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Drayton Manor Park

Skyscraper said:
I spoke to the staff on Apocalypse on Monday (one of them is a mate I must add) and they said it's just a rumour.
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It was not just a rumour because Drayton Manor put the ride up for sale multiple times. They have actively tried to sell it.

Things may have changed now. But the fact Drayton Manor had the ride for sale proves they wanted to get ride of it.
 
Rob F said:
For your information Apocalypse closure
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I don't believe that one bit I'm afraid, nothing has been officially announced by the park. I know that people thought it had been announced a while back (TPWW fell for it too actually), and suspect that's what the article is based on.

Edit: just spoken to my mate who operates it (very reliable I must stress), it is just pure speculation and nothing has been decided on the future of the ride yet. All the speculation understandably drives the park mad!
 
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Skyscraper said:
I don't believe that one bit I'm afraid, nothing has been officially announced by the park. I know that people thought it had been announced a while back (TPWW fell for it too actually), and suspect that's what the article is based on.

Edit: just spoken to my mate who operates it (very reliable I must stress), it is just pure speculation and nothing has been decided on the future of the ride yet. All the speculation understandably drives the park mad!
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I would imagine if it was going they would have announced it to give people the opportunity to ride it one last time, as they did with pandemonium.
 
Rob said:
It is still listed for sale here. It may be that because they've not yet had a buyer they are going to keep it going a for longer. Or maybe they had a complete change of heart. Who knows!
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It's not on Interlink anymore, so I would expect it will be removed from that site too eventually.
 
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Skyscraper said:
Ah nice! I re-rode Accelerator, Maelstrom and Apocalypse in the last hour. I was wearing my blue Ice Age 4D coat if you saw someone with one on. 😛
Going to start writing it up this afternoon.
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Well we did Accelerator 3 times on the spin so there's a chance we rode together. I normally scream Geronimo on the first drop, with an embarrassed 6 year old in tow. Failing that you can recognise me for the crossed arms on Thor!!
 
RustyShackleford said:
Well we did Accelerator 3 times on the spin so there's a chance we rode together. I normally scream Geronimo on the first drop, with an embarrassed 6 year old in tow. Failing that you can recognise me for the crossed arms on Thor!!
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Did Thor stall on the hump for you? It did for me for a few seconds. My mate told me later that it's a known issue that happens every so often (but shouldn't), and is in the process of being investigated. Weight is a factor though.
 
Skyscraper said:
I don't believe that one bit I'm afraid, nothing has been officially announced by the park. I know that people thought it had been announced a while back (TPWW fell for it too actually), and suspect that's what the article is based on.

Edit: just spoken to my mate who operates it (very reliable I must stress), it is just pure speculation and nothing has been decided on the future of the ride yet. All the speculation understandably drives the park mad!
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I think now is an important time to re stress that low level staff, generally do not have the most up to date information. Period. So I would also take his views with a grain of salt. I very much doubt senior staff would be sharing plans with low level staff on a regular basis, for many reasons.

Considering the ride was listed for sale on interlink, suggests at some point, the park had decided it's future and that future was not at Drayton Manor. Things may have changed now but at one point, it's future was pretty certain. You would not put it up for sale if it was not.
 
I’ve heard of ride closure stories in the past where the staff have literally turned up the next day to see the ride locked up without any prior announcement, so I don’t think ride ops would necessarily know about the closure of a ride at the park (even if it was their ride) prior to the closure happening or being announced publicly.

Apocalypse could be staying, but I know at very least that at some point, it was intended to be going. Attraction Source was quite literally told by park management at a media event for Vikings that the ride was leaving at the end of 2022, so even if it’s no longer on the chopping block, it certainly was earlier this year. I should add that like others have said, the ride has been seen listed on multiple different ride sale sites in the last year, and it’s still listed on some.

Given that only one tower is presently operating and the others looked as though they hadn’t operated in quite some time when I went in June, I would not be one bit surprised if the ride did get removed at the end of the season. Things could admittedly change, but to me, the ride looked like it was holding on until the end of the season in anticipation of either removal or a very big refurbishment based on how only one tower was operating and the others looked well and truly SBNO rather than just “temporarily closed”.
 
Skyscraper said:
I spoke to the staff on Apocalypse on Monday (one of them is a mate I must add) and they said it's just a rumour. I don't think it'll be going anywhere soon while at least one of the chutes is operational. I got 13 rides on it, including 10 back-to-back without leaving the station (or my seat for most of them) for the last 20 minutes of the day. I might be crazy but it's brilliant ride! Going to continue working on my trip report this afternoon, where I'll go into more detail.
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There are construction markings all over the floor around Apocalypse, and the surrounding area (presumably to mark where footers are going for a new coaster). If they plan to open it for 2024 then they would probably need to take Apocalypse down during this closed season, rather than taking it down part way through the next operating season.
 
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Currently if you try and buy any night at the manor tickets or fireworks passholder it just appears blank for me. Surely night at the manor isn't sold out already
 
Well been on the park today for the 1st time since 11th September. Drayton really is using the mid week closures to update the park and fix things.
I noticed a few things around Adventure cove with Maelstrom sub station fake roof been removed as it’s had a new flat roof. They also started to repaint the fencing and I’m loving the new colours.
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Around the Bounty area and the stage area there’s been new bricks been layered and the stage area had new wood with bricks ready to go in by the fish and chip shop.

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Even the stage area by the tea room is having work done to it.
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Air race has a new viewing area added
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Continued
The construction has started for the Halloween event
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They also removing a lot of bushes around the Zoo area
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Also not sure what’s going on in the Terence and Discovery Thomas area as the gate was closed and says Staff only.
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The Haunting today was excellent with everything working.
In Sheriff showdown the broke on the rocking chair was sitting on the hay with his chair no where to be seen.
Still no sign of the floorless been back but the sign back outside.
The train is closed as they adding stuff around the track for the scare attraction.
 
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