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Drayton Manor Park

I do totally get why Drayton Manor may be wanting to keep quiet about an exact opening date given the saga with Hyperia.

However, that doesn’t stop them from formally announcing the ride, hyping it up a bit and giving a vague window of opening. I do find it odd that we’re now at the end of June and have still heard pretty much zilch about the new coaster. Other than the brief teaser video on the socials when it started testing, the tone from Drayton regarding the new coaster is still pretty much one of radio silence.

We’re at the end of June now, we’re well clear of any kind of Hyperia or The Wave hype window, and we’re in the sort of window where people might feasibly be thinking about their summer holiday plans. With this in mind, I find it slightly odd that Drayton haven’t at least formally announced their new ride and given a vague idea of whether it might open over the summer. I’m not expecting a Merlin-calibre marketing campaign, or even properly shouting from the rooftops until closer to opening, but at very least, some small-scale hype building on social media and a proper announcement of the ride name and what its key selling points are wouldn’t be overly expensive to do and would allow people to factor Drayton Manor into their summer plans with all of the information present.

At present, the fact that they’re still keeping very schtum about the ride this late on in the season doesn’t allow people to do that. If you weren’t an enthusiast or hadn’t visited earlier in the year, you could be forgiven for thinking that Drayton weren’t building a major new ride and that The Wave was their sole “new” draw for the year.

If this was a “bonus” addition for the summer like a walkthrough, a ride retheme or even a smaller ride like a small flat ride or something, I could understand the approach they’ve taken. But we’re talking about Drayton Manor’s biggest and most unique ride investment in at least 13 years here. This is a big deal for the park, and if I were them, I’d be doing a lot more to get that message out there and make it clear that Drayton Manor is building a big new ride that means business for the first time in some years.
 
Matt N said:
Other than the brief teaser video on the socials when it started testing,
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Just to be perfectly clear, #NewCoaster at Drayton Manor Park and Zoo has not started testing. It had a pull through for some of the track, to test for clearance, but nothing remotely resembling testing has happened.

The video footage for the teaser video was taken during the pull through.
 
I get the impression Drayton have a very limited budget for marketing and advance advertising for a ride without a fixed opening date probably isn’t justified.

Also doesn’t seem like a park that people plan to visit months in advance.

Announce the ride when it’s ready and people will come over the summer, simple as that. Enthusiasts already know it exists so further teasers are only catering to a small demographic.

I also think in the modern world there’s more merit in announcing something when it’s ready.
“You can ride this from next week” is more exciting than “you can ride this in 2 months, if you haven’t been distracted in that time”.
 
Bowser said:
I get the impression Drayton have a very limited budget for marketing and advance advertising for a ride without a fixed opening date probably isn’t justified.

Also doesn’t seem like a park that people plan to visit months in advance.

Announce the ride when it’s ready and people will come over the summer, simple as that. Enthusiasts already know it exists so further teasers are only catering to a small demographic.

I also think in the modern world there’s more merit in announcing something when it’s ready.
“You can ride this from next week” is more exciting than “you can ride this in 2 months, if you haven’t been distracted in that time”.
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I also think there is a risk of people who hear about a new ride coming then delaying their visit. So the people who think "weather good this weekend, lets go to Drayton Manor", might then think "we could go to Drayton Manor this week, but I saw their advert for a new coaster, so we'll go in August instead".
By not advertising yet they could get those people to come twice, returning once the new coaster is open. It also just keeps visits spread out a bit.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Just to be perfectly clear, #NewCoaster at Drayton Manor Park and Zoo has not started testing. It had a pull through for some of the track, to test for clearance, but nothing remotely resembling testing has happened.

The video footage for the teaser video was taken during the pull through.
Click to expand...
The video wasn't taken during the pull through. The pull through was done with just 2 cars of the train.
The ride has indeed been testing, the video was taken during an actual test, not the pull through.
 
dazza4783 said:
The video wasn't taken during the pull through. The pull through was done with just 2 cars of the train.
The ride has indeed been testing, the video was taken during an actual test, not the pull through.
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You're right. There does appear to have been at least one partial test conducted and captured. Published on June 1st. It's worth noting though that the full track and ride have yet to be tested. Still, it's more testing than I was giving Drayton Manor Park and Zoo credit for.


From: https://youtu.be/kF9C6tPV51I?si=8Vp5_Fs6N2m2LLoo
 
Bit of a review of our experience at the park yesterday. I'd not been since Loopings took over and let's start with the positives.

Adventure cove a really well done and feels like a complete area. Having the Wave as a 1.2 is a really smart choice, my daughter who is under 1.4 loved it and it was her first upside down ride. Vikings looked well presented though I think the area could do with another ride at some point and there's certainly space for one. The ticket pricing seems to be working as the park was packed, obviously the weather helped as well. Thomas land still remains as one of the best children's areas in the UK and it's up there with Peppa Pig IMO. They have a great selection of rides. The park in general has a good selection of flats.

In terms of improvement the parks ride ops were slow even rides like Air Race seemed to take an age to get going. The park is in need of a high capacity dark ride as quest for the haunting were silly. Storm Force 10 had the worst que and throughout with lots of time taken balancing boats etc. it's still a great ride and we were absolutely soaked. The park was still packed at 5PM and could easily operated and hour or two longer.

Had a quick pop in the Zoo and it looked OK but by this time the kids were getting tired so we didn't see much.

Overall we managed to get on quite a few rides and the park is heading in the right direction. I still think a new drop or shot tower would work well at the park and the pirate Castle area is clearly the next area of attention and certainly needs it as it now stands out from the other areas. Food and drinks were expensive but this is pretty standard. Plenty of people using them and quality looked decent. Positive times for Drayton and we hope to return at some point.
 
So from what we have seen in that video, the first test we see other than it going back and forth on the lift-hill, is the train going over the lift-hill but then going straight through the launch and back to the station.
So i'm thinking one of the modes the ride could be in is:
  1. The train leaves the station and goes up the lift-hill but stops at the top of the lift.
  2. Then drops down the lift (although it seems more like it is launched back down the lift rather than dropped) and heads towards the launch building.
  3. Then launches forwards back towards the lift-hill
  4. Continue over the top of the lift-hill towards the launch building this time launching forwards straight through the building and completing the circuit heading back to the station.
Another mode being the complete circuit test that we see in the vid. With other variations also possible.
From what we have seen it looks like a lot of fun, and has some good pacing to it. Hopefully that back and forth on the lift-hill is part of the ride sequence and not just part of the testing, will add to the excitement and build up if you don't know whether or not you will be going over the top of the lift or going back down it first.
 
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