Chessington had the SeaLife centre in 2008, which was closely followed by Wild Asia in 2010, the big aesthetical touch-up project in the early 2010s (which I believe had a 7-figure budget) and then ZUFARI just 3 years later in 2013 (which I think might have had an 8-figure budget, as much as it’s not often thought of as a major ride?).
Just to confirm something here. The SeaLife at Chessington was only meant to be a temporary investment and was made as a test-bed to see how viable Chessington World of Adventures was as an attraction. Ideas were floated around during the late Tussauds days to offload the attraction, but it was saved by the Merlin takeover bid. What would've happened to Chessington is unknown, but it was saved and tested by Merlin with the SeaLife centre, which was proven to be a success.
They invested £14m in the renovation works, including the Azteca Hotel. A lot of that money was spent on renovating ride hardware, Dragon Falls for example had a lot of poorly maintained structural work and a large amount of the rides backbone was replaced alongside sections of the trough. Lots of rides received newly updated control systems etc. Lots of things that were put off under the DIC era of Tussauds. Another £6m was spent on Zufari, although this was due to be bigger, funds were sadly diverted from the project by MMM to fix issues with Smiler. £4m on Wild Asia. For example, pre floatation, Merlin invested around £20m in Chessington over the course of 4 years, the funds were allocated I believe at the end of the 2009 season following the success of the SeaLife Centre. Chessington works very differently from the other RTPs in terms of investment strategy due to the zoo. They just essentially get a pot over say 4 years and earmark where to spend it themselves.
I hope the new management will see a significant attitude change towards investments, general upkeep and overall management of the UK parks but I can't help but think that may be a little naive.
There's been a structural change within the Merlin RTPs teams fairly recently, with the removal of the Divisional Director role, I now believe that the former Director at Chessington now has a dual role in charge of both Thorpe Park and Chessington. I believe this will likely lead to positive change as Chessington went from strength to strength under his stewardship. As for the other aspect regarding what has changed regarding Merlin to warrant this change in investment strategy, just look at the recent Project Amazon Consultation for that.
This investment is critical to the Resort’s recovery from the impacts to the business from the COVID-19 pandemic.
This statement won't just relate to Chessington. From what I gathered in the room at the Consultation, Investment is coming to all of the parks to help bolster and maintain visited numbers. There is huge pent up demand for days out following the lockdowns, Merlin hopes to capitalise on this by investing to encourage repeat visits and hotel stays etc.
What is the expectation for Drayton? I know they have new owners following administration and have Apocalypse for sale.
Honestly, I was just making an educated guess. With the expected removal of Apocalypse and likely Pandemonium that'll leave a nice plot to build on. I also expect the removal of the Flying Dutchman, due to the construction of a Waveswinger for this season over at the other side of the park. It wouldn't make sense to have two very similar rides in one area. This would extend this plot to one suited to a relatively large scale attraction in my view.
