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Drayton Manor Park

They’re also offering an “accessible” grotto experience for young children that “prefer to experience things at a slower pace” which is a nice touch although not sure what’s different
 
I visited today and the Haunting was open, so must've just been a temporary issue yesterday. Air Race, the Rapids and Accelerator all being closed (seemingly with no attempt whatsoever to run them) was rather disappointing though.

I do have to note that The Wave truly is one of the worst operated coasters I've ever encountered as it is at the present. Dispatches take an absolute eternity, the new train is clearly not fit for purpose in that regard with what seems to be an incredibly awkward restraint locking sequence. Granted the ride experience itself is significantly better than it was with the standup trains (particularly towards the end of their life), but one wonders why they didn't just scrap it and build something better in its place.
 
I should clarify that The Haunting did later open yesterday. It was merely displayed on the board at the start of the day, so it must have been left over from the day before.

On the subject of The Haunting, have they altered the pre-shows in there? When I rode it in 2022, I seem to remember the pre-shows having some character called Dr Ghostman speaking to you throughout, whereas this time, the first pre-show in the lab had some very retro-looking video shown, and the tunnel pre-show had no dialogue at all. The final pre-show with the paintings was the same, but the Dr Ghostman character was completely absent this time, whereas I seem to remember him featuring in all of the announcements and pre-shows in 2022.
 
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Alastair said:
I visited today and the Haunting was open, so must've just been a temporary issue yesterday. Air Race, the Rapids and Accelerator all being closed (seemingly with no attempt whatsoever to run them) was rather disappointing though.

I do have to note that The Wave truly is one of the worst operated coasters I've ever encountered as it is at the present. Dispatches take an absolute eternity, the new train is clearly not fit for purpose in that regard with what seems to be an incredibly awkward restraint locking sequence. Granted the ride experience itself is significantly better than it was with the standup trains (particularly towards the end of their life), but one wonders why they didn't just scrap it and build something better in its place.
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How long were you waiting between dispatches and what about the loading process slows it down / makes it tedious? I only ask as I have yet to frequent Drayton Manor Park and Zoo this season.
 
Alastair said:
I visited today and the Haunting was open, so must've just been a temporary issue yesterday. Air Race, the Rapids and Accelerator all being closed (seemingly with no attempt whatsoever to run them) was rather disappointing though.

I do have to note that The Wave truly is one of the worst operated coasters I've ever encountered as it is at the present. Dispatches take an absolute eternity, the new train is clearly not fit for purpose in that regard with what seems to be an incredibly awkward restraint locking sequence. Granted the ride experience itself is significantly better than it was with the standup trains (particularly towards the end of their life), but one wonders why they didn't just scrap it and build something better in its place.
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I would wager it is THE worst, though perhaps the hive mind of Towers Street can think of something else. It's generally about 5 minutes between cycles from my visits and other reports.

I understand the intention of what they have done makes much more financial sense than scrapping it. Instead they've got a major family rollercoaster at the cost of a train and presumably they expect it to last for many more years. It certainly drew us to the park for the first time in our lives but i'm baffled as to why the design is so poor.
 
I think some Japanese/Chinese parks would give The Wave a run for it's money, though for them the slow dispatches seem to be more to do with additional unnecessary procedures. I remember Pyrenees dispatching every 9 minutes or so back in 2017. Steel Dragon 2000 wasn't doing much better earlier this year.

Closer to home, EGF on one train generally takes around 8 minutes per cycle. I'm not sure how long Kumali takes to load nowadays but I remember reports of it cycling every 10 minutes or so, mainly due to the glacial pace of the staff but not helped by how slow the lift runs.
 
Kumali was doing 5.5 minute dispatches when I was there in 2023, so not nearly as bad as that 10 minute mark referred to above.

I didn’t time The Wave, but the trains were staying in the station for a good few minutes, simply due to the whole rigmarole of “push the lap bar down slightly but don’t touch it” and then “push it down again to tighten it properly”. That makes things pretty inefficient for a coaster with simple lap bars.

I seem to remember Shockwave doing about 320pph when I timed it as a standup coaster in 2022 (321pph, I think?), which was a dispatch every 4-5 minutes or so. I wouldn’t like to guess whether The Wave is slower than that or not, but it’s certainly not as efficient as you’d hope for a coaster with a simple lap bar restraint.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
How long were you waiting between dispatches and what about the loading process slows it down / makes it tedious? I only ask as I have yet to frequent Drayton Manor Park and Zoo this season.
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As others have said, it's down to the train. On my first ride, the restraint "procedure" had to be performed no less than 3 times. Each time the lap bar is pushed around 3/4 of the way down, then both staff members have to retreat to press another button - after which it is pushed all the way. In that time between the two pushes, if anyone on the train touches or moves it, it seems to cause problems and require it to be redone completely. As you can imagine, such a bizarre process isn't obvious to anyone and most naturally feel as though they should be pushing their own lapbar down as soon as they are able, rather than leaving it for 20 seconds slightly off the lap whilst buttons are pressed.

I'd be shocked if they ordered another train with the current one performing as it is. Surprised Intamin weren't contracted to do the work as opposed to a third party.
 
I have watched a Booster with twin pods operate at 42pph before if we include flat rides. That was hideous. Just shy of 11.5 mins a dispatch IIRC
 
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rob666 said:
The spin doctor at Blackpool had a throughput of less than a hundred people an hour.
Often had a two hour queue that looked quite short.
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I remember riding that off the Tom Sawyer bridge in 2003 or 4 and queing an age for it.
 
rob666 said:
The spin doctor at Blackpool had a throughput of less than a hundred people an hour.
Often had a two hour queue that looked quite short.
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For all I remember, it had a lot of downtime and did that ride ever really work at all?
 
DistortAMG said:
I remember riding that off the Tom Sawyer bridge in 2003 or 4 and queing an age for it.
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Yup, just a short queue on the bridge, and a little wait down the stairs...only a couple of hours, looked like ten minutes!
And yes, often only one side was working, taking it down to about fifty riders per hour.
There were more complaints about that particular "big new ride" than any other.
 
Me, again?!
To bring the conversation back directly on topic, the only ride I ever queued for (around the same time too) that was slower than the spin doctor...G force at Drayton.
Brand new ride, first summer, incredibly slow queue came to a complete stop for half an hour while local celebrities (Big In Tamworth) were taken up the exit and filmed while given a guided tour and repeat rides, while we waited in the sun.
Never rode it in the end...happy to walk away as everything else was virtually walk on...eighty percent of the punters were in the non moving queue.
 
Alphe86 said:
Shocked to see Accelerator open - assumed it would close for a retheme.
It does mean 3 kids coasters being open though which is pretty unique in early winter
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The park closes for 3 weeks from the 3rd to the 23rd November could 3 weeks be enough to do the queue line. Then the rest done from Jan to the beginning of the main season.
 
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