Chessington World of Adventures park guide added to Coaster Grotto

Cool way to upgrade the existing suspended coasters. I think most of them could benefit from these new trains. Hope to see more of these in the future.

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"Looks like you've been missing quite a bit of work lately"
"Well, I wouldn't say I've been MISSING it, Bob."

Good to hear your thoughts on Vampire. Sounds like the new trains do enhance the ride. Of the Arrow suspended coasters I've been on, the only one that really nailed the pacing was Top Gun at PKI. It's the only one that doesn't let up start to finish. The others I've been on have "dead spots" of sorts, especially those with two lifts.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

I wonder if there is a technical or engineering reason why most of these coasters have the 2 lifts. Does anybody know why they were designed this way?

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"Looks like you've been missing quite a bit of work lately"
"Well, I wouldn't say I've been MISSING it, Bob."

I have also recently ridden the New Vampire on Saturday 20th April and here are my thoughts about the new look ride

On Close up, the trains are very nice, at first the colour scheme doesnt seem right(Purple) but I really like it. The Seats are quite comfortable, and the restraints are also very good as they are not restricted as before, you can finally look round a lot more without any big restraints in the way.

The Ride Itself was good, The Floorless trains definatly enhance the old ride experience and it definatly made it a bit more enjoyable, also I'm pleased to say the Trains swing just as much as the old ones, I was worried they wouldnt swing half as much as the old trains, but thankfully they swing about the same, PHEW.
Also the new look station is Nice, General Changes include New Lighting effects, new Queue Pens, and a new look where the guy plays the Organ, definatly a small improvment on the old station.

Unfortunutly on the down side, chessington decided not to repaint the track, Nor the Supports, and the track still looks horrible and messy, However it doesnt distract too much.

Overall, the changes are still nothing spectacular, but are still quite enjoyable, Basiclly if anyone here has ridden the Vampire before and enjoyed it, then you will still enjoy riding it, but if you thought the vampire was crap, then you still might think its crap. Personally I am just happy the ride is open again as I'm sure a lot of other people are too. I last rode it 3 years ago, so it was great to get back on it :)

Thanks for the review Paul! Can't believe you just went there! I would really like to see this kind of modification on others, though I'd rather see Arrow do the trains. Geez, with what they did with X, I'm sure they can whip out something bizzare for suspendeds!

Jdancisin, I have wondered the same thing. I think it mostly had to do with the layout, and the fact that parks wanted the rides significant in size. Suspendeds seem to lose energy a bit quicker than standards, and in a lot of cases I don't think they were able to design a short but sweet ride at that time. They also (esp. with BBW and Draggin' Iron) may have purposely wanted a place for folks to catch their breath......since it was still a fairly new concept. TG at KI is a perfect ride, with great timing and rhythm. Too bad it was the last one built.
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Brad Sherman
Don't.....look.....back! The Headless Horseman awaits you in 2002!
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