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Chessington receiving 2 new rides in 2022 alongside possible Pirate’s Cove retheme

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
It would appear that Chessington is installing 2 new rides in Pirate’s Cove for 2022, according to Chessington Buzz:
https://chessingtonbuzz.com/news/two-new-rides-for-2022/

The planning application was submitted today, and the two rides are:
  • A Zamperla Watermania (basically a mix of a teacups and a splash battle) that features water guns around the outside and a nautical feel, with a lighthouse tower operating console. The ride is to be named Bobbing Barrels.
  • A Zamperla Rockin’ Tug, thought to be Timber Tug Boat from Thorpe Park, that is being named Trawler Trouble.
  • Some of the artwork has also spawned a rumour that Pirate’s Cove is being rethemed to more of a nautical theme as opposed to a pirate theme. That would make sense given the general aesthetic of The Blue Barnacle compared to its predecessor, in my opinion.
Isn’t this interesting! What do you guys think?

It does certainly appear as if the level of investment into Chessington is stepping up somewhat, with these new rides now and Project Amazon in 2023!
 
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I think it is good for Chessington, and I like the direction that the park is adding more rides which will help spread the queues around on busy days.

That being said I do question the logic of installing Timber Tug at Chessington, as the park does already have Griffin’s Galleon which does pretty much the same ride experience over in LOTD. I always though Tug was better suited at Thorpe than Lumber Jump (High Striker), and probably would have suited Amity next to Storm Surge better.
 
It’s great Chessington receiving some new rides this season when it was expected there would be nothing with the B&M coming.

It seems like an after thought though, I’ve never known a planning application submitted a month before the park opens?
 
spicy said:
It’s great Chessington receiving some new rides this season when it was expected there would be nothing with the B&M coming.

It seems like an after thought though, I’ve never known a planning application submitted a month before the park opens?
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From what I understand, it's certainly not an afterthought - additional rides and a tart up of Pirates Cove has been the plan for 2022 for a while now. Quite why it's taken this long for a planning application to go in / the rides to open in June I'm less clear on.

I've heard many rumours about both Timber Tug and Lumber Jump moving to Chessington from Thorpe for this investment. Arguably Chessington need neither ride since they have those ride types already. So maybe the delay is a knock on effect from indecision between Thorpe and Chessington about what rides to keep and move?

In any case, nice to see the area develop. Getting "new new" stuff is always good, especially as Chessington had had years of neglect and rethemes and little else. The park is light on water rides though, so will be interesting to see how the Watermania copes with queues on busy days
 
^ JoshC knows that. He even said as much. Essentially it’s been rumoured Chessington was getting both rides. I’d been hinted at it for at least the last couple of months. Glad they decided not to move Lumber Jump.
 
Coasterfreck said:
That being said I do question the logic of installing Timber Tug at Chessington, as the park does already have Griffin’s Galleon which does pretty much the same ride experience over in LOTD.
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This was my first thought, I know Griffins tends to get forgotten about but did the park also forget it exists? ;)

Always good to see more attractions being added though, they need the added capacity. Also struggling to fully place where these are going. The tug looks like it's blocking one side of the game stalls building and the other seems to be on the other side, where the football game used to be? Intrigued to see how this will look either way and how the paths will be affected.

I dunno, you wait for your home park to get one addition for years and then you get a whole bunch within 2!
 
peep said:
Also struggling to fully place where these are going. The tug looks like it's blocking one side of the game stalls building and the other seems to be on the other side, where the football game used to be? Intrigued to see how this will look either way and how the paths will be affected.
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Basically the rockin’ tug will go on the site of the current basketball games stall opposite the games building. The water mania like you say will replace the Goal Striker building as well as the storage shed next to it.
 
^ Is the storage shed the old Chessington Railroad station?

Hope they don’t demolish that.
 
spicy said:
^ Is the storage shed the old Chessington Railroad station?

Hope they don’t demolish that.
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Sort of. Most of the former station was removed when Dragons Fury was installed. The only small parts of it left is the current location of a set of lockers next to Elmer’s Flying Jumbos.

The new Bobbing Barrels ride will sit near that plot near to the lockers building. There’s a planned greenery buffer between the two plots, so it shouldn’t result in any sort of removal of the remaining parts of the station.
 
Interesting that they've already started ground works. If that first image is the ground work placement of the rocking tug, what are they going to do with those game stalls? Having those shutters down doesn't look great and I don't think the planning docs suggested they would become the queueline or op booth.
 
peep said:
Interesting that they've already started ground works. If that first image is the ground work placement of the rocking tug, what are they going to do with those game stalls? Having those shutters down doesn't look great and I don't think the planning docs suggested they would become the queueline or op booth.
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From my understanding, there will be theming and potentially some animals going into the arcade unit. These are to be confirmed, however.
 
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Seems like such a random place to just plonk the rock n tug down in front of the game stalls?
0deeb23ca4a6765dd6be060b582cb101.jpg
 
There's also a new Bubbleworks "easter egg" in the area that is terribly on the nose, but I do love it when parks remind guests of how must better their rides used to be, and that they would have been better off visiting a decade earlier.

But in fairness, this new area looks... Fine? It's a bit low effort but I imagine the budget wasn't big at all. I'm glad the park has another water ride, even if it's not a very interesting one, because that part really lacks them and it's an issue now the weather is getting hot like this more and more often.
 
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