Photo TR: Drayton Manor

[davethefish]

Now the season has started, and the parks are open (at last, after a cold, wet and boring winter) I bring you my first TR to a theme park!

 

First stop is Drayton Manor park, the 2nd (or 1st, depending on route) closest theme park to me, and easiest to get to.

 

About the park: Drayton Manor is a smallish park, with only 2 big roller coasters, but has some good flat rides, including the most insane Pirate Ship I have been on, going almost over vertical! Also, if you love Thomas the Tank Engine, then you have to visit DM, as it is home to THOMAS LAND! a funky little kids park that has a big shop that sells lots of train stuff... Out the back of the park (ish) they have a zoo, which is quite cool, and a good distraction for people who like small, furry things (and big, scaly ones too)

 

The day was Typical British Weather, so cold, wet, windy, and occasionally sunny. We in turn, got cold, wet, and occasionally sunned

 

On to the photo's.... (I apologize for the lens flare in the photo's, the lens is cracked on my phone)

 

 

Me and Doodles, ready and waiting for a fun day! (despite tiredness and hangovers)

 

After a short train and bus ride (and some advice from the bus driver) we found the path to the park

 

 

Not a very inviting path, I have to say. It goes on for some time, and you wonder where you are going...

 

Till you see this!

 

 

So there IS a park somewhere around here! Can't wait to get to Thomas land!!

 

First we hit the Ferris Wheel, which was nice and gentle, and the fresh air high up helped our heads a bit...

 

 

Overview of the park, from the Ferris Wheel. You can see Shockwave (standup coaster), G-Force (X car type coaster with inverted lift hill), Stormforce 1, which is a WET ride (very wet!) You can also see the pirate ship in cream in about the middle of the photo, and Maelstrom behind that in blue. Behind us is Apocalypse, the Multi drop tower thing, with the testicle crushing floor-less seats)

 

next on the agenda was the Golden Nuggets Shoot em up ride

 

 

Can't beat Wild West theming!

 

 

Caravans..

 

 

Sheds...

 

 

Half a Donkey..

 

 

Ha, not a bad score, beat Doodles by about 12000

 

 

Next stop are the Sombreros, fun little spin around ride, with freaky hinged Cacti and a scary looking mouse

 

 

See, scary..

 

The next ride was scary for a different reason

 

 

Check out those Uber-safe restraints! this ride was a swinging boat one, kinda like the swinging chairs, but little boats.

 

 

This guy was having fun, locked up in the Queue Jumpers Prison since 1975... So much fun that Doodles refused to get in to have her photo taken! Either that, or she doesn't want to look like a criminal, who knows?

 

This park had that new-fangled 4D cinema thing

 

 

In all its garish colours and art-deco styling!

 

 

That poor guy, they chose the wrong moment to freeze the demo screen on him

 

The show that was on was called 'Curse of Skull Rock', your generic pirate themed thing.

 

 

Don't we look cool? The intro video was kinda crappy, went on for too long, and had terrible impersonators on. It did have a redeeming feature though, The Queen was Married to Mr. T. Yeah!

 

 

After that, we went round to near the zoo, where they had these creepy statue things, no prizes for guessing what they made them to resemble. (mental floss, anyone?)

 

 

That one is just disturbing.

 

After that little rest stop, we went into the zoo, where they have Tigers, Monkeys, Birds, the usual

 

 

Hehe, little Rhesus Monkeh!

 

 

Sleepy Tigers (who can blame them?)

 

 

ARGH! GIANT PENGUIN HAS ESCAPED FROM THE ENCLOSURE!!!

 

 

You know they mean poo, right? Or am I the only one?

 

 

We wanted to go into Dino Land, but the place was closed (and looks like it might stay that way, didn't look like it was in the best of conditions...)

 

 

The Glamourous labeling employed in Theme Park zoo's! a nice little bit of torn paper, lovely

 

Coming out of the Reptile house, look what greeted us..

 

 

Ominous, and scary, and a 'SCARPER FOR COVER!!' moment! Quick to a covered ride!

 

Which happened to be Excalibur, a story about a dragon or something. The speakers were useless and we couldn't understand a word that was said through them!

 

 

Entrance, with an Iron Man mask hiding in it

 

 

Behold the most useless speaker to date!

 

 

It would have been more use if it was mounted under water, because then we would have ridden around the ride in peace...

 

Lets just say that the most interesting moment on this ride were a couple of kamikaze ducks who were intent on playing chicken with our boat (mmm, Duck and Chicken)

 

 

Wait, thats not a dragon!!

 

Coming off the ride (about 4 hours later..) we found a wizard's stall, selling little baby dragons, rats and bat heads

 

 

Ain't they cute...

 

 

Doodles just wanted to take that tray home and hug them all!

 

 

Ahhh, G force, in all of its red glory!

 

 

Quick shot of its Inverted Lift hill (about the best thing on the ride, as it was bloody shaky and the lap bar crushed me!)

 

As the weather was turning cold and wet, I hit upon the awesome idea of going on a wet ride!!

 

 

STORMFORCE 10! It is a very wet ride

 

 

Hell, just leaving the station, they drop you down ten foot into water!

 

Well I'll leave this photo TR till tomorrow, when I have some more time to finish it! Still have Shockwave and the awesomeness that was Thomas land still to go!

[Manny In England]

Pretty good so far, I'm hoping for a bit of Apocalypse focus. It usually gets left out in Drayton Manor TR's and it is arguably the one redeeming feature of the park.

[davethefish]

Part 2! (the second)

 

I left you guys with a shot of the first drop off Stormforce 10 (although it was a little hard to make out, as it was dark on the platform but light outside.

 

Anyways, here is the after effect of the first drop...

 

 

yeah, and they are sneaky too, they hide an inverted drop half way round the ride. There is no escaping the drenching, no matter where you sit!

 

 

The aftermath! Stiff jeans and all! And as you can see from the sky, not the best day to be going on wet rides...

 

 

The sneaky Backwards drop!

 

Next stop was onto Shockwave, An Intamin Stand up jobby, and the only one in the world with a heart-line (zero g) roll in it, woo!

 

 

There it is, although the angle isn't great, and as the park wasn't busy, I couldn't be bothered to wait for a train to go round, so thats all the shots of that

 

No, wait!

 

 

Ha!, the double corkscrew leading back to the station! That was fun to be thrown around when the hail started. Ow..

 

 

Running back up to G-force, looking out the window at Shockwave, you can just see some unlucky people nearing the top of the lift hill, being ripped to shreds by a hailstorm. Painful!

 

After the hail stopped, and the rain had cleared, they let us out on G-force again.

 

 

Fun little drop, falling upside down and flat for a second or two, it is weird. Although whats not weird is how damned uncomfortable the ride was, shaky, rattly and with a crushing lap restraint!

 

 

Just a mess of track, as you can see!

 

True to our lovely British weather, guess what it was like about 2 mins afterwards...

 

 

LOVELY! time to dry off in the sun and have a swing on Maelstrom!

 

 

It goes a lot higher than it looks on the ground, and is quite tall already! Probably the best ride in the park, but does need to spin more! Don't ride shoe-less when your feet are wet, as putting them back into wet shoes is HORRIBLE! eww...

 

 

The theming around Maelstrom is cool, too. With a surf shack type operating booth with bits of wood blowing out of it, surfboards stuck in the side, and general sea-side type carnage going on. Which is funny, as Tamworth is the furthest town away from the sea in the whole of the UK

 

I could hardly contain my excitement at this next section...

 

 

YAAAAYY! Thomas Land!

 

 

Those diesel trains were insane, spinning around, going round in circles, almost crashing, swapping spinning plates... ARGH!

 

 

Behold the new clone army! Made entirely from Helicopters called Harold!!

 

Although we did get some praise in Thomas Land, as we were called Adults

 

 

Which annoyed Doodles, because then she couldn't fly the Haroldcopters, as adults had to sit in the back. Pah to them I say!

 

 

The Angry Crane dudes tower (I can't remember his name now..) It's a bump/drop tower, made for kids but with adult sized seats, so no prizes for guessing who like to go on this ride more...

 

 

Isn't he a Handsome Chap? I think that's James, a big, noble blue engine

 

 

This tug boat ride was fun, you rocked and span, and got shouted at by the ride op to scream. Several times.. Plus the the droning of a diesel engine sound effect in the background was annoying... Put put put put put put put put put put... You get the idea

 

 

Err... Ominous.. RUUNN!!!

 

 

More hail! (hard not to type Hale, as thats Doodles surname...)

 

Rain and hail cleared now, time for the kiddie coaster (its a credit, damnit!)

 

 

Only shot I got, as parents get weird when two people stand around taking photo's of kids... Funnily enough, this was the ride we had to wait the longest to get on, a whole 5 minutes!

 

Now its time to FLY!

 

 

Doodles liked this ride, she got to fly it!

 

 

See!!

 

 

Me too. You know its heading for disaster... But don't worry, we couldn't figure out how to get the damn thing off the ground, even though we held in the button for ages! Eventually, it did take off, and I think we succeeded in flying the highest (as I was the tallest on the ride, by far, my head was higher, so we flew the highest, dammit!

 

On leaving Thomas Land, The park got infested with sharks!

 

 

Eating a submarine!

 

 

Doing a vertical jaw stand whilst eating a block of wood (I envy that sharks nomming skills)

 

After the compulsory over priced, under nourishing theme park meal (even though DM does have some real eateries on site, we ended up just having hot dogs) we went on a fast, bumpy spinny ride. It's only a kids ride but the G's generated from going round really pushes you out some!

 

 

You are watched over by a giant pirate that will mock you and poke you if you fall out, which you would do if the sides weren't as high in the little boaties. And I would have ended up with a flat girlfriend if the restraint didn't have a middle bit (all I ended up with though was a sore leg, from being forced outwards constantly. It's a fun challenge, trying to move in the boat when its spinning). After that ride, I feel I could take on the NASA Centrifugal G-force machine any day!

 

 

Sometimes, when your camera malfunctions, it does take quite funky photo's, like the cloud from heaven, made of cotton wool and babies smiles! I assure you though, it wasn't, it was made of wet...

 

With it being wet, we thought it would be a fun time to ride a powered rollercoaster, always the best, in the wet, when they get no friction!

 

The roller coaster in question is called 'The Buffalo', and is based on Native American Theming. Again, as the ride wasn't busy, and the ride op just wanted to go home, I didn't get a shot of the scary buffalo at the front, or the big freaky guy in the middle

 

 

Short people always try and creep in on shots!

 

The nest bit of the ride is where it loops out over the lake, and you go through 2 helix's. On a clear day, its very pretty. Today, not so pretty...

 

Next stop was Pandemonium. Now I'm not normally a fan of rides that hold you upside down for ages (Ripsaw at Alton Towers still makes me shiver) but I thought I'd give this one a go

 

 

Well, one thing for certain, they do hold you. But not upside down. Waiting. In the station. For no Reason. With locked restraints.....

 

Finally, when it started, I thought the ride looked pretty tall and scary enough, but then it decided to lift itself another 5 foot from the ground...

 

and then...

 

 

WEEEEE!!! Swingy time!

 

 

I'm there somewhere!

 

 

And I'm there too, probably screaming (in joy, I promise, not terror, honest)

 

I recommend going on this ride when its a bit busier, so they don't keep you waiting and waiting and waiting!

 

Whew, only 3 more rides left in the park now!

 

Number 1: The Drunken Barrels. They are a variant of the tea cups, but set on an angled plate, so you spin round and round, and go up and down, too! Unlike any teacups I've been on before though, this one required you to be the worlds strongest man to get to spin!

 

 

But who is to complain when this is the ride entrance?

 

 

A bit tall for my liking, but come with BEER! (which, stupidly, not being religious and all, I decided to give up for lent )

 

 

Tilty... Good for adding to the drunken effect!

 

 

Beer-Jazz hands from Doodles there, so much for her dancer training when she was younger

 

After all that spinning and beer, I thought it was time to visit..... DAN DAN DAN!!!

 

 

Superloo to the Rescue!

 

The penultimate ride of the day was also the oldest, The Carousel. At over 100 years old, it was still going strong!

 

 

It has the compulsory old ride wooden horses and so forth

 

 

I rode on a Giant Cock(rel), and in turn was chased by one (adds a scare factor to the ride you would never have thought of!

 

 

IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR US!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIIVEEEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!

 

 

Doodles didn't mind, she just liked riding on a horse and playing with its long, golden pole..

 

And, what most of you have been waiting for, the FINAL RIDE!!

 

APOCALYPSE!!

 

 

When lens flare looks good!

 

The infamous drop tower, with its Sit down seats, Stand up seats and the Stand up Floorless (sex changer) seats. Now I have never been on a big drop tower before, and being the person that I am, naturally I had to do it the scariest way.. Floorless

 

 

Stairway to lens flare DOOM!!!

 

 

Yep, Leads you to your death and destruction, this one!

 

It was one hell of a blast To make matters worse, when you clear the top of the station, they tilt you forward by about 8 degrees (being strapped in, I couldn't get out my handy protractor to check exactly) then take you to the top. Then they take a photo of you waiting, and in the case of the person next to me, SCREAMING!

 

I'm glad they don't have photo's when you are dropping, as mine wouldn't have been very flattering at all...

 

Finally, after a wet and windy day, and the best value park tickets I have ever got (£18 if you buy from their website, valid all year! And only £25 on the gate), we head home

 

 

Bye bye park!!

 

All in all, I think Drayton Manor has been slated in the past, as its billed as being a big park, but in actual fact, isn't. Its a good place to go for a day out, and thrill rides enough to keep most people happy! and if they ain't happy, they can ride Stormforce, in the rain, 10 times over It is also very good to go if you have children, as they have a large number of small rides, and the zoo to keep them happy, too! I used to love it going there when I was but a wee lad, and I still love it now!!

 

Next stop: Alton Towers (I think, in a few weeks)

[Purplepills]

Nice pictures, thanks for posting. Stupid british weather eh?

 

I've never actually been to DM, I mean it looks okay but it's so far away from me, if I'm travelling that far I'd sooner go to AT.

[Troll]

That reverse drop on Storm Force 10 caught me out last year - it was like someone crept up behind you and just dumped a bucket of water over your head. My TPR hoodie was soaked for days afterwards meaning i couldnt wear it at the West Midlands Safari Park for the rides there. Unlike most log flumes, the sign in front of this ride saying 'You will get wet on this ride' is an understatement

[mattnz]

Nice trip report - very thorough. As a 'flat ride enthusiast' I especially enjoyed it! Cheers!