Enter Valhalla
TS Member
Whilst I do agree that theme parks, Drayton Manor or otherwise, should be prepared for opening weekend and that having multiple rides down isn’t a great look for the park, I’ll caveat that by saying that I went to Drayton yesterday and had a really good day, I felt that it was being much better managed than Thorpe or Towers have managed their opening weekends over the park few years.
Lots of other enthusiasts seemed to be at Drayton yesterday, especially for the evening rides on the coasters, which was really appreciated. Everyone that I saw seems pretty happy with how the day was going. Some rides were down, but they were basically just flat rides and water rides. This was advertised too. They kept many rides open till 6pm and the coasters and a few other rides open till 7pm, and ended the day with a 7pm lake show featuring fountains and fire, which was actually a lot longer than I expected it to be and was really good.
Unlike Merlin, Drayton did advertise the weekend’s event as “The Big Restart”, I perhaps wouldn’t have used the word “big” but they did greatly reduce the price, and warned guests that queues would take longer and rides would be up and down. I’m sorry but £24.90 for a full day at the park with only a few rides down, and extended hours till 7pm was pretty good value in my opinion.
In terms of the rides advertised as opening, I didn’t come across any shutdowns throughout the day, so we knew what to expect and there were no unpleasant surprises.
We even got a return ticket, which we really weren’t expecting considering it was so cheap in the first place. Yesterday was actually one of the best trips to Drayton I’ve done, and it was really nice to catch up with a few enthusiasts who I hadn’t expected to see, and enjoy some sunset rides on Gold Rush and The Wave. The Wave was also running very smoothly, which was great to see.
Lots of other enthusiasts seemed to be at Drayton yesterday, especially for the evening rides on the coasters, which was really appreciated. Everyone that I saw seems pretty happy with how the day was going. Some rides were down, but they were basically just flat rides and water rides. This was advertised too. They kept many rides open till 6pm and the coasters and a few other rides open till 7pm, and ended the day with a 7pm lake show featuring fountains and fire, which was actually a lot longer than I expected it to be and was really good.
Unlike Merlin, Drayton did advertise the weekend’s event as “The Big Restart”, I perhaps wouldn’t have used the word “big” but they did greatly reduce the price, and warned guests that queues would take longer and rides would be up and down. I’m sorry but £24.90 for a full day at the park with only a few rides down, and extended hours till 7pm was pretty good value in my opinion.
In terms of the rides advertised as opening, I didn’t come across any shutdowns throughout the day, so we knew what to expect and there were no unpleasant surprises.
We even got a return ticket, which we really weren’t expecting considering it was so cheap in the first place. Yesterday was actually one of the best trips to Drayton I’ve done, and it was really nice to catch up with a few enthusiasts who I hadn’t expected to see, and enjoy some sunset rides on Gold Rush and The Wave. The Wave was also running very smoothly, which was great to see.
