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Drayton Manor Park

ozziechef said:
It opened at about 4:30 today, only running Cycle A (forwards over the lift hill). They were testing for about 45 mins before hand. A lot of the engineering team and management in the station, so not sure what has been going on with it.
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I bet the engineers found it really inspiring having a lot of the managers staring at them while they attempted to fix it. I'm hoping that every 10 minutes one of the managers asked them for an update, because that shows great leadership.

And let's face it, it's only the summer holiday, so there wouldn't be much else for the managers to do other than standing around on the platform pretending to be lemons.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Is it testing?
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It did eventually open, was running very well all be it cycle 1. Its a really great family ride and a solid addition to the lineup.

Got to say wave is slow waiting to get on, but the ride is a very extreme family ride.

Loved Thor and so did the kids. They couldnt understand why they could go on Wave but not SF10. 1.3 seems harsh compared to other more thrilling rides they have at 1.2
 
Spark said:
It did eventually open, was running very well all be it cycle 1. Its a really great family ride and a solid addition to the lineup.

Got to say wave is slow waiting to get on, but the ride is a very extreme family ride.

Loved Thor and so did the kids. They couldnt understand why they could go on Wave but not SF10. 1.3 seems harsh compared to other more thrilling rides they have at 1.2
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Probably to do wth the fact that SF10 has no restraints.
 
rob666 said:
Again?
Really?
Desperate attempt to get views I would say, nothing more.
The whole ride was absolutely clapped out twenty years ago!
Right down to the leaky roof if I remember correctly.
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Honestly, I don't understand the hard-on that some enthusiasts get over a return for Pirates' Adventure and yet next door there is another boat ride that's of equal size, if not bigger, and sat abandoned for even longer and gets barely mentioned...
 
Bert2theSpark said:
Honestly, I don't understand the hard-on that some enthusiasts get over a return for Pirates' Adventure and yet next door there is another boat ride that's of equal size, if not bigger, and sat abandoned for even longer and gets barely mentioned...
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I suspect you'd get slightly more excitement if you suggest the return of the Jungle Cruise.

That said Excalibur was actually quite a fun attraction when it opened, and quite well pitched for the park. Just ashame that circumstances were not in it's favour.
 
Likewise. I too do not get the craze for Pirates. It was fantastic… for about 6 weeks. And then it was a “chase the animatronic breakdown” for the next six weeks, followed by “animatronic? There was never an animatronic here!” for the next few years, followed by years of comedic timing errors and triggers, followed by “Lordy, what’s the smell?” for the next few before it was quietly laid to rest for the benefit of everyone’s health, safety and mental wellbeing. It was great when it opened but largely poor for the majority of its life, with moments of it just being atrociously awful on an epic scale. And that was when it wasn’t shut for technical failures of the ride system itself. It’s dead. Should remain dead. And the best thing the park can do is either demolish what they can and redevelop the land. There was talk from Victoria about the possibility of draining the Excalibur lake at one point I believe? Which if they did, and demolished most of the unused pirates building, would give them an enormous space in the middle of the park to do something fantastic. The pirates theme would sit horribly in amongst the new lands and themes and the best thing for everyone is to kill it, humanely and respectfully, but kill it once and for all.

But then again, I think I’m on record on this forum for saying that there was no way that Drayton would ever bring sit down trains to shockwave. So, i’d largely ignore my opinion on almost everything if I were you.
 
Squiggs said:
I suspect you'd get slightly more excitement if you suggest the return of the Jungle Cruise.

That said Excalibur was actually quite a fun attraction when it opened, and quite well pitched for the park. Just ashame that circumstances were not in it's favour.
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I do have a sentimental value for Excalibur from riding it all the way back in 2009, it was the first ever boat and dark ride I experienced and I’ll always remember the humorous tone and the huge dragon at the end.

I wouldn’t want the attraction to return though, both ride systems have been non-functional for over a decade, I want to see new stuff in place of them to take on the mantle for another generation. Just not something that tags on mine or others’ nostalgia, because they’re gone.
 
It was the pumps that were on there last legs. I didn’t say bring the pirate adventure back just reuse the building as they repaired the roof and gonna take it all back to the show building as it’s all rotten. Im Gonna go and look myself to see if the boats have gone to be refurbished.
As for Excalibur it was rubbish and like G-Force was a wrong choice of investment for the Bryan’s.
 
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By the end they had practically no boats left which resulted in attrocious throughput. With no boats, no pumps and no theming all you're left with is the ride channel, it's really not a great starting point to "bring back" a long dead ride.
 
The Rapids were SBNO outside for nearly 3 and a half years before they touch the ride and that was 28 years old at the time.
They repainted the queue line with also building that undercover bit by the entrance. They also added more theming with water and smoke effects.
They replaced all the wood on the lift hill and on the platform with also re theming the tunnel section, turning the building into a big boat.
Adding all the safety platforms around the circuit so staff can easily get around the site.
A whole new ride system which was also moved to the side and new boats.
CCTV all around the site, with speakers all around the site including the queue line.
So if they were willing to spend millions on the rapids with also the installation of the wave swinger and the painting of the other rides and buildings in Adventure Cove.
It’s also how much they spent on the Vikings and Western area you can’t rule out that the next big project for the park isn’t a new dark ride in the pirate adventure building.
We talking about a billionaire company now who installed 7 new rides, 3 new themed areas since 2021 where the Bryan’s added Ben 10 and Air race in the main park but removed or left SNBO 6 rides without replacing them in there last 10 years in operation.
 
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Billionaire company?
May hold that in supposed value, but their investment levels overall...see Pleasurewood Hills.
The Rapids were very visible in the park...and had suffered a terrible accident...something had to be done.
Drayton left the Pirate ride to rot for a decade...not three years.
If it had been maintained properly over the years then there might be an argument for further repairs, but they didn't look after the ride at all, from early days it started falling apart.
Handy shed for an off the shelf dark ride...nothing more.
The Pirate Adventure saga is nothing but the wet dream of nostalgic midland thoosies.
A dead shell, get over the bloody thing.
 
And although they refurbished the rapids, they were still mostly SBNO for all of last season due to staff shortages. Have they finally been operational this year?
 
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