The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure has now been open for just over 8 weeks at Chessington World Of Adventures. Over the past few weeks the ride has been ridden by many guests and geeks and has received very good reviews! Originally when Bubbleworks was closed a lot of fans where worried about what was going to replace the ride. With rumours flying around about it being an IP based attraction many fans where left worried that it would end up like Charlie and the chocolate factory at Alton Towers, opening unfinished and rushed. However everyone was wrong! The ride opened on time and hasn't changed much since opening!
Although there have been a few changes around the ride and at the entrance nothing major has changed. Starting with the main entrance and queue line, the park have painted Gruffalo foot prints on the floor leading up to the entrance and have installed queue line games for kids whilst they wait in line. Before the disabled entrance sign used to overhang the building and was a bit of an eyesore, the sign has now been cut down and replaced to be much smaller.
Inside the station building all the railings in the queue have lights underneath which change colour every now and then. In the first scene of the ride you ride under a open book that reads “A mouse took a stroll though the deep dark wood” to make the scene a little more realistic the floor has had fake grass added, more tree cut outs added on both sides and a Gruffalo book sticker added to the middle to give it a book mark.
One of the cleverest effects in the ride is the waterfall projection mapping. In this room one of the projection effects seems to have been upgraded to make the video look clearer to guests. Before it used to be a little blurry however now it looks to being projected onto a white background.
The biggest issues with a ride like this is that it relies on the effects being maintained and fixed on a regular basses. Something that Merlin has always struggled with! However they seem to have turned a corner with this ride. Everything is working like it did on opening day. Hats off to the park and Merlin magic making they've done a good job this time.
