These are reviews of Chessington's (in Greater London, England) new/updated attractions. (Sorry, I'm bad at intros.)
Croc Drop
This is the major addition for this year, a small family drop tower replacing the park's top spin. The main entrance is integrated into a former gift shop, and is rather good. The queue is rather barren, and has little shade. One of the weaker queues in the park. Also, the ride's backstory is poorly explained - by which, I mean the ride slogan is the only info on the backstory during the queue and is only explained at the end.
The ride itself, however is brilliantly themed - meant to be the Temple of Sobek, and they do it really well. The sequence is quite tame, and you never drop more than 2/3rds down the tower. Also, the views are great.
Overall, Croc Drop is a good addition to the park, albeit nothing amazing. If you're at the park I'd recommend it, but only if there's a short queue.
Blue Barnacle
This is the parks new Pirate Ship, replacing an older pirate ship which had maintenance issues which i never rode. The queue line is brilliant, snaking around the hillside. The attraction itself is fun, one of the better pirate ships I've ridden.
Also, new area entrance signs have been installed, plus some repaints in Mexicana and at Dragon's Fury's Entrance.
A visual accompaniment for the latest episode with David Sims.
Basics:
RIDES:
- Professor Burp's Bubbleworks
- Gruffalo River Ride Adventure -- the less-loved replacement of "Bubbleworks"
- Terror Tomb featuring "Abdab" -- the awesome part happens around 6:06
- BONUS: Resurrecting Abdab
- Remeses Revenge -- top spin ride
- Dangerous-looking Magic Carpet ride that David mentions
- Dragon Falls -- log flume
- Vampire Ride
- The 5th Dimension -- featuring "Zappomatic" tv-repair animatronic
- BONUS: Nickelodeon Muzzy language-teaching commercial -- Je Suis La Jeune Fille!
This was such a staple ride of Chessington World of Adventures in England, and they have recently got rid of it after slowly killing it in the last few years! Might be a good episode looking at the nostalgia factor, commercial rinsing of the ride and would be a great dark ride addition to Defunctland! (Also WHY did they remove Ripsaw from Alton Towers?!? Was so good!)
Comped is outside Chessington World of Adventures. Why? Because Comped, of course, is a fan of all sorts of theme parks. He even looks like a theme park character. While he's walking to the ticket area, a young boy runs up to him.
Boy: Mummy! There's a hedgehog escaped from the zoo!
Comped: I'm not from the zoo!
Boy: It's talking to me!
Now the boy's mother appears. She's annoyed, and holding a cup of brewed beans. Why people drink that shite nobody knows, but Americans probably have something to do with it.
Mother: Calm down Billferd. No animals talk. Especially zoo animals. Damn child's been watching too much of those damn talking American animal shows on the television.
Comped: God Save the Queen!
Comped looks cute, as always. The mother looks as if Comped had turned into Pennywise and offered her up someone to eat.
Mother: There must be something in my coffee... SOMEONE SLIPPED SOMETHING IN MY COFFEE! THERE'S A HEDGEHOG OVER HERE AND IT's A UNIONIST!
A crowd begins to gather.
Comped: Nobody slipped something in your coffee, at least I don't think. And yes, I told her God Save the Queen. It is a standard greeting for persons who do not know each other and want to establish a culture of mutual respect around a common figure of public life and endearment.
Comped wouldn't know for sure. He wasn't there when she brewed her beans. Or was he?
Mother: The hedgehog won't talk to it if you don't talk to it. The hedgehog won't talk to it if you don't talk to it....
The crowd looks at the woman as if she had just suggested that she ought to strip naked and play Parcheesi with two married professors of around the senior age, while the crowd make the freshest chocolate-covered creamed corn and they all sing songs from The Book Of Common Prayer. The boy breaks the uncomfortable tension with a really bad idea.
Billy: Mummy - we should take the hedgehog back to the zoo!
Mother: OK Billy. We can take him back. Maybe the hedgehog will go back to normal if we take it to somebody who can put ti back in its enclosure.
The crowd expresses their displeasure at the idea.
Comped: I am not from the zoo! I already told your son that! I am a bloody Duke! The Most Noble Duke of Abercorn! I was knighted for my services to communities in Northern Ireland! I was First Minister of Northern Ireland! I was literally on TV a few days ago talking about the 2030 World Cup bid! I am not a zoo animal!
Man: The little hedgehog is right! My cousin in Northern Ire
... keep reading on reddit ➡There was a great little documentary about the 1994 ride Terror Tomb on YouTube that seems to have been made private. It was up for a number of years, does anyone have a copy? Would love to rewatch.
