Drayton Manor Park

[Wilko]

Interestingly, I've now heard another rumour that Drayton has purchased a 3-ride package of some sort from Zamperla.

Just for fun, and if true, what 3 rides would you pick/do you think would work in the 3-ride Zamperla package?

I'd replace Pandemonium with a Nebulaz or a Blendez.
I'd say one ride would be guaranteed for Thomas Land, so I'd pick the Happy Swing (anything that doesn't just go round and round like 99% of the rides in TL)
Finally, in the space cleared by the Buffalo I'd put a Double Heart Coaster in which would look good against the lake.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

The auction was under the former owners they wanted £100 each for the boats. The last biggest investment under the former management was the golden nuggets re-theme and the last attraction added was 2017 for James and the red balloon which cost them £250000 they were gonna add another kids tea cup ride in Thomas land for the 2020 season and ground work did start for it but the flood happened then the lockdown and within a month of reopening went into administration. Adventure Cove was planned already but not on the scale the looping group have done.
Pirate Adventure did open for the 2015 season but failed on a H&S visit with the park having to add safe docking areas just in case it broke down.

 

[Funcone]

We've had a few rumours on here about next season:

1. Re-theme of Air Race to a seaside air show.
2. Disco or other family flat ride in Adventure Cove.
3. Improvements to the entrance near where the high ropes were.

If they did all of those things to a decent standard, then next year could be a really good year for the park. If they don't do anything it will be a bit of an anti-climax, at least from an enthusiast's perspective.

 

[JAperson]

1. Re-theme of Air Race to a seaside air show.

I'm not sure about this one because I'd heard it was too expensive to re-theme so they were going to pass it off as the towns airport or whatever. But perhaps it could be another wave of adventure cove.

2. Disco or other family flat ride in Adventure Cove.

This is very possible. I could see them doing it as wave 2 for Adventure Cove next year but I suppose we'll have to see.

3. Improvements to the entrance near where the high ropes were.

It does look like there is some light work taking place here at the moment. An improvement on the most boring entrance to the park isn't a bad thing and will probably be a good improvement. If it includes a ride or two no matter how small that would be great too.

Perhaps 2 and 3 fits in with the rumour of a multi-ride deal with Zamperla (although there is no evidence of this yet) as that seems very plausible. A disko and a few kids/family ride near that secondary entrance area wouldn't be a bad thing and wouldn't cost much more than what they did with Adventure Cove. I think spreading the investment around the park rather than concentrating it in one or two places is very wise and if that's the direction they go I would be 100% behind them.

 

[Prof Burp]

I think that Water effects should be added to the Wave Swinger,in Adventure Cove? Monkey Swinger at Chessy has these. I love the Water effects they make an already good ride epic.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

Air race has had all new signage but the queue line building really needs to be painted. They may also repaint the control booth but that would be it. Stormforce 10 will also be finished off during the closed season.
Also for rides Adventure Cove is now done but can see a Disco fitting on the pandemonium and test track site.

 

[Excalibur]

Is there confirmation then that the ground work going on at the other entrance is just general maintenance and nothing connected to next year?

 

[JAperson]

Is there confirmation then that the ground work going on at the other entrance is just general maintenance and nothing connected to next year?

No there isn't however it wouldn't surprise me if it is more of a refurbishment of the entrance which could include rides. I'm just guessing there but it seems both logical and plausible. But too answer your question no.

 

[DistortAMG]

Pirate Adventure did open for the 2015 season but failed on a H&S visit with the park having to add safe docking areas just in case it broke down.

I always thought it closed because H&S found parts of the scenery in such a condition that it posed a risk of collapse, potentially onto guest. Timber in years of damp conditions does not bode well. I could be wrong and the reason you give might be correct. But there is a few reasons that make me question it.

You see the ride did have docking areas incase it broke down, as can be seen in the photo below. These were next to all the major fire exits in the ride. The platforms were submerged an inch or so under the waterline. But in an emergency, they would work non the less. The boats would need manually positioning there, but that is no different than ride such as Duel breaking down, with cars not being on the exit directly.

Interesting for sure. Maybe the fact they were submerged was a factor in their decision.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

I think it could be a factor of both as I know it had many emergency exits but all of them as I know had no way of tiring or holding the boats to stop them moving while guests get out and also not sure if the ride can be drained so guests would have to walk in the water.
So I said ages ago Colin and his management team went on Pirate adventure and he gave the money to get the H&S work done and repair broken scenes but a manager at the park at the time stole the money and left the company.

 

[JAperson]

I think it could be a factor of both as I know it had many emergency exits but all of them as I know had no way of tiring or holding the boats to stop them moving while guests get out and also not sure if the ride can be drained so guests would have to walk in the water.
So I said ages ago Colin and his management team went on Pirate adventure and he gave the money to get the H&S work done and repair broken scenes but a manager at the park at the time stole the money and left the company.

If that story really is true it is very sad. Especially for what was a family company, must have been a real shock. But I think it adds further to the likelyhood that Pirates Adventure isn't coming back.

 

[WillPS]

I think it could be a factor of both as I know it had many emergency exits but all of them as I know had no way of tiring or holding the boats to stop them moving while guests get out and also not sure if the ride can be drained so guests would have to walk in the water.
So I said ages ago Colin and his management team went on Pirate adventure and he gave the money to get the H&S work done and repair broken scenes but a manager at the park at the time stole the money and left the company.

I'm not saying you weren't told that story, but I am saying that it doesn't have the ring of truth to it.

Normally in a business when a project is allotted budget that budget doesn't just get withdrawn as cash and given to a manager to spend on something. Businesses have accounting processes in place to prevent exactly this sort of thing from happening.

Even if there was an accounting process which a manager worked around, they would still be committing (very obvious, provable) fraud, and there'd be some record of that, yet other than your posts there is not a sniff of it.

 

[DistortAMG]

I think it could be a factor of both as I know it had many emergency exits but all of them as I know had no way of tiring or holding the boats to stop them moving while guests get out and also not sure if the ride can be drained so guests would have to walk in the water.
So I said ages ago Colin and his management team went on Pirate adventure and he gave the money to get the H&S work done and repair broken scenes but a manager at the park at the time stole the money and left the company.

The thing is though. The ride was issued with its ADIPS certificate for that season. We know this because the ride opened initially. ADIPS certificates are like a car MOT. Infact, Drayton have always been very good with their ADIPS, aswel as usually displaying a sticker in public view of most rides, indicating the inspection has been carried out.

Not a single ride, fairground ride or the like are allowed to operate in the UK without one.

The inspections are carried out to make sure rides are safe and they comply with all the relevant H&S legislation including legislation that is due to be introduced a short time into the future if it is relevant to the ride. If the ride needed platform updates and modifications for evacuation, there is no way it's ADIPS safey certificate would have been issued for that season. Evaluation platforms are quite a major safety thing. So if something as major as that was allowed in the pre season ADIPS inspection, we can pretty conclusively assume there is nothing wrong with the platforms.

H&S would not just turn up mid season and decide the platforms need modifications and close the ride, that is not how it works, they would have been signed off in the ADIPS, that means they would have been good for that season, based off the H&S's own legislation.

H&S would however, turn up and close a ride if say some of the scenery had detoriated into an unsafe manor. As the ADIPS inspections would not really pick up on scenery condition as the ADIPS inspections are purely for ride hardware.

So given all this, and considering the fact the ride did open in 2015, proving it did indeed have its ADIPS certificate for that year. It is extremely unlikely the ride closed due to evacuation platforms needed modifications. The fact it had its certificates proves the ride was signed off in that regard as safe, for the entire season. It is as simple as that.

Also, I know they are different countries so different legislation. But, the Pirates of the Carribean rides have no way of holding he boats in case of evacuations. They have to be manually held in place by staff (as can be seen on many evacuation videos on YouTube). It proves there is nothing wrong with that system, if managed properly.

 

[rob666]

Going back to the first pages in this topic, Pirate Adventure was clapped out about a decade ago, scenery, lighting, animatronics, but most importantly, the pumps were goosed.
I remember our last ride on it was very very s l o w.
No quick and easy fix to get it up and going again.
Slap an indoor coaster in there and be done with it.

 

[JAperson]

Going back to the first pages in this topic, Pirate Adventure was clapped out about a decade ago, scenery, lighting, animatronics, but most importantly, the pumps were goosed.
I remember our last ride on it was very very s l o w.
No quick and easy fix to get it up and going again.
Slap an indoor coaster in there and be done with it.

Putting a small scale indoor coaster in that building would be great and actually something I could see them doing. As you've said @rob666 pirates adventure is too far gone and wasn't good when it closed.

 

[Matt N]

I’m unsure of how big Pirate Adventure’s building is, but I reckon something like a Gerstlauer Bobsled would work well at Drayton. Even though the laterals weren’t my favourite, I thought Cobra was a really fun ride for what it was, and the ride hardware doesn’t seem like it would cost very much!

For reference, an apparently very similar pirate dark ride at Bellewaerde in Belgium was replaced by Huracan, a custom Zierer Force coaster.

 

[Ian]

Please god do anything with the building but don’t install something like Huracan.

It’s a near death experience, only because you risk dying of boredom onboard the thing.

 

[DistortAMG]

The building is about 7 to 8 metrers tall. Not much for a coaster at all.

Plus as history has shown us, building a coaster inside a building that was originally designed for a dark water based ride leads to a very rubbish coaster (Huracan). Yes they took the coaster outside the building, but for the most part, the coaster has to fit within the constraints of a building that was designed for a totally different type of ride. Meaning it is crap basically.

 

[JAperson]

I've mentioned this before but I think something like a Zamperla factory coaster could work. With some Launches and outside section I think we could resolve most hte issue with the constraints of the building. I think that as long as they theme it really well most of the attention for the rider will the focused on the theming and what the coaster does to complement it.
There is a POV of the current factory coaster (themed to a factory so very different but I'm sure a pirate theme could work): https://www.zamperla.com/products/factory-coaster/
It's not amazing but I think it would suite Drayton quite well.

 

[DistortAMG]

The problem with a coaster going outside the Pirate Adventure building is that it would almost certainly never get past the planners. That area of the park is one of the closest parts of the park to the deer park housing estate in Fazely / Mile Oak.

Anything substantial there would never get through planning unfortunately. The same goes for the Excalibur lake, a stones throw from back gardens.