A late arrival to the party AGAIN! However, when Mandrill Mayhem opened at Chessington I was pregnant and unable to ride. Since, every time we visited we never had the opportunity to ride. My rambling of justifications for why we are late aside, we FINALLY got to ride this new family (maybe) rollercoaster! Here are our thoughts.
The Area & Queue Line:
I’ve never found The World of Jumanji to ever wow me as such. But then I’ve never been a huge fan of the IP anyway. However, the queue line is loosely themed but it doesn’t need much given the coaster itself is an excellent source of entertainment as it wraps around the outskirts and is easy on the eye.
The Station / Carriages:
I actually quite like the station it’s again loosely themed and just feels lovely. The only thing I’m not keen on is the really high boarding gates. They just feel out of sorts. The carriage is visually gorgeous I’ve always loved how winged coasters can be easily adjusted to a theme, these aren’t any exception. As for the restraints they aren’t extremely forgiving but that’s hardly too unusual for this coaster type. If the straps had a bit more give they’d be excellent but taking into account the lower height restrictions then it’s understandable. Either way, I believe there’s a precise row on here that has the extra length on the strap so if you’re someone who found the other seats tight there is that accommodation elsewhere on the train.
Throughputs:
Given it’s a shuttle launch winged rollercoaster meaning it’s only possible to run with 1 train. The throughputs are promising & decent. Whether us visiting on an off-peak day is a fair judgment I’m not too sure.
The Ride Experience:
Whenever I’ve watched this coaster off-ride it’s been easy to make the presumption of it being relatively sluggish and not looking like it would give much. However, I’ll openly confess I was quite honestly gobsmacked by how it rides on-ride. The initial backwards elements left us with all funny feelings in our tummies. Into the launch through the station, it packs a punch and speed. It feels much faster than you’d presume it to be. The inversion as well gives an admirable amount of airtime & hang time. As you reach the top of the spike to go backwards the angle of the banking is a little scary! Especially given that you can see the end of the track right in front of you too. The sensation is difficult to describe. Heading round the layout backwards gives some g-forces and again is really fun. The whole ride experience was a delightful surprise and it gave us more than we ever dreamed of. It’s a lot of fun for sure and a golden addition to the park.
Is It Really A Family Coaster?
Chessington is virtually a family-based theme park there aren’t many rides for thrill seekers and the older audience that prefers thrills. However, this definitely unlocks the door for the middle ground of family and thrill. It delivers everything you’d want from a family-thrill rollercoaster without being too much or too tame. It’s that fun area of trying something more thrilling than Vampire but not quite catching the extent of the rollercoasters at Thorpe Park. It’s a really respectable addition to the ride line-up at the park and allows a broader audience to appreciate it.
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Have you experienced Mandrill Mayhem yet? We’d love to hear your thoughts too!
