Vampire Chessington Behind The Scenes

One of the most famous coasters in the UK, Vampire at Chessington World of Adventures, Behind the scenes!
Join us at Chessington World of Adventures for one of the new backstage tours for 2024, this one from the Arrows Suspended Coaster, Vampire.
A stable of the UK since 1990, this John Wardley designed masterpiece is one of a handfull of suspended coasters left in the world, and the only one which has been converted to floorless swinging trains. The tour, £60 (annual pass discount available) takes you into the lights on of the workings for Vampire, along with a track walk along the deep underground drop and tunnel.
Filled with facts along the way, the views and sights are fantastic. I grew up with Vampire which made this more special for me, as we bring you along for the ride.
In 2002 Vampire got its upgrade from Vekoma, who still supply most of the parts for the ride to this day. Have you been behind the scenes of Vampire?
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[@Chunkyboy]

Thanx for this behind the scenes tour for vampire ride adam, I was 8 years old when I first went on vampire back in 1990. Now 42 in 2024 still one of my favourite rides at chessington. Really hope they retrack and revamp the vampire as it's over 30 years old. ❤

[@UKThemeParks]

I'm happy you enjoyed it, think we share the same timeline and view, it's a classic! Hopefully here for some time to come yet

[@leishalang5486]

I went to chessington for the 1st time with my college back In June this year and all I kept thinking of was the vampire ride I’ve always wanted to go on it and I went on it and wow it was brilliant I was speechless it’s definitely my favourite ride

[@UKThemeParks]

It's a classic and one of the best!

[@petermc7098]

Hi There, a great Video and thanks for sharing your thoughts, it's greatly appreciated. Cheers Peter 😀

[@petermc7098]

P.S. this was a great Tour, sadly I didn't get to see the ride parts because of the ride maintenance section being shut.

[@kevinseymour8793]

Brilliant, what a great gift from Kurt. Such knowledge from the guides who didn't seem to even need to refer to notes I think they loved it as much as you do, really interesting

[@UKThemeParks]

He pulled this one out! Love the Chessington staff, this team is so dedicated

[@waynecheshire7878]

Very informative thank you Adam 👍

[@sophiaparkadventures]

I loved doing this! Its so much fun! Glad to see you enjoyed too!!

[@UKThemeParks]

Yea so pleased they have started these again this year!

[@Wickerlad_2002]

I do like these VIP experiences that Merlin are offering this year! I really hope that Alton Towers do a VIP behind the scenes tour of The Curse at Alton Manor next year!

[@UKThemeParks]

That would be a great one to do with the history, so would Hex

[@Ryanjeal]

It's worth every penny me and my daughter were the only ones on the tour we had the engineers with us and got very technical we did see the switch track in motion I'm glad you enjoyed it will be very interesting to see what is planned for vampire

[@UKThemeParks]

Agreed they really do give you the time to ask questions and find some info out!

[@DisneyMarkUK]

Brilliant, thanks for sharing this.

[@daniellock9888]

Another really good video from you i think ive spent the last few hours binge watching your videos

[@UKThemeParks]

Thank you! Hope you're enjoying them

[@liamperry8486]

That's why vampire runs so well still to this day for a coaster to be over 30yrs you can see they look after it so well and that's why vampire still runs so well even till this day

[@Fleetblase07]

When I went to Chessington for the first time last month I loved this ride from the theming to the swinging it was amazing and this tour was cool to watch and it’s me and my uncle’s favorite ride at Chessington and he’s a Merlin pass holder so I might recommended this I also thought the tree height rule only applied to Alton towers because of the old house on the site but you learn something new every day

[@UKThemeParks]

It's a classic coaster, Chessington are just as stuck with that rule. Apparently the go away green as they call it, is why Mandrill is Green as the colour is generally ignored to the eye!

[@Fleetblase07]

@@UKThemeParksyeah it’s cool to learn a new thing about a theme park 😂

[@GlenFair]

Very interesting. Rode it in 1990, shortly after it opened, and they said to come back after the park had closed as they were looking for volunteers to add weight for testing. So we went back and had a dozen or so rides with lots of official looking men in suits holding clipboards and stopwatches. Think they were testing for 3 train operation. But I guess it wasn't going well as the suits were having heated discussions and nobody looked happy. I was glad to get out of there, it was a bad atmosphere!

[@UKThemeParks]

Oh dear! Great to be part of that in the early days though!

[@Ethan-dp1zk]

I remember watching a tour from 2010 the video is still on KZbin and in the tunnel they had strobe lights cashiers inside and screeching bat sound effects sad to see that they got removed and it would be cool if the moved the rodeo statue closer so you could actually notice it and take in the detail before you go up the lift hill Great video

[@UKThemeParks]

Its a shame the speakers are used anymore for more than announcements in the tunnel, or indeed chasing strobe lights. They were really cool!

[@faithcogger2813]

That is so cool to see all the details 😊🧛

[@UKThemeParks]

Hope you enjoyed it!

[@louiswright8282]

At the end in terms of a retrack, everyone says Vekoma should, but im surprised no one has brought up S&S sansei. They purchased all of the rights and blueprints to arrow dynamics rides, and they also reintroduced the Steeplechase model a couple of years back. I'd love for merlin to reach out to them to retrack vampire and give it the OG style trains again! At the very least, they could bring back the original 1990 Grauam Smart soundtrack with the sound effects in it. But, all in all, looked like a very nice Behind the scenes tour all round!

[@UKThemeParks]

Do miss the soundtrack

[@LouieSmuga]

I love chessington world of adventures

[@DG95Official]

Looks really good

[@UKThemeParks]

Well worth it!

[@LouieSmuga]

Dom!

[@DJSOfficialUK]

Very interesting video, really enjoyed, would love to do this, but won't be this year? Hoping they offer it again in future. But yeah good vlog, enjoyed & look forward to more videos in future. 😀👍

[@UKThemeParks]

They said it has been popular to continue doing

[@cooperboy64]

I worked on vampire for half a year. It will never get a fully structured rebuild because the parts that vekoma manufacture are crazy expensive. and doesn't give them enough spendature on the ride other that that since its like twice the cost of something like the swarm. The ride if underloaded or on a cold day can get stuck at two points. One being the blocks before chain 2 and the other the blocks before station. I got stuck on both (mainly block before station) a number of times when test riding in the morning. Each time an engineer must come out to help. You are right however on how well loved the vampire is; hence the dedication to the enormous upkeep. Also the ride CAN run efficiently with 3 trains IF ops are 45 seconds or under. The last holding break and mid course can hold for 10 seconds before 'boredom'. When I was working we almost had a chance to do 3 train ops but sadly I didn't stay long enough to make it happen. It also meant rushing kids onto the ride in which is just bad practice because... well.. kids and there mothers are notoriously slow at any theme park. Best not to rush the concerned parent when you strap there sole child into the restraints and they complain it's 'too tight' when in fact that's the same 'too tight' that allows children to ride it.

[@UKThemeParks]

That's some great information thank you! I remember them doing 3 trains back when it opened, the station brakes make it very hard, but yea, Vekoma don't make costs easy, have no idea what they will do when the time comes. Given the age and design, these little quirks seem to add to the character! Not sure everyone sees it that way sadly. Engineers and staff work on Vampire, definitely appropriated 🦇

[@cooperboy64]

@@UKThemeParks Yeah I remember them doing it when I was younger (probably 20 years ago now honestly) and on some days 3 train ops are almost required but it doesn't help the throughput as much as you'd expect. Especially when theres disabled people attempting to ride (the entrance for disabled people on vampire is all the way at the back of offload). If I remember right I'm sure they used to have 4 members of staff back in the day, 2 for off and 2 for on; when I was working it was just 1 off and 1 on and so you'd have to check every restraint within 20 seconds. to work 3 trains. Another problem though is if someone wanted their restraints readjusted to looser, you'd have to do the entire train again. The manual unlock for a restraint is far too tedious to do for something like that.

[@UKThemeParks]

@@cooperboy64 I think these days 3 trains wouldn't help enough with throughput, it is good though they keep all 3 in terms of swapping out and rotating them when needed

[@edwardhardy11]

It Looks a lot different with the lights on

[@UKThemeParks]

It really does!

[@knightrider2738]

Great Chessington vampire video behind the scenes and is that £60.00 per person ?

[@UKThemeParks]

It is, you do get the 20% off that is you're a passholder

[@knightrider2738]

@@UKThemeParks i should get the pass holder because it would save me a lot of money when me and my daughters go to theme parks in the UK and how much are they to get and what kind of pass holders can get you get to

[@UKThemeParks]

@@knightrider2738 We have a Merlin annual Pass, only a gold one. Prices vary, so depends on when you'd be visiting. A member of the family had a silver one which was £99, did restrict visits but still had a good calender given its for all Merlin attractions

[@knightrider2738]

@@UKThemeParks thank you for the information and I will look it more about getting a merlin annual pass

[@thecinematicmind]

Does anyone remember the Witch statue at Halloween season during 2006-9 before to getting off the ride.

[@ben.c15]

never knew that chessington had to go below tree height aswell

[@chris-pike]

Good to see this vlog , when are you going to do a Fair vlog Adam 👍

[@UKThemeParks]

We are due one, I'll get Kurt on the look out for travels next week!

[@jaystocky]

Weird how they wouldn't let you film the ride parts, track moving and the op panel.

[@UKThemeParks]

I understand the ops panel a bit to be fair, the other bits less so, still a great experience

[@jaystocky]

Been to another park in Europe and shown everything and been allowed to photo it all. Seems silly you can't film it all when you're paying so much for it

[@UKThemeParks]

@@jaystocky not the first place for the panel, switch track in particular would have been good to capture

[@robwarner9371]

Erm, the old trains *did* have the wheel at the bottom to stop them swinging. It was exactly the same concept with the original bat cars. Did the guide really say that the original cars didn’t swing? 😱

[@GlenFair]

They certainly did swing and they did have the wheel at the bottom

[@UKThemeParks]

Agreed they did indeed have guide wheels, the confusion seemed to come on the changing of the supports during the Vekoma upgrades, which they thought was for the larger guide wheels, my understanding was it's the Clearence envelope. To be fair this aside they were excellent, with a lot to remember as they do all of the VIP tours!

[@Hypnosis-Brookhaven]

Who’s been on vampire

[@Themepark.HappymanMelrin]

Never new vampire was 77ft ??

[@UKThemeParks]

Think they include this from the tallest hill to the bottom of the tunnel

[@andrewdowie2057]

Feat dangling better 😊

[@Morrison39]

😂😢🎉❤😮😅