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Drayton Manor Park

I'd hope Mack could overhaul Pirates Adventure and Excalibur perhaps with a different theme. I guess 2011 was the parks best year all effects on Splash Canyon. Pirates, Excalibur, g force and Ben 10 all open so most rides too
 
pjanvil said:
I've just been at a few parks with similar tow boat rides to Excalibar, fun relaxing family rides, which got me thinking Excalibur only lasted 9 years before being abandoned and the station repurposed. Does anyone know what were the main problems with Excalibur resulting in its closure after quite a short time? Since similar ones operate at other parks decades without problem?
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As I recall, one of the big issues was because of the lake it's built on. The lake sit on a flowing river, so regularly silts up, which meant that all the mechanics for the ride and theming required significant regular maintenance to keep them operational, to a far greater degree than a similar ride on a custom-made lake, or less active natural water body.

For example, The Swan Boats at Alton ran on a similar mechanism, but the upper lakes at Alton gather silt at a much slower rate, due to their design and location, so a pulley based ride was able to operate without too much issue.

This also hadn't been so much of a problem for the Jungle Cruise, which had operated on the lake before Excalibur because, as I recall, the boats were self-propelled on the water, rather than dragged by a cable under the water, and most of the theming was out of the water on the banks or platforms above the waterline.
 
I’m going to the park on sunday, last time i’ve been was when g-force had just closed so a long time ago. What’s the queues been like recently and do u need all day to get round everything apart from thomas land
 
Willemgorman1 said:
I’m going to the park on sunday, last time i’ve been was when g-force had just closed so a long time ago. What’s the queues been like recently and do u need all day to get round everything apart from thomas land
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I went Sunday and it was dead. I didn’t even get into the park to 2:45pm with a 5pm close.
I got on Gold Rush 4 times
Accelerator
Jormungandr
Sheriff showdown
Jolly Buccaneer
Troublesome Trucks
Cranky Crane
I also took my son into the Emily’s soft play for around half hour.
I spoke to some lads who had been there all day and they had managed to do 40 rides.
 
Willemgorman1 said:
Does the clocks going back tonight effect they opening hours tommorow?
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No. The opening hours tomorrow are stated in local time, which will be GMT. Presently we're in BST.

BST will end at 02:00 tomorrow, at which point it will be 01:00 GMT.

Drayton Manor Park and Zoo will be open from 10:30 until 17:00 tomorrow (GMT), because the time zone change / clock change has already happened several hours before. The opening hours remain unaffected.
 
Willemgorman1 said:
Just on the way home from drayton, would anyone be interested in a review?
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I always want to hear what people think about Drayton Manor Park and Zoo. I particularly appreciate their thoughts on the 4D cinema, previously known as the Thomas & Friends 4D Cinema, then briefly the Drayton Theatre and now just the Falls Theatre.
 
Just a relatively short review. Was there today from 10.30(ride opening) to 4.40(20 mins before ride close). Overall a really good day.

Started of a bit shaky with most rides being down or not open yet, only a few flat rides open so queued about 5 mins for air race then it decided to break down.

Rides we went on in order

1. Jormungander(30 min wait)
2. Thor(5 min wait
3. Blasting Barrels(5 min wait)
4. Accelerator(30 min wait)
5. Gold Rush - Before 2PM Cycle(35 min wait)
6. River Rapids(Walk On)
7. The Wave(5 min wait)
8. Air Race(10 min wait - PAINFULLY slow operations)
9. Maelstrom(Walk On)
10. The Bounty(Walk On)
11. Loki(10 min wait)

Then had a stroll around the zoo

12. Stormforce(Walk on)



Operations:
All operations apart from blasting barrels and air race were really good. The lady on air race was checking the restraints at a turtle pace. Terrible. Credit to the accelerator team for getting the train sent out super fast.

Highlights:
Really enjoyed The Wave and Gold Rush, however Thor really surprised me, i didn’t expect it to be as good as it was.

The viking and western themed area are done both to such a high standard.

My Constructive Criticism:
Get rid of the staggered opening of 11PM for half the rides.
Display queue times at ride entrances.
The air race queue line and ride area could do with some touching up and repaints, same with river rapids(more so the area around the queue)

Overall a really good day and the value for money only £27.50 is great. Feel free to ask any questions about my visit that could benefit you.
 
Had a good time at Drayton manor yesterday (30th October) was with my younger brother and was good to see the park have healthy crowd levels with people staying until park close and there seemed to be lots of people spending money, ashame it's having 5pm closures during Halloween half term but still managed 1 night ride on the wave with the early close.

It was great to ride gold rush for the first time (my 100th theme park coaster credit) we queued 80 minutes which would have been longer but at the bottom of the stairs whilst waiting I randomly saw someone I knew walking past with accessible pass and they asked if I wanted to join them which we did and it saved us I think 15 minutes, it was on 2 trains but they offload the train, clear the station and leave the airgates shut until the other train has been sat at the brake run for 15 seconds every time so not sure what the point of having a second train was, wasn't saving much time at all.

Gold rush is nicely themed and landscaped but I do think it's definitely on the family side of 'family thrill' I did do both cycles and controversially I think I preferred the first cycle as there was a nice little pop of backwards airtime and it seems to be a good investment for the park.

Now onto The Wave this has gone from my most hated rollercoaster I've ever ridden and I vowed to never ride a stand up again after shockwave, absolutely vile ride that was, I hated it with a passion but it's now my favourite ride at Drayton manor, that zero g roll really 'yeets' you to the side and I found the new train is really comfortable, both corkscrews also ride fantastically and the front row night ride was brilliant fun, rode it 3 times twice on front and once on row 4, rest of the ride doesn't have much to offer but at least with the straight tracks you get a better sense of speed.

Operationally I had been hearing about nightmares about dispatch times however they were sending out the train fairly quickly, no issues there but what the issue was row 6 was out of use and row 5 and 4 was used for fast track/rap meaning the main queue only had 12 seats available the majority of the time so the queue was hardly moving, last ride of the day once rap and fast track was cleared the queue moved reasonably and we also went to ride it first thing but it was closed so we rode the rapids which were surprisingly open at 10:30 and it was walk on but by the time we got off we had to queue 45 minutes for the wave.

I would like to see them get a second train but I think 2 trains is a big investment for a small park for a coaster that may not have a super long shelf life left so I think they need to get row 6 open, stop selling fast track and have just 1 row dedicated for guests with accessibility needs and if they keep up the quick dispatches there would be less complaints there.

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One thing worth mentioning the zombie burger was ironically the first edible thing I've ate at Drayton manor in years, was hot and juicy and seemed to have decent beef quality and flavourful, only mentioning this because I've had some very bad food at Drayton manor in the last few years.

Enjoyable day out and I do hope the crowd levels wasn't just a one off, I do want to see Drayton manor succeed.
 
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JJ1363 said:
Hi there. I was watching Huddersfield Town VS Tamworth tonight on BBC 2 in the FA Cup, and noticed there is a large Drayton Manor bilboard. The only football sponsor information I can find out there is their Wolves sponsorship. Is this an official sponsorship or did they just pay for one bilboard?IMG_9500.jpeg
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Given that Drayton Manor Park and Zoo, the fun never stops for you, is incredibly close to Tamworth, it wouldn't surprise me if they purchased a billboard for one, two, or even a season full of matches, and were incredibly pleased that said billboard has ended up on television.

Quite a few companies will pay for advertising space around football pitches, without sponsoring the team.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Given that Drayton Manor Park and Zoo, the fun never stops for you, is incredibly close to Tamworth, it wouldn't surprise me if they purchased a billboard for one, two, or even a season full of matches, and were incredibly pleased that said billboard has ended up on television.

Quite a few companies will pay for advertising space around football pitches, without sponsoring the team.
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It’s on national tv
The first game of the Fa cup
And it’s a really local park
Logic says - oh let’s reach million a for a few pound - billboard at Tamworth
Really is a non event
 
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