Drayton Manor Park

[Themeparkplanet]

the bumper cars restrictions on the other uk rapids

on ride recording wasn't allowed by 2018

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

Drayton got a new ad

Think it highlights the new area very well.

 

[Trooper Looper]

Drayton got a new ad

Think it highlights the new area very well.

That music will forever stay with me while hosting SleipNir...

 

[pluk]

don't forget in 2017 they had the rapids incident so all height and age requirements was going to be upped

No over all in theme parks round the country ride height requirements and age was changed due to the death not just the rapids

Noone fell out of a boat because they were too short, and there was no H&S guidance issued regarding height requirements on unrelated rides. So no, this is not a thing.

 

[Funcone]

I have absolutely no idea why Drayton Manor changed the height requirement, but the ‘official’ reason for things isn’t always the same as the real reason. For example, if a ride has a lot of accidents, the park will look at what they can do to prevent them, and raising the height requirement may be a good option. Particularly as it doesn’t cost anything, whereas something structural like adapting the boats obviously has a cost implication.

However, it’s often easier to blame someone external like the insurance company or the HSE. Partly because you can say you don’t know why they changed it. If you say, “We put the height requirement up because we were having a lot of accidents”, that could lead to bad publicity or litigation. If you say, “The insurance company put the height requirement up” it sounds more plausible to say that you don’t know why. Secondly, it makes it harder for people to challenge it. It’s easier to say, ‘It’s out of our control’ if you’re blaming it on someone external, rather than a manager in the park. If you say that one of the park's managers changed the height requirement, the next response will be, "I want to speak to that manager..."

 

[Willemgorman1]

Would you recommend going to the park with 1 parent and 2 children one of them 1.2m the other 1.5m? The problem is none of us would be able to go on stormforce 10 as the youngest is only 1.2 and the oldest needs an adult as if your under 14 you need an adult and he’s only 12.

 

[Poisson]

SlepNir looks terrible in the above video

 

[RustyShackleford]

Would you recommend going to the park with 1 parent and 2 children one of them 1.2m the other 1.5m? The problem is none of us would be able to go on stormforce 10 as the youngest is only 1.2 and the oldest needs an adult as if your under 14 you need an adult and he’s only 12.

Yes I would. Simply because if you are only attending because of stormforce 10 you stand a pretty good chance of being annoyed anyway when it is out of action.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

Would you recommend going to the park with 1 parent and 2 children one of them 1.2m the other 1.5m? The problem is none of us would be able to go on stormforce 10 as the youngest is only 1.2 and the oldest needs an adult as if your under 14 you need an adult and he’s only 12

If your youngest is ok to wait if there’s no queue by the exit stairs at the top for stormforce 10. I see many families kids wait there for there families to get off the ride. Then in return if your oldest wants to ride Maelstrom or shockwave you could ride the Wave swinger or Air race with your youngest.
The rest of the park you can enjoy together.

 

[Themeparkplanet]

on ride recording wasn't allowed by 2018

There wasn’t an age thing till after the death I went all year in 2017 and was going from 2008-2018 every year

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

There was a minimum age for Ben 10 coaster in place when it opened and it’s been only the the past 2 seasons that’s been removed.
The restrictions is a bit silly as it’s ok for a 16 year old to look after someone over the height of 1.2m for the rapids and 1.3m for Stormforce 10.

 

[Excalibur]

Just got back from a busy-ish day from the Manor and my thoughts/concerns are as follows:

Apocalypse
Only running one chute, and that was sit down. Que was around 30/45 minutes id day. Personally I’d say they’ve given up on it all together now including stand up/floor less and just going to keep it going till the end of the season. I’ll excuse them for this as we all know it’s going.

Sheriffs Showdown
Haven’t been on this since the refurb, although all the targets working and acknowledging a lot of the effects wasn’t triggering which was a shame. The re-theme looked quite well done, however vandals have already started pulling off the mine textured wall in the que.

Didn’t do Drunken Barrels, however the facade is looking a right state and falling apart.

The Haunting has been updated again since my last visit a good couple of years ago, it’s less kiddy now and more teenager I’d say. However not a fan of the projection onto the portrait. I’m guessing there has been issues with the animatronic or this is because of new technology. Personally I prefer the animatronic as the ghost effects looked tacky. Coffin opened at the end also and nothing came out.

Bizarrely when you exit the ride you enter a shop that’s been gutted and personally it looks awful. The shop is also connected to the cafe next door (also closed) but cordoned off with some planters. This looks so poor it’s unbelievable.

That whole area of the park was quite in terms of guest activity. Will be interesting to see what development they have in store to bring guests back up there.

The main entrance up there is also closed all together now with signage also removed. You now have to enter via the entrance by Thomas Land or Vikings.

Food onsite is absolutely appalling. I got a “combo” meal deal form the burger kitchen thinking it included a drink. I paid around £10 for this to find out I had to add a drink on top which was £3.20 for a REGULAR. £3.20 for post mix?! I mean I know the park has to make money but that’s abit of a joke. We all know it costs approx 2p to make!

Pirate Adventure, I had a peak in the main doors I can confirm they have gutted all the pirate themeing inside which is a shame. Also no light on the parrot this time outside and the Thomas Train ride confirmed the back of the ride was also shut.

Also noticed they removed themeing off the bounty? No idea why though. Pictures for reference;

With the mast

Current situation.

Also saw these stickers on the unit and opposite the shops. Any idea what these are? I’m guessing something to do with sight maybe?



Also effects not working on rapids such as the water ones, the general theme for adventure cove was “Okay” the same with Vikings. No real themeing as such.

 

[Trooper Looper]

Just got back from a busy-ish day from the Manor and my thoughts/concerns are as follows:

Apocalypse
Only running one chute, and that was sit down. Que was around 30/45 minutes id day. Personally I’d say they’ve given up on it all together now including stand up/floor less and just going to keep it going till the end of the season. I’ll excuse them for this as we all know it’s going.

Sheriffs Showdown
Haven’t been on this since the refurb, although all the targets working and acknowledging a lot of the effects wasn’t triggering which was a shame. The re-theme looked quite well done, however vandals have already started pulling off the mine textured wall in the que.

Didn’t do Drunken Barrels, however the facade is looking a right state and falling apart.

The Haunting has been updated again since my last visit a good couple of years ago, it’s less kiddy now and more teenager I’d say. However not a fan of the projection onto the portrait. I’m guessing there has been issues with the animatronic or this is because of new technology. Personally I prefer the animatronic as the ghost effects looked tacky. Coffin opened at the end also and nothing came out.

Bizarrely when you exit the ride you enter a shop that’s been gutted and personally it looks awful. The shop is also connected to the cafe next door (also closed) but cordoned off with some planters. This looks so poor it’s unbelievable.

That whole area of the park was quite in terms of guest activity. Will be interesting to see what development they have in store to bring guests back up there.

The main entrance up there is also closed all together now with signage also removed. You now have to enter via the entrance by Thomas Land or Vikings.

Food onsite is absolutely appalling. I got a “combo” meal deal form the burger kitchen thinking it included a drink. I paid around £10 for this to find out I had to add a drink on top which was £3.20 for a REGULAR. £3.20 for post mix?! I mean I know the park has to make money but that’s abit of a joke. We all know it costs approx 2p to make!

Pirate Adventure, I had a peak in the main doors I can confirm they have gutted all the pirate themeing inside which is a shame. Also no light on the parrot this time outside and the Thomas Train ride confirmed the back of the ride was also shut.

Also noticed they removed themeing off the bounty? No idea why though. Pictures for reference;

With the mast

Current situation.

Also saw these stickers on the unit and opposite the shops. Any idea what these are? I’m guessing something to do with sight maybe?



Also effects not working on rapids such as the water ones, the general theme for adventure cove was “Okay” the same with Vikings. No real themeing as such.

DM staff member here. I used to work on the Haunting for a couple of weeks, the Animatromic head behind the portrait is still there I believe, as the space for it has been untouched. But I think the actual painting of it has been removed for the projection.

Also, the old Skeleton that used to lower down in the Cellar is still there but static.

And the Coffin situation has been like that for the entire season since its first few weeks.

 

[jon81uk]

Food onsite is absolutely appalling. I got a “combo” meal deal form the burger kitchen thinking it included a drink. I paid around £10 for this to find out I had to add a drink on top which was £3.20 for a REGULAR. £3.20 for post mix?! I mean I know the park has to make money but that’s abit of a joke. We all know it costs approx 2p to make!

Post mix costs a lot more than 2p to make. 20p maybe, depending on how good their contract with Coke is, could be a lot more. The CO2 is one of the higher costs But then there is the staff time and the VAT tax. I agree those prices are crazy. But the drink prices are pretty similar at Alton Towers really. Difference is AT offer combo meals including a drink I guess.

 

[Poisson]

The stickers are survey targets, or at least look like them. Pretty basic ones though.

 

[immelmanloop]

Also saw these stickers on the unit and opposite the shops. Any idea what these are? I’m guessing something to do with sight maybe?

These are targets used for laser levels and theodolites for ground elevation and dimension surveys, which usually only appear before a large development

 

[DistortAMG]

Pirate Adventure, I had a peak in the main doors I can confirm they have gutted all the pirate themeing inside which is a shame.

Good report, but I've just looked through the main doors, nothing has happened there, apart from that they are storing some panels in the vestibule. They have not gutted anything from the main queue area yet, it is exactly how it has been for 32 years pretty much.....

 

[Excalibur]

Good report, but I've just looked through the main doors, nothing has happened there, apart from that they are storing some panels in the vestibule. They have not gutted anything from the main queue area yet, it is exactly how it has been for 32 years pretty much.....

I was referring to to themeing in the main entrance.

There used to be a pirate animatronic reading a book when you looked up, this has been removed and there used to be a ship mast before winding up the slopes to the station. This also appears to have been removed also.

 

[DistortAMG]

I was referring to to themeing in the main entrance.

There used to be a pirate animatronic reading a book when you looked up, this has been removed and there used to be a ship mast before winding up the slopes to the station. This also appears to have been removed also. You cannot properly see up the slope from the doors either, wish you could but they are offset that bit too much

Fair enough, although he was never an animatronic, just a static figurine. Apart from said figurine though, all the theming is still in place.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

Them panels were part of the flooring for the indoor skating that was installed last in the dodgems building for the 2019 Christmas event. Them doors haven’t been open since the preview of the auction.

Cut to 10 mins. I brought the please don’t read this sign as it was the 1st thing I remember from the original version.