Drayton Manor Park

[Matt N]

If these latest rumours circulating are true, then probably not. Especially given that Apocalypse would have such a small footprint without the building.

Perhaps they have worked out a layout that can incorporate the existing ride. I could well imagine a coaster wrapped around a drop tower could offer the opportunity for some pretty impressive 'near misses'.

Forgive me for being out of the loop, but if you don't mind me asking; what are the latest rumours, out of interest?

 

[Squiggs]

They have been discussed over the past two pages of posts, probably take a read of @Themeparksandy1981 's last post for a good summary.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

Yesterday the queue was at times on the stairs on the outdoor sector and staff were telling them that the wait was gonna be 90-120 mins.
The 2 stand up sides have been totally dismantled with all the remaining parts stripped off them. The other sit down could be used but they keeping it for spares just in case the other sit down needs parts.
The floorless is nearly ready to reopen and it could be any day now.
They looking at costs now to bring it back into a 5 sided tower but 4 sides of it would be sit down only with the floorless staying as the stand up only.

 

[D4n]

Really it would represent the best of all worlds if they could keep the ride whilst increasing the capacity of the sit down experience.

Remember, it's only a 1.2m height restriction to ride, so most particularly brave 7 year olds could give it a go. I have a few in my class who wouldn't hesitate!

Perfectly in keeping with the all encompassing family direction that they're aiming to go in and it would be a real shame to lose it.

 

[Charliemoore93]

Looking through some old photos , I found this photo on apocalypse. There’s a circus type tent in the left hand corner, does anybody remember this or know what it was? I have no memory off it.

 

[Ciaran]

Looking through some old photos , I found this photo on apocalypse. There’s a circus type tent in the left hand corner, does anybody remember this or know what it was? I have no memory off it.

Yes, I remember watching a show in there a good 10 or more years ago. I can’t fully remember what the show was but I remember the circus tent.

 

[Wilko]

Just catching up with Andy's updates. To keep Apocalypse, albeit with 4 seated towers and no façade would be great for the park if they can still put the rumoured new coaster around it. I'm not a fan of the sit down personally, but it's a lot better to have all of the towers working.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Remember, it's only a 1.2m height restriction to ride, so most particularly brave 7 year olds could give it a go. I have a few in my class who wouldn't hesitate!

My little lad is 6 and loves it. I was wary about him going on, but actually its a lot less traumatic than rides that do last a long time. If you decide you don't like bounty after 10 seconds the next 3 minutes are hellishly long. If you decide you don't like apocolypse, by the time you've realised that - its done!!

I'm slightly surprised that no one has mentioned that the removal of the "skirt" doesn't mean that the ride won't have any branding. Surely there is potential to brand it differently so it fits with what ever new rides are placed next to or around it?

 

[Matt N]

I must say, it does surprise me that Apocalypse is only a 1.2m ride. I can imagine it being a pretty dominant, scary ride if you’re a child at the age where you’d typically be 1.2m tall (a 180ft drop tower hardly screams family thrill), and a 1.2m height restriction opens you up to some surprisingly young children.

My cousin hit 1.2m when he was only just 5 years old. He’s now 6 and apparently nearly 1.3m. I might be overly babying kids here for all I know, so I apologise if I’m making any incorrect generalisations, but I think of a 5-6 year old child as almost still being Thomas Land age. I think of my 6 year old cousin as a fairly small child, and I certainly can’t imagine he’d like Apocalypse…

As I say, though, I could be underestimating the thrill tolerance of your average 5 year old child…

 

[rob666]

You talk as if riding it is compulsory Matt!
Scaredy kids can just say no!

 

[Matt N]

You talk as if riding it is compulsory Matt!
Scaredy kids can just say no!

That’s a good point… I didn’t think of that!

 

[JAperson]

It's interesting there are now rumours of it staying and them working whatever new area they have planned around apocalypse, it seems to make a lot of sense but is likely a change of plan. I wonder if it's meant they've had to rethink the layout with whatever manufacturer they're planning to use? Potentially that's a good thing, but it could be a bad thing too.

 

[Matt N]

I’ve got to say, I’m impressed if they have found a way to keep it! That area looks quite tight to build a new ride in even without Apocalypse being there (as those of us who did the Planet Coaster Speed Build Contest over the closed season found out…), but I guess the drop tower on its own would not take up much ground space at all. I’d imagine removing the big building and all the stairs, but keeping the ride system and building it a new queue, would free up a surprisingly substantial amount of space for a new coaster to be built on the land.

If they were smart with how they redesigned Apocalypse’s queue, I reckon they could quite easily fit Apocalypse inside whatever coaster layout they were originally planning to build. As I said, the drop tower itself takes up a remarkably small amount of ground space in the grand scheme of things; the main thing contributing to the ground space Apocalypse takes up at the moment is that huge facade and queue. If they got rid of that, then I reckon working Apocalypse into whatever plan they originally had wouldn’t be too hard.

 

[tayspru]

Do we have any real rumours of a ride type for the new coaster, as well as what attractions may be removed. I’m trying to do some armchair imagineering and can easily see the area being a phase 2 to the Viking theme, with a large family thrill coaster being the main draw

 

[Matt N]

Do we have any real rumours of a ride type for the new coaster, as well as what attractions may be removed. I’m trying to do some armchair imagineering and can easily see the area being a phase 2 to the Viking theme, with a large family thrill coaster being the main draw

Coaster Chall, a YouTuber who has recently been an incredibly accurate source of information when it comes to predicting Drayton’s future investments, suggested that it would be some form of swing launch coaster, and I’ve heard elsewhere that the manufacturer could be Vekoma (so something similar to Formuła or Abyssus at Energylandia).

 

[rob666]

Has the word coaster even been used by the park yet, I thought we were stuck with "major new attraction".
Could be two water slides and a paddling pool next to the hotel!

 

[Matt N]

Has the word coaster even been used by the park yet, I thought we were stuck with "major new attraction".
Could be two water slides and a paddling pool next to the hotel!

That is true (no one knows what type of attraction it will be), but most rumours are strongly pointing towards roller coaster, so it seems like a fairly good guess.

 

[DistortAMG]

Seeing as Apocolypse is nearing the end of it's life. If they are keeping it, money needs to be spent to overhaul the lifting equipment and drop equipment. Plus the vehicles themselves. Could this potentially eat into budget or will the money be found else where. I wonder.

 

[Matt N]

It certainly looked like it was on its last legs in June. Only one sit down tower was operating, and none of the others looked in any fit state to open any time soon… they looked very stripped down and covered in tarpaulin. It looked like those other towers hadn’t operated in quite some time.

Out of interest, when was the last time Apocalypse operated with all 5 chutes? I feel like it wasn’t even running all 5 on my first ride in 2018…

Seeing as Apocolypse is nearing the end of it's life. If they are keeping it, money needs to be spent to overhaul the lifting equipment and drop equipment. Plus the vehicles themselves. Could this potentially eat into budget or will the money be found else where. I wonder.

Maybe refurbishing Apocalypse is one of the things that the paid Fastrack will pay for?

 

[AT86]

Perhaps they have worked out the cost of refurbing it isn’t a million miles away from the cost of having to tear it down.

Since it seemingly didn’t sell when they tried to flog it a few months back, those were the two options they were left with.