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Drayton Manor Park

The Rapids were completely revamped, the ride system was retrofitted by Intamin to be more up to date. The pumps were also changed.

They will have spent a lot of money on that ride, I don’t see why they couldn’t spend money on bringing another water ride to the PA building. It will never be the old Pirate Adventure again, but they could still re-use the existing ride system with a bit of restoration.
 
You only got to look at the looping group other parks and what they done to there existing rides.

Pleasurewood hills

Snake in the grass to Egg-Spress
Turning there Log flume to Water Fun factory
Hobs pit to Rootin Tootin
2nd half coaster into Marble Madness

West Midlands Safari Park
Twister to Monkey mayhem

With Adventure Cove which is getting finished this closed season with Stormforce 10 work been finished off and rumoured the train having theming added to it and maybe the station repaint. With every ride in the area been repainted and theming added with them adding a new sound track and lighting around the area to go with the new outdoor play area, New wave swinger and the rapids returning.
With there 5 year plan
2021 Adventure Cove
2022 Rumoured new area to include the Buffalo coaster
2023 Rumoured new coaster on the Pandemonium, Test track and Apocalypse site maybe Pirate Adventure building used again
2024 Maybe another Expansion on Thomasland
2025 ?
 
Ciaran said:
The Rapids were completely revamped, the ride system was retrofitted by Intamin to be more up to date. The pumps were also changed.

They will have spent a lot of money on that ride, I don’t see why they couldn’t spend money on bringing another water ride to the PA building. It will never be the old Pirate Adventure again, but they could still re-use the existing ride system with a bit of restoration.
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They were, I have to agree.

But, the ride was falling apart after sitting idle for so many years, all the wooden structures needed the work they received as part of the refurbishment just to keep them from collapsing. I think back in 2019 it was priced up at about £250,000 to £300,000 in timber and labour for all the structures. I know this because I worked for the company supplying materials to the Manor at the time. So that was going to be done anyway.

Moving the station with obvious new control panels, was going to be done, as it was hinted at being needed to be done from the H&S report. So that is not really splashing the cash either. It was a must if the ride was to reopen.

Refurbishing the pumps and conveyor belt is no biggie either, that has always been done every couple of years, since 1993.

So in reality, the only real things they have done above and beyond is added new boats, and a much needed and fresh coat of paint which are great. There are no real substantial bits of theming, yeah there are little bits and various props but nothing major, aka it was done as cheap as possible. This seems to be inline with their other parks too, they do not seem to add much proper theming, just lots of timber and paint above all else.

It is great what they have done with the ride, it has gave it a new lease of life. But the majority of money spent on the ride and work done, was work that needed to be done to the ride to actually make it work and comply with H&S. So lets not get carried away.

Plus, almost all of what is there now after the refurbishment, was there before, built by the Bryans and not the new owners. Very minimal stuff was added in the refurbishment, just a lot of paint.

That is not to takeaway from the fact it is not great, as it is. But most stuff was done out of necessity more than anything else.

I totally agree with Pirate Adventure building though, however, as I said previously, the logistics and challenges for a company like the Looping Group to pull all the parties together for such a large project, in a country with a very different themed entertainment industry than a decade and half ago, in post Brexit Britain are absolutely huge. To also add to that, the park have no real experience with dark rides, let alone huge ones, which is what this will be.

I am not saying it cannot be done, but it will be expensive right now and will be difficult for a company with not much experience in this field to pull all the trades together to work in harmony. I have not seen a single ride from them, not one that has any sort of 'proper' theming. Timber, a few sourced props an some paint do not count, and that seems to be the extent of their theming so far.

Not saying it cannot be done, I hope it is, but the challenges a company like this will face doing it, cannot be under estimated.
 
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DistortAMG said:
They were, I have to agree.

But, the ride was falling apart after sitting idle for so many years, all the wooden structures needed the work they received as part of the refurbishment just to keep them from collapsing. I think back in 2019 it was priced up at about £250,000 to £300,000 in timber and labour for all the structures. I know this because I worked for the company supplying materials to the Manor at the time. So that was going to be done anyway.

Moving the station with obvious new control panels, was going to be done, as it was hinted at being needed to be done from the H&S report. So that is not really splashing the cash either. It was a must if the ride was to reopen.

Refurbishing the pumps and conveyor belt is no biggie either, that has always been done every couple of years, since 1993.

So in reality, the only real things they have done above and beyond is added new boats, which are great. There is no real substantial bits of theming, yeah there are little bits but nothing major, aka done as cheap as possible.

It is great what they have done with the ride, it has gave it a new lease of life. But the majority of money spent on the ride and work done, was work that needed to be done to the ride to actually make it work and comply with H&S. So lets not get carried away.

Plus, almost all of what is there now after the refurbishment, was there before, built by the Bryans and not the new owners. Very minimal stuff was added in the refurbishment, just a lot of paint.

That is not to takeaway from the fact it is not great, as it is. But most stuff was done out of necessity more than anything else.

I totally agree with Pirate Adventure building though, however, as I said previously, the logistics and challenges for a company like the Looping Group to pull all the parties together for such a large project, in a country with a very different themed entertainment industry than a decade and half ago, in post Brexit Britain are absolutely huge. To also add to that, the park have no real experience with dark rides, let alone huge ones, which is what this will be.

I am not saying it cannot be done, but it will be expensive right now and will be difficult for a company with not much experience in this field to pull all the trades together to work in harmony. I have not seen a single ride from them, not one that has any sort of 'proper' theming. Timber, a few sourced props an some paint do not count, and that seems to be the extent of their theming so far.

Not saying it cannot be done, I hope it is, but the challenges a company like this will face doing it, cannot be under estimated.
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Yeah, but I've got a feeling that the ride system is in either a bad condition, or in really good condition (Hoping for the latter obviously).

The only thing I can think they can replace the boat system with is either a Garmendale Boat ride, or their Flow Master (E.g. Tommy Tinkaboos adventure and Bubbleworks ride system)

Another thing to consider, is what would they theme it to? Would it jave projections or fully practical props and effects? The list goes on and on, but the whole area is just full of potential for the park.
 
The ride system was in really bad shape 10 years ago. Mack rides refused new parts of lift mechanisms of the old design, which was / is shot on the basis that it was a discontinued product and they did not have the tooling required to do it. So they carried on for years with very much just about working lift mechanisms for a few of the rides lifts. These are still broken now to this day. The ride really really struggled with the lifts in the final years.

It was going to be more money than it was worth to do it. Mack free flow boat rides use a totally different system now on the relevant parts of the ride so this makes sense. As the part that was required is totally different on their newer generation, it makes sense Mack would refuse it on the basis of it being discontinued. It does happen, it also conveniently pushes parks to do a full refurbishment of their transit systems if they can afford it. The new generation free float rides use a lot more kicker wheels than what the older system used. They had kicker wheels, but they have taken some of the success engineering off their water coaster models and applied it to their free flow rides. That is how it looks anyway.

But if there was inherent flaws with the old system, of which their certainly was. Mack are great but by no means perfect. It makes sense for them to update their designs with newer technology and discontinue the old designs, which they have done.

Then you have the case of the pumps, perhaps the easier and cheapest to fix. Many of these need replacing, not bad design just end of life. They had done their job for going on 30 years, so it is expected for some to have broken towards the end.

Despite what I have heard people say, the ride does not need any sort of block sections, it does not need much work if any for evac platforms. The ride complies in that aspect to all current UK law and legislation regarding this sort of thing. They could go above any beyond and make it easier, but the current system works fine. It is the same as how most dark rides of this style (including Disney) evacuate their guests in the event of it being needed. This bit is my opinion, but my opinion based off extensive research into it.

Absolutely full of potential. The ride system itself however, is probably the easiest aspect of this project, if it were to be undertaken.
 
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I think as it’s been said many times it’s the looping groups star park now and I reckon they spend more money already at Drayton Manor in 1 season then they done at Pleasurewood Hills in 10 years.
I can’t see them buying a new coaster but can see them going down the 2nd hand route and theming it well.
Pirate Adventure is such a icon in the park and with the entrance still there and the surrounding rides still themed to Pirates if they expanded the area to include the Arcades, Bounty and the Burger Kitchen next
door again they will be onto a winner as they can announce a new version of pirate adventure using projectors, Pirates and theming.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Well with 80-90% of the uk now streaming or downloading movies I doubt they get many guests on the ride
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Well there goes my dream of becoming an Imagineer then.

Bringing ‘back’ Pirate Adventure might well be quite expensive, but it is a fairly straightforward concept. It’s in an existing building, so we know there aren’t going to be any planning issues, and it’s fairly easy to see what it would involve. Whereas Aerial Park is such a mish mash of themes, it’s quite hard to see where you go with it. Adventure Cove and Thomas Land now feel like complete areas. Pirate Cove just lacks a headline ride. Bringing back Pirate Adventure would complete that half of the park.

Depending on how scary they made it, you could easily bolt it onto their Christmas event and February half term offering. It’s in the right area of the park, and an undercover family attraction with a decent throughput is perfect for that kind of thing. It’s also something that Alton Towers arguably lacks in their line up after re-packaging Charlie as a Dungeons. They might even be able to do seasonal overlays of a scenic boat ride for things like Christmas and Halloween, if those are events they want to expand on.

From a technical perspective, it might be harder to bring back now it’s been closed for quite a few years. However, it would make it more marketable. With bands they often say they need to leave it at least 5 years between splitting up and having a come back tour, otherwise it can look a bit lame. Pirate Adventure’s been gone long enough now for bringing it back to feel like a genuine news story.

They wouldn’t necessarily have to go for a pirate theme. Something to do with explorers would allow them to re-purpose most of the pirate theming in the area. Anything that involves old sailing boats, basically. Of course, they could fully re-theme the whole area, but I’m not sure they’d want so much expense.

This is a big question mark though about whether the Looping Group are willing to spend that kind of budget. To be fair, I think so far they’ve had a positive impact at a time when theme parks around the world have been cancelling and postponing plans. Time will tell whether they’re willing to invest in a major ride.
 
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Might seem like a silly question but would the channel or has the channel been emptied? Every time I read this thread I imagine it’s still just sat there lol
 
Spark said:
Might seem like a silly question but would the channel or has the channel been emptied? Every time I read this thread I imagine it’s still just sat there lol
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Pretty sure it will've been empty for years. Otherwise the smell would be terrible by now. :p
 
Yeah me too, would love some UX to go and visit the site and see what it looks like now
 
The ride has been sat empty since closed season 2015. The ride was planned to open in 2015 but only lasted 2 days, however maintenance left the ride filled with water throughout the entire 2015 season.
 
Funcone said:
Well there goes my dream of becoming an Imagineer then.

Bringing ‘back’ Pirate Adventure might well be quite expensive, but it is a fairly straightforward concept. It’s in an existing building, so we know there aren’t going to be any planning issues, and it’s fairly easy to see what it would involve. Whereas Aerial Park is such a mish mash of themes, it’s quite hard to see where you go with it. Adventure Cove and Thomas Land now feel like complete areas. Pirate Cove just lacks a headline ride. Bringing back Pirate Adventure would complete that half of the park.

Depending on how scary they made it, you could easily bolt it onto their Christmas event and February half term offering. It’s in the right area of the park, and an undercover family attraction with a decent throughput is perfect for that kind of thing. It’s also something that Alton Towers arguably lacks in their line up after re-packaging Charlie as a Dungeons. They might even be able to do seasonal overlays of a scenic boat ride for things like Christmas and Halloween, if those are events they want to expand on.

From a technical perspective, it might be harder to bring back now it’s been closed for quite a few years. However, it would make it more marketable. With bands they often say they need to leave it at least 5 years between splitting up and having a come back tour, otherwise it can look a bit lame. Pirate Adventure’s been gone long enough now for bringing it back to feel like a genuine news story.

They wouldn’t necessarily have to go for a pirate theme. Something to do with explorers would allow them to re-purpose most of the pirate theming in the area. Anything that involves old sailing boats, basically. Of course, they could fully re-theme the whole area, but I’m not sure they’d want so much expense.

This is a big question mark though about whether the Looping Group are willing to spend that kind of budget. To be fair, I think so far they’ve had a positive impact at a time when theme parks around the world have been cancelling and postponing plans. Time will tell whether they’re willing to invest in a major ride.
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@Funcone the reopening of Pirate Adventure after having been SBNO for half a decade, would be huge news in the Theme Park world. This news would be the equivalent to Madeline McCann being found alive or Jeremy Kyle becoming Prime Mister
 
Prof Burp said:
@Funcone the reopening of Pirate Adventure after having been SBNO for half a decade, would be huge news in the Theme Park world. This news would be the equivalent to Madeline McCann being found alive or Jeremy Kyle becoming Prime Mister
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Well keep on dreaming mate as it ain't gonna happen. :p;)
 
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