Drayton Manor - major disappointment

[Toffeeman]

We went to Drayton manor yesterday using some free vouchers from tescos. I was quite looking forward to it as I had never been before. However it was a massive let down.

 

Shockwave (the only standing coaster in the UK) was quite a good ride but not worth the hour and 10 minute queue. The staff were so inefficient that the train (there was only 1) only left the station every 10 minutes - resulting in a riders per hour figure of about 130 (and that is generous because they didn't bother asking for people to fill the gaps). I could improve this figure dramatically by ensuring that the staff weren't just sat in the ride booth doing crosswords rather than sorting out the loading and unloading.

 

G-Force was closed for most of the day and when it eventually did open the queue was huge - and they were only running one train as well so the queue was very slow moving and we didn't bother.

 

Apocalypse (I think) was quite a cool drop ride and had about a 5 minute wait - so that is a positive for them.

 

Storm force 10 was a good themed water ride - although it was raining quite heavily when queueing so we were a bit cheesed off by the time we got on the ride (not the parks fault). However the loading and unloading again was so inefficient - the staff were letting people get onto the boats and then letting someone get off to buy a poncho from the vending machine and then spend 5 minutes trying to get it over their childs head.

 

The rapids ride was alright - a bit tame though.

 

I think that I am destined never to enjoy a british theme park again. We went to Florida last november and now everything is going to be compared to that experience. Drayton manor had inefficient staff, tons of graffiti, dirty toilets and was generally a bit dull. Okay the weather didn't help but I am so glad that I didn't pay for the experience!

 

Rant Over

Toffeeman

[cfc]

Missing G Force was not missing much. I thought the two best things at Drayton were Apocalypse and The Haunting (and I did get a kick out of Pirate Adventure, as beat up as it was).

[Shockwave]

Well I'm not surprised by that. The TPR Uk trip also didn't give it a great impression, and they did the park in about 1.5 hrs flat!

 

On busy days, the park can be really bad when the queues get big, because the park often don't operate the rides to full capacity. Apocalypse really is the one good reason to come here, the two big coasters are only average at best. Maelstrom is good, but there are better spinning pendulum rides.

 

For anyone visiting Drayton, I'd highly advise doing just a half day there in the week when the kids are at school. No queues, and a nice quiet park to enjoy.

[verticalzero]

The park needs to sort out their staff and run the rides at full capacity when the park is getting busy, i.e shockwave = 2 trains.

 

I tend to visit this park when the schools have gone back from their hols as the worst thing is to wait behind some kiddies while they are swearing and messing around.

[larrygator]

was Drunken Barrels opened yet?

[Xophe]

Try going in October - that's when I went and the park was almost empty. All the rides were walk-ons and I even got to go on Shockwave about 5 times in the front row without getting off!

Although I think that was because the Scottish October holiday isn't at the same time as the English one so there weren't any kiddies crowding the park.

[mark9]

Drayton Manor has really fallen from grace, this fall has been quite rapid since about 2003. Shame really as beneath the surface is a manager who really cares about the place, unlike the large corporate machines like Tussauds.

[Janster]

Terrible park, I agree with Toffeeman.

 

G-Force: To short, that "bent cuban eight" thingy is a teriible element. X-cars have very low capicity. It was our first ride, but we didn't bother queuing for it again.

Shockwave: Terrible drop, uninspired track layout and that "Standing in the trains" doesn't add something special to the ride.

 

Apocalypse was good.

Maelstrom was good.

 

The park looks terrible. Ugly steel fences, graffiti and awful theming. On top of that: queu jumpers and ineffecient staff.

[Menghini]

Terrible park, I agree with Toffeeman.

 

G-Force: To short, that "bent cuban eight" thingy is a teriible element. X-cars have very low capicity. It was our first ride, but we didn't bother queuing for it again.

Shockwave: Terrible drop, uninspired track layout and that "Standing in the trains" doesn't add something special to the ride.

 

Apocalypse was good.

Maelstrom was good.

 

The park looks terrible. Ugly steel fences, graffiti and awful theming. On top of that: queu jumpers and ineffecient staff.

 

I agree... It's a small park trying to be big, I think.

[verticalzero]

Such a shame it has gone down hill so fast as it was a great Park. I guess that's Birmingham kids for you.

 

If I have a bad day on 30th March at Drayton, I will send a letter to the Park and tell them they need to sort out their customer service, q jumping and Ops.

 

I sent an email to Walibi World in May regarding some "kiddies" jumping from row 4 seats to row 2 to ride Goliath with their mates just for the end photo.

 

They did this before the gates opened to let the people quing on, the ops did not do anything.

 

I recieved an email back saying " we make sure our ops are trained to a high standard and do not tolerated q-jumping etc".

 

I returned to the Park in Aug and the Ops were much better and there was no Q jumping. If anyone has a bad day at any park let them know, the Park can improve it's Customer Service.

[Janster]

I sent an email to Walibi World in May regarding some "kiddies" jumping from row 4 seats to row 2 to ride Goliath with their mates just for the end photo.

In the Netherland april and may are the months for school trips. Didn´t you see all them busses on the parking lot? They were all filled to the brim with annoying little kiddies.

 

When you visited the park in August, you probably encountered an entirely different crowd.

[Menghini]

I sent an email to Walibi World in May regarding some "kiddies" jumping from row 4 seats to row 2 to ride Goliath with their mates just for the end photo.

In the Netherland april and may are the months for school trips. Didn´t you see all them busses on the parking lot? They were all filled to the brim with annoying little kiddies.

 

When you visited the park in August, you probably encountered an entirely different crowd.

 

Yeah, we had the same in July in the UK-parks: schooltrips!