Drayton Manor Park

[Haz]

The garden and facade are in an absolutely horrific state too, most of the facade is entirely grown over and the windows are falling to bits.

and don’t help that they claim the house was built before the 1800’s

Well it is true the top of the facade has a date "1796" im guessing when it was built.

Then you got the cellar which hasn’t worked since last season.

It was trying to work on my visit last week but was getting stopped from moving by something.

The Ride section has the original audio which is a nice tribute to Colin Bryan as it’s his voice but the effects in there are awful and the projectors haven’t worked for around 2 years.

The original audio would be nice if they had more than one crappy speaker playing the audio! don't know how the effects are awful when there isn't any

 

[Matt N]

Of the four madhouses I've done (Hex, Haunting, Haunted House Monster Party and Fluch der Kassandra), I think The Haunting definitely has the weakest main ride portion. It just feels a bit lower budget and lacking in... spectacle, for want of a better term, compared to the other 3. Hex is wonderfully dramatic, Haunted House Monster Party is just so fun and zany, and Fluch der Kassandra has its... odd seating surprises to elevate it above the average madhouse, but The Haunting's main ride portion just falls a bit flat for me.

The pre-shows are decent enough (if a tad cheesy), particularly the final one with the moving portraits, which elevates the overall experience a bit for me. But I definitely feel that Hex is the stronger of Staffordshire's two Vekoma madhouses as an overall package; that one knocks both the pre-shows and the ride out of the park!

 

[DistortAMG]

Well that's a given, Hex is undisputedly one of the best madhouses in existence.

I think they partially might not have known what to do, being the second one to open, within weeks of the first, this ride would have been developed at Drayton with no prior reference material, for what was a relatively tight budget and mediocre theming company.

 

[Bert2theSpark]

I’m not 100% sure, but don’t The Haunting and Hex have the same cycle?

Only thing that I feel could be consistently improved on is the throughput, Hex usually has a group in every room. But to keep staffing costs down on The Haunting they only have 3 staff members, meaning they only have one group inside the building at the time.

I love The Haunting because it’s so cheesy and many much more gags to it compared to Hex. They have completely different creative visions, it’s like comparing a TV show to a Movie!

Drayton still needs a major dark ride added to the lineup, The Haunting and Wild West Shootout are good supporting dark rides that work as filler attractions. I feel like a new dark ride would really elevate Drayton to the next level!

 

[Poisson]

Of the 8 I've done, Haunting would be second worst. Technically Kassandra is better, but Haunting is so crap it is amusing at times, whereas Kassandra is dull.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

Of the four madhouses I've done (Hex, Haunting, Haunted House Monster Party and Fluch der Kassandra), I think The Haunting definitely has the weakest main ride portion. It just feels a bit lower budget and lacking in... spectacle, for want of a better term, compared to the other 3. Hex is wonderfully dramatic, Haunted House Monster Party is just so fun and zany, and Fluch der Kassandra has its... odd seating surprises to elevate it above the average madhouse, but The Haunting's main ride portion just falls a bit flat for me.

The pre-shows are decent enough (if a tad cheesy), particularly the final one with the moving portraits, which elevates the overall experience a bit for me. But I definitely feel that Hex is the stronger of Staffordshire's two Vekoma madhouses as an overall package; that one knocks both the pre-shows and the ride out of the park!

As I said a couple of pages ago they added another member of staff on there now so on busy days it loads on average every 7-8 mins compared to 15 on quiet days. Now they load the trailer, show pre show video, Skeleton corridor and as soon as the Library scene finishes they load the trailer again. Then the member of staff who just loaded the ride section goes back to load the next group of guests.
Not sure if a member of the public got injured years ago by the safety bar but the RPH don’t help that the ride cycle was cut from 40 guests to now 28. Also I always said like Hex does has a batching area so Drayton should count for the next group if busy or at least have signage up to explain that it’s only 28 guests per cycle.

 

[John]

The removal of a third of the seats was the last thing the ride needed. They just needed to warn people before closing the bars and/or ensure the pressure is set correctly so it doesn't crush people.