Drayton Manor Park

[Enter Valhalla]

The Brexit issue of parts taking longer to arrive could well be a factor, one which I hadn’t considered actually.

I think the biggest reason must be cuts though. As people have said, Alton Towers set the standard for other UK theme parks, just because they’re the largest and most well known UK park. When the standards are lowered at the Merlin parks it has a domino effect. Paultons seems to be the only park that looks at Merlin and says “we’re not doing that”, whereas the other UK parks seem to look up to Merlin and try to be like them, which is never going to work since they don’t have the money or resources that Merlin does. The Paultons approach of trying to be different, is a welcome change.

 

[BarryZola]

How much longer is it taking a part to get into the country compared to before Brexit? Any real world examples? I sent a 20kg package to China last week and it took 4 days to arrive at the destination, even after being held up at customs for further checks. I also received an item from China this week after a similar wait. I've had multiple items come from Europe since Brexit and I've not noticed any long delays. Have they just got it in for theme parks so are holding up their packages for a laugh? I've heard this argument before and I don't really buy it. A slight delay, maybe, sometimes, but not regular extra long wait times due to a bit of extra paper work, surely? Obviously Brexit worked out badly, but is it really an excuse for our theme parks to not run their rides reliably?

 

[Poisson]

How much longer is it taking a part to get into the country compared to before Brexit? Any real world examples? I sent a 20kg package to China last week and it took 4 days to arrive at the destination, even after being held up at customs for further checks. I also received an item from China this week after a similar wait. I've had multiple items come from Europe since Brexit and I've not noticed any long delays. Have they just got it in for theme parks so are holding up their packages for a laugh? I've heard this argument before and I don't really buy it. A slight delay, maybe, sometimes, but not regular extra long wait times due to a bit of extra paper work, surely? Obviously Brexit worked out badly, but is it really an excuse for our theme parks to not run their rides reliably?

We can get parts shipped almost instantly where I work too. Germany/Switzerland/USA no problems. Even sending technical kit for repair is fairly swift.

 

[DiogoJ42]

You get what you pay for.

 

[imanautie]

How much longer is it taking a part to get into the country compared to before Brexit? Any real world examples? I sent a 20kg package to China last week and it took 4 days to arrive at the destination, even after being held up at customs for further checks. I also received an item from China this week after a similar wait. I've had multiple items come from Europe since Brexit and I've not noticed any long delays. Have they just got it in for theme parks so are holding up their packages for a laugh? I've heard this argument before and I don't really buy it. A slight delay, maybe, sometimes, but not regular extra long wait times due to a bit of extra paper work, surely? Obviously Brexit worked out badly, but is it really an excuse for our theme parks to not run their rides reliably?

Depends on how well they the shipper does their paperwork and if they are responsive to queries from the carrier, I know from work (I'm in brokerage) stuff can occasionally get held up a few days or weeks (longer is an exception), but most stuff if it's going to actually clear it's usually very quickly.

 

[Craig]

Please try and keep things directly related to Drayton. Suggestions of why availability is a problem is fine, but let’s not get bogged down in detailed discussion about Brexit etc. We have dedicated discussion topics for that - thanks.

 

[Steve Minor]

Given the hysterical reaction of British enthusiasts, you'd think we'd hate our parks more than just like that. Honestly with the exception of Paultons, is there any UK park that's doing alright?

I hear Brean is doing fantastic. They've managed to go out of business twice this year already

 

[Secret Weapon]

TPWW have uploaded their vlog / footage from today (see link below).

Part of me feels sorry for the hordes of schoolchildren who would’ve been lucky to have even gotten a single ride today, due to the terrible ride availability – but then I remember how the schoolchildren ruined my day trip last year (as I detailed in this report), and so I am suddenly less sympathetic! (although – in fairness – it is probably / hopefully different children visiting the park this time around)

Not only did The Wave open late in the day, but only two of the rows were operational (in the single car that the park owns), and the queues were likely to have been large anyway, due to (A) the sheer number of other rides that were down, and (B) the large number of school children in the park.

I have no idea how the park will get through the Easter Holidays without disappointing a large number of people, unfortunately.

P.S. I will probably get told off by the mods for reporting unsubstantiated rumours again, but – for what it’s worth – multiple people (not just one person) said in the Comments section of the video below that part of the reason for the poor maintenance in the park is the unpopular maintenance manager (although they didn’t mention him by name), whose abrasive manner has allegedly caused 10 of the engineers to have left the park within the past 2 months (Shawn acknowledged these comments in his reply, although he didn’t confirm or deny whether they were accurate).


From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biNRf1d-sWg

 

[DiogoJ42]

Part of me feels sorry for the hordes of schoolchildren who would’ve been lucky to have even gotten a single ride today, due to the terrible ride availability –

The worst part is, there is now a whole generation of younglings who think this is normal, as they've never known anything else.

 

[Secret Weapon]

The worst part is, there is now a whole generation of younglings who think this is normal, as they've never known anything else.

In fairness, back in the 1990s, I thought it was normal to only get 1 or 2 rides per day at Alton Towers* - hence why I didn't visit between 1994 and 2001, and mainly just stuck to WMSP and Drayton Manor (aside from one ill-fated visit to American Adventure).

How ironic that AT is now the park with shorter queues than Drayton Manor!

(*I remember visiting AT for the first time in 16 years back in 2024 and being shocked that I managed to get 4 SRQ rides on The Smiler within only 1 hour, as I was preparing for another 90-minute wait !)

 

[DiogoJ42]

In fairness, back in the 1990s, I thought it was normal to only get 1 or 2 rides per day at Alton Towers* - hence why I didn't visit between 1994 and 2001, and mainly just stuck to WMSP and Drayton Manor (aside from one ill-fated visit to American Adventure).

How ironic that AT is now the park with shorter queues than Drayton Manor!

(*I remember visiting AT for the first time in 16 years back in 2024 and being shocked that I managed to get 4 SRQ rides on The Smiler within only 1 hour, as I was preparing for another 90-minute wait !)

I could say similar about Chessington in the 90's. But at least we were aware that was only because we were visiting on weekends / holidays. Never had these newfangled midweek school trips in my day!
(Old man noises)