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Drayton Manor Park

Themeparksandy1981 said:
I think the only way they will remove the pirate adventure if the Dodgems next door are removed also and the Jolly Buccaneer could be moved and re-themed and in its place they could built a another new coaster and a couple of flats.
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So you are saying they would not remove the Pirate Adventire building, a freestanding building, unless they removed the dogems, a building that as shown from the picture you posted, is not connected to the main PA building? Sure it is connected by the facade, aka the easiest bit it could possibly be connected by if they chose to remove. I am really struggling to see the logic here. They could quite easily remove the main PA building and fill the other small buildings connected with sheet metal sides. They will already be separated, possibly by metal, if not brick.

Warehouse style buildings by design, are some of the easiest to separate and segregate. They are literally designed to do that due to their industrial use. Lets not kid ourselves here the building is not a showbuilding with fancy HVAC systems. It is a bare done warehouse building built as cheaply as possible.

As for Farmer Studios, the company changed to Farmer Attraction Development, led by Nick Farmer, the owner of the previous Farmer Studios.
 
DistortAMG said:
So you are saying they would not remove the Pirate Adventire building, a freestanding building, unless they removed the dogems, a building that as shown from the picture you posted, is not connected to the main PA building? Sure it is connected by the facade, aka the easiest bit it could possibly be connected by if they chose to remove. I am really struggling to see the logic here. They could quite easily remove the main PA building and fill the other small buildings connected with sheet metal sides. They will already be separated, possibly by metal, if not brick.

Warehouse style buildings by design, are some of the easiest to separate and segregate. They are literally designed to do that due to their industrial use. Lets not kid ourselves here the building is not a showbuilding with fancy HVAC systems. It is a bare done warehouse building built as cheaply as possible.

As for Farmer Studios, the company changed to Farmer Attraction Development, led by Nick Farmer, the owner of the previous Farmer Studios.
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I still find it very odd that none of the smaller Parks like Drayton Manor, Paultons Park, etc, don't have any theming or attractions by them, the only notable things I can find Farmer did was Thrill O Matic and the London Dungeon.
 
Trooper Looper said:
I still find it very odd that none of the smaller Parks like Drayton Manor, Paultons Park, etc, don't have any theming or attractions by them, the only notable things I can find Farmer did was Thrill O Matic and the London Dungeon.
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Why would that be odd exactly? They are not the only ones in the market.
 
Trooper Looper said:
I still find it very odd that none of the smaller Parks like Drayton Manor, Paultons Park, etc, don't have any theming or attractions by them, the only notable things I can find Farmer did was Thrill O Matic and the London Dungeon.
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Neither Drayton or Paulton have added a fully themed type attraction of that sort though.
From what I've seen the areas Paulton have done recently are to a decent standard and I'm not sure what other help Farmer would have given to Tornado Springs as it appears well done anyway.

If they did want a dark ride that would be a different project I expect.

Also in another thread recently (I think Sub-Terra) someone was talking about how good Merlin are with the Dungeon theme, but it seems its not really Merlin who made some of the main attractions!
 
I think they have got a bit of a logistical and expense problem for both removing or reusing the Pirates Adventure building. They'll have to make a decision soon though as I imagine there's only so long a building like that can sit empty, especially in such a prime location in the park. Drayton has planning issue's as it is and it might be deemed that the likeliest place for them to get planning for something big in the future is that space. They may well decide to put another dark ride in that spot, this would be really cool and I personally think the best option however it might be seen as less marketable.
 
DistortAMG said:
So you are saying they would not remove the Pirate Adventire building, a freestanding building, unless they removed the dogems, a building that as shown from the picture you posted, is not connected to the main PA building? Sure it is connected by the facade, aka the easiest bit it could possibly be connected by if they chose to remove. I am really struggling to see the logic here. They could quite easily remove the main PA building and fill the other small buildings connected with sheet metal sides. They will already be separated, possibly by metal, if not brick.

Warehouse style buildings by design, are some of the easiest to separate and segregate. They are literally designed to do that due to their industrial use. Lets not kid ourselves here the building is not a showbuilding with fancy HVAC systems. It is a bare done warehouse building built as cheaply as possible.

As for Farmer Studios, the company changed to Farmer Attraction Development, led by Nick Farmer, the owner of the previous Farmer Studios.
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I think the dodgems could be moved and re-themed into a new area with a family thrill coaster, new restaurant and re-themed jolly Buccaneer.
 
DistortAMG said:
Oh I see what you mean. Not that they have to be moved but could be to open up that area, am I right? Yeah that makes total sense.
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Yes that’s what I mean and with the restaurant been built in the same warehouse as the pirate adventure it would be cheaper and easier to remove and build another restaurant. I hope they do reuse the building and keep the pirate theme.
After they used the top end of the park Drayton won’t have much land left without removing some 90’s attractions.
They had a another busy summer and think the vikings area has worked well and been a great investment to go with Adventure Cove.
 
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I'll admit I', in awe of the technical knowledge shown by folks on here. It's something I don't share.

But, at risk of saying somehting stupid, the bucanneer has little boats on every arm which you sit in. Doesn't this make the whole retheming aspect pretty major / costly?

Also on this...
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Yeah I’m in the same boat as mine don’t end to the 17th Oct and I already brought ours back in March before they put the prices up.
With the fireworks on at 6pm with selected rides only open to 7pm I think I may just go to the Halloween event instead and skip the fireworks as can see them at the Christmas event.
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I had an email from customer services. Bit frustrating and baffling that they didn't offer the ability to purchase a "run-on" pass from the expiry date of my existing one. However they detailed that they fully expected there to be tickets left by the time I did renew - which would be after existing expiry on 1/10/22
 
RustyShackleford said:
But, at risk of saying somehting stupid, the bucanneer has little boats on every arm which you sit in. Doesn't this make the whole retheming aspect pretty major / costly?
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When I mean re-theme is keep the boats as they are as they could easily fit on the Viking’s area painted and themed to Viking boats or it could be themed to sailing boats and put on the adventure cove site.
 
Flying Dutchman is the last remaining ride of this type from Intamin, anywhere in the world.

While the colours have changed, the Pirate theme has stayed, as designed originally by Intamin.

For those reasons I think it should stay the same.
 
DistortAMG said:
Flying Dutchman is the last remaining ride of this type from Intamin, anywhere in the world.

While the colours have changed, the Pirate theme has stayed, as designed originally by Intamin.

For those reasons I think it should stay the same.
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It’s the Jolly Buccaneer I was talking about.
I would never want them to re-theme the Flying Dutchman as it’s the only attraction I remember as a child still the same as today and will be 40 years old next year.
 
Just to summarise the above article into a few key points:

  • "I think eventually there will be some kind of theme to most areas, although there can be exceptions. A few weeks ago, I met with local residents. There were people in their 70s who were asking me if the carousel is still here. It’s a legacy ride, without a particular theme, but it still serves a role and it’s important to have those kinds of attractions."
  • "What is important as we develop is to have not just to have a very advanced children’s area, but also great family zones and thrills. When my friends and relatives visit, one of the things they comment on is that there are more opportunities for them to ride together as a family than they see in other parks. But I’m not ruling out more IPs."
  • "We would like to move away from being a traditional zoo, where you just walk around, see some animals and leave. Instead, we want to make it a lot more immersive and engaging so people understand more about the different animals."
  • "We actually have a massive area in the zoo, some of it is unused, so we can redefine some of that. Instead of just circling past the animal enclosures, we could have walkways through the trees so it becomes a bit more adventurous."
  • "We are working on a Halloween programme this year, which we’ve never done before. It’s an extremely competitive area, and there’s some good quality in the market, so we’ve got to do something different."
  • "Everyone’s done the mazes, and we’ll have those too, but we also want to turn it into a party. We’ve got people who are fans of the park, and I think would travel for it. I’m really excited about this October!"
  • "We’ve got the new entrance by Vikings, but we still need to look at the main entrance. It’s still a little bit, well… 1950s!"
  • "The lake is the centrepiece of the park, and I would say in the future we could see some more additions there. We have some more land and water at the back of the park, where Excalibur was shut down many years ago. That gives us further expansion opportunities. There is so much land here when you start looking."

Many interesting points there. Halloween mazes confirmed? Looks like the main entrance will be undergoing a redevelopment in the near future, which is definitely well needed. We could be seeing some new attractions on the main lake, as well as the unused Excalibur lake behind the castle.
 
Ciaran said:
We could be seeing some new attractions on the main lake, as well as the unused Excalibur lake behind the castle.
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It also could be part of a new area if they decide to remove the pirate adventure building as they can keep the front area as the castle of dreams but built a new coaster that goes over the lake with a new restaurant and a flat ride to go with the dodgems.
 
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