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Drayton Manor Park

Drayton Manor is a decaying corpse of a theme park. The closure of Shockwave and Apocalypse would come as no surprise.
 
The future of the park isn't as a theme park. I can see them phasing out all the larger scale rides and becoming almost a safari / zoo park with family rides and Thomas Land. It would make so much more sense for them. They can't compete as a fully functioning Theme Park much longer surely?

Expand the Zoo, Expand Thomas Land and some nearby Family rides.
 
The problem with them becoming more focussed on the zoo is that it is currently *abysmal* and needs a lot of investment to bring it up to scratch.
 
Quite simply they haven’t enough money to compete

they need money to compete as a theme park - probably £30-£40m on three or four headline rides they don’t have

they would need to spend several million to get the zoo up to scratch - they don’t have that.

this to me says they are gambling cut back on those costs in the hope they can grow the family market via Thomas and then expand from there.

they are already saddled with debt - they need to take on more to success
 
To be fair to them, I'd imagine young families probably make up a pretty significant percentage of Drayton Manor's clientele already (most people I know who've been there are young families who only really went for Thomas Land), so thrill rides are a far easier thing for them to cut back on as most of their guests won't really notice that they're gone. As much as Apocalypse is a good drop tower and I liked Shockwave more than I expected to, I do think they would be two of the smartest rides for the park to remove, especially as they're probably two of the most expensive rides to maintain as well.

If they are able to generate larger profit margins from the removal of these attractions, then they might be able to use this to invest in more family attractions in 5-10 years' time, which would in theory attract even more families to offset the thrillseeker losses.
 
I think most of you are forgetting the definition of a family park. Drayton Manor are really pushing to become a family park however they seem to think that this only means young children whereas in fact they are very wrong.

A real family park had a mixture of different rides - small rides, family rides and thrill rides. This is what Drayton Manor already have. If they start to remove their thrill rides then this will really start to affect their market. If you think about it, a lot of their revenue comes from school trips in the summer. What schools would go to Drayton Manor when there is no thrill rides? They would simply just go to Alton Towers instead.

I really don’t think that Drayton Manor know what they are getting themselves into.
 
Would "Drayton Manor is becoming a children's park" be a better way of putting it, then?
 
Does anyone even believe this?
If they are as skint as we think they are, removing those two rides would be far more expensive than either shutting them sbno, or running them cheap at peak times.
Personally, I think it is a load of cobblers.
Camping at Drayton for the first time in eighteen years next year.
Playing out dippy?
 
AT86 said:
This is all giving me American Adventure flashbacks.

And we know how that went.
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In fairness, American Adventure had invested almost nothing at all in children's rides since not long after the park opened - and then attempted to compensate with a few leased Zamperla flats all in 'stock' configuration. In fact, between Granada selling up and the 'family park' change the only investment of note was a ride which was removed after only a couple of seasons (Flying Island). There were quite a lot of upcharges and some redressing (Sooty show becoming a 3D Cinema) but that really was it.

American Adventure going 'family' was a desperate attempt to try and reinvent themselves having failed to maintain their signature attractions and having no money to sort them.

Drayton Manor going 'family' would, in fairness to them be playing to their strengths, and presuming this happens in 2021 this comes across more like a planned transition than a panic.

I went to Drayton Manor for the first time this year. Sure, there were some bad signs (Buffalo knackered and running without a third of its train, entire areas looking a bit abandoned) but the situation was nowhere near as dire as American Adventure c.2004 was in retrospect.

Look at the overall picture and have a bit of hope, however hard to stomach it is. Sure there are similarities, but whatever happens the park can't continue in its current mould. They have to try something.
 
Been a season pass holder for 3 years I notice that the queues for Shockwave and the stand up of the Apocalypse have been a walk on mainly. I also feel rough now after riding Shockwave and Air Race. Drayton know there onto a winner with Thomas as young and old have growth up with Thomas and friends.
I think there is something going on inside the former Pirate Adventure building as all season there been workers round the back of the building.
 
rob666 said:
Does anyone even believe this?
If they are as skint as we think they are, removing those two rides would be far more expensive than either shutting them sbno, or running them cheap at peak times.
Personally, I think it is a load of cobblers.
Camping at Drayton for the first time in eighteen years next year.
Playing out dippy?
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It's apparently circulating around lots of people that both are going. I would not treat this rumor lightly

You’re right to suggest it would be expensive, given the foundations and how deep some of them are. It's most likely that they would be left SBNO as G force was , and eventually both Apocalypse and Shockwave would be melted down, rather than sold.

As the poster above says, it’s very American adventure sounding. Given Pirate Adventures fate, and splash canyon, and the removal of the chairlift, the place is sadly only going in one direction. As @Ciaran points out above, this decision wouldn't make sense if they were truly shifting to a kids audience; two headline attractions leaving without immediate replacement will hurt guest numbers, especially families with kids between 1.2 and 1.4 m. Sadly, I think this move alone will decimate guest numbers and probably result in the business liquidating at some point or other, as I can't see them being able to pay off debts as things are going. Thomas land will survive in some form for sure though, but I imagine they'd have to sell both the IP and assets of it to a new operator perhaps?

But yeah, if they go ahead with this, I do believe this is the end of Drayton Manor theme park.
 
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I so do not agree with this. I’m on park today and for just Thomasland open and select family rides the park is rammed with all available rides queues full.
You only have to look at Paultons Park to how well a 1.2m or below theme park operate.
On other news I think G-Force will be removed in the new year as all the supports have been numbered and the fences around the ride have been removed.
 
Paultons are moving in thr opposite direction and opening rides with appeal to older families now though, so that comparison doesn't hold up at all. What Drayton are doing is seriously limiting their own appeal.
 
@Themeparksandy1981 Paulton's didn't downscale though. They've done the opposite since they opened Peppa Pig world and only expanded on their offering, investing in to the wider park, and are reaping the success of it. With Drayton, downscaling will take away their a huge section of their target market without replacing it. It'd be fine if they were immediately replacing it with a <1.2m ride/kids ride, but they aren't (as far as anyone is aware at least). It will hurt them for sure once the main season arrives, no matter how well they do during christmas and feb half term.
D4n said:
Paultons are moving in thr opposite direction and opening rides with appeal to older families now though, so that comparison doesn't hold up at all. What Drayton are doing is seriously limiting their own appeal.
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Hits the nail on the head this post does. No matter what way you try to spin it, very bad times are ahead.
 
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