Chessington opened it's doors for its February half term event today with selected rides and attractions opened. Although the website said that only Tomb Blaster and Hocus Pocus Hall was going to be opened the park opened Jungle bouncers and the flying elephants to entertain guests. With a lot of the park under construction routes around the park were very limited, to get to Tomb blaster you had to walk to the right hand side of market square and to get to the sea lion show you had to walk all the way back to Hocus Pocus Hall.
When talking to one of the managers walking around park we were able to gain access into guest services where we were able to then take photos of the re-themed market square. He spoke about the reason behind the much needed makeover which was to level out the ground as guests had complained about the ground being un level in some areas. He also mentioned about a centre piece going into market square which we shall revel in a few days time. Along with the new brick work in Market square he said that its going to be easier to distinguish pirates coves and market square from March. This could mean that the work we've seen going on in market square is also going on near pirates cove.
In the Mexicana area, lots of work is still taking place to rebuild the scorpion express/runaway mine train. All of the area has been repainted and construction for the new ride is slowest making progress. However, the entrance for the ride looks set to be changed as the old bridge and area which used to hold the queue has been taken down and one of the members of staff we spoke to said that there might be a cattle pen being installed for the ride. As seen on the marketing for the ride its set to feature a fire effect which has been confirmed to us by a manager along with the possibility of having water effects and more special effects to be added in the year.
The fire that happened during December at the Creaky cafe has affected a small section of bubble works where the steel work on the outside is being placed however we have been told that Chessington are looking into putting a temporary food stand in the old cafe’s place. The entrance building to Transylvania is also having some work done to it as we can see above the roof is being replaced along with a total repaint of the structure. Rameses Revenge, Scorpion Express and Bubbleworks are on track to open for the start of the 2014 season.
Another new addition to Chessington is the hotel expansion project which is set to open on August 3rd 2014. The hotel is now off the ground and the steel work is starting to grow, we expect that most of the steel work will be in by late March / early april.
