Drayton Manor Park

[jon81uk]

Alton Towers is Merlin's flagship park, look at how much damage Merlin has done to it in the last ten years. Flagship park doesn't really mean anything.

I think Legoland(s) is Merlins flagship, but Alton Towers is of the former Tussauds theme parks.

I don’t think any more damage has been done in the last 10 years compared to the ten years before that. Most of the Merlin management is very similar to the later Tussauds management really.

 

[Dave]

I think Legoland(s) is Merlins flagship, but Alton Towers is of the former Tussauds theme parks.

I don’t think any more damage has been done in the last 10 years compared to the ten years before that. Most of the Merlin management is very similar to the later Tussauds management really.

Off topic but Legoland are not considered part of RTP for Merlin (they sit in their own group). As Craig said Alton has always been considered the “flagship” single park.

As for Drayton, hopefully the company will do some good for Drayton but I wouldn’t expect any major changes in the current climate. I imagine just staying afloat will be their first priority.

 

[Benjsh]

Better than a closure is about the only positive thing I can say about the news. Pleasurewood Hills hasnt exactly been doing great has it? In fact myself and others continue to be amazed how it stays profitable.

Why do they want another park so close to WMSP too? It's not a million miles away is it?

 

[Skyscraper]

Better than a closure is about the only positive thing I can say about the news. Pleasurewood Hills hasnt exactly been doing great has it? In fact myself and others continue to be amazed how it stays profitable.

Why do they want another park so close to WMSP too? It's not a million miles away is it?

Good point, they're less than an hour apart. Could we see potential ride swappages in the future maybe?

 

[Craig]

I think they're suitably different to allow them to have both without causing clashes for them to be honest. WMSP has the animals as the main attraction, rides secondary with Drayton being the other way around.

 

[Ian]

I for one can’t wait to see Shockwave, Buffalo and Accelerator replaced by Soquet creations.

On a more serious note, a disappointing blow to the UK industry with another family business entering corporate hands, but as others have said, at least the park will remain open (in the same vein as Walygator and the Aspro acquisition a few years back). I wouldn’t hold your breath for any exciting new developments in the immediate future though, unless Loopings have been sitting on some considerable rainy day savings that their other parks didn’t know about.

 

[Benjsh]

Good point, they're less than an hour apart. Could we see potential ride swappages in the future maybe?

Yeah it does seem like huge overkill to me. I suppose it might be good for the animals though. No doubt they will have better knowledge and training when it comes to animals at a big safari park than they would at a mini zoo within a theme park.

Don't think I will ever visit again though as my little one is now too big for Thomas Land and the bigger rides just aren't that great anymore.

 

[Sauron97]

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.

The book reader animatronic and the parrots were both installed at the same time by Farmer Studios in the mid 90s as part of a queue line upgrade. He was taken down last week with a number of crowbars, and wasn't the easiest thing to remove in the world.... Looking closely at his face, there's an instant and very clear resemblance to Abdab from Chessington. I will investigate this further at some point.
Here's a picture of them in their original positions. A lot of people forget that they were a later addition to the ride.

 

[MattyH]

Worth noting that the loopings group did make an investment deal with the Abu Dhabi Royal Family in December.

 

[jon81uk]

Off topic but Legoland are not considered part of RTP for Merlin (they sit in their own group). As Craig said Alton has always been considered the “flagship” single park.

That’s pretty much what I meant, Legoland is more important to Merlin as a whole group. But in terms of the former Tussauds theme parks I agree it is Alton Towers as the flagship.


More on topic, I think yes this is better than nothing for Drayton but it has been clear for years they weren’t doing well and they haven’t invested in thrill rides since Air Race in 2014. All the people saying that they won’t go if there aren’t new thrill rides, unfortunately I don’t think those rides were coming anyway.

Best case is it goes the way of Paulton and manage to replace Shockwave with a family thrill coaster.

I don’t see Drayton competing with WMSP though as one is a safari park with a fairground and the other is a theme park with a small zoo. There might be some advantages for combined purchasing and supplier deals now though.

 

[D4n]

Will be interested to see if they now try to sell an annual pass that offers admission to Drayton Manor, WMSP and Pleasurewood Hills.

Such a ticket could be extremely attractive to the young family market if it was priced right (ie - if it was cheaper than the MAP) and heavily promoted on social media. Two of these parks have animal exhibits, one has Thomas Land, they all appeal to broadly the same demographic. Pleasurewood is perhaps the least appealing of the three parks (in terms of location and appeal to young families) but I think it would be seen as a 'bonus' on such a ticket and would benefit from significant additional footfall (I've always wondered how many visitors Chessington would actually get if MAPs / Sun free tickets were eliminated).

Anybody living in the midlands would be within a reasonable distance of all three parks. Would also provide a significant boost to on-park spend (merchandise, food, etc) if visitor numbers could be increased in this way.

 

[Mr Pearse]

I think in my honest opinion the Bryan’s did the best they can, over the last few years money issues are the biggest halt in investment. Obviously it was never going to be an easy decision to sell up the family business after 70 years but they must of know it was sell up or let it disappear. Obviously most people say they wouldn’t visit as they don’t invest in thrill rides anymore, but once again can you blame them they tried to invest but with little no financial outcome. Obviously when they extended Thomas land or add a new Thomas ride that’s more financially rewarding so I can understand why they went away from the thrill market.

For what happens next I fully expect a joint venture ticketing wise with WMSP. I think that will do pretty good with the hotel aswell.

 

[Tom]

It must have been very sad for the family to hand the park over after all these years.

They still have two of the best thrill rides in the UK in Shockwave and Apocalypse.

 

[imanautie]

Assuming they go ahead what do we expect such a pass would be called? Or do we expect something like a pay extra to add cross site entitlement to a local annual pass?

 

[jon81uk]

Assuming they go ahead what do we expect such a pass would be called? Or do we expect something like a pay extra to add cross site entitlement to a local annual pass?

they could try to build a brand as Tussauds then Merlin did and call it a Loopings pass, but the brand doesn’t work when there are so few looping coasters in their parks.
Just a triple park pass sort of thing would work.

WMSP already give a free second entry to each vehicle so I think expanding out to a multi site pass is possible.

 

[Skyscraper]

It must have been very sad for the family to hand the park over after all these years.

They still have two of the best thrill rides in the UK in Shockwave and Apocalypse.

Don't forget Maelstrom too!

 

[imanautie]

It must have been very sad for the family to hand the park over after all these years.

They still have two of the best thrill rides in the UK in Shockwave and Apocalypse.

It takes quite something to hand it over rather then go "if we can't have it no one can", that's something to respect in a business manager.

 

[Dave]

It takes quite something to hand it over rather then go "if we can't have it no one can", that's something to respect in a business manager.

Its not certain they have “handed the park over” completely. The details of the deal are not fully released, the Bryans may have a maintained a considerable (though likely not a controlling) stake in the park and certain guarantees on their operational control of the park. Though obviously you don’t get something for nothing and this is obviously a big deal for them.

I suspect they decided wrapping up the business and buying it themselves under a new company would likely make getting credit difficult, although you can do this the banks and suppliers know the history and would be cautious about lending to such a business.

 

[imanautie]

Reading into the accounts of Drayton manor park ltd it seems like the share holding of Drayton manor park hotels ltd is more complicated as the accounts of the former say it's a 75% shareholding.

Could looping possibly not be acquiring full control of the hotel side of the operation?

 

[Benjsh]

It must have been very sad for the family to hand the park over after all these years.

They still have two of the best thrill rides in the UK in Shockwave and Apocalypse.

Apocalypse I will grant you but Shockwave is awful. Its boring and painful. The only remotely interesting thing about it is that's its the only stand up in Europe. But there's a good reason it is. Its awful.