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.
