Matt N
CF Legend
For those interested, I returned to Drayton Manor yesterday for the first time since 2022, and resultantly managed to ride Gold Rush for the first time. After my initial gut take yesterday, I promised a longer review, so let me properly delve into things, having had quite a few more rides since that initial take!
I was intrigued to try Gold Rush, but some of the initial reviews seemed quite muted, so I went in with somewhat lowered expectations. But I have to say that it exceeded my expectations by a fair bit; I thought it was an absolutely excellent family coaster, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
The investment doesn’t just comprise of the coaster itself, though, with the wider Frontier Falls themed area also being new for this year. I’ll start with that…
Theming/Area
In terms of the theming for Gold Rush itself, I actually thought it was very nice overall! I think Drayton Manor have done a sterling job with the coaster’s theming and aesthetics, personally! To raise a few specific points of interest:
On the positive side, some of the new look facades look really nice with some fun details, I’m a fan of the sand effect paving that goes through parts of the area, and I also think that the rethemed Drunken Barrels (now called Blasting Barrels, I believe?) looks really nice and has clearly had real effort put into it. There was clearly intent from Drayton Manor to do a full Western themed area, and what’s there looks very nice, to be fair.
In terms of why I feel the area feels slightly unfinished to me; there are some rides that don’t really fit in with the theme, and resultantly, I also think the area boundaries on the end by Accelerator and Flying Dutchman are slightly blurred. The main examples I’m thinking of are:
Now let’s discuss the coaster itself…
The Ride
To be honest, Gold Rush was a coaster I was more intrigued by than overly excited by. It was undeniably unique and I could see that from the get go, but when some of the slightly muted initial reviews flowed in, I was sceptical about how it would ride. However, I have to say that Gold Rush thoroughly exceeded my expectations; it was really, really good fun and I enjoyed it a lot! It is not the most intense coaster by any means, but I think it’s just good, clean fun, and I often find that a very enjoyable quality in a ride; intensity isn’t everything!
In terms of some key points of interest within the coaster itself:
Overall, then, I think Gold Rush is an absolutely cracking little coaster, and a superb addition to Drayton Manor! It’s my favourite coaster at the park by some margin, and for families, I think it’s a simply superb coaster that should please everyone in the family! It is not the most intense of coasters, but for the 1m height restriction, I think it packs some really good thrills and is a great coaster for the younger kids while also pleasing the older members of the family; I certainly came off with a smile on my face every time, anyhow! For the whole family demographic, I think it’s the fun, rerideable family coaster that they needed, and it suits the park’s new direction down to the ground. If we’re doing like-for-like comparisons with similarly scaled coasters, I would say that it is my favourite coaster in the UK with a height restriction of 1m or below, beating out anything on offer at Paultons Park (the commonly cited poster child for a great family park in the UK, with a thoroughly enjoyable selection of family coasters).
The coaster itself is also themed really nicely, and what they’ve attempted with the wider themed area is very nice! I just hope that they’re able to get a bit of additional budget to fully complete the area and theme in some of those rides that currently stand out; that would be the icing on the cake!
To close off my Gold Rush review, have a few assorted pictures I took:
On a side note, I also managed to experience The Wave for the first time following the sit-down conversion, so I’ll briefly cover that too. I’ve long held the view that Shockwave would be greatly improved with sit-down trains, so I was intrigued to try it out. I think The Wave does improve somewhat on Shockwave… but sit-down trains aren’t the game changer I’d perhaps hoped they might be. They are generally comfortable and do make some of the better qualities of the ride layout shine through better; some of the inversions are reasonably decent! However, the ride is still a bit rough in places (although you admittedly feel the roughness a bit less with no OTSRs), that brake run slam at the end is still horribly violent, and it still hasn’t got the most interesting of layouts. I also noticed that the lap bar sometimes tightened a fair amount during the ride, and the new trains are also not terribly efficient for operations. The staff need to pull down the lap bar to a very specific place and ask you not to touch your bar, and then they need to press a different button before they push down your bar again to tighten it properly. It does make the operations rather inefficient.
With that being said, I think it’s overall an improvement. The ride is more comfortable than before, and it also fits the park’s new direction a lot better seeing as younger kids can ride it. It fits the bill quite nicely as a “first big inverting coaster”!
If you’re interested, I also wrote a trip report about the rest of my day at Drayton Manor: https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/drayton-manor-5th-september-2024.47130/#post-1177882
I was intrigued to try Gold Rush, but some of the initial reviews seemed quite muted, so I went in with somewhat lowered expectations. But I have to say that it exceeded my expectations by a fair bit; I thought it was an absolutely excellent family coaster, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
The investment doesn’t just comprise of the coaster itself, though, with the wider Frontier Falls themed area also being new for this year. I’ll start with that…
Theming/Area
In terms of the theming for Gold Rush itself, I actually thought it was very nice overall! I think Drayton Manor have done a sterling job with the coaster’s theming and aesthetics, personally! To raise a few specific points of interest:
- I quite like the queue; it has some nice vantage points, the tunnels with posters and things are quite neat, and I think it’s overall been finished off very nicely!
- The station is very nice, with a very nice wooden look to it and some really nice details and thematic touches!
- As I rode more, I noticed a surprising amount of nice thematic touches around the ride area. For example, I noticed quite a nice water feature in the middle, I noticed that a pipe by the station was billowing out smoke, I noticed some neat little signs and written bits around the area… there are a few nice little touches, and things like that really add substance to the theme!
- The effects sequence in the “dynamite shed” is quite simplistic, but works well. The smoke and the synchronised audio is quite nice, and it’s reasonably effective overall despite its relative simplicity. On a minor side note, the American accent used on the ride is not terribly convincing (I overheard someone in the queue describing them as “the most British-sounding cowboy ever”, which I think is quite apt…), but that’s nothing more than a fun observation… I certainly couldn’t do any better!
- I think the overall finish of the ride just looks very pleasant and pleasing to the eye. It has some nice landscaping, the wooden look is quite pleasant, and it feels quite well finished off.
On the positive side, some of the new look facades look really nice with some fun details, I’m a fan of the sand effect paving that goes through parts of the area, and I also think that the rethemed Drunken Barrels (now called Blasting Barrels, I believe?) looks really nice and has clearly had real effort put into it. There was clearly intent from Drayton Manor to do a full Western themed area, and what’s there looks very nice, to be fair.
In terms of why I feel the area feels slightly unfinished to me; there are some rides that don’t really fit in with the theme, and resultantly, I also think the area boundaries on the end by Accelerator and Flying Dutchman are slightly blurred. The main examples I’m thinking of are:
- The Haunting has had no changes to blend it in at all, with it still retaining the same English vicarage theme it’s always had. To be fair, however, it’s tucked away enough that it’s relatively inoffensive within the wider visuals of the area, so this is quite a pedantic one.
- The main weak point for me was Accelerator. I admittedly didn’t get to see the indoor queue, as it wasn’t open and I couldn’t ride it, but externally, it looks as though there’s been little to no attempt at retheming it and it now sticks out like a sore thumb. I hope they’re able to do a bit more to make this fit the area in the years to come.
- Flying Dutchman also really sticks out, but I’m admittedly unsure if it’s in the area or not.
Now let’s discuss the coaster itself…
The Ride
To be honest, Gold Rush was a coaster I was more intrigued by than overly excited by. It was undeniably unique and I could see that from the get go, but when some of the slightly muted initial reviews flowed in, I was sceptical about how it would ride. However, I have to say that Gold Rush thoroughly exceeded my expectations; it was really, really good fun and I enjoyed it a lot! It is not the most intense coaster by any means, but I think it’s just good, clean fun, and I often find that a very enjoyable quality in a ride; intensity isn’t everything!
In terms of some key points of interest within the coaster itself:
- I thought it packed surprising vigour at points; the backwards sections in particular were surprisingly forceful!
- The launches are quite good fun and have a nice punch to them. They’re not going to blow your head off, but for a family coaster, I think they do the job nicely.
- Some of the twisty bits were very good fun and felt quite dynamic. I think Intamin are excellent at throwing some nice dynamic twists and turns into their family coasters, and that really shines through here!
- The coaster is very smooth, with not a hint of rattle or roughness whatsoever. The trains are also lovely and comfortable!
- It’s a deceptively long ride. The track length isn’t very long, but the switch track technology means that you get quite a bit of ride time out of Gold Rush!
- In terms of the ride’s overall force set, I’d liken it quite considerably to Thirteen sans the drop track. A lot of the sensations feel very Thirteen-esque. I really like Thirteen, so I liked this! I think Thirteen marginally edges Gold Rush out for me if I were to pick a winner, but it’s actually very close for me; there’s certainly a much closer contest between the two rides than I’d expected before riding!
- The multi-cycle feature is intriguing. It’s certainly novel, and it does make you want to try the ride again later on! Of the two cycles, I’m unsure which I preferred; I thought the backwards section dropping down the lift was quite neat on Cycle 2, but I did think that the launch out of the effects shed was a bit better when done backwards on Cycle 1.
- I managed to get a lot of rides in various seats, and I think my preference errs towards the back row on Gold Rush, regardless of cycle.
Overall, then, I think Gold Rush is an absolutely cracking little coaster, and a superb addition to Drayton Manor! It’s my favourite coaster at the park by some margin, and for families, I think it’s a simply superb coaster that should please everyone in the family! It is not the most intense of coasters, but for the 1m height restriction, I think it packs some really good thrills and is a great coaster for the younger kids while also pleasing the older members of the family; I certainly came off with a smile on my face every time, anyhow! For the whole family demographic, I think it’s the fun, rerideable family coaster that they needed, and it suits the park’s new direction down to the ground. If we’re doing like-for-like comparisons with similarly scaled coasters, I would say that it is my favourite coaster in the UK with a height restriction of 1m or below, beating out anything on offer at Paultons Park (the commonly cited poster child for a great family park in the UK, with a thoroughly enjoyable selection of family coasters).
The coaster itself is also themed really nicely, and what they’ve attempted with the wider themed area is very nice! I just hope that they’re able to get a bit of additional budget to fully complete the area and theme in some of those rides that currently stand out; that would be the icing on the cake!
To close off my Gold Rush review, have a few assorted pictures I took:
On a side note, I also managed to experience The Wave for the first time following the sit-down conversion, so I’ll briefly cover that too. I’ve long held the view that Shockwave would be greatly improved with sit-down trains, so I was intrigued to try it out. I think The Wave does improve somewhat on Shockwave… but sit-down trains aren’t the game changer I’d perhaps hoped they might be. They are generally comfortable and do make some of the better qualities of the ride layout shine through better; some of the inversions are reasonably decent! However, the ride is still a bit rough in places (although you admittedly feel the roughness a bit less with no OTSRs), that brake run slam at the end is still horribly violent, and it still hasn’t got the most interesting of layouts. I also noticed that the lap bar sometimes tightened a fair amount during the ride, and the new trains are also not terribly efficient for operations. The staff need to pull down the lap bar to a very specific place and ask you not to touch your bar, and then they need to press a different button before they push down your bar again to tighten it properly. It does make the operations rather inefficient.
With that being said, I think it’s overall an improvement. The ride is more comfortable than before, and it also fits the park’s new direction a lot better seeing as younger kids can ride it. It fits the bill quite nicely as a “first big inverting coaster”!
If you’re interested, I also wrote a trip report about the rest of my day at Drayton Manor: https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/drayton-manor-5th-september-2024.47130/#post-1177882