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Drayton Manor Park

The parks local target market is either a bit skint, or very skint.
Like Blackpool's latest offer, this is to fill the park in lean times.
No good having peak season staffing costs without punters to match.
 
Its great value, but is it a long-term good thing for the park? If it works and a lot more people do visit, will the queues/experiances be good enough for them to come back at a higher price? Or if not many people visit then the park is just selling tickets at a low price and not covering costs.
Is Paultons method of slightly fewer people but always paying full price better?
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
I doubt it. When they literally gave away free entry a few weeks ago, and were allegedly "sold out", or at capacity, the park was still dead and were actively encouraging / begging people to attend online.
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Yes the pre book tickets were free but if you wanted an unlimited wristband it was £30 online or £35 on the day.
When I was originally looking at the prices for them dates it was £29 online so they were already more expensive than they were originally advertised for.
I remember back in the early 2000’s many times driving past the main entrance of the park and a sign outside saying car park and park is full.
 
I remember visiting in the 80s when the traffic Jams spread down the drive and along the A4091.
I guess the reality is that people have a smaller disposable income these days and so park attendance is going to be much lower. Cutting admission prices is a sound strategy if it works though it's only really a means to stand still income wise and not really a way to increase revenue.
 
You increase the revenue with secondary spend.
The bigger the group, the better the spread of ages, and granny often brings her purse, especially if she hasn't paid to get in.
Grandad is tight, but still contributing at the bar.
 
Steve Minor said:
I remember visiting in the 80s when the traffic Jams spread down the drive and along the A4091.
I guess the reality is that people have a smaller disposable income these days and so park attendance is going to be much lower. Cutting admission prices is a sound strategy if it works though it's only really a means to stand still income wise and not really a way to increase revenue.
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In 2025, there is also many, many more things for people to do for a day / afternoon out, all fighting for everyones time and money. That also undoubtedly has an impact.

I cannot see the place being overly rammed as a result of this, as suggested, busy yes, on some days. The offer is spread over a month, giving people plenty of choice of when to visit.
 
Sounds like another bad day today. Slow operations. Gold Rush seems to be done for the foreseeable. Understated queue times.

Didn’t go today. But been 12 times so far and the park is very obviously significantly busier . But operations and reliability haven’t kept up and experience has nose dived.
 
Sounds wonderful - going tomorrow! It’ll be very much focused around the small children of the group, but I’ll still report back if it’s particularly good, or more likely bad.
 
Alphe86 said:
Sounds like another bad day today. Slow operations. Gold Rush seems to be done for the foreseeable. Understated queue times.

Didn’t go today. But been 12 times so far and the park is very obviously significantly busier . But operations and reliability haven’t kept up and experience has nose dived.
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Drayton Manor need more high capacity rides none of them are really high capacity. And majority of Coasters have only 1 train

Good to see the park busy though means it is doing well
 
The queues in Thomas land are the best and most of the queue lines have been designed to look small so even when they full you only waited 3 to 4 ride cycles.
The only 3 rides that can load multiple guests and keep the queues moving all the time is:
Accelerator now they may only have 1 train but the team on this is excellent from the concert loading of the trains and queue lines.
The Carousel that’s another ride with the high number of guests that can fit on the ride you only really waiting 1 cycle even if the queue line was full you will be on the 2nd cycle.
Blasting Barrels now even if the queue line is full they do ask if groups of 2 to share with another group of 2 resulting in the whole queue fitting on the ride.
You can also include the Bounty in this but depends on the op as many guests in the queue only want to ride on the back 2 rows so if your not bothered what row you could be at the back of queue and if your listening when the op asks for 1 or 2 guests to fill the ride you could be on the ride straight away.
 
Mick said:
Sounds wonderful - going tomorrow! It’ll be very much focused around the small children of the group, but I’ll still report back if it’s particularly good, or more likely bad.
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Update following today - a super day where we managed to achieve a lot, riding every coaster once (Gold Rush on both settings) and other notable rides. Really can’t complain, however we either got really lucky with the order we did things or the park was just really quiet, as operations were notably slow and I can see how it’d be a nightmare on a busy day - longest wait was Gold Rush second time round about 45 minutes. But given the party we had included adults, a couple of 2 year olds and a couple of 8-11 year olds, there was something for everyone and all enjoyed. Was also a really good atmosphere around the place.

My ride count - 13 (Gold Rush x2, Accelerator, River Rapids, Carousel, James and the Red Balloon, Jormungandr, Lady’s Carousel, Maelstrom, Stormforce 10, Troublesome Trucks, Wave Swinger, The Wave
 
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