I’ll be completely honest with you, I wasn’t planning on visiting any Merlin-owned theme parks this year. Largely because I think their treatment of their entertainment staff this year, and the continued cuts across their parks. I am DEFINITELY not visiting Alton Towers – but that’s another story… However, when I saw that Chessington were offering a Behind the Scenes Tour of Tomb Blaster, I really had to grab the opportunity. I’d be devastated if I missed it, so I decided to book it. I don’t mind Tomb Blaster; however, I know there are some bits and pieces of The 5th Dimension and Terror Tomb left behind. Those rides were both quite formative to me when I was growing up, so it would be a dream come true seeing those.
This is where I hit a bit of a stumbling block – you can only book a minimum of two people. It costs £75 per person, or £60 per person with a Merlin Annual Pass discount. I didn’t really want to buy two tickets – I’m sure Vicki would have enjoyed it, but the booking page says that you need an Annual Pass OR a theme park ticket for entry to the park too. Which quickly bumps the cost up, especially as Vicki doesn’t have an Annual Pass. However, it turns out that if you e-mail the VIP Experiences team at Chessington, they can book you a SINGLE ticket. Perfect.
Now the slightly frustrating thing is, the tour takes place when the park closes, and you meet inside the hotel (my meet time was 6.30pm), then you’re led in through the hotel entrance to the park. So a park ticket WASN’T required. Mild gripe aside, it was time to start the tour.
We were led through a side door into the queue line area that is themed like an Arabian marketplace. We didn’t linger for too long, because that is actually covered at the end of the tour. We walked into the station – it’s SO WEIRD entering with the house lights on. It’s usually so dark, and to see it lit up was fantastic. There was a train parked in the station, and sadly the lights being on does emphasise the fact the trains could do with some refurbishment, and some of the theming in the station is looking a little tatty.
We then went into the operator cabin for a little nosey around – this was the only part of the tour where you’re not allowed to take pictures or film. It was awesome to see the control panel, which is largely unchanged since The 5th Dimension days. One of the interesting things was seeing the boulder control light stuck on – this effect has been broken for years. However, it IS being worked on as a bit of a passion project by the engineering team. It’s an old and complex system, but they think it MIGHT be working this season.
There was plenty of chat about the ride controls, and how, interestingly, if the ride is E-stopped, all the restraints unlock – which could be suboptimal. The ride building has several VERY big drops under the track, so you don’t want anyone trying to jump out of the train. So there’s an alternative way of stopping the ride, but keeping the punters safely locked in.
We then walked back into the station and into the ride areas. On the first bend out of the station, before you begin the climb, there’s actually a switch track that can take the train into the engineering area. This isn’t actually used any more – there’s a second one further around the track that they use instead.
Now, I’m not going to go too much deeper into discussing what I saw along the way – I don’t want to spoil all the surprises for those doing it. You’re led through each scene as you would be when you ride the ride. The paths along the edge of the track are very narrow in places. The guides go through some of the things you’d have seen happening when the ride was The 5th Dimension and Terror Tomb. There are even some places where the silver paint from The 5th Dimension has reacted with the black paint, and you can clearly see echoes of zig-zag patterns.
For safety reasons, while the tour is happening, all the effects are OFF and the house lights are ON. The trommel tunnel was still rumbling around, and our guide had to stop it as we walked through.
What I loved was the tour guides actively encouraged my nerdiness – you can take as many pictures and videos as you like. They will even take photos for you too, if you want to be in them. The only issue is that your phone has to be in a see-through plastic pouch on a lanyard around your neck (which you’re given at the start of the tour). It didn’t really impede or ruin the pictures; however, my iPhone was warning that it was getting HOT (I was taking a LOT of photos and videos!).
I think the only thing that was clear throughout the tour was the number of effects that are actually broken. There has been a lot of scenic painting, lighting, and sound tweaks to the ride in recent years. However, so many of the effects are just frozen in time – it’s sad to see. Whilst I’m not a HUGE fan of Tomb Blaster, if everything was working, it would be SO MUCH BETTER. I had a ride on it earlier in the day, and it just felt a bit, well – crap.
As we made our way around the ride, we were shown some bits of Terror Tomb that remain but are hidden from public view, which was great. We didn’t see into the maintenance area, which was a shame, but there were maintenance staff doing their evening checks as we toured, so they probably wouldn’t have liked some nerds invading their area!
The tour ended where it started – in the ‘market’, where we were shown a door that leads into a storage area. The thing is, this storage area used to be part of The 5th Dimension queue line, so it’s still painted in the silver paint, with blue and red lines cutting through it. This part of the tour made me feel quite emotional, really. I had very vivid memories of standing there as a child. It’s a tiny area, frozen in time, and it made me so happy to see it.
Then we went back outside to the ride’s entrance for a quick opportunity for a picture, and our tour guides led us to the park gates to leave. I LOVE walking through theme parks when they are closed – it’s a little eerie, but so beautiful. Plus – no general public!
I REALLY enjoyed my Behind the Scenes Tour of Tomb Blaster – it was made more special by having some incredibly lovely tour guides. We weren’t rushed around so they could go home; we could ask as many questions as we liked and gather as much content as we liked too. Plus, they all seemed to be fans of the ride as well – which made you feel like you were among friends. Which was nice, as I did it alone. There were only another two guys on our tour too – so the number of Chessington staff outnumbered us!
I’d definitely recommend doing the Behind the Scenes Tour of Tomb Blaster at Chessington while you can. I feel the £60–75 price point is about right. I don’t think I’d pay much more for a behind the scenes tour (they can sod off if they think I’ll pay £150 to do the Mandrill Mayhem BTS). I will put up some short-form videos of bits of the tour on TikTok / Instagram / Facebook soon, so make sure you’re following me over there if you don’t already!
