It’s a food and beverage place for vegetarians I believe

Chessington not having the best of half-terms. Beginning of the week a Tiger Falls boat got stuck on the first hill and a motor went pop on Scorpion Express.

Now they've had a power cut caused by an issue somewhere offsite.

https://twitter.com/CWOA/status/1002553568019218434

Edit: UK Power Network who are the distributor for the area suggesting it may be off until 16:30-17:30.

I've just heard about this.. bad enough, but at least it isn't Chessington's fault. 

Then there are like this trying to give the park bad press because of it. Grow up you stupid child! 

Could understand anger if they don't handle it well - but it looks like the emergency lighting came on in the control booth, so I would assume that everything has failed exactly as it should.

It just annoys me that regardless of how well Chessington handles this, there are people out there who will try their very best to dramatise it and get the story in to the news just because they can...

For sure. 

In a more light-hearted part of this, apparently the person dressed as the Gruffalo is giving it their all as one of the only sources of entertainment in the park.

Haha, I can just imagine it!

And, update from Chessington – they're going to revalidate everyone's tickets! 

The Mirror, the BBC and the Telegraph are now all publishing stories because of that idiotic child I linked in one of my above posts.

Well it is at least more newsworthy than ride goes through normal shut down procedure from yesterday!

Did like the line in the Mirror, reportedly a member of staff telling a guest that the animals were their priority. Can kind of imagine someone complaining to a keeper who is having a very bad day and does have more important things to be thinking of.

Sadly, reports that the car park barriers are causing issues... because of course they would.

"Animals are the priority", hahaha!!  

In seriousness, whilst there wasn't much the park could do about the power cut, the parking issues really do need sorted out now.

Just seen one photo with the barrier removed. Maybe with tools, maybe with someone's car, who knows? (Probably tools )

Robert.W wrote:

I've just heard about this.. bad enough, but at least it isn't Chessington's fault. 

Then there are like this trying to give the park bad press because of it. Grow up you stupid child! 

That parade of news media, wanting to use his photo, is just ugly. Is there a story here? Maybe for the local news, but its nothing to get that excited by.

Was at Chessington today. Thought staff that we encountered did well given tough circumstances.
We had just finished riding Monkey Swingers and were walking towards the sea lion show. We walked past Danny Dyer (of all people, he’d just been doing a photo shoot we think at the penguin beach, probably for Love Island promo), were the other side of the hedge to Rattlesnake, when suddenly there was a bit of noise - all the air brakes in the block sections must have had power cut to them and all cars stopped. It was very quiet all of a sudden. This was at around 2.45. We walked into the market square and there were lots of employees running to various locations, we then noticed all the screens, signs, rides we could see were not working. We went and waited for the sea lions where we were told that the whole park had no power and the show wouldn’t happen as they had no microphones. After that everyone was heading for the zoo areas! It was therefore extremely busy in all these areas. We left the Park at about 3.45 and getting out of the MAP car park took a little while but the staff on duty were doing their best against the impatient drivers that queuing is clearly beneath! Good day despite the power cut.

Thanks for sharing your day. It is good to hear directly from someone who was there and acknowledges that staff done well in what we must admit are very unusual circumstances!

From your report it sounds like the staff went straight into emergency mode, which is great to hear. A shame that guest behaviour maybe became the bigger issue later on though.

Extremely good going by the park staff and management yesterday by the sounds of it. It's one thing to plan and train for such an issue, quite another to have to face it with a park full of guests.

The staff just did their best in an impossible situation. We saw the lift hill of Dragons Fury, and the people stuck there. Staff were with them and they were ferrying water to them.

The park was busy, some longish queues. Zufari throughout was not good as it was running in two trucks, but queues ranged from 45-90 mins on the “big rides”. Tiger Falls broke down at about 2pm and people were evacuated from the lift hills. Also, there were big queues at the food outlets due to the VISA problems.
I think these things just put stress onto guests and staff, then the power cut made some people boil over sadly. The way some people speak to staff (not just here but in general) is just appalling. There is a problem, staff are working hard to solve it and keep people informed and calm, they don’t need people who think that they are somehow “owed by the world” speaking to them rudely, abusively and unreasonably.
3 hours was lost of the day, people are getting a whole day ticket to return (yes, travel costs, days off etc.). The last thing that Merlin needed. 

We're trained on how to deal with ride breakdowns - it's an often occurrence for rides, though every ride on park being stuck at the same time is pretty unique. xP 

FerretTale wrote:

We're trained on how to deal with ride breakdowns - it's an often occurrence for rides, though every ride on park being stuck at the same time is pretty unique. xP 

Well done to you all

Just remember management might lurk here

In a separate issue, Chessington have joined the Merlin car parks that don't want to let people out club...

https://twitter.com/wozmcwill/status/10 ... 06176?s=19

Other comments saying moved 20m in over an hour.

Had a really good visit on Thursday. Queues were non-existent which was good, but also sad as I love chessington and don't want it closing/losing investment.

Tiger Rock was a lot better than I thought it would be, although disappointed with the lack of mist in the drop, and imo they could have done more with the tunnel - I think keeping the dragon would have been good.

Tomb blaster used to be one of my favourite rides as a kid, but the music needs turning up (and there's no music at the start) along with switching the queue TVs on. Im glad the rock bit at the beginning is working again though, never thought they'd have bothered fixing that.

Rameses revenge was closed due to it being a Thursday - they had a staff member outside saying it will open on friday, not sure how they could justify having someone there the entire day, could have paid a couple more staff members and have it open. Not to sure why they don't open it for a few hours on off-peak days or something? Still Im glad its still there, and hope it doesn't go away anytime soon. Although Im guessing its days are limited as it doesn't really fit in with the parks target audience which is a shame. 

Finally, Vampire was on two trains, but one was being sent around empty. Is there any reason for this, is it not simple to take the other train out of service for off peak times? Found it amazingly smooth in the front row, but awful in the middle. I know its getting really old now, but I can't see any reason for them to remove it? Surely they can just replace/refurbish the trains if need be. It has one of my favourite track layouts, the way it interacts with the scenery and has quite a lengthly ride time. Oh and also why is it when the train comes into the station it 'stops' three times, seems really inefficient and pointless?

Oh and also why is it when the train comes into the station it 'stops' three times, seems really inefficient and pointless?

The station track is sloped, so the train relies on gravity to move. The brakes stop the train overshooting. If it does, the restraints will not open.