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Drayton Manor Park

Drayton usually does summer openings though, don’t they? Correct me if I’m wrong here, but haven’t a lot of Drayton’s rides opened in May/June or later?

Adventure Cove opened in August, and G Force opened in July. I think some others, such as Maelstrom and Air Race, might also have had fairly late openings, but I could be wrong there.
 
Yes Matt they did, when family owned. The opening of Adventure cove could be attributed to the dates looping group took over the park and the time they had to work with. Plus the results of the H&S investigation on the rapids. Not saying it is, but could be.

Just because they did, does not mean they will going forward. Drayton are now under totally different ownership and management. So who knows. Being a bigger company, multiple investors and what not being involved, I am sure there will be a larger focus on returns on investments going forward. Having large new attractions open for longer in the season of their opening year, is a very good way to help increase that. As if the ride is big enough to warrant large crowds, opening as early as possible in a season is better for the bottom line.
 
So with the attractions going in now it is now looking more likely to open for the start of the school Easter holidays.
Adventure Cove may have opened a lot sooner but with the Government having the second lockdown from the start of November to mid April I guess they had no idea when they were reopening and needed time to bring staff off furlough and be retrained.
I drawn up a couple of things on google earth
1st is the size of the site once all 3 attractions have been removed.
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Now I can’t see this been a big project as I took a screen shot of storm chaser as I think a spinning coaster is what the park is missing.
77B64193-E040-4B75-96B3-6CDFB884973F.png
Now that is too big to fit into that area and thought as they call this a big project maybe it’s a whole new area and it may include the toilets/changing block and even the former fish and chip restaurant which could easily fit a new toilet block in and add a coaster and a couple of flat rides
D6CAC630-7513-4A6A-B5C2-6819B44BE1D7.png
Like I also done it for the new area and that’s even a bigger area
A1A6355A-533A-41D8-848A-B16C56ED3DB1.png
That also includes the new entrance that will be going in but it’s gonna be a good 5 year project for the park with the zoo seeing improvements as well.
 
They could easily remove the aging Flying Dutchman, especially now have the Wave Swinger. There were markings on the ground the otherside of the Flying Dutchman last season. That would open more space.

back in in 2010/11 when the park had plans for a launch coaster to replace buffalo for 2012 the station was going where the toilet block/old fish and chip chop building is.

I did hear they are looking at a Gerstlauer coaster. Also a swing launch model with something like Goldrush at Slagharen Or Fury at Bobejaanland. Which would be pushing into the thrill market really but I am not so sure they would go for something too high thrill, so could be a more family friendly version I guess without inversions.
 
Maelstrom said:
I did hear they are looking at a Gerstlauer coaster. Also a swing launch model with something like Goldrush at Slagharen Or Fury at Bobejaanland. Which would be pushing into the thrill market really but I am not so sure they would go for something too high thrill, so could be a more family friendly version I guess without inversions.
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Something like Icebreaker at SeaWorld Orlando would be a good fit I think. No inversions but really fun. 🙂
 
DistortAMG said:
Bigger area than I thought actually. Out of interest what is the atra size of Pirates?
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It’s roughly that size as part of the original building was the restaurant/ indoor play area. I never went in as I was 9 when the Pirate adventure opened but you could see it partly from the pirate Adventure queue line to it was boxed in after the indoor play area was removed.
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Not sure if the building behind the Thomas shop is the staff area now?
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
It’s roughly that size as part of the original building was the restaurant/ indoor play area. I never went in as I was 9 when the Pirate adventure opened but you could see it partly from the pirate Adventure queue line to it was boxed in after the indoor play area was removed.
382793A3-A0F2-4637-ADB4-5FAB0FFEE2C8.png
Not sure if the building behind the Thomas shop is the staff area now?
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Very interesting, I wonder if a ride could go to the side of Pirate Adventure between Excalibur and Pirate Adventure building behind dodgems. Just seems to be used to store junk atm. Also would you be able to plot the track/path of Pirates adventure on the satellite of the building? I'm wondering where the drop/scenes were roughly?
 
It’s exciting to see the progress being made after years of not very much happening at Drayton Manor, especially something outside of Thomas Land. The future certainly looks bright. Now if they could sort out their food offerings and prices that would be great. I will definitely be making a visit this year especially as it seems like it’s the last season for apocalypse, I want to get my daughter who has just hit 1.2 onto it with me before it’s gone forever.

The ‘big project’ sounds interesting. It might be wishful thinking but part of me thinks they could be doing something with the PA building, people are always asking about Pirate Adventure, they know a lot of people miss it and another dark ride to go along side the Haunting wouldn’t hurt. I think it would be a really popular move, possibly expensive for them to make the building suitable again, but I think it would pay for itself in the long run. Better than leaving it sitting empty.
 
Given the strong relationship with Zamperla it could be one of there coasters?

Please not a flying model though. God forbid. I haven’t actually looked at they’re catalog of rides though. I can’t think what else they could have to install.
 
Excalibur said:
Given the strong relationship with Zamperla it could be one of there coasters?

Please not a flying model though. God forbid. I haven’t actually looked at they’re catalog of rides though. I can’t think what else they could have to install.
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Here's their full list of coaster models;

Roller Coaster | Zamperla

Exhilarating coasters for extreme fun. Compact Spinning, Double Heart, Lightning. Discover all Rollercoaster.
www.zamperla.com www.zamperla.com
 
Excalibur said:
God forbid. I haven’t actually looked at they’re catalog of rides though. I can’t think what else they could have to install.
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There actually is a few coasters I wouldn't mind seeing from zamperla although I doubt it will be, the moto coaster (effectively similar to a Booster bike) doesn't look to bad and I wouldn't mind one at Drayton. I think they discontinued the flying coaster (thank god) so I doubt we'll see that.
I actually have no idea what it will be, there's quite a few options they could go with, I'd favour something family thrill like a launch coaster of some sort.
 
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