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Drayton Manor Park

Sauron97 said:
Just to give a background to the Haunting when the Headstone I bought existed within the Chapel/Madhouse. The 1996 Haunting had a cool sci fi/horror theme that worked really well and was very innovative for its time. As a kid, I remember the Haunting being hyped up big time, right up until the mid 2000s as the bit with the 'upside down room' (to your average member of the general public!). It had a strong appeal, although sadly Hex took away some of this as the years went on. Personally, I feel that what made it innovative was because despite fusing the obvious influence of Ghostbusters and the Alien films, the story for the ride itself was incredibly original in how it was told. The institute of metaphysical research were depicted in the old pre show film as if they were an agency out of a Hollywood blockbuster, and the Drayton Manor Marketing department themselves filmed, produced and directed the scene to be as cinematic as possible. Here's the clip which you used to watch inside the IMR truck which is now publicly available on youtube. As you can see, it was used for both the advert and pre show.

Queue Line:
The area where you entered the ride was the site of the old snake train site. There are two separate doorways; the first being in to a small area, which was used for the grand opening of the Haunting, where Andi Peters (who at the time was still doing Live and Kicking) and a number of Drayton Manor staff dressed up as agents in boiler suits with large proton packs did a photoshoot. The ride attendants used to wear these exact suits in the earlier years of the Haunting to fit in with the fact that the ride was an investigation that you were involved in. Drayton Manor showcased the opening in their blog https://www.draytonmanor.co.uk/blog...ger-new-improved-haunting-drayton-manor-park/
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The 1996 queue was mainly set up as exploring the grounds and front of house of the 'old Drayton Green Vicarage', where unusual activity had been detected. The queueline gave a gothic feel as you approached the house with old style lanterns, passing the old doors and an authentic headless statue (with the head hidden in a nearby tree), all the time whilst hearing an old organ soundtrack playing. Just as you do now, you'd wait for the ride attendant who came out of the parked Mobile Containment Unit truck parked beside the vicarage. You'd quickly notice that the logo of the institute was remarkably similar to the Ghostbusters logo too.
Here's a picture supplied from the designers showing the exterior and facade as it was in 1996 shortly before the ride first opened. You can make out the statue I mentioned below.
Rare photo taken 1996 by Space Leisure:
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Pre show and Corridor
Inside the large grey truck which you entered and still enter on a ramp, there was a cool sci fi ambiance, with a number of cool lighting fixtures that gave off a blue fluorescence and the impression that you were in a lab. You'd be briefed on TV screens inside by the slightly stoic Dr X of the IMR about the missing agents sent to investigate the vicarage and be told that you had been sent in to find out what happened. This is now the RIPA truck although some of the original set pieces and old computers remain.
You'd then follow the ride attendant in to the basement corridor and whilst walking through, the bulb lighting on the walls would flicker and dim, and you'd witness a UV lit skeleton on a large swing come down from the ceiling above. The way the ride works now involves this as an individual scene rather than a walk through. The scene was cool, and originally had its own background ambiance music to accompany it.
Library:
You'd then enter the library. Originally, an animatronic vicar existed behind the portrait at the front of the room, and lighting from behind would reveal him transparently through the portrait. He spoke in sync with the library audio, and revealed who he was, and the fate of the IMR agents who had died and were floating in the ceiling (where they still exist and feature in the current story!). He would introduce himself and explain who he was and what would happen to you.
In fact, here's a copy from the designers script of his original dialogue: It's quite a daring story given the religious undertones I always thought!
"I am the spirit of reverend Nicholas Beales, Vicar of this Parish, until one day in 1902, my soul was liberated. Since that day, I serve only the true master. The lord of darkness. This house is now a temple to his power. A gateway to his kingdom. No one leaves as they came in. <evil laugh>. So prepare to give up your souls in to the depths of darkness, for the lord of the collectors of souls is coming. Satan. Beelzebub. The Devil. The master has many names and faces. Soon, you will know all of them better than you know yourself. Once you have been possessed by his power, you can never escape. To know him, is to fear him. That fear will enter your soul and never leave. His power is inescapable, all embracing, perfect. Feel his power approaching. Soon, you will be like me. Disciplines of darkness, acolytes of the un-dead. Servants of the serpent god. You cannot go back. You can only go on. Further, in to our lair, from where there is no escape <evil laugh>"
He was replaced by the Vampire only a couple of years in to the Haunting being open, for numerous reasons. Then, in 2016, he was replaced with a Fear FX stock projection, before finally being replaced with the Lady of the Manor who exists there now.
The Chapel
The finale involved entering a chapel which was the first 40 seater Vekoma Madhouse in the world, and the 2nd after Villa Volta in Efteling (which was a larger 80 model like Hex). The ride system is incredibly sensitive and adaptable, detecting even the slightest of weight imbalances on either side of the room. It also has an in built audio system too. Of course, this is the case with every following Vekoma Madhouse, but it's worth pointing out that this was revolutionary back in 1996.
The finale involved you finally meeting the evil spirit within the haunted chapel. The Vicar would reintroduce himself as the talking skull within the headstone at the center of the room, and you'd then hear repeated incantations from the shrieking heads in the corners of the room as the room began to spin.
Once again, here's the script for the madhouse scene with the vicar story in 1996:
"<evil laugh> I told you there was no escape. This is a one way trip to meet the master of the black universe! There is no way back <prolonged evil laugh>"
Here's another designer archive image kindly given to us showing the chapel just after it received its finish in 1996. The headstone I own sadly no longer has the talking skull within:
Rare photo taken 1996 by Space Leisure:
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Finally, the IMR would commence a 'plasma wave distortion sequence', ridding the spirit from the chapel. The room would stop spinning, they'd thank you for your help and tell you that they hope you'd "never have to come back". Before the gift shop was built in 2009, the Haunting had its very own gift shop styled as an armory that the institute were using, featuring a 6 foot tall life size agent model in the corner of the room and a large weapons cabinet.
Sorry for the long post!
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I know this is an old post, but this is some great insight with the original ride, and it's great that some of these elements have now returned! I'm really surprised how dark the original script for the Vicar is. Talking about that, it is shame the ride now uses a projection instead of a proper animatronic head that would appear behind the portrait. With a lot of the original media the park reinstalled back into the ride, I'd love to see a more advanced head of the original Vicar as @DistortAMG mentioned by retrofitting it. Hopefully next year they could remove all of the RIPA signage stuff out as it doesn't make much sense to have that now.
 
I suspect jokes at the expense of your competition follow the same etiquette as jokes about class.

You can joke upwards, but not down.
 
Had our first ever visit to Drayton today!

In regards to the new rollercoaster firstly, i noticed on the maps it still says "opening in 2024" for what that is worth. There were a lot of people working on the site. Got a few rubbish photos from Accelerator and the red coaster i can't possibly spell the name of.

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Next, The Wave.

So we all loved this, easily my sons favourite ride. Had 3 goes on it, 2 in the back row then later in the day the back 2 rows were closed so third from the back.

Really smooth and fun, the seats are great and very comfortable.

But... operations are truly abysmal. To the point my wife commented on it and she never pays much attention to these things. The whole process is a complete farce. My son was getting quite upset by how long it would take as well. It's fortunate that the park isn't too busy because it simply wouldn't fly elsewhere or they'd at least need a second train. No idea why it's so convoluted.

Loki was fun and really cool to watch. Accelerator was good. Red coaster was a bit underwhelming but the layout over the water was lovely. Having the pirate ship over the water was nice too.

The 4D cinema was cool in terms of the set-up with proper seats. I love roadrunner but the film itself didn't seem suited to the premise.

The Haunting was hilarious, like it had been transported from the 1980s. In an endearing way. Theming outside was nice too.

Sheriff Showdown was genuinely the worst ride i've ever been on. Appalling theming, no animatronics, sparce decoration and the guns didn't even work.

Generally operations were very slow (bar accelerator where they were notably smashing it). Again, not the end of the world at a quiet park but frustrating when you're waiting needlessly.

Overall we thought Drayton was a nice enough park, a step above Adventure Island but below the Merlin parks and Paultons. It reminded me a lot of American Adventure in my youth, kind of ramshackle but not without charm. I don't think we'll be in a rush to go back but it's nice to know it's an option and might reconsider depending on how the new coaster pans out.

Edit: Sorry forgot to say, wish they had a queue time app or at least boards. Appreciate most of the lines are quite short (and we were using RAP) but would have liked to have tried front row of The Wave if the line was a tolerable length (although with those ops likely impossible).
 
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Bowser said:
Sheriff Showdown was genuinely the worst ride i've ever been on. Appalling theming, no animatronics, sparce decoration and the guns didn't even work.
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Ouch, sounds like you were really unlucky. Sure it's no longer in its better Golden Nugget days, but it's still a lot of fun when everything is working. It has a lot of moving props that move when you hit them. Sorry to hear that the Guns didn't work, that probably explains the lack of moving props.

The theming is actually quite good personally, but the lighting is appalling and definitely doesn't compliment the rest of the ride. Drayton really need to maintain Showdown by the sounds of it, I remember riding it before the pandemic and absolutely loved it with all the moving props and interactive targets.
 
Drayton just sent us free return tickets due to the rain!

Have to use them within a month unfortunately so not sure if we will be able to make it, if they’re transferable then I’ll offer them up here.
 
I have a glimmer of hope this will be open before June 28th when my free tickets expire, based on the fact they did similar with The Wave and it was open about 2 weeks later.

Either way it's definitely going to be open for summer.
 
The cars seem to be elevated from the main chassis more than a typical train such as Th13teen, which could indicate that there may be a section where you face backwards!
 
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