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Drayton Manor Park

Bowser said:
i've no idea if we'd be likely to get on all the rides.
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Even on the busiest day this season, I would have expected that you could have got on all of the rides multiple times. I know it's a bit of a drive for you, but I would definitely recommend an excursion up to the Midlands for Drayton this year. It is sweet and has charm. The only ride that has suffered from downtime has been the rapids, but as previously discussed that's been a staffing issue. The park has prioritised opening more rides with fewer ride ops required, rather than having the rapids open and closing other rides. The rapids requires a decent chunk of staff to operate.

One thing that hasn't been discussed; whilst RAP and Fast Pass queues at Drayton do technically exist, they really have little to no impact on main guest experience / queue times. The level of RAP queue you see at a Merlin park only seems to be seen at a Merlin park.
 
Is this new rollercoaster opening at the start of the season? When does the season start? Any other new stuff to tempt people there? I've not been following this thread very closely! Thanks :)
 
BarryZola said:
Is this new rollercoaster opening at the start of the season? When does the season start? Any other new stuff to tempt people there? I've not been following this thread very closely! Thanks :)
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  • Based on the fact that it’s yet to even go vertical, I imagine the new roller coaster will open later in the season.
  • According to Drayton’s opening times, the season begins on Sunday 24th March 2024: https://www.draytonmanor.co.uk/plan-your-visit/opening-times
  • In terms of other new stuff; Shockwave is being converted into a sitdown coaster for 2024. The standup train is no more.
 
Matt N said:
  • Based on the fact that it’s yet to even go vertical, I imagine the new roller coaster will open later in the season.
  • According to Drayton’s opening times, the season begins on Sunday 24th March 2024: https://www.draytonmanor.co.uk/plan-your-visit/opening-times
  • In terms of other new stuff; Shockwave is being converted into a sitdown coaster for 2024. The standup train is no more.
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Thanks Matt. That answers all of my questions. Much appreciated :)
 
deathproof69 said:
Does any know the reasoning behind it not going vertical yet? I feel like track has been on site for ages now.
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When I was talking to staff over the Christmas event they we’re currently 6-8 weeks behind the original opening date of Easter so based on that it’s looking at mid to end of May to open.
Now this could work in Drayton’s favour as everyone will want to go and ride Nemesis during the Easter holidays and they will have part of the new area open with Terence reopening and Shockwave’s new trains/theme.

They also cut the dates the park open between now and the start of the main season with the theme park only open for the returning dinosaur event 10th to 18th Feb with just Zoo days on select dates.
 
To be fair I don’t think Drayton ever open new rides at the start of the season, so a May opening would make more sense for the park.

I do find it odd how we’ve not actually had any marketing about the ride yet, where as nemesis marketing is in full swing, and even Thorpe have done a video and released the name.
 
Even under the Bryan’s all there past coasters have been kept a mystery to the final memories. With the park not requiring planning permission as long it’s under a certain height has helped to keep projects a secret. The team is currently having a 2 week holiday so can really see the marketing started soon for this new area/coaster and Shockwave new theme/train.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Even under the Bryan’s all there past coasters have been kept a mystery to the final memories. With the park not requiring planning permission as long it’s under a certain height has helped to keep projects a secret. The team is currently having a 2 week holiday so can really see the marketing started soon for this new area/coaster and Shockwave new theme/train.
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Construction within a 20 mile radius of Birmingham:

"What time is it lads?"

"Just gone 1"

"When did yao start?"

"Just after 10"

"Alright boys, that's enough for today. I'll see you all down the pub."
 
I cannot see this being ready for May to be honest, this will fall back later than that. If construction is just going vertical now (it may not have already) they will struggle. I think a July opening is more plausible if they start imminently. This is perhaps why we have seen no advertisement as they know the coaster is not opening until quite late into the season.

The track needs to be built, electronics installed, station / maintenance buildings, landscaping, queue lines and the huge amount of testing legally required along side any theming and scenery within the ride area. Four and a half months is a BIG ask to get all that done. It is not impossible, but highly unlikely I think. The key thing to also remember, a lot of the outstanding tasks listed above, cannot be completed until after track is installed. So it is not like they can work on all other tasks to bring the schedule back, before others, that is not always possible with a lot of tasks. Certain things have to be done in certain orders. Electronics and then testing cannot come before track installation, neither can things such as landscaping and queue line construction, plus many others.

Never say never. I am pretty sure this project has been hit with unexpected delays, track was supposed to have gone vertical much sooner, hence why we now how an almost complete coaster sitting in the carpark. Usually, delivery's are scheduled close to when they are planned to be installed. This mitigates many issues such as storage problems, damage caused by piles and piles of track and other things.

We may see marketing soon, however the problem they have created for themselves this year, is we have two massive coasters due to open early into the 2024 season, with this opening later, their marketing will perhaps be drowned out and not as effective as it could have been, due to these new coasters opening earlier, taking press coverage because they are actually open etc etc. Blame cannot fully be put down to Drayton Manor, but this needed to open in the general time frame that the others opened in, to maximise press coverage. I could be wrong, but I can see lots of the marketing for this being drown out and missed due to the other titans actually being open first and taking up press coverage that would have otherwise gone towards promoting Drayton's coaster that would be opening soon. The press will naturally go for something that is open now rather than open soon.

It should still be a hit however. As Drayton is very popular these last few seasons due to all the positive changes.
 
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I was there yesterday, nothing much has happened i saw no vertical construction from where i could look and see, they started taking supports to the site as i was leaving so it may have started to go vertical but foundations were still being poured near to the old walkway and Jormungandr, these pieces of track were lifted out a lorry what I found interesting was that it has the same connections as the newer gen intamin switch tracks so that could possibly be an element on the coaster they really want to pile in the elements on this coaster I’ll stick some photos of some new track that’s arrived and the switch track ones, saw no work happening on shockwave but could hear some construction coming from around the pirate adventure area presumably repairing the facade couldn’t see though I’ll pop down on Sunday to see if the coaster has went vertical. IMG_9729.jpeg
 

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If no vertical construction has started, there is no way this will be ready for May, I am almost certain of that. That is before you factor in the bad weather we are very likely about to have, which could push the schedule back even more.
 
With Apocalypse deconstruction starting the day after the 2022 season ended and Pandemonium/Big wheel foundations and the former chip shop been removed in March I thought we could easily be seeing a March opening date but the site wasn’t worked on again to the end of August.
Originally coaster construction was scheduled to start at the beginning of December which was 6 weeks ago and from the pictures no supports have gone in yet so they got to be roughly 8 weeks behind schedule. I can see the whole coaster been constructed by the start of the main season but I agree it is now looking at end of June opening ready for the busy summer holidays.
 
That's a shame if it's the case. Must be quite detrimental to them as lots of people will presumably be holding off their visit till it opens. Although in that sense it's probably a good thing they haven't started publicising the new ride yet as if New Shockwave is ready for Spring most "casual" customers might think that's the big reason to come and then another new ride a few months later will be a bonus to return!
 
Opening the main season without Shockwave 2.0 and the new coaster is a big risk for them, especially considering how poor ride availability was in the second half of the season last year. Also, with all the work going on at the top of the park, is there a risk they won’t open with Sheriff’s Showdown and Barrels too?! Could be a very poor start to the season if so.
 
I'm planning on visiting Drayton with the family this year, it's a bit of a mission to get there from where we live so I will certainly be holding off until the new coaster opens. It would be nice to get some update from the park as I've not seen any pictures of the site for a few weeks and it's been strangely quiet on thier social media.
 
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