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Drayton Manor Park

Bowser said:
I've never been on it but seen a few comments like this, was it a rough ride or something?

Looking forward to taking my son on it this year (and obviously it will be a different experience) but he loves intense rides so hopefully it's more that than uncomfortable.
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Historically it hasn’t been the smoothest ride in the world, put it that way.

I’m holding off on forming an opinion until after I’ve done it with the new trains though.
 
Bowser said:
I've never been on it but seen a few comments like this, was it a rough ride or something?

Looking forward to taking my son on it this year (and obviously it will be a different experience) but he loves intense rides so hopefully it's more that than uncomfortable.
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Everyone here will go in with the rough and bashed you around trope, but it's nothing compared to the concussion machines of Colossus, SAW and Infusion.

I rode Shockwave over 20 times on closing day, and whilst the bicycle seat wore a hole in my favourite jeans, it was perfectly fine. I've never been one to find it rough.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
it's nothing compared to the concussion machines of Colossus, SAW and Infusion.
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I haven't been on any of these (well Colossus about 20 years ago) but have been on the SAW clone at Adventure Island with my son which he loves. Vampire at Chessington is probably the roughest ride we've been on in the UK and again he loves that (he's probably small enough to avoid most of it).

But i guess that's all generally determined by the harnesses so as it now has lap-bars isn't it likely to be much less of an issue?
 
Bowser said:
I haven't been on any of these (well Colossus about 20 years ago) but have been on the SAW clone at Adventure Island with my son which he loves. Vampire at Chessington is probably the roughest ride we've been on in the UK and again he loves that (he's probably small enough to avoid most of it).

But i guess that's all generally determined by the harnesses so as it now has lap-bars isn't it likely to be much less of an issue?
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It’s more rattling that would cause roughness in this case, something that was already present to a degree on Shockwave and all box section sit downs/stand ups of a similar age (Dragon Khan for instance). Track quality and train quality are the main influences on that, and Shockwave’s track hasn’t been in the best nick for a while in spite of it getting new trains. Really bad rattles can be as bad as (if not worse than) head banging.
 
I found shockwave headbangy and a little rattly in stand-up form. But not too bad and not jolty, not something I would consider "rough", and something I thought was due to the stand-up trains. Sitting down on new trains with a lap bar I am hoping will make it more comfortable, and I'm looking forward to riding it

Dragon Kahn however I found that the aggressive jolts at the bottom of drops and inversions were a big problem. The kind of one I experience as the Big One comes out of it's first drop. The thick over the shoulders on Khan made it impossible to to avoid a good smashing in the head as well. They just feel like quite different experiences to me. I've never had too much of a problem with Shockwave and always enjoyed it. Same with Saw, which has a vicious kind of roughness to it that seems like it's down to the way it's profiled. Never had an enjoyable ride on Collosus or Infusion though.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Everyone here will go in with the rough and bashed you around trope, but it's nothing compared to the concussion machines of Colossus, SAW and Infusion.

I rode Shockwave over 20 times on closing day, and whilst the bicycle seat wore a hole in my favourite jeans, it was perfectly fine. I've never been one to find it rough.
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I always found it rougher the further back in the train you were, front row wasn’t bad at all for me, but imo it’s nowhere near as rough as Colossus at Thorpe.

Hopefully these new trains will give it a new lease of life and make for a more pleasant ride experience. Excited to take my kids on it.
 
The worst bit of Shockwave has gone though, unless they've managed to make a sit down train so bad it somehow breaks testicles.

Problem is the layout is uninspiring and it was not smooth. All may have been resolved but I'm reserving judgement until I've ridden it
 
Shaggy_Dog_ said:
You’d have thought that they’d have wanted to save that tagline for their new lift and launch coaster.
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I know this was discussed earlier in the thread - and they seemingly want multiple publicity bites throughout the year - but it’s mildly insane that, regardless of the opening date, they’re currently not drawing any attention to the park’s biggest investment in donkey’s years and on the face of it consider a new train and a few new signs on Shockwave a bigger deal.

Just makes very little sense to me.
 
KolonelKlink said:
I know this was discussed earlier in the thread - and they seemingly want multiple publicity bites throughout the year - but it’s mildly insane that, regardless of the opening date, they’re currently not drawing any attention to the park’s biggest investment in donkey’s years and on the face of it consider a new train and a few new signs on Shockwave a bigger deal.

Just makes very little sense to me.
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I’d imagine that’s due to The Wave opening sooner than this new coaster, marketing is more likely to focus on latest or nearest investment and then move to the next after.

Perhaps a push after their opening weekend?
 
With Nemesis due to open in a week or so too, media would naturally favour that because it is open, best to wait until the Nemesis hype has died down and the new ride is actually close to opening before ramping up marketing on this new ride I would have thought.
 
On the 17th March there’s an Annual pass holder day and they said we get to see the new area and they may reveal the new name and other info during the day. I’m sure lots of vloggers will be there also.
 
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