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Drayton Manor Park

Anyway, at least Flying Dutchman still stands
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But this is the new generation and many 10+ don’t want to go theme parks and none of my mates have taken any of there kids to theme parks as they don’t want to stand in queues all day after paying £100+ for tickets. To prove my point the teenagers/early 20’s at work have never been to Alton Towers and last went to a theme park with school in Junior school. Senior school trips want to do Paint balling or go karting.
 
I fail to understand why they are doing this if it’s true

I think the company would benefit from a ore pack administration to be honest. I would also imagine talks are ongoing with other operators about a takeover - the park clearly isn’t financially viable in its current format
 
The thing is......they aren't even the go to family park in the local area either. Towers are. Cbeebies and now David Williams plus the odd family ride dotted around park trump's Drayton's offering. They are miles behind now. Can't see them surviving much longer.
 
Maybe this could act as a reset of the lineup? Get rid of the more expensive rides, start again with just the family rides, and then follow the paultons formula and start growing again?
 
Drayton Manor opened in 1949, so this is a seventy year old business we’re talking about. It’s not some kind of passing fad. It’s survived all kinds of storms. It’s really sad to see it so close to bankruptcy. It’s true that some of the kid’s parks seem to be doing relatively well, but I doubt any of them have the levels of debt that Drayton Manor has. Sure, they’ll sell the rides and the proceeds will help, but second hand rides tend to lose their value pretty quickly. When you look at the prices on used ride websites, I doubt the sale will clear that much of their debt.

Businesses like Drayton Manor have to evolve over time, but the rate of change has been very rapid with a lot of rides closing in a very short space of time. It’s going to be very difficult for them to come back from this. They’ve got a brand that has slowly evolved over 70 years. It’s difficult to quickly reposition it. Not to mention that you can’t just lay off a big chunk of your workforce without it damaging the company culture and the fabric of the organisation. Once the redundancies have been made and the dust has settled down, I doubt the relationship between the managers and the level of trust will ever be quite the same again.

We all knew the park was struggling, but this is a big turn of events. A few weeks ago, we were speculating about whether or not the rapids would re-open. Now we’re looking at most of the big rides closing.
 
I have to say it’s a new generation and parks like Gulliver's are doing well having rides based on the under 10’s. There’s lots all around the UK and I had more fun at theses than I have at Alton Towers in the past 10 years.
My daughter never shuts up about Drayton Manor and we have a lovely time. There Christmas event from the shows, meeting Santa Claus and ending the day with a 4 min fireworks show is so magical and the bear she got she takes to bed with her each night and to she gets bored with theme parks I will still be taking her and my son when he is older.
 
I am surprised that Drayton Manor took this route because in the thrill market their only competitor is Alton Towers however in the family market they are against Alton Towers, West Midlands Safari Park, Gulliver's Kingdom, Twinlakes and Wicksteed within 50 miles. Drayton Manor did quite well in the 90s and 00s by building the unusual, Rides like Apocalypse and G-Force are rare and nothing like what Alton Towers has despite Alton Towers having a far greater budget. When I went to Drayton back in July the park seemed quite busy however operations were dreadful - 5 minute dispatches on one train on Shockwave caused a 50 minute queue. I do think that Drayton Manor will survive the next few years despite management's decision because of Thomas Land. I wouldn't be surprised if the Drayton Manor name goes and the whole park is rebranded Thomas Land in a few years given that about half the rides are now in Thomas Land.
 
Leafing through the catalogue for the auction on Sunday, it seems as if any dreams of Pirate Adventure taking to the seas once more, are now dead?
 
Rick said:
Leafing through the catalogue for the auction on Sunday, it seems as if any dreams of Pirate Adventure taking to the seas once more, are now dead?
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I like the park have thought about the fans and letting them buy old stuff off rides or been in storage for years. Also instead of going into Drayton back pocket the Money made will go on the charities linked to the park.
 
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Yep. I have uploaded it here. Thank you to one of my friends at the park who was able to email me this across last week. As I too, was curious.

ADMIN EDIT - Link removed

It is clear that most of the photos were taken from within the Pirate Adventure building. You can see the trough and the concrete edges in some of the photos. Aswel as the roof of the que line. Spending years inside the attraction makes you able to spot things others might not.

The colour of the lighting the photos are took under also screams Pirate Adventure maintenance lights to me!

The thing is. If they were removing the trough I would have thought they would have removed that first but they haven't. Maybe they plan to re use it? But on the flip side they are also auctioning off the boats including the new ones. If they planned to re use it as a boat ride. Surely they wouldn't do that.
 
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Is the trough concrete? Demolishing it is an expensive undertaking if you don't have an immediate use for the space.

If you're going to flatten the building, you might as well do the trough afterwards when you have easier access, etc.

There's a few old water ride troughs out there under the floors of the buildings that once housed them that have since been repurposed.

I am trying to convince the good lady that an Excalibur boat in the garden would be a charming addition.
 
Rick said:
Is the trough concrete? Demolishing it is an expensive undertaking if you don't have an immediate use for the space.

If you're going to flatten the building, you might as well do the trough afterwards when you have easier access, etc.

There's a few old water rides out there under the floors of the buildings that once housed them that have since been repurposed.

I am trying to convince the good lady that an Excalibur boat in the garden would be a charming addition.
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No, the trough is pretty much the same as the trough for battle gallons. Quite a flimsy metal structure that is easily removed. It also looks exactly the same as battle gallons trough looked when full of water. With the surrounding lake. Then that trough sits in internal lakes within the ride which are made out of concrete. The trough acts as a way to guide the boats around the internal lakes while looking as discreet as possible.

I would have thought they would have removed the metal trough to provide easy access for machinery that could sit in the concrete lakes (given their size) but they haven't by the looks of it. Which leads me to think they have some plans. But I agree with the lakes. They will be difficult to remove, although they sit below ground level, so wouldn't be a huge amount of work to fill them in.
 
The auction will be an interesting event. I’m looking forward to seeing people’s bids! I personally believe that the reserve prices are all very fair and so I’m looking forward to seeing how much these items actually do go for.

I’m currently not sure if photography is allowed at the event however once I receive confirmation then I’ll update this thread. My website team and I are all going to the event so we will make sure to keep you updated on the day :)
 
We knew this was coming for some time. Dismantling of G Force has begun.



On a side note does anyone have a scanned copy of the 2019 map they wouldn't mind publishing online?
 
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