The park is just not given the budget to keep the ride looking nice. For example the chandeliers are still sitting by the brake run. On our event a few years ago the head ride engineer said they had hoped to put them back, but I don't think it is really their responsibility to maintain things like that. Similar Merlin wide really..

It is a shame because it takes away the character of the ride and it's not as impressive as it used to be.  I guess Merlin have to distribute their budgets carefully but to have some TLC given to Vampire would be great.

Vampire seemed to be running on a skeleton crew today. Both trains were running, but they seemed to be down 1 or 2 staff. This was requiring the staff member on the outdoor gate holding point to also become the batcher in the station and ensure the last rows were left free for ride access. So they were having to move between both posts to keep the station filled up with guests.

Sadly when I went a few weeks ago I saw other issues with how the station was being operated and managed then as well.

That sounds the same staffing as an offpeak day a few weeks ago, only thing was they forgot to come and get us from the holding point! 15 minutes later everyone decided to just go ahead anyway. 

What is the point of the holding point anyway, is it to restrict the number of people inside the building? 

streetmagix wrote:

What is the point of the holding point anyway, is it to restrict the number of people inside the building? 

Yes, I believe the corridor is meant to be kept clear at all times. Back when the ride was marketed more as a thrill ride than a family ride and the station played the music much louder, more people were let into the station but they never had them queing in the tunnel. They also had at least 4 crew checking restraints and they would run the length of the station checking them.

The gate is also something that has been there since the Tussauds days. There also used to be a tree full of chewing gum just before the gate too.

Anytime I look at the Chessington app, the queue time for Vampire is hurrendous. It's been getting closer to the 3 hour mark this last week.

Even in peak summer during Tussauds days, I'm sure it was rare to even get to the 2 hour mark. At this point they either need to purchase a third train again, completely rethink the rides operations, or invest in a new high capacity attraction. This is just crazy for a regional family theme park.

I think they are in need of another train and another high capacity attraction to be honest.

Chessington are moving in the right direction and I like the way that they are refurbishing attractions, but this will only go some way. Apart from Tomb Blaster, they will have to move on to smaller attractions soon, so something new would help!

I really enjoy Vampire though, but hate the queue times as they are so hit and miss. I know Dan and I did it a year or so back and the times were completely off and we got on straight away and kept going round.

The Chessington queue boards have definitely been on the over cautious side more often than not in previous years. Could often find a 60-70 minute Vampire queue was only 40.

But, after I laughed at the Tomb Blaster 40 minute queue a few weeks ago, and then queued for nearly 40 minutes with barely 100 people in front of me, I don't know how over cautious they are this year.

It’s certainly not running very good operations these days. Back when I was working on the ride as an operator/attendant we were running a 3 train operation, it was then decided that as sometimes the trains were not dispatched quickly enough (due to guests not getting on quickly, needing to re-check restraints etc) the 3rd trains would frequently stop on the 2nd lift hill and put pressure on the chain. The chain then snapped (not endangering anyone) but the decision was then made to not run a 3 train operation for the future, following this occurrence. It has been running on a 1 train operation several days this season however which given the length of the ride and loading means that it gets far too long a queue even on off peak days let alone on busy peak days the park recently has been having.

That used to be an entertaining feature of the Vampire, especially on the original trains. Will you get stopped on the second lift hill and then be able to wave at people at the game stands?

Makes me wonder how it operated so well for so many years, but then suddenly dispatch times slowed massively? Granted you could take your bags with you and the operations staff would literally run the length of the train checking harnesses.

Swarm Chris wrote:

That used to be an entertaining feature of the Vampire, especially on the original trains. Will you get stopped on the second lift hill and then be able to wave at people at the game stands?

Makes me wonder how it operated so well for so many years, but then suddenly dispatch times slowed massively? Granted you could take your bags with you and the operations staff would literally run the length of the train checking harnesses.

I remember having to literally run up and down! It was such a laugh though! But yes agreed I’m not sure how it ran as well as it did for as long as it did!

The old trains used to be higher capacity, along with bags not being an issue, no faff with seat belts or larger guests as the restraints were more accommodating.

Trains were easily dispatched within 40 seconds.

The new trains, on top of what always seems to be a large disabled queue utilising the back rows, really are not great for throughput.

Does anyone have the new music for The Vampire? It’s great music, but I cannot find it online anywhere.

I'm sure the music will appear online at some point in the next few days. Given it was only annual pass day yesterday, the vloggers and people who do that probably haven't had a chance to upload it yet.

As for Vampire, what they have done is nice. The new bits of small theming in the queue line are nice and the restoration of the organ and organist is actually stunning. They have genuinely done such a great job with it.