Themeparksandy1981
TS Member
When a ride goes down at Drayton and it’s been quite often this year the staff say the maintenance team are on there way to guests.
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Drayton Manor Park
Themeparksandy1981
TS Member
Watching the video Victoria Lynn put out. This water show is gonna be used all year.
Themeparkplanet
TS Member
Cycle 2 is back on gold rush
Enter Valhalla
TS Member
A friend of mine on Instagram posted the list of staggered openings for October, and they really are quite something.
Examples include The Wave open 12-4 only, including at weekends, Gold Rush 11-3, Sherif Showdown 12-3, many of the Thomas Land rides only open 10:30-1, and others only open 1-4 to name but a few.
Also Rapids, Air Race, Blasting Barrels and The Haunting closed all month, including weekends, and the park closing at 4pm daily.
This is just depressing.
Examples include The Wave open 12-4 only, including at weekends, Gold Rush 11-3, Sherif Showdown 12-3, many of the Thomas Land rides only open 10:30-1, and others only open 1-4 to name but a few.
Also Rapids, Air Race, Blasting Barrels and The Haunting closed all month, including weekends, and the park closing at 4pm daily.
This is just depressing.
Matt N
TS Member
Does Drayton not have a Halloween offering of any kind, then? I know they have nothing Scarefest-scale, but I thought they did do a small event?
It seems very odd for the park to have such wide ranging cuts in place if a Halloween event is on. Particularly if they stay in place heading into half term… I think Drayton are in for a world of pain if these cuts are in place during half term!
It seems very odd for the park to have such wide ranging cuts in place if a Halloween event is on. Particularly if they stay in place heading into half term… I think Drayton are in for a world of pain if these cuts are in place during half term!
Think its to prep to have more rides open during Winter and Halloween got to do maintenance at some point also if they have staff shortages then it makes sense why they do this
Nope, none of the above, in my humble opinion.
Cuts, due to a very hard trading climate, coupled with increases in employer costs.
Nothing to do with winter opening, Halloween or fixing stuff, all to do with a shortage of cash in the leisure industry.
A big lack of punters outside the school holidays, and many of those that are about are on those cheap passes.
Cuts, due to a very hard trading climate, coupled with increases in employer costs.
Nothing to do with winter opening, Halloween or fixing stuff, all to do with a shortage of cash in the leisure industry.
A big lack of punters outside the school holidays, and many of those that are about are on those cheap passes.
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
What is disappointing is that your friend has posted only half the story. (I presume, you didn't actually provide a link to your source).
A quick look at Drayton Manor Park and Zoo's website will show you that they are operating a reduced atrraction offering between 3rd - 24th of October. There is no mention of reduced operating hours for attractions during this time. The park have adjusted their prices accordingly.
I also cannot find mention of reduced operating hours for attractions on Drayton Manor Park and Zoo's social channels, or anywhere else on their website. I would be curious as to how your friend came across these.
The park will be operating as normal between 25th of October and 2nd of November 2025.
The image below shows which attractions will be operating on the reduced offering days.
Source: https://www.draytonmanor.co.uk/ride-availability
Drayton Manor Park and Zoo is only open for eight more days between now and the 24th of October. If your theory were correct, they could perform more maintenance during closed days rather than in "reduced hours".
I'm usually one of the first to pick on Drayton Manor Park and Zoo, but let's try to be accurate.
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Themeparkplanet
TS Member
Yes they do a new end of the day show decorations round the park trick or treating with sir topham hat, trick or treat in the castle £5pp, The Haunted Express audio scare experiance £5pp, entertainement throughout the days and on the first saturday of half term and final sunday of half term fireworks, If missed any someone mention them
Enter Valhalla
TS Member
Rollercoasterrickster88 on Instagram if you need to know the source. Looks like a pretty official Drayton Manor document to me. And no I wouldn’t say it’s only half the story, it provides opening times for weekdays and weekends for October, clearly stated in black and white.What is disappointing is that your friend has posted only half the story. (I presume, you didn't actually provide a link to your source).
A quick look at Drayton Manor Park and Zoo's website will show you that they are operating a reduced atrraction offering between 3rd - 24th of October. There is no mention of reduced operating hours for attractions during this time. The park have adjusted their prices accordingly.
I also cannot find mention of reduced operating hours for attractions on Drayton Manor Park and Zoo's social channels, or anywhere else on their website. I would be curious as to how your friend came across these.
The park will be operating as normal between 25th of October and 2nd of November 2025.
The image below shows which attractions will be operating on the reduced offering days.
Source: https://www.draytonmanor.co.uk/ride-availability
Drayton Manor Park and Zoo is only open for eight more days between now and the 24th of October. If your theory were correct, they could perform more maintenance during closed days rather than in "reduced hours".
I'm usually one of the first to pick on Drayton Manor Park and Zoo, but let's try to be accurate.
Here if you need the link, looks pretty accurate to me:
From: https://www.instagram.com/p/DPef-85jNnS/?igsh=MXh0b3U4Zzc4ajdyeA==
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No they are doing well as the park is busier than I have ever seen it. Think the longer queues are mainly combination of more guest attending with poor ops which you don't get away with poor ops when your park is busier.
And as I always saying its cost cutting is a lazy answer because its easy to say just that
Themeparkplanet
TS Member
maybe or its due to they are doing winter maintence early since more rides will be open in winter
Bowser
TS Member
You saying the park is the busiest you’ve seen it is anecdotal.
Advertised reduced operating hours are actual evidence of something amiss.
As our resident Goose pointed out…
So if the suggestion is they’re reducing ride availability on open days to do maintenance then one could reasonably suggest that’s a cost cutting exercise, especially with so many rides closing early. Though I can’t imagine much maintenance can be done in the afternoon with the rest of the park operating?
The opening hours are the same as normal 10:30-16:30.
I disagree that something is a miss, they say much other than those rides might take longe to prep in the morning or evening and if you have a shortage of engineers then that's what you'll do.
The Park is much busier than I have ever seen it
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
I included the caveat that my presumption was based entirely on your original post, where you didn't provide all of the information.
As your source also confirms, this was for a total of eight operational days throughout October (by the time you posted), but not all of October. Normal / extended Drayton Manor Park and Zoo operations return for their last week of the full season, starting October 25th.
I agree that it's a bit of a poor show, especially as the reduced operating hours of attractions cannot be found on their website or social media posts. It's not as awful as your first post makes out though, and the price of entry reflects the limited offering.
Enter Valhalla
TS Member
The price is reduced, but not significantly enough to count for this level of reduced ride opening hours.
Price reductions and special offers tend to happen at most UK theme parks around this time of year. It’s off-peak season and typically offers tend to be more available in shoulder-season, but we never normally see ride opening times as limited as this, especially not at weekends. In fact this is the most heavy level of staggered openings/early closings I’ve seen at any UK park. Even with the price reduction, I don’t think it’s justified, and I don’t think my initial post was at all over exaggerating the point since everything I said was entirely factual.
