Going off the 2013 Chessington World of Adventures season, Vampire is now down to one train, the Runaway Train was out of use all season due to remodelling and Rameses Revenge was only open for a very short time before failing spectacularly.
At Christmas time the Creaky Café caught fire, damaging the adjacent ride Bubbleworks, and now Chessington have admitted that the re-theming of Dragon Falls will not now start until 2015.
The running costs of the park must be astronomical due to the care and resource needed for the animals but it seems that the budget for the amusement/ride part of the park is been sacrificed to find this. Chessington have invested heavily in Zufari – Ride Into Africa and all the animal pens around it, but when I visited the park in September the special effects inside the cave were not working.
Even the general maintenance of the park seems to suffer at times. The road to the car park and the car park itself lack any formal covering and are nothing but a dirt track full of pot holes and grass fields.
One thing that does stick out was the gents toilets outside of the main shop. In 2012, one of the cubicles was out of use all season and only came back in use in 2013. A full year to fix a toilet. Even B&Q could have done that quicker.
It’s a shame to see what is a great family park fall into this state of neglect as it makes you wonder about the animal welfare that the visitors don’t get to see.
John Ellison