Since its conversion from a zoo to a theme park in the late 1980s, Chessington has always been marketed towards a family audience. Despite this, the park still has its fair share of attractions with a bit more of a thrill factor: mainly Dragon’s Fury, Monkey Swinger, Croc Drop, and most famously, Vampire.
This nostalgic suspended coaster takes riders on an exciting journey through the trees of Chessington’s Wild Woods area, complete with a creepy soundtrack, a well-themed queueline, and an organ-playing animatronic. But as with many older attractions, Vampire has a pretty interesting history. Pick your seat, pull down your restraint and scream to your hearts content (though maybe not out loud!) as we explore the swooping history of Vampire!
Vampire isn’t the only Wild Woods attraction with a story to tell. Click here to learn all about the history of its neighbouring ride Gruffalo River Ride Adventure, and its much loved former attraction, Bubbleworks!
The Secret Formula: the success and sad removal of Chessington’s Bubbleworks
Throughout the late 80s and early 90s, attraction designers like John Wardley were working hard to bring the American concept of a theme park to the UK, and a lot of the parks we know and love today, Thorpe Park, Chessington, Alton Towers and more, were all being redeveloped or built to fit into this…
The Legends of Transylvania
The Romanian region of Transylvania is the setting of some seriously spooky urban legends, mainly stories of vampires that stalk castles and forests at night in search of their next victim. This may all seem a little too frightening for a family theme park, but the UK themed entertainment industry often pushes the boundaries of what can be done, and it turned out that theming an entire land to the setting of horror stories wasn’t so impossible after all. Designers were in the process of transforming Chessington Zoo into a fully fledged theme park, and after the success of the first phase, the second was well on the way to becoming a reality.
Fizzy Drinks and Thrills
Named Transylvania after its inspiration, this new-for-1990 themed land opened with two major attractions. Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks took guests on a magical tour of a slightly nonsensical fizzy pop factory, complete with a heartwarming and extremely catchy soundtrack. But if you stood a small way outside the ride and looked up, you could spot something gliding, swinging and twisting through the trees, and drawing a lot of screams from guests while it’s at it.
Vampire opened in April of 1990 as an suspended swinging coaster built by now defunct manufacturer Arrow Dynamics. And with riders sat inside closed-bottom trains themed as bats, it offered a spooky and thrilling flight that’s not too scary, but still exhilarating nonetheless. But on this ride, the experience starts as soon as you enter the queueline. If you’re there on a particularly busy day, your likely long wait is made more entertaining with intimidating stone gargoyles, eerie gravestones, and, of course, the ride itself swooping by.
Despite all this, the most iconic part of the queue is still yet to come. When you enter the ride’s station, it’s pretty hard to miss the giant vampire animatronic sat playing a traditional organ- with (somewhat rudely!) his back turned to everyone. This is one of the few parts of the queueline that has remained pretty much the same since the beginning, although there have been things added and removed from the scene over the years.
Both Bubbleworks and Vampire became extremely popular more or less as soon as they opened, with guests loving the blend of horror and fantasy, and family and thrill rides. Throughout the 1990s, these two classic attractions remained mostly unchanged, but with the new millennium came some big changes.
A New Kind of Flight
When rides close indefinitely, it usually means one of two things. Either there is going to be some kind of refurbishment, or the ride is closing down permanently. Vampire was standing but not operating throughout the 2001 season, and, as construction began appearing around the coaster, fans feared that this closure was for the second reason. But as 2002 came around it became apparent- to the relief of anyone who loved the ride- that instead of closing, Vampire was just receiving a pretty massive update.
The trains used on Vampire previously were the same as those used on every other Arrow Suspended Coaster, but when it reopened, these were gone, and replaced with Vekoma trains usually found on their own suspended coaster model. These still keep the swinging feeling, but the key difference is that, with these trains, your legs are hanging and swinging too! Chessington advertised the refurbished rollercoaster as “new Vampire” and one of 3 new adventures at the park.
As the years went on, these Vekoma suspended trains became just as much a part of the ride as the lifthill or queueline, and the older trains began to fade into obscurity. The park continued to evolve and adapt over the coming years, just as it had since its opening, and it wasn’t too long before this evolution made its way to Transylvania.
A Deep, Dark Wood
2016 was a huge year for Chessington. Go Ape began opened its third site, Adventure Point made its debut with an elaborate carousel at its centre, and most impactfully, it was announced that a fan-favourite attraction would be closing. Bubbleworks gave its last factory tour on the 6th of September 2016, and went out with a bang, offering selected fans behind-the-scenes tours of the ride. While the original fizzy pop factory theme was already long gone, some elements of it still remained, such as audio that had simply been moved to different sections. But with this closure went most aspects of both versions… and something new was on the way.
The following year, Chessington World of Adventures announced Bubbleworks’ much-anticipated replacement. Themed after the popular children’s book The Gruffalo, Gruffalo River Ride Adventure opened on the 18th of March 2017, and would take riders into the story of a mouse who took a stroll to the deep, dark wood, and came face to face with the fearsome Gruffalo.
For me and many other enthusiasts in the UK, the closure of Bubbleworks and opening of Gruffalo is bittersweet. On the one hand, Gruffalo was a massive part of so many childhoods for current children, teenagers and young adults, and it is quite a fun experience, but on the other, its pretty sad to see such a classic ride cease to exist. Gruffalo also brought with it the retheme of Transylvania to Wild Woods, and a loose retheme of its neighbouring attraction to vampire bats rather than actual vampires. Very little of Vampire’s theming and branding changed as a result of this, and today the whole experience isn’t too different than it was before the retheme, aside from some of it being slightly updated.
Will the Future be a Trick or a Treat for Vampire?
Since opening in 1990, Vampire has been a massive part of Chessington’s thrill ride lineup, but, as with many older coasters, it can be difficult to know for sure what the future holds. What’s a bit easier to know however, is just how many people have fond memories of riding this classic coaster, whether it be the former version with the Bat-type trains, or the newer, more well-known version.
Vampire was my first major coaster and I’ve loved riding it ever since I could meet the height requirement, so as you can imagine I’d be pretty sad to see this Arrow suspended coaster go. But despite its age, after receiving some queueline updates in 2020 it doesn’t look like Chessington’s largest coaster is going anywhere any time soon, and even if it was, it’s important that we keep open minded for new developments and projects in the future!
What’s your favourite spookily-themed ride or attraction? Let me know below, and have a very Happy Halloween!
If you enjoyed this article, make sure to check out some of my other posts from theme parks and attractions around the world, and find us on Facebook and Instagram for exclusive CoasterDreamers content!
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