• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Drayton Manor Park

I want to quickly address this oppinion thing as I see it all the time off and on the internet. It is natural for another person to challenge someone else's oppinion. If as humans we did not do that, we would quite possibly be still living in caves.

But challenging an oppinion does not mean you do not accept that other people have oppinions different to your own. It means you do not agree with their oppinion and you are trying to push your point across as to why. I see this all over the place in this day and age, people seemingly not liking the fact their oppinion was challenged, so they try to go down the 'accept that other people have oppinions too' route. It is a valid argument to make for sure, in certain cases.

But 9 times out of 10, it seems to me that people get confused with other people not accepting they have an oppinion, when in reality they do accept that, they just do not agree with it, so they have challenged it.

You can accept that other people have oppinions and not agree with them and then challenge them, at the same time. It is not one or the other.

As for this ride. Looks OK. Nothing special, serves the target market fine I guess.
 
When Thomas Land was first built, it was easily one of the best themed, if not, the best themed area in the UK. Charming. Vibrant. Nostalgic for parents. It felt like it had been carefully considered.

Over the years, the quality of additions has declined for quantity. The block paving has subsided for slap job tarmac. This newest addition is plastering 2d vinyls and bodge job nailing as standard. I've no issue with the actual ride hardware, it's cute and does the job. But my god where has the pride gone for the quality in presentation for Thomas Land?
 
Danny said:
When Thomas Land was first built, it was easily one of the best themed, if not, the best themed area in the UK. Charming. Vibrant. Nostalgic for parents. It felt like it had been carefully considered.

Over the years, the quality of additions has declined for quantity. The block paving has subsided for slap job tarmac. This newest addition is plastering 2d vinyls and bodge job nailing as standard. I've no issue with the actual ride hardware, it's cute and does the job. But my god where has the pride gone for the quality in presentation for Thomas Land?
Click to expand...

To add to that I do have to say alot of what was there is looking run down. As an example. The leather suitcases on the station platform, look like they have been sat outside for 10 years. Along side all the grime and general fading of paint. It doesn't look great.
 
Last edited:
Danny said:
They're missing more than one piece of 'major' theming.

It's not exactly a difficult ride to get up and running in a timely
Click to expand...
Danny said:
When Thomas Land was first built, it was easily one of the best themed, if not, the best themed area in the UK. Charming. Vibrant. Nostalgic for parents. It felt like it had been carefully considered.

Over the years, the quality of additions has declined for quantity. The block paving has subsided for slap job tarmac. This newest addition is plastering 2d vinyls and bodge job nailing as standard. I've no issue with the actual ride hardware, it's cute and does the job. But my god where has the pride gone for the quality in presentation for Thomas Land?
Click to expand...
Probably when the current makers of Thomas gave up on any form of pride in Thomas’s history. Fair point, though. Look between the cracks - Looping have a hell of a job on their hands. I know the Bryan’s are revered, but Drayton was in an absolute mess when it was sold.
 
Johnny_5 said:
Probably when the current makers of Thomas gave up on any form of pride in Thomas’s history. Fair point, though. Look between the cracks - Looping have a hell of a job on their hands. I know the Bryan’s are revered, but Drayton was in an absolute mess when it was sold.
Click to expand...
Oh they absolutely do have a job on their hands, I'm not denying that. What they've done so far with restoring Adventure Cove and the effort they've made with Vikings (by no stretch am I infatuated with this area as other seem to be, however) is a decent push in the right direction.

But Thomas Land is arguably one of the biggest draws to families visiting the park. It shouldn't be an area where they half arse an attraction into and open it well before it's actually ready.
 
rob666 said:
Come on, lets be fair here.
CRR was toned down because of a tragic accident at Drayton, where negligence was proved...to the tune of a million pound fine...wasn't it?
CRR is a water ride, very clearly, but mismanagement at Drayton forced it to tone down the effects, because of a sad death of a young girl five years ago.
Systematic failure of safety systems at Drayton means a tame ride at Alton, shame that.
Then the park went bust, and apparently the fine wasn't paid...allegedly.
Click to expand...

I missed this, you know what Rob, you do raise some very valid points to be fair. I cannot argue with them. To be even fairer, CRR is the best out of the lot when working properly. The level of wetness, the route, the scenery, I've always considered it above the rest.

The fine was not paid no (as far as I am aware). The fine was issued to Drayton Manor Park Limited. That company went bust, so the fine would not be payable. The new company who run the park, Drayton Manor Resort Limited (on paper) have no connection to the previous company and was not the company who were fined. If this would be allowed under normal circumstances, I.E, the Bryans staying in ownership once the company changed, to get out of paying the fine, is up for debate. But because the owners changed with the company change, the fine could be brushed away and it was much easier to get away with. Some sort of loop hole I guess.

That said, I do not think those circumstances arose to get out of paying the fine, more so, it helped to tip them over the edge from which they could not recover. Hence the park going up for sale.

As I am confident it was not an easy decision to make to sell the park, watching your parents and your own life's work going into new hands. So I am confident if they could pay the fine and kept ownership, they would have.
 
Danny said:
The fact the theming hasn't been installed in time so they've put a ride boat in its place is.... laughable.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure that's intentional; James and the Red Balloon did a similar thing to emulate the episode it was based on. :p

A shame the ride wasn't quite finished to a tee with the wet paint and temp queue, but I expect they wanted to get this ready in time before the 15th Anniversary celebrations came to a close + make the Bank Holiday weekend.

Putting that aside though, I think it still looks pretty solid given what they were up against. Having the background slowly move into Harwick is a nice touch and the setup with the spare vehichle/the periscope is a fun way to dress up the splashdown...was not expecting a full-scale Thomas with track though!

Interestingly from IG stories, I heard there's a new mini episode produced exclusively for the ride...bummed to hear the paint and vinyl had to be rushed because there seemed to be some heavy investment in this ride! Hopefully it'll be patched up in the coming months to look a little tidier and with a bit more theming; Harold and mayyybe the lighthouse feel like they could potentially have been saved on the docket, but also wondering if they actually are given they already managed to fit a fair bit into the area!

Do agree with the sentiments about the poor upkeep of the area though...hopefully Looping can give everything a good tidy up soon; have noticed on my searches for updates that the Blue Mountain Quarry wall is in particularily bad shape.
 
TheMilanTooner said:
I'm pretty sure that's intentional; James and the Red Balloon did a similar thing to emulate the episode it was based on. :p

A shame the ride wasn't quite finished to a tee with the wet paint and temp queue, but I expect they wanted to get this ready in time before the 15th Anniversary celebrations came to a close + make the Bank Holiday weekend.

Putting that aside though, I think it still looks pretty solid given what they were up against. Having the background slowly move into Harwick is a nice touch and the setup with the spare vehichle/the periscope is a fun way to dress up the splashdown...was not expecting a full-scale Thomas with track though!

Interestingly from IG stories, I heard there's a new mini episode produced exclusively for the ride...bummed to hear the paint and vinyl had to be rushed because there seemed to be some heavy investment in this ride! Hopefully it'll be patched up in the coming months to look a little tidier and with a bit more theming; Harold and mayyybe the lighthouse feel like they could potentially have been saved on the docket, but also wondering if they actually are given they already managed to fit a fair bit into the area!

Do agree with the sentiments about the poor upkeep of the area though...hopefully Looping can give everything a good tidy up soon; have noticed on my searches for updates that the Blue Mountain Quarry wall is in particularily bad shape.
Click to expand...
It's not intentional. There is still a piece of Harold theming that hasn't been installed.
 
I think the owners did know they were in serious financial problems and during the lockdown they agreed a deal with the Mellors group and they set up a company called Drayton Manor Operations limited but 3 weeks later Drayton Manor Park limited went into Administration.
 
Doesn't look like it. I personally didn't agree with the fine anyway, but once again this case POTENTIALLY shows up our stupid system where companies can just shake off debts by opening a new company under a very similar name and starting afresh with only those who were owed money by the former company losing out. And I want to make this clear, in-case any lawyers are reading, that I do not have all of the information so I am in no way saying that this is definitely what happened with regards to Drayton or that they would have done it on purpose, as opposed to it just happening due to the natural order of things with Covid and the likes.
 
But following that the new owners invested in the rapids and refreshed the ride and re-opened it.

Whilst Merlin bodged some doors onto their rapid boats whilst operating them as glorified lazy rivers.
 
Is the submarine in the middle definitely being used as a piece of theming? I assumed it was just a boat that had landed out the trough.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top