Skyscraper
TS Member
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Plus Vikings could open in the next couple of weeks or so.
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Drayton Manor Park
immelmanloop
TS Member
Drayton had Vikings planned to open by may day, but that is STC with construction delays.
George W
TS Member
Ah well I decided to go on Tuesday, me personally I get to go off peak a lot with my mates would just be nice for a less busy family day out but decided it's too much hassle to go during school time and don't want the little ones to learn the craft of skiving
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Trooper Looper
TS Member
Just got back from the park, blimey that place can make you exhausted on busy days.
The Haunting: the madhouse part was in terrible condition compared to 3 weeks ago. The music wasn't working, no sfx, and no smoke or head coming out of the coffin. Only the noise of the squeaky mechanics are present, which itself is Haunting I might say.
Sheriff Showdown and Accelerator were definitely the queue drawers today. Accelerator was all the way at the building facades entrance, while Sheriff Showdowns queue extended to the outside cattle pen.
The Zoo thankfully was quiet though, which is always great to have a walkthrough.
StormForce 10 seems to have the habit of frequently breaking down. It broke down twice today.
It seems that they're keeping up maintenance well of the River Rapids, excluding the fountain arch. That only really had 30 minute queues though.
Shockwave had quite a big queue on some occasions, but it's definitely running smoother than it was last year.
A new addition!! Pirate Live Actors going around the park, putting up shows such as juggling swords (obviously fake) photos opportunities with a mini dingy, and Music! The actors really seemed to enjoyed it which is always a plus for me
Now, onto Vikings!!
The Front entrance seems to have had a bit of paintwork done to it The ride paintwork looks spending on one of the new flats!! And the Previous Buffalo Coaster Station building has also had some paintwork done as well.
Still sad that nothings been done with Pirate Adventures building yet. It'd be nice for a new Dark Water Ride, but it won't be for a good while I guess. Such potential the park is missing
The Haunting: the madhouse part was in terrible condition compared to 3 weeks ago. The music wasn't working, no sfx, and no smoke or head coming out of the coffin. Only the noise of the squeaky mechanics are present, which itself is Haunting I might say.
Sheriff Showdown and Accelerator were definitely the queue drawers today. Accelerator was all the way at the building facades entrance, while Sheriff Showdowns queue extended to the outside cattle pen.
The Zoo thankfully was quiet though, which is always great to have a walkthrough.
StormForce 10 seems to have the habit of frequently breaking down. It broke down twice today.
It seems that they're keeping up maintenance well of the River Rapids, excluding the fountain arch. That only really had 30 minute queues though.
Shockwave had quite a big queue on some occasions, but it's definitely running smoother than it was last year.
A new addition!! Pirate Live Actors going around the park, putting up shows such as juggling swords (obviously fake) photos opportunities with a mini dingy, and Music! The actors really seemed to enjoyed it which is always a plus for me
Now, onto Vikings!!
The Front entrance seems to have had a bit of paintwork done to it
The ride paintwork looks spending on one of the new flats!! And the Previous Buffalo Coaster Station building has also had some paintwork done as well.Still sad that nothings been done with Pirate Adventures building yet. It'd be nice for a new Dark Water Ride, but it won't be for a good while I guess. Such potential the park is missing
Attachments
It isn't always like this, occasionally it does this when the effects don't sync properly. The ride operators can't always tell unless they glance at the amplifiers and notice they aren't producing any audio.
James5696
TS Member
Big uproar on social media for DM right now, as someone from the public has released a voucher code intended for rainy day guarantee customers which has now been shared and misused by large numbers of people allowing them to checkout with free day tickets and annual passes. DM have emailed customers and posted on FB/Twitter that they’re not allowing entry to people who’ve misused it.
The general public seemingly all went to sham law school, pushing back saying the park are legally in the wrong etc an that they must honour the free tickets and annual passes
The entitlement of these people who’ve stolen tickets is likely to be an admin nightmare which could see an end to these kind of gestures imo!
The general public seemingly all went to sham law school, pushing back saying the park are legally in the wrong etc an that they must honour the free tickets and annual passes
The entitlement of these people who’ve stolen tickets is likely to be an admin nightmare which could see an end to these kind of gestures imo!
jon81uk
TS Member
Disney store online had a similar issue recently where a code meant for one person as a goodwill thing was valid for multiple uses by mistake, got shared and a lot of people then were angry that orders made using a code they shouldn’t have been given in the first place were cancelled.
I think in these cases the retailer is stupid for not making codes single use, but also the public should realise when they are doing something dodgy.
Agreed, the emphasis ought to be on the retailer to ensure the code is correctly restricted. Unless there is genuine evidence of bait and switch (i.e. Drayton Manor 'accidentally' sharing the code then later refusing to honour it), then a full cancellation/refund is absolutely fair.
Skyscraper
TS Member
People don't realise that using that code and tickets purchased with it is basically fraud.
Shaggy_Dog_
TS Member
One thing I’d bear in mind is that unlike the Merlin parks the Rainy Day Guarantee isn’t just a thing that Drayton give you if you’ve bought tickets and had your day impacted by the weather, you actually have to purchase a Rainy Day Guarantee at £2 a time for each ticket when buying day tickets to Drayton Manor for you then to be eligible for a return visit. However Drayton have declared a Rainy Day to be one where the park receives 50mm of rain during the park opening hours, which I’m guessing would be an extremely rare occurrence. Drayton must have made a lot of money from people buying the Rainy Day Guarantee which is basically useless. I’m not saying that they deserved to be stung by people taking advantage of this exploit, but I do hope that this encourages them to look at and end the greedy practice of upselling customers this pointless Guarantee at £2 per ticket when it’s totally something they could just do for free like other parks do.
Themepark-newbie
TS Member
This code ended up on the hot UK deals site which I think is where it really gained traction. Looks as if it could be used to purchase annual passes for free. That is a serious boo boo on Drayton's part that a simple rainy day code can be used in that way.
Funnily enough I was saying about the booking system for Drayton on discord the other day. It's been changed to what the Looping Group clearly use as it's the same as pleasurewood hills now. It makes me think they will to some form of Looping pass that gets you into all three Looping parks in the UK, which I actually think is a really good idea for them, raise the status of pleasurewood and hopefully make Looping a major chain in the UK.
Thameslink Rail
TS Member
I would love to see this especially if they can throw in some discounts for other parks like you get on the Europa Pass.
D4n
TS Member
Realistically what is the market for a pass that includes Drayton, Pleasurewood and West Mids?
One is miles away from the other two. Nome are worth travelling long distances for.
Only Drayton (arguably) is worth visiting at all regularly.
The value of such a pass would be very low.
One is miles away from the other two. Nome are worth travelling long distances for.
Only Drayton (arguably) is worth visiting at all regularly.
The value of such a pass would be very low.
Thameslink Rail
TS Member
Shaggy_Dog_
TS Member
I could definitely see the use in a combined Drayton and West Midlands Safari Park pass. It would make for a nice weekend trip visiting the two on consecutive days. As a coaster enthusiast then no, there isn’t much to get excited about at the two parks (apart from Shockwave). But as for family days out? I think there’d definitely be a market for it. I haven’t been there myself yet but the Safari Park looks like a fun day out.
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Shaggy_Dog_
TS Member
Gulliver’s don’t do individual park Annual Passes, it’s just one company wide pass for £99 (or £80 renewals). I’d guess that the vast majority of people that buy them are local to one park and take their kids there regularly once or twice a month throughout the year at just one location rather than using them to visit other parks across the chain.
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Themeparksandy1981
TS Member
I was thinking having the 1 free ticket for the Safari park is a great deal for the Drayton Manor annual pass and vice versa for the West Midlands Safari Park pass. They could also offer 1 voucher per annual pass half price tickets to pleasure wood hills.