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Drayton Manor Park

Blackhole_Sun said:
Summer nights

Coronation street party

They are doing heavy on the film/TV events with Grease and a UK soap opera.

I’m not sure how much of a pull these events really have but good to see Drayton pulling out all the stops. They really need some more rides to support. Seems to be a running theme for the UK theme park industry at the moment.
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It's a Coronation street party (for the King), not a Coronation Street party! Although I know which one I'd rather attend.
 
It’s certainly an impressive line up of events, with some genuinely interesting concepts. I hope they aren’t trying to move too quickly though. Most big events started off fairly small and grew over several years, even really big ones like Universal Horror Nights and Mickey’s Not so Scary Halloween Party. By trying to launch so many new events in the same season, they risk losing the impact for each one, or spreading their resources too thinly. Also, if an event does take a few years to gain traction, you can afford to bide your time if it’s one event, but with so many new events, presumably they’ll be looking to get a return on all of them straight away.
 
I think they read trip advisor and the survey’s guests fill in.
The biggest complaint has been the price of tickets and the 10:30am to 5pm closing times. Many have said they only got on 3/4 rides all day with the hour + queues
Thomas land could easily close at half 5 as most under 1.2m will be going home by then with the older families enjoying the 1.2m+ helight restriction rides to 9pm.
Even at Christmas the park was dead but select rides still opened to half 7.
 
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Sorry for the double post but I just checked out the tap app that Drayton Manor uses for tickets and annual passes anyway they updated there basic park map page and it now lists Pandemonium, Apocalypse and the test track site as under development. The 1 thing that surprises me is the size of the area.
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Now watching Chall video from yesterday

From: https://youtu.be/Y2WyZv4RZFE

Now looking at that site size I really do think it could be a 4D free spin coaster

s&s

www.s-s.com www.s-s.com
It also fits the 1.2-1.3 height restriction the park is aiming for nowadays.
 
I am not convinced it would be a free spin- while it might be 1.2m hight restriction I think it would look more thrill than family thrill. Also the park haven’t submitted plans to get planning permission (well yet anyway, although would have thought that would happened before the park announced they were building a new coaster) to build anything significantly tall. I believe the park can build up-to around 70ft-80ft ish in areas of permitted development without needing separate planning.

I think we will likely see some kind of family/thrill launched coaster.
 
Maelstrom said:
I am not convinced it would be a free spin- while it might be 1.2m hight restriction I think it would look more thrill than family thrill. Also the park haven’t submitted plans to get planning permission (well yet anyway, although would have thought that would happened before the park announced they were building a new coaster) to build anything significantly tall. I believe the park can build up-to around 70ft-80ft ish in areas of permitted development without needing separate planning.

I think we will likely see some kind of family/thrill launched coaster.
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Interesting info about the height, Formula at Energylandia is 81ft so something similar is feasible so I'm sticking with a Vekoma of some sort.
 
Shockwave was the last coaster that they need planning permission for but really they only added 3 big coasters in 30 years and 2 of them have already gone.
I can’t see it been a big project as they not even started ground work yet unless they just focused on the Thomas land new ride 1st.
 
A 4D Free Spin would be a plausible fit, in my opinion. It would fit nicely on that plot of land, and I guess it wouldn't necessarily be too thrilling for Drayton's audience either, particularly if they went with the smaller version like Tumbili or Dragon Slayer.

It would also be relatively par for the course with some of their past ride investments; they do seem to like UK and European firsts, and doing weird things that no other park in the country is doing. Look at things like Shockwave, Apocalypse, Stormforce 10, G Force, Maelstrom... I reckon an S&S 4D Free Spin would complement those nicely.

It's also possible that the park could have a working relationship with S&S from when they allegedly designed a coaster to replace Jormungandr for 2018 (that later got scrapped as a result of the Splash Canyon incident and its effects on the park).

I have a different suggestion from the S&S catalogue, however. This might be a bit out there... but what about an S&S Axis? As far as I know, no park in the world has currently purchased one, it doesn't look like a prohibitively expensive ride type, it would be quite versatile by virtue of the seating, it would fit in well with Drayton's previous history of firsts, and it could also live up to the MD's billing of "one of the best coasters in the UK" based on the very superlative comments I've heard from those who've ridden the prototype.

If I had my way, though, it would be a nice family launch coaster or woodie! A fun and thrilling ride with high rerideability is something that Drayton Manor would benefit immeasurably from, in my view.
 
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An Axis coaster would certainly be a lot more interesting and exciting Matt.

A 4D spin would probably look pretty cool to the GP. It's only really coaster enthusiasts that will have experienced them before and know they aren't all that.

I'd be disappointed if that's what they plump for although I could understand why they might.
 
I think the only reason the 4D free spin has been talked about is because a few years back this same YouTuber did a video where he claimed to have received details of the loping groups long term plan. Some of which has turned out to be correct such as the wave swinger and new rides where vikings was built but not everything has been correct. The rumour about the coaster was he was told back then it was similar to a six flags Batman coaster. however that could mean it’s just a suspend coaster and certainly doesn’t mean it’s a free spin. Plus plans change and develop.

since then it’s been rumoured to feature a swing launch of some kind and both gerstlauer and Vekoma have been mentioned in past few years. However everything is just rumours and speculation and could be anything. However while I could be wrong I really don’t see it being a free spin.
 
I think it will all come down to budget.
I know the last 3 major coasters was built by the former owners but they cost:

Shockwave 4 million would cost roughly 10 million to built now.

G force 2.5 million would cost roughly 4.75 million to built now.

Accelerator 2.1 million would cost roughly 3.25 million to built now.

Dragon Slayer cost $7 million (roughly 5.8 million) when it opened last year.

Not sure how much an Axis coaster would cost?
 
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