Bucket List item checked off! Bert does the UK with Theme Park Review (a photo trip report)

[PKI Jizzman]

bert those boots and glasses slay! another awesome trip report. keep it up! thanks for sharing the experience!

[bert425]

Day 6:  Drayton Manor

it was pretty overcast, and a bit chilly, and there was a chance of drizzle in the forecast.

But everyone was still excited to continue on the trip and to check out Drayton Manor - even tho we had been told that most of the big thrill rides had been taken out over the years and they had targeted more towards families, with a large Thomas Town section, and lots of family rides.

so after eating breakfast and checking out of our 1 night hotel, we climbed onto the bus, and after a shortish drive, we pulled up to the signs for the next park on the itinerary.

it really looks like it's in the middle of a nice neighborhood. . . LOL. .you just come upon the sign noting it's there.

this is apparently the "new" entrance, which feeds you into the Viking section of the park - which is apparently also fairly new.

not super packed prior to opening, but a few dozen folks out and about on this day (I believe it was a weekday, and with the forecast, it surprised me to see as many people there as there were - even tho it wasn't that many)

 

I don't recall us having any kind of early admission or fast passes for this park (not that we'd have needed them), so most of the group followed Robb/Elissa's lead, and headed to the newest coaster in the park - a Vekoma family boomerang, called Accellerator - to get that out of the way as it was probably the lowest capacity coaster in the park.

(of course, I had to stop and snap pictures along the way)

the theming and LOOK of Accelerator are really well done, even if the ride is really not too exciting.

the indoors queue is kinda cool too

Noted!

happy, and a little chilly, TPR folks mixed in with GP

I see Jack and Jackie, and Andrew and April on this train.

and further back, Nick, Doug, Hawk, David, John, Chris, and Ryan

and here's Andrew, Stacy, me, Nick, Doug, Brad, Jere, and Eric (and his son)

I think this pic is thanks to Elissa?

 

Hi Dad, I'm in Jail!

this wasn't quite ready to open, so we'd have to come back in a bit. . . it was a walk thru haunt experience, tho I can't recall if there was an actual "ride" or if it was just a guided tour kind of thing.

next door, this indoor shooter was open tho.

so we took a spin on this.

That's Larry & his Niece there.

this wasn't open today, tho I do love these kinds of rides. . . . so snapped a couple of pics

 

we missed this one by only a few weeks - this is the park's new for 2024 coaster, that is called Gold Rush.

it's an Intamin tire launch family coaster with multiple switch track.

they had it mostly ready to go, and a lot of the theming was in place.   but it hadn't started testing yet, and they hadn't yet announced the name yet when we were there.
so the big walls were still up around it.

heading back into the main park.. you can see how non-busy it really was today.
tho  to be fair, it seemed a lot of the folks who were here, were in Thomas Land .  . which is where we were gonna head next.

Troublesome Trucks is a Gerstlauer Junior coaster (with a creepy ass face on it) over in Thomas Land.

I mean. . LOOK at that face on the front of the train.

LOL. . .but it was a fun coaster and actually had some speed and pops of air.

what I found most interesting is how the queue for the coaster runs right along side the back of the Thomas the Tank Engine Train ride.

so you get a really great view of how the engine detaches from the front of the train when it returns to the station, spins around, then comes back around and attaches to the back of the train, making that the front.    so they don't need a big "turn around" track for the whole train.

and yes, the Thomas Engine has creepy ass eyes that move around as it chugs along.

almost our turn on the coaster tho.   I do think this one might have been the longest line of the day for us at this park.

but I think most of the TPR folks did ride it.

 

is this something to do with Harry Potter?

 

Hand to G-d, I swear this man introduced himself to me as Mister Top or Bottom.

I thought it was hysterical and posted about it.

i was corrected by several friends online who told me that his name is Mr. Toppan Hat.      but he used to be called something more offensive.

and sure enough, when I went to upload this trip report?   I actually DO have a picture of a statue of him that says Sir Toppan Hatt.

I think "Mister Top or Bottom" is way more amusing of a name tho

nothing else in Thomas Land was anything else I was interested in, so I wandered out to check out the remaining areas of the park.

we had passed this cute Carousel so did I stop and ride it now?

You Betcha!

a Map of the park - the entrance we came in is at the top over the lake.

you can tell it's not a HUGE park, and a big chunk of it is dedicated to the Zoo and Thomas Land (basically everything on the left).

despite the low crowds, they did have a show running, with a few participating

Mr Sequins there did try to get me to participate, so I shook my butt for a few moments to make him happy

and then we went back to the Haunting.

I say again, I REALLY don't remember much about this experience. . I *think* it was mostly acting and set pieces they walked us by.   but the theming was well done in the queue area.

it was getting ready to rain, and a light drizzle had started - so we headed over to the only other coaster that was open today (the "thrill" coaster, the Wave, hadn't opened yet today).

Jormungandr is Zamperla powered coaster.

and from it's queue line location, we were able to get some more looks at the new coaster that hadn't opened yet.     So that was an extra benefit for riding on this - and we bumped into a bunch of TPR folks while in this queue, so it was a mini-TPR-takeover

ohhhh. . a pony express ride next door?  yes please!

some different views of the new Gold Rush coaster

Happy TPR riders!

 

the pony express type ride next to it was called Sleipnir. . and Adults were allowed to ride (yay!)

close enough to a Carousel horse that these always excite me and I try to ride them if they allow adults.

in the Viking section, the park also has a Nebulaz.

I didn't even attempt to ride, as I know the seats are very snug. . and this one seemed to be taking forever to load/unload.

it's looks great in this section tho with that design

Stacey wanted to ride the Disk-O (a ride type I generally don't care for) so I sat and waited for her - which was a good call, as the chilly rain started during her ride.

can you spot her all bundled up and freezing her butt off ?  

at least she enjoyed herself.

meanwhile, I found a nice throne to wait on.   I love me a good throne.

while waiting for the Disk-O to finish, an announcement came out via the group messenger that the Wave had opened.

the Wave was at one point (up till 2023) called "Shockwave" and was the only Intamin Stand up coaster with a zero G roll.

in 2024, they swapped out the stand up trains for sit down trains, and renamed the coaster "the Wave"

it's still pretty intense, at least to me, and so was a 1 and done.   but it's the big thrill ride in the the park.

 

there's a nice flume/chute the chutes ride too, but it was already pretty moist so I didn't go on that.  Those that rode it said it was fun tho.

it offers a nice photo op.

 

oh, and a backwards big drop.

Besides the Thomas train ride, there's also another train here at the park, that brings you around the perimeter.

Stacey and I took a ride on that.

it really is a lovely park in places.   it's odd to have so much unused space in the middle of the park tho.   Wonder if they sometimes have paddle boats out here?

the big loop on "the wave"

there's also a pretty moist Rapids ride here at Drayton Manor

and an Air Race. . . for those looking for the more "adult rides"

it was getting close to time for the bus (we didn't spend more than 5 hours here, if I recall correctly), so it was time to get some shopping done, and I wanted to check out some of the zoo.

but first?  another photo op.    No idea who this character is. . but he's a Daddy, so needed a pic with him.

it's a fairly large zoo, but I didn't want to chance getting stuck way near the back and then having to run to the bus.   So I just checked out a few animals towards the front of the Zoo.

a few birds

and some monkeys

and whatever these are. . . otters?   merkats?

and with that it was time to meet back at the bus. . we still had a bit of a drive ahead of us.

we were off to yet another bucketlist park for me. . . a multi day stay (on property!) at Alton Towers.

 

to be continued. . .

[michaellynn4]

I would've liked to have visited Drayton Manor, but I fear if I tried to cram one more amusement park into our honeymoon while in Great Britain (already had BPB, Alton, and Thorpe on the schedule), my wife would've sought to annul our marriage the moment we landed on the tarmac at JFK. Mind you we also already did Efteling and Walibi Holland in the Netherlands during the trip, as well.

Looks like you had a great time!

[Garet]

It is sad to see all those thrill rides leave the park but Drayton Manor have handled the conversion to families while keeping the park interesting and themed much better than places like Lightwater Valley.

[Nrthwnd]

Drayton Manor was an interesting park. From the skyride, that took you "there and back", to the well hidden Haunted Swing attraction (UFO theming, back then). But there was that (then) stand up coaster. Ugh. Very hurtful to tender parts of the male body. Great TR of what you experienced there, Bert. Not bad for only five hours' visit. And ....

Yeah, I liked him. too! TPR 2006 UK Tour.