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Drayton Manor Park

thefatone said:
It's opening times are awful, and gets an average of about 8 people an hour even when it is open. Not sure it'd affect things too much being closed.
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Do you mean G-Force's opening hours? I believe G-Force requires a minimum of 6 or possibly 8 people in order for the ride to be sent, a number which I believe changes depending on the wind speed (don't quote me on that but I know for a fact it does need a minimum of 6).... so on the very quiet off peak day, and I'm talking about days of around 200 gate figures, G-Force will open from 12-4 which makes perfect sense really. If it opened outside of these hours on dead days there's no way they'd get enough people to send a ride which would mean the odd few guests sitting waiting for ages and getting annoyed at having to wait. By condencing the hours it means you're more likely to get enough people quicker to send the ride.

I believe during weekends and school holidays it is open all day.

I do agree though that it's capacity is abysmal, it's queue line horrible and on top of all that it's a very poor ride.
 
This must surely have something to do with construction of the new ride. Maybe a power cable or similar has been damaged, you never know.

Oh well, I'm hardly complaining ;)
 
Hey guys! I'll be spending the day at Drayton tomorrow, does anyone have an idea of the queue times?
Im so use to not waiting long haha

Cheers x
 
Won't imagine it will be very busy. 30 mins absolute max, but mostly 5 mins & walk-ons. Weather will help, not hot and chances of showers.
 
If the schools are back in the area (Though I know at least some of Derbyshire are still off) then I'd expect it to be reasonable. The longest queue will no doubt be G-Force. Don't be surprised if it gets up to 30-45 minutes or more :p

Pirates Adventure can also struggle these days, thanks to the lack of boats on it (If memory serves me correctly there's only 3/4 left now), so if you really want to do it (Though I have no idea why you would :p ) you might want to head over to it early.
 
It's still the school holidays in Staffordshire, most of Derbyshire and also in the Birmingham area, which is draytons main catchment areas so will be fairly busy I would imagine.
 
I was there on Monday expecting it to be rammed (being a bank holiday and all) but the longest I queued was 25 mins for G-Force. Everything else max of 10 mins, with most walk on. Pirate Adventure is a no go though, family members of mine were in the queue for 30 mins and hardly moved :/. Overall a good day though, nice atmosphere and good ride reliability. Also did all the 'big' rides 5+ times :D
 
Rollercoasters4Life said:
Does anyone know of any technical drawing for either G-Force or Shockwave? Top down, side on, ect.
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Just had a quick look on the planning application site for the area and I can't find the applications. Someone with more experience may be able to find something though.

On the subject, I did find the application for Apocalypse (albeit with no actual planning documents) and it interested me as the application was put in and withdrawn, only to be resubmitted a month later. Probably nothing but worth knowing anyway.
 
I visted Drayton Manor quite recently and don't plan to visit again for a long, long time. It's disappointing as I've always enjoyed this park in the past but every visit I've made in the past 2-3 years has been worse than the last.

Thomas Land is great and does its job well but the rest of the park has really deteriorated.

Customer service is really noticably bad now, even more so now that other parks are making so many positive steps in this direction. Drayton Manor's customer service is unchanged since my first visit in 2005.

I would also now say that Drayton Manor has over taken Flamingo Land as the park in the UK with the worst staff. Both Flamingo Land and Pleasure Beach, parks which have been known for having iffy staff in the past, have made massive improvements over the past few years and really stepped up their standards of service. Drayton Manor have done nothing and this is so noticable.

Also the parking charge which is totally unchecked and un-enforced. Merlin may have their faults but they wouldn't be that low to con people out of money like that. The entrance fees for Drayton Manor are also a joke for what you get, how they can justify charging more than Blackpool Pleasure Beach is totally beyond me! :eek:
 
It had a soundtrack during the 2012 season (which only had a 15 minute loop, so wasn't really ideal for busy days), but the pop music returned last year.
 
Something i noticed on the 2014 Drayton Manor map is that the Fish & Chip Shop is moving with a new 'Boat House Fish and Chip shop' opening soon, on a boat on the edge of the lake. This replaces the previous fish and chip shop.

Back in 2011 there was a plan to move the chip shop for the 2012 season as that was to be the location for the station for the parks planned new coaster. Originally air race was on their medium term plan for the 2012 season with the coaster planned for 2013. With the Air Race opening this year and the chip shop moving hopefully the planned coaster is also back on the cards.
 
Maelstrom said:
Something i noticed on the 2014 Drayton Manor map is that the Fish & Chip Shop is moving with a new 'Boat House Fish and Chip shop' opening soon, on a boat on the edge of the lake. This replaces the previous fish and chip shop.

Back in 2011 there was a plan to move the chip shop for the 2012 season as that was to be the location for the station for the parks planned new coaster. Originally air race was on their medium term plan for the 2012 season with the coaster planned for 2013. With the Air Race opening this year and the chip shop moving hopefully the planned coaster is also back on the cards.
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if this is true Drayton are going to be back up here with the best if it's a launch or a woodie. It'll probably be like the launch over the lake plans if it happens hopefully.Does anybody think air races are good rides because might be heading down there sometime this year, is it worth the wait for it to open?
 
From what I understand the original coaster plan for 2013 was to be a Custom Vekoma Lim coaster. The ride would have also featured a worlds first and was heavily rumoured to be a dueling Coaster.

Plus in a documentary with Vekoma from last year one of Vekoma's employees was being interviewed and in the background in the office there was an overhead pic of Drayton on the wall. the picture had plans of a coaster on them starting where the ship shop starts extending out by the buffalo and over the lake.

Plans could very well have changed and we could see something different, but with the hotel Apparently paid off now and park stating due to its success looking at adding a second smaller hotel in a few years I would say the time is prob right for the coaster to be added.

 
Sorry for Double post, but according to a post on Coaster Force from a member who has friends working at drayton has stated the following-

2015-Thomas land to be expanded by 50% utilising the car park next to it ( i assume this is counter competition from Cbeebies land and ensure guest numbers dont drop) this expansion has been rumoured for awhile to take space taken by Pirates. Hopefully they will include some kind of thomas dark ride, maybe a kids log flume not sure what else as they have most of the Zamperla kids catalogue of rides now!

New Coaster- Location has been changed slightly and is now planned to us the land where the circus tent was set up next to the Buffalo.

A new Movie Studios (i assume mean a IP ased ride) is planned to take the spot of the old ship shop and the current Buffalo station.

No idea on time scales for second two planned additions,

Second Hotel has planning permission (think is a smaller 60 room hotel) but is apparently on Hold following the death of the current owners parents and founders of Drayton last year
 
Enclosed magic bikes with the bikes in a train shape,like the car shaped trains on the old legoland jungle coasters themed as trains
 
[citation needed]

If true though, it's very good news for Pirate Adventure. The ride is rubbish, but to lose the ride system and its potential would be a pity. There's no reason why it couldn't be a boat ride through the island of Sodor, that would be great (with big animatronics of the trains steaming past).

With regards to the coaster, they just need to ring up Mack and buy a clone of Alpina Blitz. Guarantees a winner, and would end their losing streak with coasters.

Maelstrom said:
Second Hotel has planning permission (think is a smaller 60 room hotel) but is apparently on Hold following the current owners parents and founders of Drayton last year
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I think you missed out the word 'died' there.
 
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