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Drayton Manor Park

JAperson said:
Now in terms of Drayton's recognisability, if you ask basically anyone I know to name theme parks, there top ones would be Alton towers, LEGOLAND, Drayton manor and Blackpool pleasure beach, with Thorpe coming in just behind. This is almost in line with visitation, with Thorpe probably being a little higher up the list and Lego just above towers. Drayton's catchment area doesn't really include Yorkshire @Dave or Lancashire @rob666 but rather includes the counties of Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Rutland and the county of the West Midlands. Basically the entirety of the Midlands and surrounding area's. This is a huge amount of people to draw from for day visits and they even get people from outside these area's with there hotel.
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That wasn’t the point of the debate, the question was is the park a national park, if the region you pull from has a high population then grand, but is it’s brand national?

Blackpool and Towers have huge pull in Scotland, I would argue Blackpools pull south of Watford gap is limited but Towers does span pretty much the whole country.
 
Dave said:
That wasn’t the point of the debate, the question was is the park a national park, if the region you pull from has a high population then grand, but is it’s brand national?

Blackpool and Towers have huge pull in Scotland, I would argue Blackpools pull south of Watford gap is limited but Towers does span pretty much the whole country.
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Drayton get's people from the majority of the country, I'd say it's more national than Flamingo land.
 
DMP is a regional park, it just that the region happens to be in the middle of the country and more highly populated than Mingo's catchment area.

I grew up in South Manchester and was totally unaware of the park as a kid - I only knew Towers, Thorpe, Chessington & BPB (plus the smaller local parks)
 
DistortAMG said:
Storm Force 10 has awful capacity 50% of it's boats are decommissioned. I do not think Sheriffs showdowns capacity is that good to he fair.
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Definitely. I know stormforce 10s boats are mostly behind the Rapids, but whenever I go, it's queue moves pretty quick when compared to something like The Hauntings or Shockwaves, and the latter is the most popular ride at the park. While Stormforce 10 is a shadow of its former sefl in terms of operations, Its still really good I think with how it handles queues.
 
JAperson said:
Drayton get's people from the majority of the country, I'd say it's more national than Flamingo land.
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Yes it is, I wouldn’t ever say Flamingo Land is a national park and Drayton has a wider catchment but it isn’t a national park, trust me as someone who doesn’t live in the midlands very few people speak of it.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Definitely. I know stormforce 10s boats are mostly behind the Rapids, but whenever I go, it's queue moves pretty quick when compared to something like The Hauntings or Shockwaves, and the latter is the most popular ride at the park. While Stormforce 10 is a shadow of its former sefl in terms of operations, Its still really good I think with how it handles queues.
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I would have to disagree. While it is better than the diabolical throughput of Shockwave and The Haunting, the ride still has a shoddy throughput. The queue is about 2 hours when the queue line is full and coming out the entrance. Back in the day it was 45 minuites from that point.

It is just a less shoddy throughput than some of their even more shoddy throughput attractions. That does not make it good. Just better than the worse offenders in the park.

Intrigued about the PA building having a new roof. How do we know that some scenes are intact?
 
DistortAMG said:
I would have to disagree. While it is better than the diabolical throughput of Shockwave and The Haunting, the ride still has a shoddy throughput. The queue is about 2 hours when the queue line is full and coming out the entrance. Back in the day it was 45 minuites from that point.

It is just a less shoddy throughput than some of their even more shoddy throughput attractions. That does not make it good. Just better than the worse offenders in the park.

Intrigued about the PA building having a new roof. How do we know that some scenes are intact?
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I put a link to some pictures that’s been taken inside the building in the last
2 years

Pirate Adventure

Drayton Manor
darkridedatabase.com darkridedatabase.com
You can see from the exit ramp that the final area has been all stripped out as that’s the area which had the fire.
Anyway been on park today and I think that tent is gonna be used for the after park hours event as they got generator floodlighting
2DE78668-2322-41C1-BE4B-8A1CC7FABBF8.jpeg7BF3847A-2254-4DDB-A197-F08C849B9957.jpeg
Stormforce 10 must have only been on 5 or 6 boats today as there was a big gap between the boats and when we left the park at 5 to 6 it was still running.
 
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Themeparksandy1981 said:
I put a link to some pictures that’s been taken inside the building in the last
2 years

Pirate Adventure

Drayton Manor
darkridedatabase.com darkridedatabase.com
You can see from the exit ramp that the final area has been all stripped out as that’s the area which had the fire.
Anyway been on park today and I think that tent is gonna be used for the after park hours event as they got generator floodlighting
2DE78668-2322-41C1-BE4B-8A1CC7FABBF8.jpeg7BF3847A-2254-4DDB-A197-F08C849B9957.jpeg
Stormforce 10 must have only been on 5 or 6 boats today as there was a big gap between the boats and when we left the park at 5 to 6 it was still running.
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Those pictures from inside PA are from mid 2018. 4.5 years is quite a long time for it all to have changed. Not forgetting the auction was in 2019 so a lot of the inside has been gutted since.
 
Yeah I was going to say, those photos are not new. They have just surfaced recently.

Since those photos were taken, skips and skips of ride scenery was seen out the back of the ride that had been clearly ripped out.

Then we had the auction which sold off more props and it was clear to see that parts of the attraction were totally gutted.

I would not count on the inside of that building looking anything like those pictures did nearly 5 years now, a lot has happened since then. Including a major major fire within a very similar attraction at Europa Park. Something which I believe was a driving force to rip out most of the attraction.

As for Stormforce, it runs 5 boats currently. There are 5 more, which are out of commission.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
I put a link to some pictures that’s been taken inside the building in the last
2 years

Pirate Adventure

Drayton Manor
darkridedatabase.com darkridedatabase.com
You can see from the exit ramp that the final area has been all stripped out as that’s the area which had the fire.
Anyway been on park today and I think that tent is gonna be used for the after park hours event as they got generator floodlighting
2DE78668-2322-41C1-BE4B-8A1CC7FABBF8.jpeg7BF3847A-2254-4DDB-A197-F08C849B9957.jpeg
Stormforce 10 must have only been on 5 or 6 boats today as there was a big gap between the boats and when we left the park at 5 to 6 it was still running.
Click to expand...
Those tents were for a company day that happened on Saturday. Looks like they are dismantling now?
 
Matt N said:
Personally, I’d say that the Merlin parks are a tier above the rest in this country in terms of how well known they are, and I’d say that’s the case for all of them, from what I know.
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This is mainly because of the 2for1 vouchers. I don't think Chessington would be known nationwide if it wasn't for Kellogg's cereal.

To add, I think the main reason I knew of Alton Towers in the 90s was from getting a thunder looper game inside a box of Sugar Puffs!
 
jon81uk said:
This is mainly because of the 2for1 vouchers. I don't think Chessington would be known nationwide if it wasn't for Kellogg's cereal.
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Disagree. I grew up in Nottingham in the 90s, not a theme park loving family by any extent of the imagination, and Chessington, along with Alton Towers and Drayton Manor (despite not actually visiting any of them myself) and the local parks were very much in my conscience.

Beanoland in particular was a big deal and there was a big nationwide campaign for it.
 
Chessington is firmly in the mindset of many old gits as having a very big zoo.
Chessington and Chester were the leading green park animal sites for decades.
Kellogs are not the foundation stone of the park!
 
DistortAMG said:
@Trooper Looper you work there don't you? Get inside the PA building and get us the inside scoop of the current state.

Do not take no for an answer. Kick closed doors open if you must. Do what it takes. (I would advise not actually kicking closed doors)
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Well, Mate, friendo, first, I'm not all swell of getting the pink slip as pretty much no one is allowed In PA.

Unfortunately I'm not superman, so trying to kick down those large doors of the facade will most likely lead me having a foot cramp all day from trying to kick down a duo of heavy wood doors LOL. So I'll take your advice thank you.

Finally, even if I wanted to go in PA, through a safer route preferably, I would go nowhere near that Galleon battle area as that section of the showbuilding is in such a poor state, that the staff areas in the ride are so weak that you could fall right through the floor, and the roof is REALLY close to collapsing in on itself. No joke.

Here's something you'd like to hear, the flickering lanterns in the predrop scene still flicker to this day since we don't know how to switch them off XD.
 
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