Drayton Manor Park

[Sauron97]

I think there is a clear storyline to Pirate Adventure.
Ok so the queue line is where you enter a night time town and slowly make your way towards the treasury where the boats set off down a canal. You begin your journey in the town prison where some of the pirates are attempting to escape in barrels, before entering the drop, which takes you to the jungle town in the middle of the island. You make your way towards a seaside town, where you have a shipwright section, a blacksmith area, and then an inn where there are riotous pirates who have started to invade. You then witness the sacking of the town, where there are looting pirates and projections of flames. (You see that guy drop the bucket of water on the woman here I believe). You then enter a celler area underneath the town where the woman fights off the pirate with a broomstick, before entering a dungeon area, where arrested pirates have been kept, and the keys are in the mouth of a goat, and where the tickle torture is happening. You then enter the fort area of the town, which is the huge room with the ship fighting the blue coated soldiers, the shark in the water, and the pirates firing cannons. You then leave the town altogether and enter the pirate caves, where the pirates had retreated to after they finished their looting and are sitting on their piles of treasure. Then, in the end, it is revealed that the pirates never left the caves, and now haunt the caves forever. You then return to a dockyard where you disembark.

 

[DW_0505]

As someone that has rode on Pirate Adventure since the early 90's and worked on it and explored every crack and creavis of the attraction in the 2000's. I am looking forward to seeing these pictures.

You worked on Pirate Adventure - were you an operator? I'd love to know some technical details of the ride or some stories if you have any?

 

[Coaster]

Thank you for sharing those amazing photos from Pirate Adventure, I only rode it a few times back in 2013 but remember thinking that it had a lot of potential to be good; would have loved to have the chance to ride it when it was new.

I think Drayton is a really nice park, but cannot justify visiting at the moment. G Force closed, Chairlift and the Ferris Wheel removed, Pirate Adventure SBNO, Apocalypse is running limited sides only I believe... not worth it.

Very sad.

 

[DW_0505]

Thank you for sharing those amazing photos from Pirate Adventure, I only rode it a few times back in 2013 but remember thinking that it had a lot of potential to be good; would have loved to have the chance to ride it when it was new.

I think Drayton is a really nice park, but cannot justify visiting at the moment. G Force closed, Chairlift and the Ferris Wheel removed, Pirate Adventure SBNO, Apocalypse is running limited sides only I believe... not worth it.

Very sad.

You're very welcome. I'm glad you got to see this, but I'm also glad that you can see just how much potential it has.

I think that the decision Steve Lomas mentioned to me will be coming soon - the Board of Directors will be well aware of the operational problems this season, and they know a decision needs to be made about Pirate Adventure. In my opinion, that decision will be coming sooner rather than later.

As I've said before, they have an awesome ride system, the building is already sitting there, some of the theming could well be used again. All it needs is a refurbishment to the scale of The Haunting and Sheriff's Showdown and Drayton have this back up and running again, the throughput on this ride was astonishing at times when all boats were operational so even if it was open to absorb crowds. Drayton really could do with something new being added now to pull people back - and I believe Pirate Adventure could do just that out of sheer difference to the other openings we've seen this year.

 

[DW_0505]

What about Excalibur?

Maybe let's not push it

 

[John]

If pirate adventure were to ever return it would need a lot of work doing to it as the ride was in a terrible state when it closed. It would surely be a much bigger job than either the Golden Nuggets or Haunting refurbs were due to the sheer size of the ride.

Also, they'd have to do something about the capacity. I don't know why it ran so few boats but queuing for it was an utter misery.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

I can confirm that when me and Tom (Gforce) use to run Drayton Manor Plus website and Forum. Colin Bryan was a big fan of the site so we got a email interview with him every close reason.
1 question we asked him was what was the future of the pirate adventure. He said he went on it with other members of the board and they all wrote down what was wrong with the ride. They did set a budget for it for the 2011/12 closed season but rumours was the money went missing and a director left the company which resulted in failing new H&S laws in its final years.
The boats were reduced cause of the motors flowing the water round the circuit were on there last legs that’s why it went so slow round the circuit in its final years.
With the pirates and effects they were controlled by compressed air so they will all need to be maintained or replaced.
I have to thank Colin’s parents for going to Disney World in the early 70s as that gave them the vision of turning Drayton Manor into the uk version of Disney world as they added the Jungle Palladium,The Jungle cruise and the Pirate Adventure. They also added animatronics to Splash Canyon,StormForce 10,The Haunting,Rain forest cafe and Excalibur.

 

[Sauron97]

Very interesting posts from you guys.
I rode Pirate Adventure for the first time in the very late 90s with my grandparents, but my memories of this weren't clear. I went on it more times than I could count throughout the 2000s so have a very good visual picture of the ride scenes in my minds eye. I remember how excited I was when Project Neptune was announced as someone who always loved fantasy and dragons, and watched all of the Excalibur grand opening clip back in 2003! When Excalibur first opened, going off memory, it was a rather fantastic ride, with smoke effects, all animatronics working, and a moving slide at the exit of the Dragon Manor building. One of the most stand out memories I have is of going to Drayton in 2002 and seeing Maelstrom in front of me for the first time, and realizing it was something new that hadn't been there before. It looked pretty astounding.
I think it's time we found more about the fate of Pirate Adventure. I will pop over to Drayton sometime over the next week or so and see if I can find out anything!

 

[DW_0505]

Very interesting posts from you guys.
I rode Pirate Adventure for the first time in the very late 90s with my grandparents, but my memories of this weren't clear. I went on it more times than I could count throughout the 2000s so have a very good visual picture of the ride scenes in my minds eye. I remember how excited I was when Project Neptune was announced as someone who always loved fantasy and dragons, and watched all of the Excalibur grand opening clip back in 2003! When Excalibur first opened, going off memory, it was a rather fantastic ride, with smoke effects, all animatronics working, and a moving slide at the exit of the Dragon Manor building. One of the most stand out memories I have is of going to Drayton in 2002 and seeing Maelstrom in front of me for the first time, and realizing it was something new that hadn't been there before. It looked pretty astounding.
I think it's time we find more about the fate of Pirate Adventure. I will pop over to Drayton sometime over the next week or so and see if I can find out anything!

Great to hear you have such nice memories of the Park, it has such a rich history. I always remember as a kid getting to the park for ride open and going straight for Pirate Adventure, and then continuing to re-ride for most of the day. I was always outraged if a queue built up by the time we returned back to the entrance

It'd be great if you can find anything out, although whenever I mention this the staff either deny its existence or say it won't be operating for the foreseeable future. I'm soon going to continue with my investigations into the ride.

I'm pretty sure the park will make a decision towards the end of the season on Pirate Adventure, since they will want to make future plans given the expansions in most other UK Parks. I'd love to draw their attention to this Forum.

 

[Sauron97]

It's time to start a save the Pirate Adventure campaign I think!
(a few million pounds would be appreciated obviously)

 

[venny]

Does anyone know what the reasons are for DM to have changed their approach to new rides? Given that rides like Pirates, Shockwave, Haunting, Maelstrom, Excalibur, Apocalypse etc all generally excited the community, over the last few years there’s been very little to get excited about. It’s as though there’s a lot less ambition than there used to be.

I understand Thomas Land is successful for them and attracts the family market, but other than that, what are the reasons for the downturn in ambition?

Is there ever going to be a new ride which we can get excited about?

 

[Cheese]

I would hazard a guess that it's just down to them finding that the return on investment is significantly better when they buy a Zamperla kids' flat for The-Reverend-Awdry-Must-Be-Spinning-In-His-Grave Land than when they buy a ride for the rest of the park, even with presumably having to send a fat cheque to Hit Entertainment for licensing. There certainly seems to be no sign of a resurgence of the wider park being planned, much as I'd like to see it. I want them to do well, but I last went in 2016 and heard following the mini meet earlier this year that it felt like little had changed from five years ago.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

Does anyone know what the reasons are for DM to have changed their approach to new rides? Given that rides like Pirates, Shockwave, Haunting, Maelstrom, Excalibur, Apocalypse etc all generally excited the community, over the last few years there’s been very little to get excited about. It’s as though there’s a lot less ambition than there used to be.

I understand Thomas Land is successful for them and attracts the family market, but other than that, what are the reasons for the downturn in ambition?

Is there ever going to be a new ride which we can get excited about?

I can answer that 1 every year Drayton Manor has added a new ride in Thomasland and even the Ben 10 coaster visitor numbers increased. The only year they had a decreased visitor numbers was 2014 when they added Air Race.
If it wasn't for Thomasland and other IP I think maybe Drayton wouldn't be here today.
IP is what guests with young children go for and where we lost many theme parks over the last 15 years theses smaller parks have growth stronger and stronger.

 

[DistortAMG]

You worked on Pirate Adventure - were you an operator? I'd love to know some technical details of the ride or some stories if you have any?

Brilliant pictutes there, so nice to see the ride in it's original state. It looks like the maintenance lights are on in some of those photos, looks great as you can see everything. How come you got to ride it before it was open? The ghost scene that you identified in the picture is indeed correct.

This scene was mid-end ride if I remember correctly, during the caves section. The yellow character under the “bench” was removed from the ride quite early on - I am wondering if this was repurposed and placed at the entrance to the battle scene on the left - which did “spit” water.

That yellow character was there until atleast 2010 I believe, they had a seperate pirate that squirted water at the entrance to the batte scene, but both pirates certainly co exisited together for a while. Interesting you mention the additions before the drop and on the bridge. There were a few other notable changes too. The pirate that is being hit on the head by a woman with a broom, used to exist opposite to where it was. With the pirate actually bobbing in and out of the water and being hit on the head, rather than into a barrel as it ended up. From this section of the ride there also used to exist a headless pirate, who was holding his head in his hand. This was removed about the same time (mids 1990s) and was put next door into the Crypt ghost train, where it stayed until that closed in 2001. While most effects were pnumatic, some, including the headless pirate were powered by electricity and even had a normal house hold plug on!

I worked on the ride for the 2005, and 2006 seasons, the ride was in an ok state then but certainly not as good as it used to be, but not as run down as it got. On the backside of the scene where the bar is, which from the back looks like chipboard as most scenes do. Alot of ride operators have signed their names on the wall, as have I.

We sometimes used to take our breaks on the bridge where the pirates are fighting, we used to sit next to the pirates eating our lunch, with guests totally oblivious to the fact people were sitting just above from them. The birdge of course was fully functional and helped give access to the center section of the ride, which was sort of like an island from 3 sides and consisted of everything on the left of the boat after the first bend after the drop. The boats could be added and removed to the ride, just after you past the scene where the woman was tipping water onto a man below, just as you entered into the 'tunnel' there was a section immediatly on the right where the boats could be removed from the ride and craned outside the buidling. You could see this hoist by riding the train to the farm, I beleive you can still see the door and crane to this day from the train.

There has been much ghostly activity reported around the ride over the years, from many people. Owing to the fact Drayton Manor is considered haunted. From footsteps heard on the roof of pirate adventure after hours, too sightings just a few meters away from night security outside the front of the ride.

I know the layout quite well, I will try draw it up later or tomorrow when I get a chance.

 

[Sauron97]

Cheers for sharing that @DistortAMG I found that really interesting. I saw many a boat outside the gates of the building as a matter of fact, in fact during the days where the Rio Grande railway was still there, I remember seeing multiple boats. If you look through the Day we went to Drayton, you should be able to briefly see the woman/pirate original placement and headless man circa 1993/4

 

[DistortAMG]

Great pictures, from the look of that it appears the woman hitting the man is in the same location it has always been in, just took out the water. Do you have a copy of the video online? I used to have the VHS but it got lost, would love to see it again.

I really hope British Theme Park Archive does a piece on this ride. While it did not have a cohersive story like some of the Tussauds rides. It was without a doubt one of the biggest dark rides this country has seen, also the most risky because it was a small regional park building this huge ride, not some massive corporation. Absoloutly worthy of a piece in my oppinion.

 

[DW_0505]

Brilliant pictutes there, so nice to see the ride in it's original state. It looks like the maintenance lights are on in some of those photos, looks great as you can see everything. How come you got to ride it before it was open?

I'm glad you like them!

Very interesting that the bridge was actually used to access the middle section - and I never could remember where the maintenance section was, thanks for clearing that up. So strange that some of the animatronics were powered by a household plug! I would absolutely love to know where that little yellow character vanished to - and yes I remember the other Pirate that squirted water, never did work towards the end (may have been removed, but unconfirmed).

I'm pretty sure that very close after the ride was opened, there was another reasonable order of animatronics for the ride - sort of as a mini face-lift. Perhaps they were even meant to be in the finished product but weren't ready on time.

Here's an opening day picture of the Pirate holding his head that @Sauron97 has put a picture of:

More than happy to help with a ride layout - PM me if you need.

Thank you so much for sharing your memories - I really do hope DMP management read this forum.

 

[Stuie]

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/thrillseekers-left-dangling-air-drayton-14770908

Bit of a non-story, just some fool with his phone out! Safety procedures followed correctly, no one hurt!

 

[Sauron97]

According to that article "Apocalypse opened in 200" Well it's made a tall straight line like a lot of the roads were back then, so being built by the Romans does make sense...

Anyone remember the Drayton Manor logos and adverts through the years? I've done a bit of searching and editing and seem to have a decent idea. Any of these eras or logos stand out to you as your favorite?
Early/mid 1980s-1990:

1990-1995:

1996-1997:

1997:

1997-2003:

2004-Present:

I've got to say, my favorite out of all of these is the 1997-2003, as this was when Drayton was finally on the big scene in the UK theme park industry, a lot of the park was being refreshed and modernized (I think it stalled after 2004/5) and was on a spree making a spree of awesome attractions nearly year on year and the logo brings back all those memories. The logo itself is iconic and stands out visually, and inspired the current logo heavily too. I'm sure I've got some of the older maps lying around somewhere, if anyone has any, feel free to share.

 

[DistortAMG]

I'm glad you like them!

Here's an opening day picture of the Pirate holding his head that @Sauron97 has put a picture of:

Interesting photo. That picture is taken from the start of the ride before the drop. On the right. That is the only bit of the ride where wooden shiplap type wood goes into the water. The fire exit that can be seen on the right helps confirm this.

That is actually in a different location to the picture Sauron97 posed, notice the curved stone effect archway. Then notice the same rockwork in the picture he posted directly before, when the man is in the water. The was only one place in the ride that had stone effect arches like that. That was in the center tunnel, near the jail scene and before the battle scene. After the burning town. This confirms that the headless man was in fact moved atleast once in the rides duration, before finally moving to The Crypt ghost train next door. I never knew this and only knew it from being in the middle of the ride. Interesting stuff!

EDIT:

In regards to my favorite logo, it has to be the 1990 to 1995 one, as it brings back such good memories for me as a child.