Chessington Zoo Chessington Zoo News 2013
- Thread starter Gigit
- Start date
I heard there was a height restriction (1.1m) for travelling on the jeeps in Zufari... Chessington have shot themselves in the foot with this one seeing as from the video I've seen of it, it's aimed at the kids with the (childish) commentary etc. Lots of disappointed people on their FB page.
There is no height restriction on those entering the Zufari ride but its certainly not geared towards the zoo enthusiast.
devilfish
Well-Known Member
I visited yesterday. I ultimately felt that Zufari was ok, but nothing special. A bit of a shame. I was impressed, however, by how well staff coped with the crowds even though the ride was only two weeks old.
I wasn't expecting a great deal from a weekend during school holidays, but was still a bit surprised by the difficulties caused by the large crowds.
We had a 2for1 voucher, but I was still surprised by the entry fee for a single adult (~£43). Given the length of the queues (lines), I found that we barely got to do anything during our 4 hours at the park. One of the first things we looked at was the queue for Zufari, which was 90 minutes long. By the end of the day, the queue was still 90 minutes long. I therefore forked out another £4 for a fast-track ticket, which I thought would mean I skip the queue. It didn't. It meant I joined a cluster of four people waiting for the ride, and waited another 30 minutes.
SPOILER ALERT:
The start of the ride consists of a video with a scientific character explaining that a new area has been discovered called Zufari. He encourages visitors to record what they see to help survey the area. For some reason he has a CGI sifaka as a mascot/friend, which was apparently found in the area and has befriended the scientists. Fortunately this is the last you see of the mascot. Outside is another queuing area to load visitors onto the trucks. Each truck has a capacity of 30 (six rows of five seats). They are open-sided.
The ride isn't particularly exciting. The first stop is the flamingo enclosure, where there was nothing to see as all the flamingos had gone in for the night. (This enclosure is also visible from the walkway to the ride entrance.)
Next, a couple of walls are passed with 'ancient inscriptions' on them. The commentary states that "nobody knows what they mean or why they're there, but it's thought they warn against entry to a cave". One of the walls is actually the side of the giraffe house/stables, unconvincingly camouflaged.
The truck then loops round the giraffe/zebra/oryx enclosure. I guess this is where the other hoofstock are meant to be but I didn't see anything else.
The next enclosure is home to the white rhinos. A decent amount of space.
The truck then enters 'the cave' after ignoring a number of warning signs. A door closes behind the truck and number of small waterfalls start to flow and then thunder, getting the truck wet. The children on the ride scream a bit, and they get a bit of a thrill. Unfortunately my placement meant that my feet and bag (stowed in the rack below my seat) got soaked.
The truck drives under another waterfall to leave the cave, and the experience ends.
I wasn't expecting a great deal from a weekend during school holidays, but was still a bit surprised by the difficulties caused by the large crowds.
We had a 2for1 voucher, but I was still surprised by the entry fee for a single adult (~£43). Given the length of the queues (lines), I found that we barely got to do anything during our 4 hours at the park. One of the first things we looked at was the queue for Zufari, which was 90 minutes long. By the end of the day, the queue was still 90 minutes long. I therefore forked out another £4 for a fast-track ticket, which I thought would mean I skip the queue. It didn't. It meant I joined a cluster of four people waiting for the ride, and waited another 30 minutes.
SPOILER ALERT:
The start of the ride consists of a video with a scientific character explaining that a new area has been discovered called Zufari. He encourages visitors to record what they see to help survey the area. For some reason he has a CGI sifaka as a mascot/friend, which was apparently found in the area and has befriended the scientists. Fortunately this is the last you see of the mascot. Outside is another queuing area to load visitors onto the trucks. Each truck has a capacity of 30 (six rows of five seats). They are open-sided.
The ride isn't particularly exciting. The first stop is the flamingo enclosure, where there was nothing to see as all the flamingos had gone in for the night. (This enclosure is also visible from the walkway to the ride entrance.)
Next, a couple of walls are passed with 'ancient inscriptions' on them. The commentary states that "nobody knows what they mean or why they're there, but it's thought they warn against entry to a cave". One of the walls is actually the side of the giraffe house/stables, unconvincingly camouflaged.
The truck then loops round the giraffe/zebra/oryx enclosure. I guess this is where the other hoofstock are meant to be but I didn't see anything else.
The next enclosure is home to the white rhinos. A decent amount of space.
The truck then enters 'the cave' after ignoring a number of warning signs. A door closes behind the truck and number of small waterfalls start to flow and then thunder, getting the truck wet. The children on the ride scream a bit, and they get a bit of a thrill. Unfortunately my placement meant that my feet and bag (stowed in the rack below my seat) got soaked.
The truck drives under another waterfall to leave the cave, and the experience ends.
Thanks for the warning, one to be avoided, if i ever visit again it will have to be in winter!
devilfish
Well-Known Member
If there's no queue then the experience might be worthwhile. After all, it's probably the closest the UK gets to Disney's Kilimanjaro Safaris (though I'm not suggesting a comparison). It would be nice if more animals were on display, and may improve once there's more foliage growing. I'll upload a few photos when I'm next at a computer.
Apparently the actual experience lasts around four minutes! Several million pounds were spent to create that I am told.
after reading the above few posts I had a look on Tripadvisor: really poor reviews of the place!! Nobody seems impressed with Zufari at all (or of much else there).
Chessington WOA is all about money, money money and not much else. It has always been that way.
I would agree with that, I can remember visiting there in the sixties as a small child, I then thought it was a marvelous place, for as well as the zoo there was a fairground and a circus, what more could you want?, I also recall then being impressed by the new house for orangs, chimps and gorillas, and thinking at the time how modern it was compared to what the great apes had at Regents Park at the time, looking at the photos on the gallery here of this exhibit it was absolutely appalling. George Jacobs gives an account of his time working at Chessington in his book Memoirs of a Coarse Zookeeper, the type of personnel that they employed at the time left a lot to be desired, as did their live in "accommodation", he also states that when the Tussaud group bought the park their first priorities were car parks and catering outlets, as you say, money, money, money, a good title for a song perhaps!
I remember it in those days, maybe a bit earlier too as a child. The animal exhibits(if you can call them that) were pretty awful- I particularly remember some atrocious low concrete and barred bunker-style cages for Bears and other carnivores.
Later on they modernised all the animal exhibits and some of the biggest ones- elephants, giraffe, hippo, left altogether- again presumably due to the cost of rehousing them properly. But their modernisations have always been done on the cheap- e.g. that awful little Ape House and even the newer open bear enclosures, though a big improvement and a lot more spacious, were pretty basic in design and materials.
At Chessington its all about saving money/profit. For example; today's Gorilla accomodation was originally built modelling a Howletts enclosure. It is adequate for the group, but only just really and has developed piecemeal. First it was just a square enclosure with bedrooms which could be viewed at the back. Then it was extended a bit and viewing windows were put in, and the bedrooms closed off to the public (sensible decision), while the adjacent smaller ex Chimpanzee cage was covered in and used as extra space as an offshow 'dayroom' for the Gorillas. But they have consistently delayed making proper improvements to the offshow areas until forced to by the council/licensing authorities. Rather than spend 'big money' building them an entirely new (but possibly less suitable) enclosure in the Africa section, as was planned, those plans were dropped and cheaper additions to the existing enclosure in the form of extra bedrooms and then later on still, a 2nd outdoor area were made instead. How many 'make do and mend' changes/alterations is that to one enclosure?
The Big cat enclosures I would say are of a similar standard- adequate rather than anything better than that standard.
The rather poor/substandard Monkey enclosures were demolished and in another 'make do and mend' exerecise some species were got rid of and the remainder incorporated into the Bird Garden area- one of Chessington's more major financial outlays in the animal department and a much better exhibit as a result, though I think the number of species it shows has dwindled considerably over time( fairly typical in zoos) since it first opened, and with the remaining (smaller) Primates now filling some of the enclosures .
One of the few exhibits I actually like at Chessington is the Sealion pool- spacious and well set-up for viewers. I am not sure if they are managed as they should be regarding salination etc.
I haven't seen the recent 'Africa' extensions so I can't comment on them, but I think I would know what to expect if I did see them.
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Of course it's about money, it runs as a theme park not as a zoo, business wise. Merlin who own the park are actually in some debt and are most likely trying to save as much money as need be to get them out of the debt they are in.
It's been a long time since a big ride came to the park, so we should be glad the animals have had money invested in them. Personally I would have preffered the plan B to the safari area, which was having all new cat enclosures. (and ape as well maybe, can't remember the plans?) but sadly it wasn't to be, I assume this was a back up plan if the Zufari ride didn't get approved.
It's been a long time since a big ride came to the park, so we should be glad the animals have had money invested in them. Personally I would have preffered the plan B to the safari area, which was having all new cat enclosures. (and ape as well maybe, can't remember the plans?) but sadly it wasn't to be, I assume this was a back up plan if the Zufari ride didn't get approved.
Looks like a Carpathian Lynx; possibly one of last year's litter of kittens at Newquay.
Just a rumour for now: Could it be that Karamoja the giraffe is no longer here?
Nope. Just a rumour. He's still there.