Drayton Manor Park

[Themeparksandy1981]

Drayton can’t win either way. They keep it like it was and get complains that they only got on 3 or 4 big attractions all day or they offer guests who don’t want to queue a chance to skip them.
Been a annual pass holder I know it will be busy during the main summer months but come September and the temperatures start dropping most attractions will be back to a minimum wait.

 

[Skyscraper]

Drayton can’t win either way. They keep it like it was and get complains that they only got on 3 or 4 big attractions all day or they offer guests who don’t want to queue a chance to skip them.
Been a annual pass holder I know it will be busy during the main summer months but come September and the temperatures start dropping most attractions will be back to a minimum wait.

Yeah I'm going on the 19th September, should be nice and quiet.

 

[Plastic Person]

Drayton can’t win either way. They keep it like it was and get complains that they only got on 3 or 4 big attractions all day or they offer guests who don’t want to queue a chance to skip them.

Fastrack systems are almost always a given now, the issue raised here in this thread seems to be that the park are running rides at half-capacity and then subsequently adding a queue jump service. The best way to 'win' would be to operate their rides to a more reasonable capacity to handle such a service.

 

[DistortAMG]

Drayton can’t win either way. They keep it like it was and get complains that they only got on 3 or 4 big attractions all day or they offer guests who don’t want to queue a chance to skip them.
Been a annual pass holder I know it will be busy during the main summer months but come September and the temperatures start dropping most attractions will be back to a minimum wait.

They can win, you have missed out the rather important and crucial point of that they can repair the 5 boats and 1 train on two of their most popular attractions, which will double the capacity of the attractions. Then even with fast track in operation, normal guests will still have moderate waits. Then if need be, they can actually have the rides running at maximum capacity for the busier months of the year, while running fast track in harmony.

I am sorry, but there is no excuse whatso ever for halving the capacity of your rides and then offering a paid service to skip the queues. I understand parks need to make money, but this is a pretty disgusting way of doing it.



There is half the capacity of arguably one of the best and most popular water rides in the country. This photo was taken early 2021, as River Rapids are still being refurbished. The boats are still there now. Not so much an issue then as it is now, now that they are charging you the privilege of skipping the queues.

 

[RustyShackleford]

To pay for queue jumping you need to have queues to jump.

There were moves to develop an app at the park coming out of lockdown. Where you booked your space in the queue. Now this could have been used to better the park goers experience and also profitablility. After all, when you are stood in queues you can't buy anything.

Fast pass here seems like a cynical money grab. Woolly unimaginative thinking. If the park wants to differentiate itself from others and therefore make itself a more attractive proposition then this is not the way to go about it.

The thought of paying the cost of an annual pass for a platinum experience is simply mind boggling. The thought of paying it for a family of four on top of the rest of the costs???? I simply can't fathom it. I've bought cars for less.

I understand that Looping are going to want to see a return on their investment. And they have invested a lot. But it seems that they want to get me there, so they can get more money off folks to not only get a better expereince than me but to actively give me one that's worse.

I think as well that Loopings may want to consider that unlike other parks that are selling fast passes their core audience is one that wants a trip to the toilet every 45 minutes or so. There is nothing worse than queueing for an age to have your little one suddenly jigging about when you are one or two cycles away from boarding the ride. If that now occurs because of someone waves a few notes about I'll be really unhappy.

The thought also occurs whether this has already occurred, I mentioned on this thread previously that I noted there were on occasion more than a normal ammount of folks coming through the accessible gates. I suspect now that either some corporates or invited guests have been trialling this already before it being launched.

The only mitigating factor I can think of is that the monies raised may also be spent on increasing the number of staff on the rides so that loading and unloading times are reduced limiting the impact. For example, I don't know when on Thor that there is not a full cycle where the operator isn't moving folks about to fill the empty spaces. But that isn't going to happen is it?

 

[rob666]

Do you really think the park will use its queuepushing system additional resources on more operations staff?
Never in a million years.

 

[Rob F]

Ride capacity issues.

Are we all forgetting the dire financials of drayton over the past 10 years….

Its obvious the park had been keeping the pockets tight to stay afloat.

So naturally when a ride needed a part, they couldn’t justify or afford the expense, when they could use what they already had.

Now here is the issue in 2022 the park have new owners, to just bring the existing attractions back upto capacity is potentially quite a-bit of £££££.
When the investment itself won’t create any direct return on investment, it will be hard to-get the backing for such old attractions, which could shortly be fully refurbished or otherwise.

Ultimately don't expect Loopings just to throw money away without expecting a return.

 

[rob666]

They are getting a return, and increasing their returns through queuejumper passes, but are not increasing capacity on rides that have additional capacity, because short queues will not increase jump pass sales.
Proper investment in existing rides, and using them to their best ability to keep down queues, is not throwing money away, it is investing in the quality of your product.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

When Cannonball express opened at Pleasure wood hills in 1995 it ran 4 trains and now it’s only 1 as they use the parts off the other 3 trains to keep the 1 train running so they not gonna add more trains on shockwave that will be 30 years old in 2 years time.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

Sorry for the double post I was thinking today about the looping group and I wonder if the Bryan’s didn’t have the cash to remove G-Force would the looping group still have removed the coaster or would they have brought a new train and re-themed it to fit into the area?
Have the looping brought a brand new coaster at any of there parks?

 

[Trooper Looper]

Nothing says **** you, to your guests better than selling overpriced fast track for a ride, then having 50% of the ride vehicles sitting on a berm literally rotting away and visible to guests. As is the case with Storm Force 10.

You could not make this up if you tried.



Sorry to say it, but I think it is you who is missing the point slightly. Easy to do as you never rode the original. The ride was not meant to be goofy, nore did it try to be. The original attraction had quite a serious tone to it, this tone also comes across in the tone of the trailer.

You have to remember, the scifi films of the 80's are in a sense, what the Harry Potters are today, which by the way, are also over 10 years old at this point. The movies were not seen as cheesy or goofy at that time, they may have aged that way, but they were not in any way seen as that back then. Even 10 years later, they were still quite big hits.

The ride was executed laughably bad to be fair, that is how it was certainly seen by a lot of people, especially just before the "Vampire Strikes Back" revamp in 2004, which only made the ride worse. I always recall almost on every ride, guests laughing in the mad house portion of the ride for the badly executed and overall poor effects at the very end of the ride after the revamp. Not laughing because the ride making them laugh, but because of the poor quality. It certainly did not have the indented affect. At this point the ride was goofy down to them not having enough money to make it better. Nothing more, nothing less and certainly not intentional.

I think I used the wrong words there I must admit. Maybe not a homage, like you said, the films were only 10 years old at the time, so I assume that Drayton Manor wanted to use some of that style to make the more popular to Guests at the time, since, like you've said, they we're big hits. It makes perfect sense for the park to act like that when designing the attraction.

Though it's just my personal preference, I just overall prefer the darker and more serious tone of the ride when it original opened from Video footage. That and the Vicar animatronic looks way better than the Mediocre Projection on the portrait.


We can all agree that when count Erika stepped inside, it turned the attraction into an awful Walkthrough. All the effects were timed wrong or were broken, Count Erika himself doesn't hold a candle to the original Vicar Hydraulic powered Head.


The current Version is loads better without Count Erika, but it just lacks the character it once had. It feels bland, The RIPA Preshow mostly. The corridors old ambience is more scary woth the flickering lights, but at least the current Version has a great Jumpscare with the new animatronic. Such a shame Dr Ghostmans narration throughout the attraction takes away one of the main key elements of a really good Haunted Attraction, the guests arent isolated anymore. The more I do the rides Walkthrough with the guests, the more annoying Dr Ghostman becomes, no joke.
Though that might just be me as I work on it all day, I still think it's a downgrade with the extra narration. You know what they say, less is more.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Just a couple of updated thoughts on the logo. I've been travelling a bit recently and seen DMP (or should that be DMR) being advertised really strongly on video screens. The ads are pretty snappy, rapid shots of Thor, Thomas and Accelerator. The logo here is clear and easy to read. The whizzy O in Drayton spins, attracting the eye.

I'll be honest, it works much more in that format than as the static image. Every point about the static image stands, however the new format does whoop over the old image in the advert. It's on so briefly its almost subliminal, and all the extra detail in the logo that we've discussed here would be lost.

 

[petegeorge1]

The Haunting and the theatre (4D cinema now) replaced what was the snake train

There was a accident on it in 94 or early 95 when the train tipped over.
Anyway Drayton paid £1 million for the haunting back in 1996 and Andi peters opened the ride

I remember this tractor ride and thinking (even as a 9 year year old), surely, surely, this isn't safe. it is also not a theme park attraction!
Fond memories though so thanks for sharing

 

[DistortAMG]

Just a couple of updated thoughts on the logo. I've been travelling a bit recently and seen DMP (or should that be DMR) being advertised really strongly on video screens. The ads are pretty snappy, rapid shots of Thor, Thomas and Accelerator. The logo here is clear and easy to read. The whizzy O in Drayton spins, attracting the eye.

I'll be honest, it works much more in that format than as the static image. Every point about the static image stands, however the new format does whoop over the old image in the advert. It's on so briefly its almost subliminal, and all the extra detail in the logo that we've discussed here would be lost.

This is a common theme in logo's these days. Glad I am not the only one to notice it.

In a digital age where our screens, phones, computers and everything in between, are hugely crowded. Less in more in making stuff stand out to the eye.

You only have to look at pretty much every major brand in the last ten years. They have all adopted a 'simplification' of their logos. This is not something isolated to Drayton, it is an industry wide shift and movement.

 

[Benjamino]

 

[pjanvil]

Well if it isn't surely they would just put down the speculation and just say so

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

I just see this as the park’s social media team saying that there has not been any official confirmation concerning the closure of the ride. But that doesn’t mean that it’s days aren’t numbered though.

 

[Mattie boy]

Didn't they recently or are they not currently fixing the broken towers on the ride ?!

 

[John]

Earlier today, TPW shared a picture of Charlotte on the steps up to Apocalypse that (a cynic may argue) appeared to have been deliberately framed to include the sign saying the stand up sides are closed.

 

[Skyscraper]

Earlier today, TPW shared a picture of Charlotte on the steps up to Apocalypse that (a cynic may argue) appeared to have been deliberately framed to include the sign saying the stand up sides are closed.

Here it is:



Although it's a bit strange that they've used the "queue closed, last ride in progress" sign.