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M&D's: General Discussion

Long overdue update on the place but here we go with a ride installation I never thought I'd see and not quite what you think...

Wait, M&D's have built something that is not a temporary fair ground attraction but permanent?! o_O Who cares if it's just some rope ride thing, it's for once not a temporary attraction! This is just really strange for them...
 
With @QTXAdsy encouragement, here are some of my idea's for what I'd do with M&D's to turn it into a major theme park. Bare in mind I know little about the park and it's layout. I'm simply going off a basis but I will attempt to keep it in the reals of possibility if the park is bought out by an investment firm or something. These are in no particular order and nothing is in a particular location, as I say I don't know much about the park but wanted to have a go:
  • Change the name: M&D's is a rubbish name, it's only recognisable because of the accidents and known for being a bit rubbish. Change is as part of a whole rebrand obviously with a new logo too. I'm sure they can come up with some sort of easily memorable name, perhaps linked to the local history.
  • New grand entrance: I think this will be key to the rebrand, they need a whole new entrance, knock down the current one, it's a ugly looking building. This entrance needs to be recognisable so I was thinking why not have a coaster going through it? We've seen this in the US but there is nothing like it in the UK. It would be a distinctive feature that the new park could be known for. Now I think this should be something family orientated and given a name related to the park, as a sort of stable. I'm thinking something like a mine train but it should be themed to the park entrance, with tunnels and everybody entering around you. Mine trains can be relatively cheap (Zamperla make them) and so this seems plausible. The new entrance itself would be expensive however I think it's key to the success of the park as a distinctive identity to the old M&D's.
  • New kids ride area: Make a kids ride area, theme it nicely with one distinctive theme and simply get a load of cheap kids rides and dress them up a bit, doesn't need to be anything special.
I think these first three points would likely need to happen at the same time but perhaps that's not necessarily the case, other point below could be swapped and changed with these, although I would say the rebrand and new entrance should definitely be done in the same year.
  • Paulton's style area (E.g lost Kingdom or Tornado Springs): This doesn't have to be expensive, they could possibly use one or a few of there current attractions, perhaps theming up there dodgems. In this area would also likely be a new coaster, for this I have a few suggestions that would both be fairly cheap and practical: Woodie (can be fairly cheap for a small to medium sized one), Zamperla moto coaster (motorbike coaster) or maybe a Maurer spinner. I think it would depend on which of these coaster you add to what theme you do. If it's the woodie a medieval woodland theme or some form could work, if it's the motorbike coaster get a racing theme.
  • A dark ride: get something from Guarmandale for the ride system and if I think I'd go with the classic ghost train but perhaps with some local haunted legends just to make it a bit unique and more marketable.
I'd be interested to here people's thoughts on how to expand these and what I've perhaps got wrong that wouldn't be possible. I apologise for not knowing much about the park but I know QTX wanted me to have a go either way.
 
JAperson said:
With @QTXAdsy encouragement, here are some of my idea's for what I'd do with M&D's to turn it into a major theme park. Bare in mind I know little about the park and it's layout. I'm simply going off a basis but I will attempt to keep it in the reals of possibility if the park is bought out by an investment firm or something. These are in no particular order and nothing is in a particular location, as I say I don't know much about the park but wanted to have a go:
  • Change the name: M&D's is a rubbish name, it's only recognisable because of the accidents and known for being a bit rubbish. Change is as part of a whole rebrand obviously with a new logo too. I'm sure they can come up with some sort of easily memorable name, perhaps linked to the local history.
  • New grand entrance: I think this will be key to the rebrand, they need a whole new entrance, knock down the current one, it's a ugly looking building. This entrance needs to be recognisable so I was thinking why not have a coaster going through it? We've seen this in the US but there is nothing like it in the UK. It would be a distinctive feature that the new park could be known for. Now I think this should be something family orientated and given a name related to the park, as a sort of stable. I'm thinking something like a mine train but it should be themed to the park entrance, with tunnels and everybody entering around you. Mine trains can be relatively cheap (Zamperla make them) and so this seems plausible. The new entrance itself would be expensive however I think it's key to the success of the park as a distinctive identity to the old M&D's.
  • New kids ride area: Make a kids ride area, theme it nicely with one distinctive theme and simply get a load of cheap kids rides and dress them up a bit, doesn't need to be anything special.
I think these first three points would likely need to happen at the same time but perhaps that's not necessarily the case, other point below could be swapped and changed with these, although I would say the rebrand and new entrance should definitely be done in the same year.
  • Paulton's style area (E.g lost Kingdom or Tornado Springs): This doesn't have to be expensive, they could possibly use one or a few of there current attractions, perhaps theming up there dodgems. In this area would also likely be a new coaster, for this I have a few suggestions that would both be fairly cheap and practical: Woodie (can be fairly cheap for a small to medium sized one), Zamperla moto coaster (motorbike coaster) or maybe a Maurer spinner. I think it would depend on which of these coaster you add to what theme you do. If it's the woodie a medieval woodland theme or some form could work, if it's the motorbike coaster get a racing theme.
  • A dark ride: get something from Guarmandale for the ride system and if I think I'd go with the classic ghost train but perhaps with some local haunted legends just to make it a bit unique and more marketable.
I'd be interested to here people's thoughts on how to expand these and what I've perhaps got wrong that wouldn't be possible. I apologise for not knowing much about the park but I know QTX wanted me to have a go either way.
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I'm loving this! The entrance idea you have is fascinating and yes, the current entrance is like a service station entrance and is looking rather tired.

It's all very plausible to see on what might be for the place, all we need now is new owners to kick out the Taylors though if they were to ever actually doing even a quarter of what you've listed, I'd eat my hat. And yes, the name has to changed, what they are keeping the current name after everything that happened is staggering that seems to borders on that they absolutely fail to read the room.

I can see of this were to happen to that a inverted coaster would be built later on down the line which I think would really put the park up a level with the south. I need to make my map of the place in my alternative history version and maybe others on TS can do the same. After all, everyone seems bored this season and this could help put some of their creative frustrations out on a park that badly needs it! :p
 
It seems M&D's are preparing to launch their own answer to Scarefest...Darktober!

At first I thought it read Danktober which wouldn't be far off the mark TBH. I'm still stunned that after everything place is still hanging on, I bet even the cost of living and rise of energy bills won't be enough to end the park for good.
 
Long time since we had anything regarding M&D's, but this wee documentary on the Tsunami crash has just come out, does contain some distressing themes.

That said, I do find it hard to believe if what it says in the documentary that prior to the crash that the park was make a turnover of £8 million a year...likely more than many small UK parks make.

Kinds strange when you think about it shares much in common with the Smiler crash but both parks went down different paths in which while Towers manage to recover, M&D's has never recovered yet for some reason never seems to die when other parks would have closed years ago.
 
Strage? One park, independent and making small amounts of cash. The other Park, operated my Merlin a multi billion pound company with huge resources and a massive reputation to fall back on.

I don't think it is strange at all that their paths were different.
 
Well then, this might be a bit of an upset but it seems that the only Condor ride in the UK at M&D's is finally be removed. TBF it hasn't operated IIRC since the pandemic hit but still, the park carries eatingn itself apart.
 
QTXAdsy said:
Well then, this might be a bit of an upset but it seems that the only Condor ride in the UK at M&D's is finally be removed. TBF it hasn't operated IIRC since the pandemic hit but still, the park carries eatingn itself apart.
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I honestly don't even know how this place is still open it's a glorified funfair charging theme park prices. It's sad that Loudoun Castle closed as there is no viable alternative for Scotland.
 
Relife said:
I honestly don't even know how this place is still open it's a glorified funfair charging theme park prices. It's sad that Loudoun Castle closed as there is no viable alternative for Scotland.
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It does defies belief how they are still going when other parks would have closed by now. But yes, Loudoun Castle's closure was a tragedy for Scotland which I've never really gotten over as it was the better park that was like Alton Towers back in the early days, just had terrible luck from bad marketing, lack of investment in which it needed and that incident which killed the park off is just a sad story for a park that just needed a bit of money to make it something better. M&D's sadly though despite all the things said about it does have the makings to a major UK theme park in which it has the best transport access to get to being sitting just 20 miles south of Glasgow and easy travel from the rest of Scotland and even the north of England and the space to make it something half decent...the only problem is the scummy owners themselves who make Merlin look amazing which given what we've said about Merlin before really says a lot.
 
Looking at it as someone that’s never been to M&D’s it does surprise me to hear it described as a being potentially a major theme park because the impression of it I’ve got is that it’s essentially an amusement park and a very run down one at that.

I’m not sure if it’s just the owners that are solely responsible for it not realising it’s potential to be a major theme park, indeed in the British Isles we have an extremely small number of parks that you could describe as major theme parks that are not owned by Merlin. The only parks I’d describe as major theme parks would be Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Drayton, Flamingo Land, Paulton’s, Emerald/Tayto Park over in Ireland, and possibly in also Oakwood. That’s not a lot! And the question really is what conditions and factors contribute to the relative paucity of quality independent parks here?

I’ve always thought that if Scotland were to have a decent park it would need to be located in Edinburgh with its very large stream of tourists and international visitors, easy rail link from the North East of England, and with it being a very popular city for weekend breaks in its own right.
 
M&Ds used to be known for having two of the roughest coasters in the UK, now they're gone they are effectively running as a glorified funfair. It doesn't help that their owners are seriously unpopular due to how they treated their staff during lockdown (they were ineligible for furlough due to the company not being stable enough), going into adminstration and buying themselves out as a phoenix company.
 
Shaggy_Dog_ said:
Looking at it as someone that’s never been to M&D’s it does surprise me to hear it described as a being potentially a major theme park because the impression of it I’ve got is that it’s essentially an amusement park and a very run down one at that.

I’m not sure if it’s just the owners that are solely responsible for it not realising it’s potential to be a major theme park, indeed in the British Isles we have an extremely small number of parks that you could describe as major theme parks that are not owned by Merlin. The only parks I’d describe as major theme parks would be Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Drayton, Flamingo Land, Paulton’s, Emerald/Tayto Park over in Ireland, and possibly in also Oakwood. That’s not a lot! And the question really is what conditions and factors contribute to the relative paucity of quality independent parks here?

I’ve always thought that if Scotland were to have a decent park it would need to be located in Edinburgh with its very large stream of tourists and international visitors, easy rail link from the North East of England, and with it being a very popular city for weekend breaks in its own right.
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If you were to remove all the tacky fair rides, you'd have a large literally blank slate that could be landscaped into something of a Paulton's Park as the area around is overlooking Strathclyde Loch and isn't actually too bad, it's just such tacky looking rides make it look worse than it is not helped with them all having upkeep worse than Merlin does for their parks.

Perhaps I'm being a bit OTT mentioning it be a possible major park if given the the chance, then again given the quality in this country, they'd have to nothing to lose unless Merlin pulled their finger out.

Location wise you are forgetting where it is, 20 miles south from Scotland's largest city, Glasgow, and almost in the middle of Glasgow and Edinburgh and easy access from the populated Central belt not to mention easily accessed by the M74 motorway if you're coming up from the south and rail access nearby at Motherwell just two miles away so if you were to rank a UK theme park on transport access then M&D's would shockingly come out on top.

Funnily enough, M&D's were trying to gain a new market attracting people from the North West of England and Northern Ireland though I suspect that didn’t quite work given who they are though if the park was good then maybe. For those who say a Scottish park would never work due to a low population or bad weather is a rather narrow minded view as people would be willing to travel and perhaps the reason why the turnout for M&D's is bad is because, well, it is a terrible park with a bad reputation to boot as mentioned above.

This is what is frustrating about the place as in theory is has all the elements to make into at the very least a top secondary park, ok likely never to see a B&M invert hugging the sides of a Loch, but it could work in a country if which it would have no competition and be its own thing if you simply remove the owners with ones that have an eye to see the potential of the place under all that tacky fairground junk. Scotland awaits to shake off her negative reputation as a joke in theme park circles...
 
Double post, but it seems that the Condor has been sold off to somewhere in Iraq...odd how no other UK park thought of getting it from M&D's as it would have surely been a nice edition for any park. Also, it seems that some years ago prior to the Tsunami incident, the Taylor brothers had a fall out which saw them split with only one running the park. Not saying both were any good at it though it seems that this might have made their decline go down faster than what it would have been.
 
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