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Drayton Manor Park

Bowser said:
Nice clip of the fireworks here. From this and my personal experience a few weeks ago it seems like these late openings are going really well for the park! There’s evidently a demand for theme parks to stay open later than 5pm in the UK.


From: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJNNtJcNrl5/?igsh=MWZwbm1vamdoYTRicw==
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Does Drayton benefit from easier access compared to Alton and people feel a little more willing to stay longer.

But also I’d argue it just goes to show what adding an end of evening show can do. If only Alton had a big lake and scenic setting for a show…
 
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At Drayton all you need is a Nimbus card https://www.nimbusdisability.com/services/access-card-and-nos/
You take the card and the person who the pass is for and they ask how many is in your group day and your allowed upto +3 per pass. With it now I only go to the park for 3 hrs and in that time we manage to get most the rides done. The only attractions you can’t use it on is the haunting and 4D cinema.
 
Ash said:
Does Drayton benefit from easier access compared to Alton and people feel a little more willing to stay longer.

But also I’d argue it just goes to show what adding an end of evening show can do. I’d only Alton had a big lake and scenic setting for a show…
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To be honest its one aspect Drayton cannot compete Towers on is Towers amazing Fireworks displays even Disney and Universal cannot match the sheer scale and awe of Alton Towers Fireworks Displays
 
Hid said:
To be honest its one aspect Drayton cannot compete Towers on is Towers amazing Fireworks displays even Disney and Universal cannot match the sheer scale and awe of Alton Towers Fireworks Displays
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Sorry about going back but if you watch the displays before the looping took over they were excellent.
They even had a 5 min display at the end of each Christmas event.
The big difference is Alton Towers are only doing the display 2/3 times a year but at Disney they have 4 firework displays nearly every night (1 Magic Kingdom, 1 at Epcot and 2 at Disney Hollywood studios)
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Sorry about going back but if you watch the displays before the looping took over they were excellent.
They even had a 5 min display at the end of each Christmas event.
The big difference is Alton Towers are only doing the display 2/3 times a year but at Disney they have 4 firework displays nearly every night (1 Magic Kingdom, 1 at Epcot and 2 at Disney Hollywood studios)
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Drayton still have good fireworks display also means park is open till late which is a huge bonus for the park
 
Hid said:
To be honest its one aspect Drayton cannot compete Towers on is Towers amazing Fireworks displays even Disney and Universal cannot match the sheer scale and awe of Alton Towers Fireworks Displays
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I get the feeling you have never seen a Disney firework display.

Towers displays are really good but Disney certainly compete (especially considering they do 365 displays a year per park that do them, not just 3 (well 2 now).

Drayton won’t compete with the Towers display but they are opening late on a May weekend when Towers are closing at 5pm and have zero entertainment, bit odd when Towers is meant to be the UK’s number 1 theme park 🤷‍♂️
 
Dave said:
Drayton won’t compete with the Towers display but they are opening late on a May weekend
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Given the state of Drayton Manor Park and Zoo's ops, opening late is the only way to ensure that guests will actually be able to actually ride anything.
Hid said:
Drayton still have good fireworks display
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Drayton Manor Park and Zoo has a fireworks display, but I've still seen better put on by my local Parish council. Neither are good, they're acceptable though.
 
Dave said:
I get the feeling you have never seen a Disney firework display.

Towers displays are really good but Disney certainly compete (especially considering they do 365 displays a year per park that do them, not just 3 (well 2 now).

Drayton won’t compete with the Towers display but they are opening late on a May weekend when Towers are closing at 5pm and have zero entertainment, bit odd when Towers is meant to be the UK’s number 1 theme park 🤷‍♂️
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I have seen a Disney display at 3 different parks, and Towers is just better than the 3 I have seen.

Towers is the UKs number 1 theme park they are just in the process of getting in new entertainment. And Towers does not have the budget of Disney.

Drayton opening later is a positive move more time for rides.

GooseOnTheLoose said:
Given the state of Drayton Manor Park and Zoo's ops, opening late is the only way to ensure that guests will actually be able to actually ride anything.

Drayton Manor Park and Zoo has a fireworks display, but I've still seen better put on by my local Parish council. Neither are good, they're acceptable though.
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Some ops are decent and Drayton others not so much its not all bad
 
The point is, Drayton also arent putting huge restrictions in place on annual pass access to these events, nor are they hugely price gauging the price of tickets - very much unlike their Staffordshire friends. Granted, the scale of the event is very different, but come on. They’re open late and doing a nice end of day, mid season display. Credit where it’s due. Also, whilst the Alton fireworks events are impressive for sure (compared to other UK parks) - it just simply isn’t on a par with the scale of Disney’s end of day events in any of their parks, not just the Floridian ones IMHO.
 
Hid said:
From talking to staff at the park
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Staff are, at best, an unreliable source. I’m sure some have connections, but if everything we heard from staff was true, Apocalypse would still be here at very least (I seem to remember a post citing a staff member proudly stating that Apocalypse was going nowhere very shortly before they announced the closure).

Front line staff, while they can have connections, are not always the most informed on these matters. There’s a reason that “the Dippin’ Dots guy” is always the most mocked source of information for rumours; a lot of rumours cited from staff have turned out to be untrue.
 
Matt N said:
Staff are, at best, an unreliable source. I’m sure some have connections, but if everything we heard from staff was true, Apocalypse would still be here at very least (I seem to remember a post citing a staff member proudly stating that Apocalypse was going nowhere very shortly before they announced the closure).

Front line staff, while they can have connections, are not always the most informed on these matters. There’s a reason that “the Dippin’ Dots guy” is always the most mocked source of information for rumours; a lot of rumours cited from staff have turned out to be untrue.
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They're also still getting a second train for G-Force.
 
They did have 1 last attempt to keep Apocalypse and they did spend money on fixing the floorless drop tower but they fixed the problem but they raised it back up to the top but it wouldn’t release it so they lowered it back down and that was where it stayed.
 
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Hid said:
I have seen a Disney display at 3 different parks, and Towers is just better than the 3 I have seen.

Towers is the UKs number 1 theme park they are just in the process of getting in new entertainment. And Towers does not have the budget of Disney.

Drayton opening later is a positive move more time for rides.


Some ops are decent and Drayton others not so much its not all bad
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The only thing I would note is that the Fireworks at Alton Towers are a yearly three/two-day event. They're grander in scale and a concentrated display. Disney and Universal fireworks are embedded as part of your daily (nightly) entertainment. They're entirely different things.

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To stay on topic, Drayton has done really well for itself and events like this prove that people are willing to stay in theme parks later if there's something on offer.
 
The only thing I wish I knew before going again yesterday for the fireworks was that it was the same display that they did on the 5th April. I also can’t see many going to the end of the month display as it don’t start to get dark to 20 mins after the display has finished.
 
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