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Drayton Manor Park

Zak said:
Bearing in mind that The Haunting is still to get its Scooby Doo re-theme to fit in with Cartoon Network Street.. That's if they still go ahead with it but I can't see why they wouldnt!
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The retheme doesn't sound too different from what I've heard as of late.
I did hear something possibly about the ex-Black Revolver site - anyone know more?
 
As I mentioned earlier this year the re-theme was ment to go ahead this season commencing but due to budget they diddnt do it and this is why we basically ended up with nothing.

My sources tell me that a thrill ride is being placed on the old revolver site which sounds genuine as there is nothing there at the moment and is abit of a eye sore.
 
Zak said:
That does seem rarther strange.. what day was the visit? Was it that same day as that Michelle is it from corrie? Maby they wanted to make the experience better by people not talking at all perhaps?
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17th July.

It could've been because of the large number of visitors on the day, so the operator became frustrated, but it's still no excuse to act in that manner.
 
To be honest, I dont blame them! At the end of the day, the same goes for hex, it really is ruined when people are chatting and laughing even if it is quiet, it still disturbs the people around them, Hex especially and its a shame this sort of system isnt in place on hex!

However maybe it is a bit harsh as The Haunting really is laughable at some points and youd pretty much have to be suffering from serious anxiety to be scared on it.
 
Does anyone have any information on what's happened to Stormforce 10? Seems to have been down for some time!
 
If you get a refund on the Rainy Day Guarantee, when you come back does it have to be in the same season. (Considering the fact that the offer might not be here this time next year).

Alas, it's a brilliant idea though that I think other smaller non-Merlin theme parks should follow to get ahead of the game while the prices are still dirt cheap.
 
The return date has to be between a certain date, its Sept/Oct I think. The details and dates are on the Drayton website.
 
Just received information that Excalibur's castle has been painted silver/white, can anyone confirm this?
 
Pirate Adventure is still open (in fact, I'm standing in the queue right now) and the Excalibur building has had a repaint with a Christmas show aptly named 'Knight before Christmas' being advertised outside it.

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It was very busy, queues spilled out of the entrance and reached up past an hour (Such as Ben 10). Pirate Adventure is currently under deconstruction despite being open, unless I missed out certain details last time, with operations being decent.

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Drayton was very busy indeed on Sunday. There were suggestions that the park exceeded capacity by about two or three thousand people - around 18,000 on park if some staff were to be believed. There were stories of people abandoning their cars in droves on the roads into Drayton, walking into the park instead.

The ride close extension to 7:30pm was very welcome. It's very rare - besides the occasional Blackpool summer day - to be in a UK theme park much later than 6pm nowadays.
 
I thought Drayton was great on sunday despite how busy it was. Amazing to see a park as small as Drayton receive so many guests and be able to cope with it! Sure some queues were long, but to be honest I've queued longer at Thorpe when it's under capacity.

I thought the park was looking pretty good for itself. The only place I didn't check out was the Zoo!
 
The Aerial Park area at DMP is looking fantastic at the moment, at least externally. Splash Canyon / Shock Wave / G Force / Storm Force 10 / Maelstrom are generally vibrant in colour and looking good.

Infact, externally, the park generally looks OK. The problems begin "behind the facades", on some rides, as it were.

Pirate Adventure, regardless whether it is closing or not, is an utter joke. For such a major ride system, to have five boats in working order results in a terrible capacity - the queue for the ride reached almost 1 hour. The scenes are dilapidated, animatronics fail to work, heads have dropped off models - and music is often off. The park should close the ride. It is an embarassment to both Drayton Manor Park and Mack Rides.

Ben 10 queue has graffiti etched into various walls. This is shocking for such a new, and worthwhile investment. The "remove your glasses" rule remains an utter joke.

Now that the park is charging £36.00, it can no longer fail to deliver quality experiences on any of its attractions. They need more trains, more boats and more care.
 
So what is actually happening with Pirate Adventure? And what do you mean by deconstruction?

If you remember a while back I posted about the park wanting to turn it into a Thomas dark ride, could this be what is potentially happening?
 
The biggest rumour is that they will be removing Pirate Adventure for more Thomas Land space. The footprint of that area is enough for a legitimate expansion and since the ride is in a state of dilapidation, as Astro says, it's also legitimate a theory that the ride will be shortly departing. Since the ride system is fine (It's just the scenes, throughputs and animatronics that are the problem), it's possible that Drayton are willing to keep it and rework it into a dark ride for Thomas Land.

As much as the ride was painful to sit through after being quite impressive last year, it would be a shame if Drayton were to completely remove the area of Pirate Adventure.

Oh and deconstruction, I mean as in background theming being removed from the last two scenes with extremely evident floodlight lighting, animatronics being turned off or slowly dismantled. It's likely they only reopened it for the sake of guests!
 
I wish they would just leave Thomas Land as it is now, I really don't think that it needs the expansion! If the park so remove this and turn it into another land this technically means we've lost a area of the park ''Pirate Cove''.

This will also mean re-themeing the current restaurant located outside the Pirate Adventure entrance and the bumper cars. I wish the park would pump money into the attraction re-theme the scenes and bring it up to date as it is a good ride when everything is working properly.
 
I have to say, I had an appalling day at Drayton on Saturday (obviously it was good due to my fwends, but still <3). I really have to speak my mind about this.

Yes, the park was at capacity. They can do nothing about that. It's great to see a UK park so busy. But in handling that huge guest figure, the park failed miserably in almost all key areas.

  • Apocalypse, which I've never seen with a queue before, only had three out of the five towers open. With a half hour queue, it was insulting having the ride running at just over half capacity, while the park was at full capacity.
  • Ben 10's throughputs seem to have dropped significantly since last year for some reason, leading to what looked like a half hour queue taking an hour.
  • Even opening Pirate Adventure is insulting to the paying guest. It was in an absolute state. Even if they're going to demolish it, it should not be open at all in such a diabolical condition. Again, a very low number of boats led to a half hour queue, where normally there would be none.
  • Golden Nuggets was a similar story, with about half the targets not working at all. I'm not saying a ride should only be open when everything is 100% working, but come on, this is a joke.
  • Shockwave's throughput seemed to be poor, though the ride didn't seem to have much of a queue all day. Probably because of how awful it is.
  • The Haunting - another half hour wait. Why? Because of the way they always seem to operate it: allowing a batch of guests through the entire pre-show and ride before letting the next set of guests into the pre-show. Thus missing half the point of having a pre-show.
  • G-Farce in general. To the staff's credit, they were working flat out with the poor ride they have. I know this isn't specific to Saturday, but it's astonishing that they've never bought a second train for it. We waited over an hour for one of the crappiest rides ever built, in a queue that resembles an abandoned warehouse, with broken queue line effects. Even on a quiet day, this thing gets unbearable queues.
  • Closure of Buffalo all day and the removal of Excalibur put more of a strain on the other rides, especially with no new additions this year.

The highlight was the incredibly friendly and chatty member of staff in the Stormforce shop, Scarlett. Well done to her, she was the only highlight of an abysmal visit.

Unfortunately, despite park close being extended to 7:30, I didn't have time to ride Pandemonium, Stormforce, the rapids, the Bounty or even venture into Thomas Land or the zoo. Towers may only have been open until 5 that day, but I'd much rather have 7 hours with rides being run properly than 9 hours of agonising queues. Especially as both of Drayton's thrill coasters are hopeless.

I generally felt like the park had a sense of contempt for the paying guest. I will be writing a letter of complaint, and will not be returning until the park make a significant investment in a quality new attraction, or improve in any of the areas mentioned above.
 
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