A snow blizzard welcomed me when I arrived at Chessington, just in time for the first opening ' slot' of their new ride - Zufari. Chessington have been limiting the opening times of this new attraction to a 1 hour slot in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon, to help the animals gradually get used a vehicle plowing through their space every couple of minutes.
I anticipated these limited opening times of a new ride during school holidays were going to cause a bit of pandemonium with people rushing to it and forming mega long queues. But thankfully this was not the case; I only had to queue for 30 mins - perhaps due to the extremely cold weather putting visitors off, or perhaps because it's not that easy to find the entrance to Zufari! (Who would expect it's next to Rameses Revenge?!)
Similarly to Nemesis: Sub-Terra; Zufari is themed around an external research group. This time it's named 'A.C.R.E' (which stands for African Conservation Research and Exploration'); the wooden, cattle pen queue line features empty barrels, bins and hard cases with the A.C.R.E logo sprayed on. It's nice to see they've made a bit of an effort with the queue line, and the gentle, African-style music works well in the queue.
There's a green screen photo booth prior to the rides pre-show, but the end result looks pretty tacky. Then it's onto the pre-show room, again, similar to Sub Terra, people are batched and allocated rows; but this time they sit in front of a large screen. The pre-show film begins with a man (can't remember his name) waffling on about us being part of the research group; then an animated lemur takes over. This lemur looks absolutely rubbish. He goes on about everyone needing to be brave and love animals, and hinting about the 'forbidden cave' which we must not go into...subtle. During this part I found myself wondering why they hadn't appeared to have made any effort with the visuals of the animated lemur - his mouth wasn't even remotely in sync with the voice over. Then you realise, when the lemur starts calling upon people in the audience, that there is a person voicing him live. The kids all seemed to love this, as the lemur made them stand up and do monkey impressions etc.
The pre-show drags on a bit too long, and then you get dispatched into an all-terrain vehicle which inexplicably takes FOREVER to load. Then you're driven up a hill, where you're given an excellent view of...JCB diggers! Mud! Mounds of dirt! It looks like a building site. The Flamingo who we we're supposed to see weren't out in such cold weather; this was also the case with the White Rhino, the Giraffes, the Nile Lechwe, the Blesbok. So, in total, on Zufari I got to see: 2 Zebra.
But I understand it was too cold for the animals, so wasn't really disappointed (although a lot of kids on board were). It was more the shortness of the safari that left me thinking 'is that really it?!'
In comparison to the safari rides at Disney's Animal Kingdom and Busch Gardens Tampa, Zufari is such a let down. The animal areas are much smaller, it feels as though you're driving through their zoo enclosure rather than plains where they can roam around like at Animal Kingdom.
There are only 5 animals on display within Zufari; before I knew it - we were at the 'big finale' cave with spooky wall markings which we weren't supposed to enter. Cue: action music in the vehicle. I was quite excited to see what was going to happen. There's a bit of steam then some water falls on top of the vehicle. That's it. No, really.
I watched people leaving the ride, and no one looked impressed. I think they would have done better to just expand the zoo with the new animals; so people don't have to queue up just to get a glimpse of them on the ride.
I had low expectations of Zufari and I was still disappointed. But luckily, my spirits were cheered when Chessington opened the coasters. (They have been shut some days this week due to the weather, and the snow was making it look unlikely that they would open.)
Headed to Dragon's Fury first, it only had a 20 min queue, which is great considering it's school holidays. Dragon's Fury is easily one of my favorite Maurer spinners, I love the airtime hill and the horseshoe. Always a fun one to ride.
Next up was the Kobra (ugh, I resent having to mis-spell that. Why do parks think it's cool to spell things incorrectly?!) It had a really vocal ride op working on it. She did a lot of singing, and chanting, and asking people to put their hands up etc. She moaned when people didn't join in with her - that was the only thing that was irritating about it. Fair play if you have the confidence to act like a Funfair ride op, but just be prepared that not everyone wants to sing round after round of 'we love the cobra' whilst on the ride.
That said, I always forget how much I enjoy this ride. There's some nice floater air when it gets going, and it's a good choice of fun, but not thrilling, ride that works well in this family-orientated park.
Had a bit of Tomb Blaster action after the Kobra; it took a while to board despite a very short queue, because many of the cars on each train were out of action. I'm guessing this is due to the guns not working? Whatever the problem, it's something I would have thought they would fix over closed season.
I then dashed across to Wild Wood for the Animal Antics show, as I was really excited about getting to see a Binturong out and about. (Usually when you see them in zoos they are curled up in a tight little ball) Got there too early, so went in Hocus Pocus Hall for the first time. It's a bit too garish, with all it's neon 3D paint, for me; but hey, it killed some time.
The Animal Antics show began with my favorite animal - the Binturong <3 It was lovely to see the way it moves and climbs. Being the only person who correctly identified it when the keeper asked what animal it was; I got invited up to feed it and stroke it! This made my day and was a lovely experience. The show also featured some cute little grey rats and a Coati. The animal trainer was really knowledgeable and didn't just dumb things down for the kids. All in all, a great presentation.
Then I watched the Penguin Feed and went to the Children's Zoo, where they have one of my other favorite animals - Pygmy Goats! Always nice to get to give them a cuddle. For the rest of the afternoon I wandered around all the various animal sections - Waynama Reserve, Trail of the Kings and Creepy Caves; which are all excellent.
Finished off my day in the newly-refurbed Transylvania area. I was dreading it a bit because I loved the areas old gothic theme. But the new theme actually looks alright. They've painted the old Burger King castle centerpiece - which is now Chessington's own brand Vampire Burger Kitchen - a nice purple and black; and its' pointed roof means it hasn't lost much of the Transylvania-esque charm.
Decided to try some of the new food at Vampire Burger Kitchen, and even by shoddy theme park standards I've come to expect, the food in here is terrible. They were clearly having teething problems with their method of service as a relatively short queue took a long time to serve. Lot's of angry mums and dads we're complaining at the poor young staff - "WHERE'S BURGER KING?! WHAT'S THE HOLD UP?! I WANT TO SEE A MANAGER!" etc. I always find witnessing this sort of aggressive complaining infuriating, as it's clearly not the till operators fault that Chessington are now attempting to follow the Disney route of creating their own in-park food brands.
I ordered a quarter pounder meal, which was cold when I received it. The wafer thin disc of meat that was in my burger way chewy and tasted of cardboard; and the whole thing was padded out with excessive amounts of lettuce which I had to sacrifice my minuscule cheese slice to scrape off. The portion of chips was tiny; and I didn't feel remotely full afterwards. Chessington really need to sort this place out if they're going to continue to charge more than Burger King for something so much worse.
Finished up the day with the weird and wonderful Bubbleworks, then a slow-moving queue for the Vampire (as they were only running one train). The queue line for The Vampire has seen better days. The purple paint on the railings has chipped off in a lot of places, the graveyardy bits look unkempt and are overgrown with weeds, and the TV screens are still showing ads for the non-existent Burger King!
Still, after one of those annoying queues where you just stand still for ages, we made it onto the back row of The Vampire.
The majority of this coaster is good fun, but the little bit just before the MCBR where it jolts around gets me shouting in pain every time. I seem to be the only person who finds this part really rough though.
And there we have it, end of my first theme park visit of this season. There's certainly still room for improvement at Chessington in 2013; but I had an enjoyable day nevertheless.
I anticipated these limited opening times of a new ride during school holidays were going to cause a bit of pandemonium with people rushing to it and forming mega long queues. But thankfully this was not the case; I only had to queue for 30 mins - perhaps due to the extremely cold weather putting visitors off, or perhaps because it's not that easy to find the entrance to Zufari! (Who would expect it's next to Rameses Revenge?!)
Similarly to Nemesis: Sub-Terra; Zufari is themed around an external research group. This time it's named 'A.C.R.E' (which stands for African Conservation Research and Exploration'); the wooden, cattle pen queue line features empty barrels, bins and hard cases with the A.C.R.E logo sprayed on. It's nice to see they've made a bit of an effort with the queue line, and the gentle, African-style music works well in the queue.
There's a green screen photo booth prior to the rides pre-show, but the end result looks pretty tacky. Then it's onto the pre-show room, again, similar to Sub Terra, people are batched and allocated rows; but this time they sit in front of a large screen. The pre-show film begins with a man (can't remember his name) waffling on about us being part of the research group; then an animated lemur takes over. This lemur looks absolutely rubbish. He goes on about everyone needing to be brave and love animals, and hinting about the 'forbidden cave' which we must not go into...subtle. During this part I found myself wondering why they hadn't appeared to have made any effort with the visuals of the animated lemur - his mouth wasn't even remotely in sync with the voice over. Then you realise, when the lemur starts calling upon people in the audience, that there is a person voicing him live. The kids all seemed to love this, as the lemur made them stand up and do monkey impressions etc.
The pre-show drags on a bit too long, and then you get dispatched into an all-terrain vehicle which inexplicably takes FOREVER to load. Then you're driven up a hill, where you're given an excellent view of...JCB diggers! Mud! Mounds of dirt! It looks like a building site. The Flamingo who we we're supposed to see weren't out in such cold weather; this was also the case with the White Rhino, the Giraffes, the Nile Lechwe, the Blesbok. So, in total, on Zufari I got to see: 2 Zebra.
But I understand it was too cold for the animals, so wasn't really disappointed (although a lot of kids on board were). It was more the shortness of the safari that left me thinking 'is that really it?!'
In comparison to the safari rides at Disney's Animal Kingdom and Busch Gardens Tampa, Zufari is such a let down. The animal areas are much smaller, it feels as though you're driving through their zoo enclosure rather than plains where they can roam around like at Animal Kingdom.
There are only 5 animals on display within Zufari; before I knew it - we were at the 'big finale' cave with spooky wall markings which we weren't supposed to enter. Cue: action music in the vehicle. I was quite excited to see what was going to happen. There's a bit of steam then some water falls on top of the vehicle. That's it. No, really.
I watched people leaving the ride, and no one looked impressed. I think they would have done better to just expand the zoo with the new animals; so people don't have to queue up just to get a glimpse of them on the ride.
I had low expectations of Zufari and I was still disappointed. But luckily, my spirits were cheered when Chessington opened the coasters. (They have been shut some days this week due to the weather, and the snow was making it look unlikely that they would open.)
Headed to Dragon's Fury first, it only had a 20 min queue, which is great considering it's school holidays. Dragon's Fury is easily one of my favorite Maurer spinners, I love the airtime hill and the horseshoe. Always a fun one to ride.
Next up was the Kobra (ugh, I resent having to mis-spell that. Why do parks think it's cool to spell things incorrectly?!) It had a really vocal ride op working on it. She did a lot of singing, and chanting, and asking people to put their hands up etc. She moaned when people didn't join in with her - that was the only thing that was irritating about it. Fair play if you have the confidence to act like a Funfair ride op, but just be prepared that not everyone wants to sing round after round of 'we love the cobra' whilst on the ride.
That said, I always forget how much I enjoy this ride. There's some nice floater air when it gets going, and it's a good choice of fun, but not thrilling, ride that works well in this family-orientated park.
Had a bit of Tomb Blaster action after the Kobra; it took a while to board despite a very short queue, because many of the cars on each train were out of action. I'm guessing this is due to the guns not working? Whatever the problem, it's something I would have thought they would fix over closed season.
I then dashed across to Wild Wood for the Animal Antics show, as I was really excited about getting to see a Binturong out and about. (Usually when you see them in zoos they are curled up in a tight little ball) Got there too early, so went in Hocus Pocus Hall for the first time. It's a bit too garish, with all it's neon 3D paint, for me; but hey, it killed some time.
The Animal Antics show began with my favorite animal - the Binturong <3 It was lovely to see the way it moves and climbs. Being the only person who correctly identified it when the keeper asked what animal it was; I got invited up to feed it and stroke it! This made my day and was a lovely experience. The show also featured some cute little grey rats and a Coati. The animal trainer was really knowledgeable and didn't just dumb things down for the kids. All in all, a great presentation.
Then I watched the Penguin Feed and went to the Children's Zoo, where they have one of my other favorite animals - Pygmy Goats! Always nice to get to give them a cuddle. For the rest of the afternoon I wandered around all the various animal sections - Waynama Reserve, Trail of the Kings and Creepy Caves; which are all excellent.
Finished off my day in the newly-refurbed Transylvania area. I was dreading it a bit because I loved the areas old gothic theme. But the new theme actually looks alright. They've painted the old Burger King castle centerpiece - which is now Chessington's own brand Vampire Burger Kitchen - a nice purple and black; and its' pointed roof means it hasn't lost much of the Transylvania-esque charm.
Decided to try some of the new food at Vampire Burger Kitchen, and even by shoddy theme park standards I've come to expect, the food in here is terrible. They were clearly having teething problems with their method of service as a relatively short queue took a long time to serve. Lot's of angry mums and dads we're complaining at the poor young staff - "WHERE'S BURGER KING?! WHAT'S THE HOLD UP?! I WANT TO SEE A MANAGER!" etc. I always find witnessing this sort of aggressive complaining infuriating, as it's clearly not the till operators fault that Chessington are now attempting to follow the Disney route of creating their own in-park food brands.
I ordered a quarter pounder meal, which was cold when I received it. The wafer thin disc of meat that was in my burger way chewy and tasted of cardboard; and the whole thing was padded out with excessive amounts of lettuce which I had to sacrifice my minuscule cheese slice to scrape off. The portion of chips was tiny; and I didn't feel remotely full afterwards. Chessington really need to sort this place out if they're going to continue to charge more than Burger King for something so much worse.
Finished up the day with the weird and wonderful Bubbleworks, then a slow-moving queue for the Vampire (as they were only running one train). The queue line for The Vampire has seen better days. The purple paint on the railings has chipped off in a lot of places, the graveyardy bits look unkempt and are overgrown with weeds, and the TV screens are still showing ads for the non-existent Burger King!
Still, after one of those annoying queues where you just stand still for ages, we made it onto the back row of The Vampire.
The majority of this coaster is good fun, but the little bit just before the MCBR where it jolts around gets me shouting in pain every time. I seem to be the only person who finds this part really rough though.
And there we have it, end of my first theme park visit of this season. There's certainly still room for improvement at Chessington in 2013; but I had an enjoyable day nevertheless.
I thought it meant 'Post-Trip Report'! (as opposed to people posting reports of week long trips whilst they were still on them.) I still can't figure out how to get photos up on here...