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Drayton Manor Park

I'm planning a visit with the family this year but the park definitely needs that new coaster. I've not been since Vikings opened so we are looking forward to it.
 
Relife said:
I'm planning a visit with the family this year but the park definitely needs that new coaster. I've not been since Vikings opened so we are looking forward to it.
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Personally think Vikings is a little disappointing to be honest. You’ve got the reskinned Buffalo coaster that seems slow and on its last legs, a kids pony trek ride, a Zamperla Mega Disk’O which is fine (but not as good as the “humpless” variant), and a Nebulaz which is fun but takes an age to load up for each cycle.

By all means you can have a fun day out at the park but if you are expecting Vikings to be a really special superb area you might be a little disappointed, it’s just ok. It’s certainly no Tornado Springs.
 
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I’m just amazed at how much attention the park are receiving since they’ve started more intensive engagement with influencers. It’s as though it’s an entirely different park to the one a few years ago that few people seemingly visited regularly, if at all.

You’d never imagine they’d just removed their most highly regarded ride.
 
venny said:
I’m just amazed at how much attention the park are receiving since they’ve started more intensive engagement with influencers. It’s as though it’s an entirely different park to the one a few years ago that few people seemingly visited regularly, if at all.

You’d never imagine they’d just removed their most highly regarded ride.
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Influencers are easily influenced ;)

Drayton Manor are doing stuff and laying out a red carpet to those 'content creators' who then pile in to effectively provide free marketing.

It's a great strategy.
 
venny said:
I’m just amazed at how much attention the park are receiving since they’ve started more intensive engagement with influencers. It’s as though it’s an entirely different park to the one a few years ago that few people seemingly visited regularly, if at all.

You’d never imagine they’d just removed their most highly regarded ride.
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To be fair it’s probably worth noting that Drayton’s social media team seem much more warm and engaging than other parks. Their social media posts are often quite humorous and much more “human” than the likes of the Merlin parks or BPB and they aren’t afraid to have a little laugh or nod to the enthusiasts. I think Paulton’s are the only other ones that show some warmth in their posts rather than just being very corporate feeling.
 
I think the looping group are running the park very well.
With the 10 events planned for the year. Also the only uk theme park to have a fireworks event in Spring to go with the new Thomas land ride and the announcement of the new coaster/area for 2024.
Also the people having a go at Drayton Manor for installing new flat rides while Alton Towers keep replacing there’s with Rented rides.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Also the people having a go at Drayton Manor for installing new flat rides while Alton Towers keep replacing there’s with Rented rides.
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I don’t think anyone is “having a go” at Drayton for installing flat rides in Vikings.

However I think it’s a fair point to note that the park have lost both Apocalypse and Pandemonium recently and the two flat rides that have been bought in are quite different to them in terms of what they offer.

Loki is good, it’s nice to see a UK first, it’s fun and visually a really interesting looking ride. Personally I find that by the very nature of how a Nebulaz loads up combined with its capacity they tend to build up long queues, but you find that with them anywhere. And as for Thor it’s a good solid addition to the park, nice capacity on it, and it’s a good family ride. I do think that the regular version of them (such as Avatar Airbender) feel a bit faster as the hump in the middle seems to slow the momentum a little but your average guest isn’t going to care about that like how we might notice.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that Maelstrom is excellent and possibly the best ride of it’s type at a UK park (and the Bounty is a great pirate ship) but I’m interested in what they have planned in the future to replace the thrills that Apocalypse and Pandemonium offered.
 
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Shaggy_Dog_ said:
I don’t think anyone is “having a go” at Drayton for installing flat rides in Vikings.

However I think it’s a fair point to note that the park have lost both Apocalypse and Pandemonium recently and the two flat rides that have been bought in are quite different to them in terms of what they offer.

Loki is good, it’s nice to see a UK first, it’s fun and visually a really interesting looking ride. Personally I find that by the very nature of how a Nebulaz loads up combined with its capacity they tend to build up long queues, but you find that with anywhere. And as for Thor it’s a good solid addition to the park, nice capacity on it, and it’s a good family ride. I do feel that the regular version of them (such as Avatar Airbender) seem to feel a little faster as the hump in the middle seems to slow the momentum a little but your average guest isn’t going to care about that like how we might notice.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that Maelstrom is excellent and possibly the best ride of it’s type at a UK park (and the Bounty is a great pirate ship) but I’m interested in what they have planned in the future to replace the thrills that Apocalypse and Pandemonium offered.
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The replacement will be a Family/Thrill coaster, wether that leans more towards to thrill side like Icon & Wickerman is the question though. I’d like to see it supported by a new flat or two, however I would be against new flats if it would compromise the space/layout for the new coaster. Drayton don’t lack flats or water rides at all now, they have a good range, what they lack is another major coaster and maybe a new dark ride.
 
Shaggy_Dog_ said:
I don’t think anyone is “having a go” at Drayton for installing flat rides in Vikings.

However I think it’s a fair point to note that the park have lost both Apocalypse and Pandemonium recently and the two flat rides that have been bought in are quite different to them in terms of what they offer.

Loki is good, it’s nice to see a UK first, it’s fun and visually a really interesting looking ride. Personally I find that by the very nature of how a Nebulaz loads up combined with its capacity they tend to build up long queues, but you find that with them anywhere. And as for Thor it’s a good solid addition to the park, nice capacity on it, and it’s a good family ride. I do think that the regular version of them (such as Avatar Airbender) feel a bit faster as the hump in the middle seems to slow the momentum a little but your average guest isn’t going to care about that like how we might notice.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that Maelstrom is excellent and possibly the best ride of it’s type at a UK park (and the Bounty is a great pirate ship) but I’m interested in what they have planned in the future to replace the thrills that Apocalypse and Pandemonium offered.
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Apocalypse when they 1st took over in August 2020 both sit down, 1 stand up and the floorless were in operational.
After the 2021 lockdown they opened with 1 sit down, 1 stand up and floorless with the other sit down used saved for parts.
After June/July 21 the stand up side something major went in the housing above and it would have needed a crane to replace the parts so then they were down to 1 sit down and 1 floorless.
So to May 2022 they had just 2 sides working to something major happened to the floorless side and they did spend £50000 on repairing it and it fixed that problem and they did send it to the top of the tower but it wouldn’t release so they had to lower it back down and the looping group wasn’t willing to spend anymore money on it so for nearly 6 months it only ran on 1 side so can understand where a lot of people really missed the ride but it was coming to the end of its life.
Pandemonium could have stayed another year but they could have originally planned to open this coaster in 2023.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
The only thing I hate is I need the use of 2 phones as you have to put all the numbers off the annual passes every time you want to book a visit.
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Just a quick update , I’ve booked a visit using annual pass on the tap app without needing the numbers. If in the tapp app you go to the section where your photos are for your annual passes. Select book tickets, and continue with the options and then it auto fills your annual passes info in at the end. Took me 30 seconds to book for march of the dinos. Hope this helps
 
James Watkins said:

From: https://twitter.com/AerialAmusement/status/1632409940152262656
Hardware on site! Confirms it to indeed be a log flume of sorts
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Quite surprised nobody's noted the "subs" tarped up next to the track!

I am curious to see how they theme the area around the ride; in the "All Engines Go" episode this is based around, it's delivered to a pier near Vicarstown (as part of the town's Museum of History).
TheCan-DoSubmarineCrew182.png
I'd love if they did a proper harbour/dockyard area or if DJ Pope Creative (Mattel's go-to for Thomas park design/props) built a replica of the sub around the attraction!
 
Charliemoore93 said:
Just a quick update , I’ve booked a visit using annual pass on the tap app without needing the numbers. If in the tapp app you go to the section where your photos are for your annual passes. Select book tickets, and continue with the options and then it auto fills your annual passes info in at the end. Took me 30 seconds to book for march of the dinos. Hope this helps
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Thanks for that as I did try to Copy the numbers but it wouldn’t let me. Will book for Sunday afternoon thanks.
 
Recording a vid for my channel discussing the new ride and it's occured to me..

Has anyone heard any recent word about the Lady Hatt's Tea Party ride that was shelved and if it's still on?
 
TheMilanTooner said:
Recording a vid for my channel discussing the new ride and it's occured to me..

Has anyone heard any recent word about the Lady Hatt's Tea Party ride that was shelved and if it's still on?
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Nothing that area of the park has become a dumping/storage area. I do think they will look at this area again for maybe Thomas 20th birthday.
They got the Pirate adventure building to sort out and other areas of the park including the Buffalo replacement as that will be 40 years old in 2027.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Nothing that area of the park has become a dumping/storage area. I do think they will look at this area again for maybe Thomas 20th birthday.
They got the Pirate adventure building to sort out and other areas of the park including the Buffalo replacement as that will be 40 years old in 2027.
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Aaaah, makes a lot of sense; I'd imagine they'd want to invest in a better ride for that area as well.

Not sure if they ever ordered the Tea Party ride proper before the pandemic began, but I can definitely see why they invested in a flume and could see them considering other options for that area. Would admittedly like to see something bigger than a teacups ride; Thomas Land has enough turntable attractions as is. :p
 
WillPS said:
What's the story there then? Was one hired or something?
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Quite possibly. They were practically the same apart from the colour and trains. Not to sure on the specifics of this one though, apart from the fact they were two different rides as they both existed on park at the same time. Albeit one built and one unbuilt.
 
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