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Drayton Manor Park

I don’t mind people making you tube videos of my find. I found it by chance as I was reading the football news and it was on the news feed at the end.
I do like they got big plans for the next 2 years so they already looking at the 2025 additions.
Since having kids I been thinking of what the park class as family thrill coasters as my daughter hit 1.4m tall aged 10 and 2 months and based on past years she hit 1.2 aged 7 and 1.3 aged 8 and half and with G-Force that was 1.35m so based on rides like Icon 1.3m they could be looking at a 1.2 or 1.3m height requirement.
 
If what Drayton is getting a coaster for 2024, the same time Nemesis reopens, and they claim it to be one of the best the UK will see...who's to say that Drayton are wanting to steal Towers' thunder for Nemesis which is not hard to think about when you look back in 1994 of how much Drayton got forgotten about thanks to the efforts of Towers and BPB that year...the long awaited revenge match for the battle of the Midlands! :p
 
Poisson said:
Drayton would do well to get a Vekoma launch, give it a few years then bin Jormungandr and replace it with a SFC going out over the lake.
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A Gerstlauer Family Launch coaster is a ride type that has popped up in rumours regarding Drayton for quite a while, so could be that, although a Vekoma would be great. Something like Formula at Energylandia would be great although not sure if that would be more thrilling than they are going for.
There were rumours a while back about an S&S Family Launched Suspended coaster to replace Buffalo/Jormungandr. There was even a video that showed up on S&S's youtube with a load of other new ride concepts (that were removed a day later) that looked like it was designed for that particular spot, maybe they will revisit that idea in the future.
 
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This photo, taken from the Express and star in early 1993 confirms that Splash Canyon had theming elements added before Shockwave was built. If you took this photo today, you would see Shockwaves lift. Aswel as a support column for the exit of the vertical loop, which goes on the footer that is poured to the left. Also shows the themed building that housed the moving water tower, which was controllable by operators in the early years.

d-exp_p_d38_37.jpgd-exp_p_d38_36.jpg
Second photo is looking back towards the station. From the now cannibalised wave pool.

Next photo is the station, lift hill and the yet to be built queue line, looks very different today. Especially with Shockwave above. Look closely and parts of the rides channel are yet to be finished.
d-exp_p_d38_34.jpg
 
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Content creator (CC) 'I know something you don't know about an upcoming project but can't say.'

*Park eventually announces what it is*

CC: 'See I was right all along'

Viewers: Eh?

😂

There's definitely some leaks at Drayton HQ though. I'm sure that Coaster Chall guy called a lot of the Vikings projects before they were public knowledge too. Somebody clearly can't keep their mouth shut which is a shame but I suppose inevitable these days with social media and the internet etc.

As for one of the best coasters in the UK claim. I simply refuse to believe that's even possible given the budgets they typically operate on. Hope I'm wrong though and they surprise us with something like Lech Coaster.
 
DistortAMG said:
This photo, taken from the Express and star in early 1993 confirms that Splash Canyon had theming elements added before Shockwave was built. If you took this photo today, you would see Shockwaves lift. Aswel as a support column for the exit of the vertical loop, which goes on the footer that is poured to the left. Also shows the themed building that housed the moving water tower, which was controllable by operators in the early years.

d-exp_p_d38_37.jpgd-exp_p_d38_36.jpg
Second photo is looking back towards the station. From the now cannibalised wave pool.

Next photo is the station, lift hill and the yet to be built queue line, looks very different today. Especially with Shockwave above. Look closely and parts of the rides channel are yet to be finished.
d-exp_p_d38_34.jpg
Click to expand...
Thanks for uploading and the support you see in the last picture is of the original pirate ship which was moved at the end of the 1993 season.
With the park been closed since Christmas Day and the theme park area not opening to Feb half term they will announce something soon as I’m sure there’s been a lot of ground clearing going on at the moment and a theme banner on the construction walls.
The Zoo days start at the end of the month and you enter the zoo by the farm area so if it’s dry will pop down with the kids to see if there’s any work going on in Thomas land for the 2023 season.
 
I've not watched that video, and won't be doing so, but if he has basically made a video saying I know this and can't tell you then he's clearly a bit of a fool and it comes across as major clickbait.

A coaster confirmed for 2024 is good news though, and will probably be enough to get me back to the park for visit for the first time in a very long time. Will be interesting to see what it does turn out to be, with the way the park seems to be going you do have to think it will need to appear to a family market, but that does not mean it can't still be thrilling. However, a 250ft coaster featuring lots of inversions is unlikely to be on the cards!
 
Benjsh said:
There's definitely some leaks at Drayton HQ though. I'm sure that Coaster Chall guy called a lot of the Vikings projects before they were public knowledge too. Somebody clearly can't keep their mouth shut which is a shame but I suppose inevitable these days with social media and the internet etc.

As for one of the best coasters in the UK claim. I simply refuse to believe that's even possible given the budgets they typically operate on. Hope I'm wrong though and they surprise us with something like Lech Coaster.
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If there’s any influencer I’d listen to regarding the future at Drayton Manor, it’s Coaster Chall. He was bang on the money with both Adventure Cove and Vikings; his source certainly has a very good track record for reliability!

I wouldn’t be so quick to rule out the possibility that Drayton’s new coaster could be one of the most revered coasters in the UK. It’s arguably easier than ever to get a top quality coaster on a low budget, and compared to some other countries, the bar is arguably not that high in the UK at present. Nemesis aside, I’d struggle to think of a UK coaster that’s widely accepted as “world class” or “elite” or whatever.

Nemesis is nowhere near my favourite UK coaster (that title goes to Icon, closely followed by Wicker Man in #2 and Oblivion in #3), but in terms of the consensus viewpoint, it would be hard to argue against Nemesis reigning supreme over the UK coaster scene by some distance for the vast majority of enthusiasts. With that in mind, I wouldn’t be surprised if whatever Drayton builds did become one of the UK’s most revered coasters.
 
It wouldn't be difficult for them to open one of the best family thrill coasters in the UK, given that the quantity of outstanding ones is so low. Something akin to Juevelen would be ideal; a UK first and having a family version of Taron on our soil isn't something to turn a nose up at.

At this stage, any claims procuring it to be the best are purely hype diatribe to whip up the PR machine. Let's see if they can actually walk the walk and pull it off.
 
Matt N said:
If there’s any influencer I’d listen to regarding the future at Drayton Manor, it’s Coaster Chall. He was bang on the money with both Adventure Cove and Vikings; his source certainly has a very good track record for reliability!

I wouldn’t be so quick to rule out the possibility that Drayton’s new coaster could be one of the most revered coasters in the UK. It’s arguably easier than ever to get a top quality coaster on a low budget, and compared to some other countries, the bar is arguably not that high in the UK at present. Nemesis aside, I’d struggle to think of a UK coaster that’s widely accepted as “world class” or “elite” or whatever.

Nemesis is nowhere near my favourite UK coaster (that title goes to Icon, closely followed by Wicker Man in #2 and Oblivion in #3), but in terms of the consensus viewpoint, it would be hard to argue against Nemesis reigning supreme over the UK coaster scene by some distance for the vast majority of enthusiasts. With that in mind, I wouldn’t be surprised if whatever Drayton builds did become one of the UK’s most revered coasters.
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They might have the same source tbf. Somebody somewhere is leaking it.

I'm hugely sceptical they are going to get something that good.
 
The thing is though would it even be that hard for Drayton to make a ride that is “one of the best coasters in the UK”? You could argue that Sik at Flamingo Land is currently one of the best coasters in the UK and that’s just pretty much a decade old clone of an existing ride. It’s nothing particularly spectacular, yet it would probably slot in there as one of the top 10 rides in the country, maybe even top 5 for some people. Paultons constructed one of the best family coasters in the UK with Storm Chaser, a clone of a 15 year old coaster, that cost them £12m. It’s perfectly possible that DM could do something similar.

The point is that at the moment the bar isn’t really set that high in the UK. Apart from Nemesis we don’t really have world class rides here, just some very solid ones such as WM, Swarm, Stealth, and then the likes of Icon, Inferno, Sik, etc. Obviously things might change a little in the next few years with the rides that Merlin are currently building and planning but we aren’t blessed with that many fantastic coasters here.

DM haven’t claimed that they are going to build the best ride in the UK, just one of the best. A clone of Fonix or Juvelin could probably fit that description.
 
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Danny said:
It wouldn't be difficult for them to open one of the best family thrill coasters in the UK, given that the quantity of outstanding ones is so low. Something akin to Juevelen would be ideal; a UK first and having a family version of Taron on our soil isn't something to turn a nose up at.

At this stage, any claims procuring it to be the best are purely hype diatribe to whip up the PR machine. Let's see if they can actually walk the walk and pull it off.
Click to expand...

Whilst that type of coaster would be a wise investement.....it won't get me to go back I don't think. There's not enough there anymore to merit the journey.
 
DistortAMG said:
This photo, taken from the Express and star in early 1993 confirms that Splash Canyon had theming elements added before Shockwave was built. If you took this photo today, you would see Shockwaves lift. Aswel as a support column for the exit of the vertical loop, which goes on the footer that is poured to the left. Also shows the themed building that housed the moving water tower, which was controllable by operators in the early years.

d-exp_p_d38_37.jpgd-exp_p_d38_36.jpg
Second photo is looking back towards the station. From the now cannibalised wave pool.

Next photo is the station, lift hill and the yet to be built queue line, looks very different today. Especially with Shockwave above. Look closely and parts of the rides channel are yet to be finished.
d-exp_p_d38_34.jpg
Click to expand...
Class photos, thanks for posting. Surprised I've never seen these before.
 
When I saw the construction walls in December they backed up to the stairs of the toilets so theses now could be reused/rethemed so I thought if it could be a launched coaster it could launch towards the hotel.
90C56ACC-CDE0-447F-820A-1206C668F5BC.png
The former fish and chip restaurant could be getting removed also as when the park is fully open in March that top gate will only be the way they can enter and exit the park during the opening hours.
 
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