EXIT PASSES (Chessington World of Adventures)

Member Name: clairyspurs

Product:	Chessington World of Adventures
Date:	04/11/08 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: zoo and rides

Disadvantages: popular and often long queue times (without exit passes, hehe)

Went to chessington with my partner and sister (aged 8) on the sunniest day in September, and yes it was packed. We decided to head for Dragons falls (the log flume) but as we got closer we noticed that it was out of use so decided to try something else and maybe come back later. First ride we queued for was Dragons Fury, expected wait of 45minutes......10minutes into the queue it broke down, about 20 - 30pax left the queue so this didn't make a difference to our wait, it was fixed within 5minutes and running again. Another 45minutes in it happened again, this time we were very close to the front, after 10minutes of trying to fix the problem they announced that there were having to close the ride due to maintance and could we all leave. Well, as you may expect some people won't bothered but others were very fed up after waiting nearly and hour to be told come back later and queue again. We complained to the steward who tried to offer as a fast pass to the ride (which they gave to about 50 other people) for when its up and running, but that would be no use as soon as it starts working everyone would have to wait longer. The steward got the duty manager and we were taken to guest services, and suprise suprise there was a queue. We waited for 10minutes and were seen by a very helpful and undertstanding manager who could sympathaise with our situation, by now it was nearly 2hours since we got there and had not gone on one ride.....with a very agitated 8year old. After about 5minutes of discussion we were offered 6 exit passes each. Which he explained were better than fast passes and would take about a 5minute wait to get on each ride and if we were still not happy with our day we could come back and he would look into it further. We accepted his offer and had one of the best days out, we managed to get on about 10rides and spend half an hour around the zoo before our feet could walk no longer. I feel this would not have been the case if we left the queue when first told to and i feel sorry for all those that did. We will definitly be coming back next year as the park has lots to offer for all ages and they are very understanding and helpful when things go wrong.

Summary: Great day out