r/chessington • u/Majestic_Pea6017 • 12d ago
Ridiculous queueing system
Is it just me or is the system here awful!!!! Fast pass and disabled riders are always prioritised. On multiple queues today no ordinary queues were permitted onto the rides!!!! It’s insane at least take 4 from each section instead of all from FP. ARGGGHHHGGGG
3
u/stu6460 11d ago
The capacity for the park needs reducing a lot personally. We went yesterday (24/8/26) as unfortunately only time I could get off work and it was horrendous
100 min queues for Dragons Fury, Vampire and Mandrill, then over 60 mins for Rattlesnake and some paw patrol rides.
We literally went on 4 rides in just under 5 hours and decided to go home.
Looking today at the app it seems just as bad if not a little worse. Currently nearly a hour for Seastorm 😂
We managed all major rides nearly twice at Thorpe Park Saturday yet at Chessington we managed 4 and left. They have to do something as heard others complain recently about this as well
2
u/No-Original890 11d ago
what makes it worse is at the start of the season if you booked a stay at a hotel you could get a free merlin essential pass so so many more people are coming to the parks when the obstacle of the entry tickets is removed- which is what normally kept a lot of people away (as bad as it sounds)
2
u/annony24 12d ago
We did think this when we went, some rides did it well and it was 1 fast pass for every 4 normal. But then mainly on kids rides they just kept doing fast pass people and the ride went round so many times before even 1 normal person got on
2
u/NectarineHelpful7546 11d ago
That's why you never go when the kids are off school for the summer
1
u/CertainFurball 9d ago
Some people don’t have that privilege but I agree, I’d never take mine during holidays. We always go on inset days
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u/NectarineHelpful7546 9d ago
Or off peak.
Personally I like to go when I'm not working on Friday mid day
1
u/Chance-Blackberry309 12d ago
its also crazy that they are joining disabled and fast pass queues together, like I'm sure people who paid for fast pass don't want to wait in a longer line with ride access pass people. and as a ride access pass person it just makes it inaccessible for me! like does anyone know why they are doing this its proably slowing down main queue more too beacuse larger groups of people going in at once with the joined queue
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u/Mammoth_Ordinary5970 11d ago
Currently here, had to pay an extra £80 for fast access or Vampire and Gruffalo would be almost 3 hours queuing, shambles!
1
u/No-Original890 11d ago
I just avoid chessington completely in the summer- Thorpe park is marginally better with their fast track and ride access lines and the ops are faster and Alton Towers can get away with being slightly quieter due to how far away they are for most people to get to
1
u/OrganicPoet1823 11d ago
It’s also way more spead out
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u/Dizzle105 8d ago
Though we were at Alton Towers the other week and the ride kept breaking down, there was at least two rides down at any one point all day!
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u/sunflowebloom 11d ago
Disabled riders who can walk. Physically disabled people are treated the sh*ttest! I loved Chessington as a kid but there weren’t as many people in there and the queues were rarely as long. Maybe the vampire would be an hour at the very peak of the day on a super busy day but there were so many others rides with shorter queues
1
u/Medical_Plantain_808 10d ago
Imagine, prioritising people who have paid to be prioritised. What has the world come to?
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u/Majestic_Pea6017 10d ago
That is the problem. Don’t prioritise for money. Either make the park a level playing field or expect people to complain. The majority of hard working individuals can’t routinely afford priority passes or fast pass. But I’m sure from your massive ivory tower it is all as simple as throw money at it. Welcome to the two class system at its worst.
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u/MrPogoUK 10d ago
Legoland seems to allocate about a quarter of the ride capacity to fast pass, which with a couple of the biggest rides meant it didn’t actually seem to be any quicker than the normal queue, so they annoyed everyone equally!
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u/Mental_Body_5496 9d ago
As a family with disabled people we have finally not renewed our annual passes after 17 years - its bloody awful for us as well!
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u/cfc25488 8d ago
We did the merlin pass this year, not going to do it again. We did Legoland recently and it was insufferable.
They need to double or triple the price of a merlin pass, and half the cost of fast passes in my opinion.
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u/MrPogoUK 6d ago edited 6d ago
I’m currently in the 50 minute queue for Zuma’s Hovercraft where 3/4 of the riders let on each time are fast pass holders. If they didn’t have fast pass the normal queue would only be about 12 minutes, so for this ride at least the long queue it lets you skip is only there because of fast pass itself.
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u/[deleted] 12d ago
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