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Drayton Manor Park

Hi everyone, I'm considering heading to Drayton next Friday as I've never visited. How reliable is Shockwave nowadays, just worried I'll get there and find out its broken down or something.
 
John_P said:
Hi everyone, I'm considering heading to Drayton next Friday as I've never visited. How reliable is Shockwave nowadays, just worried I'll get there and find out its broken down or something.
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Cause it’s a week day and the kids are at school the park is classed as a off peak day so Shockwave, Stormforce 10 and Apocalypse is only open 12pm to 4pm.
 
I went to Chessington a few weeks back and the entirety of Wild Asia, Land of the Tiger and Zufari weren't scheduled to open 'til 1pm. Park hours were 10-4.
 
Burbs said:
I went to Chessington a few weeks back and the entirety of Wild Asia, Land of the Tiger and Zufari weren't scheduled to open 'til 1pm. Park hours were 10-4.
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That truly is awful. They were basically forcing you to do the rides in a set order. Was the park really that quiet?
 
I remember when Drayton was open on a weekday in September and October in the early 2000’s the park was that quiet 1 member of staff ran 2 attractions. I lost count how many times I went round on Shockwave and when someone joined the queue we were just asked to move further down the train as they wanted the front row. With it mainly gonna be families there with kids under 5 I doubt the bigger rides will have a queue today.
 
jon81uk said:
That truly is awful. They were basically forcing you to do the rides in a set order. Was the park really that quiet?
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It was very quiet and even though Tiger Rock opened at 1pm it was walk-on all afternoon. Zufari however got a relatively large queue very quickly, with it building up over the bridge from half an hour prior.
 
D4n said:
That is absolutely shocking.
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I disagree. They are opening 90 minutes after the rest of the rides. So it is not that long after.

Considering the park very nearly went bankrupt this year I think its a small but acceptable price to pay while they re find their feet financially.

Having those 3 rides open later, is better than having no park to open at all.
 
It's been many years since my last midweek trip to DMP, but I think some rides have been on reduced hours off-peak for a long time. I vaguely remember G Force being open similar hours in about 2013.
 
Honestly, I went on Saturday (supposedly peak) and finished the park in about an hour at a leisurely pace. Even with staggered rides, you'll be fine. Message them on FB and ask if they're staggering it.
 
Really nice trip to Drayton today, plenty of rides on everything I wanted to do. Just a pity Shockwave was down last minute so I missed out on it. Loved Maelstrom and Apocalypse, got soaked on Storm force 10 as well. Thought Troublesome Trucks was surprisingly thrilling for being in the Thomas Land section of the park.
 
Pleasure Beach Valhalla said:
I'm heading to Drayton next week and I'll see if Shockwave is open because it's apparently closed for essential maintenance!
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The good news is that Shockwave was heading out until recently due to the aforementioned problems with weakened footings and the track thinning which have now been addressed with a sizable investment and plans put in place. It also looks like what is happening to it is far more ambitious than essential maintenance. But let's see ;)
Themeparksandy1981 said:
https://www.insidermedia.com/news/midlands/drayton-manor-owed-more-than-20m-before-sale

So the looping group brought Drayton at a bargain price £15 million.
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And lots of changes already happening to the business. Massive restructuring taking place already with lots of redundancy packages being handed.
 
Sauron97 said:
The good news is that Shockwave was heading out until recently due to the aforementioned problems with weakened footings and the track thinning which have now been addressed with a sizable investment and plans put in place. It also looks like what is happening to it is far more ambitious than essential maintenance. But let's see ;)

And lots of changes already happening to the business. Massive restructuring taking place already with lots of redundancy packages being handed.
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Yh I'm keeping my expectations low and I'll probably lap Apocalypse all day tbh. Still it would be nice to see it operate for the final week of the season!
 
Sauron97 said:
The good news is that Shockwave was heading out until recently due to the aforementioned problems with weakened footings and the track thinning which have now been addressed with a sizable investment and plans put in place. It also looks like what is happening to it is far more ambitious than essential maintenance. But let's see ;)

And lots of changes already happening to the business. Massive restructuring taking place already with lots of redundancy packages being handed.
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Not sure I like the sound of 'massive restructuring'. Hope staff are looked after. Never nice to hear of redundancies.
 
AT86 said:
I guess it depends on how the Loopings group works internally, they may let attractions look after themselves and be self managing, or they might have centralised marketing, HR, customer services etc - meaning that those at Drayton aren’t required anymore.
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That's a very good point, and what happens when a park is taken over but a big company. They have their own central teams that deal with all the parks, so the on-park teams are no longer needed.
 
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