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Drayton Manor Park

jon81uk said:
If Shockwave had to go, replacing it with a slightly less thrilling coaster with a 1.2m height restriction would be the best compromise really, so they can still offer low thrill to older kids. But removing Splash Canyon would be a great shame.
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The older children market has a bit of a gap for now because Alton Towers has very little for children between Cbeebies and Nemesis but at some point Alton Towers will probably close that gap.
Also to answer Matt N's question, Yes the Thomas Land brand is strong but the Drayton Manor brand certainly isn't especially as the rest of the park has already had massive cuts to its ride lineup to the extent that Thomas Land now has more to do than the rest of Drayton Manor. I wouldn't be surprised if the Drayton Manor name goes completely soon.
 
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I don’t know about you guys, but I think the current state of the G-Force site looks as though Drayton may be building something there:

Do you agree? If so, what do you think could be put there?

I do remember an interview with Colin Bryan that talked about a “family track ride” with a seaside theme for G Force’s area (this bit was abruptly removed from the interview), but I’m also open to a potential G-Force replacement being something different.

Personally, I think that a small wooden coaster would be a fantastic addition to Drayton Manor. Something from GCI or the Gravity Group, even it was a tamer ride aimed at young families, would probably be in with a decent chance of being my favourite ride at Drayton Manor. Even though Shockwave was more fun than I was expecting, I think it is definitely quite an easily beatable roller coaster with modern technology, even if the ride is more family-focused, and I think a family wooden coaster would fit the park’s target market while also being appealing to enthusiasts. Wicker Man has proven that wooden coasters can be popular with the British public, so I think a more family-sized wooden coaster could work very well at Drayton.
 
Matt N said:
I don’t know about you guys, but I think the current state of the G-Force site looks as though Drayton may be building something there:


Personally, I think that a small wooden coaster would be a fantastic addition to Drayton Manor. Something from GCI or the Gravity Group, even it was a tamer ride aimed at young families, would probably be in with a decent chance of being my favourite ride at Drayton Manor. Even though Shockwave was more fun than I was expecting, I think it is definitely quite an easily beatable roller coaster with modern technology, even if the ride is more family-focused, and I think a family wooden coaster would fit the park’s target market while also being appealing to enthusiasts. Wicker Man has proven that wooden coasters can be popular with the British public, so I think a more family-sized wooden coaster could work very well at Drayton.
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You've got absolutely 0 chance of Drayton building a wooden coaster. You'll be lucky if they can get a caterpillar coaster at the moment. Never mind about anything else. Of course I'd love it if I was wrong.
 
siralgenon said:
You've got absolutely 0 chance of Drayton building a wooden coaster. You'll be lucky if they can get a caterpillar coaster at the moment. Never mind about anything else. Of course I'd love it if I was wrong.
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It will most probably be the “family track ride” that Colin Bryan referred to in the interview last year, if anything is being built, but I could well be wrong!
 
Drayton wouldn’t get planning permission for a wooden coaster with the villages around the back of the park.
I spoke to ride management 3 weeks ago and there currently no plans for new attractions to maybe 2022 at the earliest as they need to get thought this covid pandemic and they still waiting on the results and fine from HSE.
Pirate adventure was removed cause it failed new H&S rules and money was put a side to do the work but the money went missing but fingers pointed to a former director at the park at the time.
 
Someone from the park told you that? Very unprofessional to admit they’ve got people with fingers in the till.
 
Acl90 said:
Someone from the park told you that? Very unprofessional to admit they’ve got people with fingers in the till.
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This was years ago when I owned Drayton Manor Plus. Colin Bryan and his dad really liked our forum and give us interviews, Previews of rides and tickets to the vip grand opening.
Colin and his team took many trips on the pirate adventure listing what wasn’t working and what could be done to improve it.
Colin set a side money for this but it went missing from the account and it was a former director at the park. Everyone on the Drayton Manor Board now is all family with Colin Son running it day by day.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Pirate adventure was removed cause it failed new H&S rules and money was put a side to do the work but the money went missing but fingers pointed to a former director at the park at the time.
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The whole ride was built to 1989 standards, which aren't exactly in line with today anyway. The result was loads of props and set pieces layered on top of each other and held together by single frames near the roofing of the show building. The fire hazard was realized as an issue later on though, which is what I assume you are referring to Andy.

Also, thought this animatronic might be familiar to some people! :) Unfortunately I have not been able to recover his audio. A work in progress
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Water splash park for certain. Possibly a small juvenile ride as well. I am sure it has been mentioned on other forums about a seaside / beach theme which then includes Maelstrom into the area
 
Sauron97 said:
The whole ride was built to 1989 standards, which aren't exactly in line with today anyway. The result was loads of props and set pieces layered on top of each other and held together by single frames near the roofing of the show building. The fire hazard was realized as an issue later on though, which is what I assume you are referring to Andy.

Also, thought this animatronic might be familiar to some people! :) Unfortunately I have not been able to recover his audio. A work in progress
116793596_3261659597190619_57715169287283859_n.jpg
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He was added roughly the same time as the parrots as the original queue line had just signage in there.
He must have been removed during the lockdown as he was still in the queueline in January.
 
Sauron97 said:
The whole ride was built to 1989 standards, which aren't exactly in line with today anyway. The result was loads of props and set pieces layered on top of each other and held together by single frames near the roofing of the show building. The fire hazard was realized as an issue later on though, which is what I assume you are referring to Andy.

Also, thought this animatronic might be familiar to some people! :) Unfortunately I have not been able to recover his audio. A work in progress
116793596_3261659597190619_57715169287283859_n.jpg
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Fantastic to see him again!

Yeah it is a shame Pirates failed the H&S inspection. Decades worth of damp had got to the timber structures which was one of the main reasons it failed the inspections. It is inevitable to happen when you stick a load of wood in a building with a load of water and no proper dehumidification equipment. Big risk of set pieces collapsing caused the immediate closure of the ride, one which it never opened to the public again. I think it lasted 1 or 2 days into the season before closing.

The fire hazard would have always been there and always known. Because wood is wood, it would burn exactly the same in 1990 as it would in 2018. But I think when the park saw what happened at Europa Park and the significant amount of damage caused by their fire, it brought home the potential damage that could be caused by their own building full of combustables, prompting them to act for better or for worse.
 
DistortAMG said:
The fire hazard would have always been there and always known. Because wood is wood, it would burn exactly the same in 1990 as it would in 2018. But I think when the park saw what happened at Europa Park and the significant amount of damage caused by their fire, it brought home the potential damage that could be caused by their own building full of combustables, prompting them to act for better or for worse.
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Sauron97 said:
The whole ride was built to 1989 standards, which aren't exactly in line with today anyway. The result was loads of props and set pieces layered on top of each other and held together by single frames near the roofing of the show building. The fire hazard was realized as an issue later on though
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This doesn't quite sound like the whole picture. Almost all sets are timber even now, fire safety was thought about carefully in the 80s/90s when it came to attractions. Building regulations have got tighter, but as far as I know there are no new regulations that would have required Pirate Adventure to need a new building etc.

When Pirate Adventure was built, all materials inside would have been fire retardant treated including the timber sets. Timber is combustible but all timber used in construction is fire treated, to greatly reduce the ability to combust (or slow down the spread). It's used in almost every house

However retardancy wears away over time and it is a part of general dark ride maintenance to ensure the treatment is maintained. With a ride that old Pirate Adventure would have definitely needed retreating at some point.

Maybe it did, maybe it didn't, but sounds more likely that the actual closure was due to the set rotting, not necessarily building regualtions. This is also a part of general maintenance but affects some water rides worse than others

The Europa Park fire was interesting because it started outside the ride, so would have already been too big to control when it spread to Piraten. This is exactly how the Thorpe Park fire happened in 2000 as well. So it is a risk, but how fires like that happen aren't necessarily down to the construction of the scenes. Otherwise all dark rides would close down!
 
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OilyWater said:
The Europa Park fire was interesting because it started outside the ride, so would have already been too big to control when it spread to Piraten. This is exactly how the Thorpe Park fire happened in 2000 as well. So it is a risk, but how fires like that happen aren't necessarily down to the construction of the scenes. Otherwise all dark rides would close down!
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Was it discovered/released how Europa fire started then? I missed that. Interesting.
 
Came across this today:

According to him, Daryton have filed a notice of intent to appoint an administrator.

Dont shoot the messenger, but when somebody with 31k followers who owns a legal company offering clients access to information then it might have some credibility to it?
 
This could well fit in with the recent news of Mellors becoming involved.

‘Pre-pack’ administrations are pretty common these days. I.e. going into administration with a buyer already lined up, the debt is wiped off and remaining assets purchased by the new owner.
 
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