I went to Chessington World of Adventures yesterday for the first time in 9 years, and I managed to get on a new coaster as well as two previously ridden ones for the first time in quite some time!
New coasters
Mandrill Mayhem (#111)
I was interested to ride Mandrill Mayhem, as I was very interested to see how a B&M family launched shuttle wing coaster rode; it's certainly a unique ride, and it's been getting fairly positive reviews so far! However, I'm afraid to say that I was somewhat disappointed overall. In fairness, it starts off really well; the swing launch sequence provides two nice, reasonably potent launches that are great fun, and the pops of airtime provided by the dip and Junior Scorpion Tail in the back are also quite good fun, with the Junior Scorpion Tail towards the back of the train providing some nice floater airtime. I was less enamoured after that, though, and for multiple reasons. Firstly, for lack of a better term, I just found the bulk of the layout after the initial swing launch sequence a little bit... bland. I'm a firm believer that a ride does not have to be intense to be great fun, and I've ridden plenty of similarly-targeted family thrill coasters that really pop and are great fun, but Mandrill's layout wasn't really popping for me in quite the same way, if I'm being honest. Secondly, I wasn't a fan at all of the stall at the top of the main helix; the helix itself was perfectly fine, but I found the stall at the top pretty uncomfortable to experience. Finally, I found there to be quite a noticeable rattle, and I found some of the elements to awkwardly exacerbate this. For instance, the train seemed to almost shudder up and down during some of the more dynamic moments, such as the s-bend heading towards the principal helix, and the whole backwards lap felt a bit awkward from a rattle perspective. I came off with a bit of a headache on all three laps. Overall, I found Mandrill Mayhem to be OK, but not something I overly rated; while the ride has its definite good points, I was somewhat disappointed with the experience overall. Perhaps I'm just a bit out of touch, though; I'm hardly the target demographic, and the kids seemed to be enjoying it, which is the important thing after all!
5/10, #61/111
Existing coasters
Vampire
I didn't remember overly rating this at all back in 2014, as I remember it being rough and slow, but I have to say that it was a fair amount better than I'd remembered! Swinging through the trees is good fun, and the ride definitely has some surprising moments of speed and thrill for a family coaster; I particularly liked some of the low-to-the-ground turns, where you really picked up some speed! It was also a lot less rough than I'd remembered, and overall, it was a perfectly fun family coaster and I enjoyed my lap! My critiques from 2014 do still stand to a degree, though. The ride does have odd pacing, with a few pretty slow moments, and while it was not nearly as rough as I'd remembered, there are still a couple of moments of mild headbanging and some bits where the train seems to shunt forward a bit awkwardly. Overall, though, I definitely enjoyed Vampire; it was a good, fun family coaster with some surprising moments of speed and thrill!
6/10, #50/111
Dragon's Fury
I remembered this being my favourite coaster at Chessington back in 2014, but weirdly, I didn't remember an awful lot beyond that other than that it was good and I liked it more than Spinball Whizzer. I did like it a fair amount less than I'd remembered, unfortunately, but that wasn't necessarily unexpected for me as spinning coasters, particularly the Maurer variety, aren't really my favourite ride style these days. To Dragon's Fury's credit, I did think that the layout was very strong; I really liked how long and winding it was, and there were also some surprising moments of airtime! It was also quite rough, however, with a fair few moments that threw me around quite uncomfortably in a similar fashion to Spinball Whizzer (albeit not to quite the same extent), and overall, these Maurer spinning coasters aren't something I'm absolutely huge on these days, I'm afraid, as I do not have the strongest stomach for spinning and don't find really intense spinning the most enjoyable sensation.
4/10, #76/111
) follows into the cool bat cave then into the great quick loading station.
. Then your vehicle turns to a closed door which then opens and you go through a short tunnel with some "scanning" lasers and your back into the station.
Thanks!