the concept art, Paramount, its great for London regional theme park competition!
 

Jared

Hyper Poster
Do you think we’ll discover any additional details about the actual ride itself, or do we think this will exclusively be just relaying the same stuff as is in that press release?

I think it’ll likely be we’ve got a couple of proposals that we’re looking at. This is how tall, noisy etc it will be and this is what we’ll do to negate these concerns.

It’ll primarily be to address concerns the locals have, most notable being noise and traffic. There’s been loads raised over the last few seasons about getting traffic off of the main roads and into the car parks faster, hence why they’ve resurfaced the outer car park roads in the Explorer car park and why they’ve put in planning consent to do more tarmacking.

This kind of project has been a lot work in progress due to the locals mostly. Chessington has to have addressed the concerns received off the back of the development plan before more things can happen. Essentially there’s a lot of extra boxes the park has to tick before they can do things substantial.

Building rides like Croc Drop etc were straight forward as there was something already there, this is more long winded due to the land being empty. To put this into perspective, consultation for Zufari began in 2009 and the full planning application went in sometime in 2011 for a 2013 opening.
 

Joelpagett

Mega Poster
A couple of images courtesy of ChessingtonBuzz (https://www.facebook.com/ChessingtonBuzz)

186477785_5686924281348238_6355103136828968229_n.jpg

Appears to be a couple of family rides and a roller coaster themed around the Amazon.

187305134_5686939964680003_308023893574546590_n.jpg
187631672_5686939954680004_6207352402618938060_n.jpg

Appears to be a nice larger scale investment for Chessington that it's been needing for a while. Amazon seems like a great theme for it too (although I'm pretty sure they already opened an Amazon themed area last year).

Chessington Buzz are attending the hotel conference, so hopefully they will post a run down of everything that was said soon!
 
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CrashCoaster

CF Legend
Better image:-

chessington-2021-consultation-overview.png


Looks like some large boomerang-style family coaster and a couple of flats.

EDIT:- Concept art for the station:-

E1mIP6yXoAMCdQn.png


Possibly not a boomerang, looks like there is Mack track in the background. Interesting that there appears to be air gates on either side of the station. I will be very disappointed if it does end up being a boomerang, since they are clearly copying Paultons at this point, and boomerangs aren't exactly capacity monsters.
 
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toofpikk

Mega Poster
Yeah pretty unclear what the coaster is proposed to be - architecturally it's clearly just a mass model, I wouldn't read too far into it because if you look at the spines properly you'll see it does some sort of roll-inversion over the entrance to the area. Bit odd that the circuit isn't even an actual full circuit though.

I'm really happy chessington are getting the investment they have been so overly due, but I can't help but feel this seems a little hollow. Maybe as we gather more information and the planning permits get submitted we will have more to get excited about.
 

Joelpagett

Mega Poster

coasterboy

Mega Poster
Apparently Chessington Buzz have just said this which is intriguing...


I find it odd that a roller coaster at Chessington would require a 1.4 meter restriction, for what is clearly a family investment. Potentially there might be some confusion surrounding restrictions, especially as they haven't confirmed the final ride type etc.
Worth noting, Rattlesnake is also a 1.4 meter restriction.
 

Lukas.03

Roller Poster
looking at that top view, it would need to be a launch coaster with first a backwards and then a forwards acceleration since the spike by the station isn't straight (can't be a lifthill then). Also: that really does look like a zero-g-roll over the path but we probably schouldn't read to much into that picture...
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Interesting… the area looks really nice! We still don’t know a huge amount yet, though; it looks similar to Land of the Dragons, in that it’s an area with a big coaster encircling the perimeter and a few children’s rides scattered in the middle.

The coaster looks quite unique, and while my first thought was a Family Boomerang, the mention of a 1.4m height restriction is interesting… I thought Chessington was more centred towards younger kids these days?
 

Joelpagett

Mega Poster
Worth noting, Rattlesnake is also a 1.4 meter restriction.
Yes that's a good point, and Ramses Revenge was before it was replaced as well, so they aren't adverse to adding 1.4 restrictions, but they are few and far between.

It would be their first new roller coaster in nearly 2 decades, so I would imagine they would want a huge pull on audience numbers for it, but at 1.4, that is quite a big chunk of audience that wouldn't be able to ride.
 

Jared

Hyper Poster
Glad you guys are liking all my posts on Chessington Buzz from the consultation! There’s lots to digest from the plans, but from what I was getting from the team in the room, it’s likely to be a form of Wing Coaster.

I’m off out to dinner shortly, but I’ll give a full rundown when I’m back home later this evening.
 

Joelpagett

Mega Poster

Looks like the new consultation website is now live. Lots to take in!
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
The online proposal is curious.
It mentions the new coaster as some form of launched shuttle experience:

A new rollercoaster – guests will be propelled on a car through banks and turns before coming to a dead end on the track adjacent to a themed structure on the southern part of the site. The car will then be propelled along the same route back to the station located on the north east part of the site. A hard standing ride maintenance area is to be provided adjacent to the ride station.

It also suggest that it will be a family coaster:
The emerging proposal for a new themed Amazon Land includes a new family rollercoaster – the first at Chessington for 17 years - and two new children’s rides. This investment is critical to the Resort’s recovery from the impacts to the business from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This image also shows how the layout above would look outside the park:
1621265137656.png
These sort of mockups usually feature within planning applications. I'm sure they're done for different / not-final layouts too, but it seems odd to show one to the public for a not-final layout.

It very much feels like there's a disconnect between what @Jared heard at the consultation itself and the details on the website. Obviously I could be getting the wrong end of the stick, so really not for me to draw conclusions, but a (weird) family shuttle launch and a 1.4m winged seat coaster do feel like very different things.

Nothing stopping it being some weird, winged seated, launched, shuttle experience either. But family vs 1.4m restriction is a weird one.

In any case, if it is some sort of shuttle coaster, I think the immediate thought that jumps out is 'Throughput concerns'. Aside from that, I think it's still too vague to make any further judgements, but I do get that it feels a bit hollower compared to some of the original, vaguer concepts thrown about.
 

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
In any case, if it is some sort of shuttle coaster, I think the immediate thought that jumps out is 'Throughput concerns'. Aside from that, I think it's still too vague to make any further judgements, but I do get that it feels a bit hollower compared to some of the original, vaguer concepts thrown about.
Not necessarily, Intamin's "U-shaped Roller Coaster" operates with a 32 passenger train. Also, considering the coaster will have a maintenance area next to the station, I feel as if it may have a way of being able to operate two trains, either by switch track or turntable or something similar.

Either way, I am very curious to hear more and see what comes of this. This seems like a one-of-a-kind coaster, and one of the most interesting/unique things to come to the UK in recent years.
 

Niles

Giga Poster
I love it, no idea what I’m looking at but it’s really interesting and unique, while a moto-launch or water coaster would have been great I was honestly expecting something like “Dino Duplo Coaster” so this is way over my expectations and it looks to be the first of its kind so I’m excited for it.

It is nice to see Merlin do something so odd and hopefully they get a good return on investment and think about other parks that could do with another coaster.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
It certainly looks like an… interesting ride, to say the least, and not what I was expecting at all. Seeing as the park has been (at least, it looks to have been, from an outsider’s perspective) transitioning towards a younger demographic, and milder rides, I find the fact that they’re building a coaster with a 1.4m height restriction very interesting, especially given that they’re referring to it as a “family roller coaster” in the press release. Maybe it’ll be a “starter” thrill ride of sorts to ease guests more gradually into thrill rides, kind of like Air was intended to be when it was built at Alton Towers? On a wider note, could this be the start of the park starting to appeal to a wider demographic a la Alton Towers again, as it did in the early 1990s?

I’m certainly not complaining about another wing coaster being built in the UK, though; heck, Swarm is one of my very favourite rides! I’m interested to see how the concept scales up on a family ride, as I wouldn’t really say we’ve seen a family ride with winged seats before; the closest I can think of is Tranan, the S&S Free Fly at Skara Sommarland in Sweden, but even that’s technically considered a suspended coaster. This ride certainly looks like it could be utterly bizarre and quite unlike anything else in the world from what we’ve seen of it so far, and it’s not what I was expecting in the slightest. Although I guess no Merlin ride is ever truly conventional…

Regardless, I’m just thrilled to see Chessington building a new roller coaster, and I think it could end up very popular and well-received!

Another interesting point to note is that construction is apparently intended to begin in January 2022, which to me would suggest that a 2023 opening is being targeted here.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Interestingly, although someone else mentioned Intamin earlier on in the thread, I’m now hearing B&M’s name getting thrown into the ring by various sources as a possible manufacturer for the ride.

Personally, I’m not sure if I see this being a B&M. For starters, I don’t think they’ve ever built a shuttle coaster before (correct me if I’m wrong there), and to be honest, it doesn’t seem like something they’d be too keen on doing, for various reasons. Also, some of the elements in the rendering, namely that weird upside-down spike, don’t look particularly B&M to me… I’m willing to be surprised, however! The ride being a B&M would explain the 1.4m height restriction, and it would also make sense given that they’re the only manufacturer currently actively producing wing coasters!

In fact, while I could be clutching at straws somewhat here; if this defies my current expectation and is a B&M coaster, could it possibly be the elusive B&M Surf Coaster? You could spin the spikes on either end as being a akin to “riding a wave” so to speak (well, they certainly produce a sensation more akin to surfing than anything else B&M presently offers), it’s launched like the Surf Coaster is apparently set to be, and the model was rumoured to be a close relative of the Wing Coaster based on some of the rumours for the prototype at SeaWorld Orlando… what do you guys think?

That’s probably some very outlandish thinking on my part, though; I don’t personally see this being a B&M. It looks more like something a manufacturer like Intamin would do. Or maybe S&S, as I seem to remember them pitching a concept for some sort of shuttle launched wing coaster a few years back?
 
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