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Drayton Manor Park

Themeparksandy1981 said:
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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Out of curiosity, what made you think it was going to be any different? I presumed it was going to be the same.
 
First ever visit to the park. Went for Thomasland but did have a good walk around.

Arrived around 10am for 10.30 opening. No queues to get into carpark and parked only a few meters next to the thomasland entrance. Got ready, toilet stop and before we could join the entrance queue staff were letting people through to a rope drop. This really helped with queues.


Staff
Staff were all pleasant, interacted with the kids and can't think of coming across anyone who seemed like they didn't want to be there.

Cleanliness & Atmosphere
Park felt clean and safe. Maybe due to the lack of crowds. Toilets were passable and seemed to be getting cleaned. Odd smell of wacky backy but saw no trouble. Smoking areas respected mostly.

Entertainment
As you would expect fat controller shows and meet and great in Thomasland.
Also stumbled acrossed the end of some comedic Vikings near the zoo entrance. There was a girl singing on the mainstage throughout the day. This stage also held a dance party with a mascot that drew a big crowd. We left before the fireworks.

Zoo
Actually forgot they had this when we booked. Wouldn't have gone to this as a standalone when we have Yorkshire Wildlife Park local. But had a good walk around, nice way to break up the day.

Queues & Ops
Cant comment in the bigger rides too much but didn't see any crazy times on the info boards. Stormforce wasn't running which was a shame as would have been good to watch.
Lost count if the amount of rides we got on.
Longest queues we had were for the kids submarine log flume 30-40 mins and the horse ride in viking area.
The Thomas train to the zoo was down for a bit as got stuck on the track. Was up and running layer in the day with only Percy. Had an evac one time whilst queuing for the submarine log flume.

Ride Offering
For our age kids very good. Never been down to Paultons but probably the best kids lineup we have come across. At the other end doesn't seem too much in regards to top thrill rides. That said the Gold Rush coaster looks brilliant. Didn't get in it but my eldest enjoyed watching it fly over the pathway. Which reminds me, the parks layout allows rides to interact with off-ride much more than some of the other parks.

ThomasLand
Brilliant area, nice and spacious, good variety of rides. Everything was up and running throughout the day. Little to no queues. Very good indoor soft play.

Themes
Thomaslad speaks for itself, nice Western area and the viking land was very nice. The smell from the log fuelled BBQ was top notch. In this area we rode the horse ride. The more I think about it the more laughable the themeing was. Track that went around a few piles of stones, the odd sword and a single Viking. I get the layout makes it manageable for 1 staff member but didn't seem much effort in this ride. That said my little girl loves she went on a horse and my lad said it was awesome. What do I know?

Food
It's expensive. Not sure who is doing the food here, contract catering or in-house but someone is making some money here….or are they?
We took lots of snacks and lunch. Around 4pm after the evac of the submarine log flume we headed in search of food. Stuck our head into the very quiet burger bar, looks a nice environment eith covered outdoor seating. We ended up heading to the safari pizza though. 2 pizza, 1 cheesy garlic bread and 2 drinks. £48. Lots of food for us all, was decent nothing special but did the job. Felt a strange environment in there. Was not many people eating but must have recently been busy as a lot of the tables were messy. There was a Staff member out cleaning whilst we was eating. People couldn't clear up after themselves as the tiny bins were full. The cage has good themeing but terrible seating layout. Could get a lot more in there and would have been better if it was layer out similar to Sundowns largest cafe. (Also with jungle theme).

Vs Competition
Can only compare to recent visits to Alton Towers, DinseyLand Paris and Sundown Adventureland.
Different level to Sundown, much larger scale.
Sundown is very nostalgic for me and has brilliant theming. If both costs the same money which would we be going back to? Dare I saw Drayton…just has such a good ride offering for the kids.
Drayton V Disney…like and FA cup mismatch. Drayton doesn't embarrass itself.
More relevant Drayton V Alton. For my age kids, Drayton. We walked straight into the monorail car ride here. Treetops at alton has a 60+ min wait. Just one example.

Overall
A good day out was had, spend somewhere between £200-250 including parking, entry, a gift in the Thomas shop, pizza, ice creams and hot chocolates.
Will we be back? Probably but it's not something we can do often. Even got a glimpse of the famous Shaun Sanbrook!

Final note the opening hours were fantastic. 10.30 til around 8pm we left. Packed loads in without going with a plan or being rushed.

Well done Drayton!
 
LowCount said:
First ever visit to the park. Went for Thomasland but did have a good walk around.

Arrived around 10am for 10.30 opening. No queues to get into carpark and parked only a few meters next to the thomasland entrance. Got ready, toilet stop and before we could join the entrance queue staff were letting people through to a rope drop. This really helped with queues.


Staff
Staff were all pleasant, interacted with the kids and can't think of coming across anyone who seemed like they didn't want to be there.

Cleanliness & Atmosphere
Park felt clean and safe. Maybe due to the lack of crowds. Toilets were passable and seemed to be getting cleaned. Odd smell of wacky backy but saw no trouble. Smoking areas respected mostly.

Entertainment
As you would expect fat controller shows and meet and great in Thomasland.
Also stumbled acrossed the end of some comedic Vikings near the zoo entrance. There was a girl singing on the mainstage throughout the day. This stage also held a dance party with a mascot that drew a big crowd. We left before the fireworks.

Zoo
Actually forgot they had this when we booked. Wouldn't have gone to this as a standalone when we have Yorkshire Wildlife Park local. But had a good walk around, nice way to break up the day.

Queues & Ops
Cant comment in the bigger rides too much but didn't see any crazy times on the info boards. Stormforce wasn't running which was a shame as would have been good to watch.
Lost count if the amount of rides we got on.
Longest queues we had were for the kids submarine log flume 30-40 mins and the horse ride in viking area.
The Thomas train to the zoo was down for a bit as got stuck on the track. Was up and running layer in the day with only Percy. Had an evac one time whilst queuing for the submarine log flume.

Ride Offering
For our age kids very good. Never been down to Paultons but probably the best kids lineup we have come across. At the other end doesn't seem too much in regards to top thrill rides. That said the Gold Rush coaster looks brilliant. Didn't get in it but my eldest enjoyed watching it fly over the pathway. Which reminds me, the parks layout allows rides to interact with off-ride much more than some of the other parks.

ThomasLand
Brilliant area, nice and spacious, good variety of rides. Everything was up and running throughout the day. Little to no queues. Very good indoor soft play.

Themes
Thomaslad speaks for itself, nice Western area and the viking land was very nice. The smell from the log fuelled BBQ was top notch. In this area we rode the horse ride. The more I think about it the more laughable the themeing was. Track that went around a few piles of stones, the odd sword and a single Viking. I get the layout makes it manageable for 1 staff member but didn't seem much effort in this ride. That said my little girl loves she went on a horse and my lad said it was awesome. What do I know?

Food
It's expensive. Not sure who is doing the food here, contract catering or in-house but someone is making some money here….or are they?
We took lots of snacks and lunch. Around 4pm after the evac of the submarine log flume we headed in search of food. Stuck our head into the very quiet burger bar, looks a nice environment eith covered outdoor seating. We ended up heading to the safari pizza though. 2 pizza, 1 cheesy garlic bread and 2 drinks. £48. Lots of food for us all, was decent nothing special but did the job. Felt a strange environment in there. Was not many people eating but must have recently been busy as a lot of the tables were messy. There was a Staff member out cleaning whilst we was eating. People couldn't clear up after themselves as the tiny bins were full. The cage has good themeing but terrible seating layout. Could get a lot more in there and would have been better if it was layer out similar to Sundowns largest cafe. (Also with jungle theme).

Vs Competition
Can only compare to recent visits to Alton Towers, DinseyLand Paris and Sundown Adventureland.
Different level to Sundown, much larger scale.
Sundown is very nostalgic for me and has brilliant theming. If both costs the same money which would we be going back to? Dare I saw Drayton…just has such a good ride offering for the kids.
Drayton V Disney…like and FA cup mismatch. Drayton doesn't embarrass itself.
More relevant Drayton V Alton. For my age kids, Drayton. We walked straight into the monorail car ride here. Treetops at alton has a 60+ min wait. Just one example.

Overall
A good day out was had, spend somewhere between £200-250 including parking, entry, a gift in the Thomas shop, pizza, ice creams and hot chocolates.
Will we be back? Probably but it's not something we can do often. Even got a glimpse of the famous Shaun Sanbrook!

Final note the opening hours were fantastic. 10.30 til around 8pm we left. Packed loads in without going with a plan or being rushed.

Well done Drayton!
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they do there own food
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Not been a good week for the park storm force 10 been out of action for over a week now and Gold Rush has valley again and it’s currently under a cover.

From: https://youtu.be/Eo9BoMsIm6c?si=Q5tfRvWstfCvA4FS

I was informed that guests were asked not to take videos or pictures.
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To be fair if StormForce requires maintenance then fair enough

Gold Rush clearly a design flaw maybe rectified by speeding up launch.

But Drayton has had a pretty strong season outside of few spots of downtime the park has been busy which is good to see
 
Staff today were telling people the turntable needs parts

As for gold rush- I’m not sure what the problem is.
Was flawless last season. And it already kicks off the lift hill forwards for an extra boost that it didn’t previously.
 
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I went to the park for a couple of hours this afternoon and spoke to staff and they think it will be down for weeks as the problem has been the launch section back out the building.
For Stormforce yeah there’s a problem with the turntable and there was a boat stuck in there
IMG_5532.jpeg
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
I went to the park for a couple of hours this afternoon and spoke to staff and they think it will be down for weeks as the problem has been the launch section back out the building.
For Stormforce yeah there’s a problem with the turntable and there was a boat stuck in there
IMG_5532.jpeg
Click to expand...
likewise was there today with my daughter. Highlight of the day was some idiot trying to force himself and his toddler into a rapids boat despite the kid being tiny.

He threatens to hurt staff etc. Runs from security and later tried to queue jump on The Haunting. The rapids were evacuated because of safety concerns.

Also noticed a trend in Thomas Land where large families were sending family to queue in the bigger queues while the kids rode elsewhere then tried to funnel the children down the queue
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Themeparksandy1981 said:
I went to the park for a couple of hours this afternoon and spoke to staff and they think it will be down for weeks as the problem has been the launch section back out the building.
For Stormforce yeah there’s a problem with the turntable and there was a boat stuck in there
IMG_5532.jpeg
Click to expand...
did see water flowing down the big drop at 10:30am must have been testing it
 
On another point what will be Drayton Manor next ride or project, hoping for either Overhaul of Drayton Manor Zoo or something done with the Pirates Cove area
 
Hid said:
On another point what will be Drayton Manor next ride or project, hoping for either Overhaul of Drayton Manor Zoo or something done with the Pirates Cove area
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It's almost certain to be the pirate adventure building and surrounding area. They park could do with a high capacity dark ride and they have the building for it.

Longer term, probably beyond the next five years I think the zoo will go and they will use the space for future expansion. They will be have to be mindful that the far end is near houses so It will be interesting to see what they do with it.
 
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Themeparksandy1981 said:
I do wonder if that back in the day event was kinda a test to see how many visitors visited just for the zoo mainly and brought tokens/tickets for select rides to really see how popular the zoo still is.
I think Drayton and Paulton’s will be the main major attractions for the 2026 season.
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Chessington and Pleasure Beach to.

Maybe some other unannounced projects
 
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