Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Drayton Manor sold to Looping Group (page 5)

Ethan said:
How dare he have opinions on a park he has visited? If he wasn't impressed, he wasn't impressed.
Click to expand...
I think his point was that they visited shortly after the changeover, before all the fantastic improvements Mellors have made... Not worded the best though ?

@jj23w They hadn’t long taken over then, the place was a real mess from the previous owners, they’ve made huge improvements since then, it’s far from perfect, but it’s the best I’ve ever seen it, and I worked there in the mid 00s.
 
Nicky Borrill said:
I think his point was that they visited shortly after the changeover, before all the fantastic improvements Mellors have made... Not worded the best though ?

@jj23w They hadn’t long taken over then, the place was a real mess from the previous owners, they’ve made huge improvements since then, it’s far from perfect, but it’s the best I’ve ever seen it, and I worked there in the mid 00s.
Click to expand...

If they get something amazing, I may consider going back. But bar Millennium and when Beast was there it was the only things that I thought were fab.
 
jj23w said:
If they get something amazing, I may consider going back. But bar Millennium and when Beast was there it was the only things that I thought were fab.
Click to expand...
Will be interesting to see if they ever do go for a big coaster investment... Ice Mountain and Air Max weren’t bad additions considering it’s a new venture, but they were obviously from Mellor's travelling stock.
 
Nicky Borrill said:
Will be interesting to see if they ever do go for a big coaster investment... Ice Mountain and Air Max weren’t bad additions considering it’s a new venture, but they were obviously from Mellor's travelling stock.
Click to expand...

Mellors have bought loads of rides out from the travelling scene, most from Germany, and taken them out to Saudi Arabia for 5 years.

I don’t know what will happen to these rides after the 5 year lease, but I’d like to think that Mellors would bring them back and integrate these attractions into their parks over here.

Some of the rides they have out there include a mondial capriolo, Alpen hotel funhouse, power tower 2 and a giant afterburner.
 
I do think that maybe the Bryan family still own the park but potentially have it under a lease with the mellors. If this is the case then mellors would be the ones responsible to add future investment. This would be interesting. Let's hope any future investment isn't just traveling rides. That buffalo coaster has been on its last legs for years.
 
Going for the first time next week while staying not too far away - with young kids and will largely be a family ride day.

I was hoping to ride Shockwave while there but looks like it is closed, although prior advertising had suggested it was scheduled to open 18 July. Unclear if this means a change of plans or if there are some maintenance issues.

Should get to ride the Accelerator at least but hopefully Shockwave will be running next week as doubtful I will return in a hurry.
 
tynemouthsurfer said:
Going for the first time next week while staying not too far away - with young kids and will largely be a family ride day.

I was hoping to ride Shockwave while there but looks like it is closed, although prior advertising had suggested it was scheduled to open 18 July. Unclear if this means a change of plans or if there are some maintenance issues.

Should get to ride the Accelerator at least but hopefully Shockwave will be running next week as doubtful I will return in a hurry.
Click to expand...

Apparently shockwave is closed due to mechanical issues but they are working on it. Stormforce 10 has also been testing and might be opening soon.

Just a word of warning though, from what I’ve heard, the park is very busy and queue times are pretty high. Much higher than I would expect for DMP anyway.
 
JammyH said:
Apparently shockwave is closed due to mechanical issues but they are working on it. Stormforce 10 has also been testing and might be opening soon.

Just a word of warning though, from what I’ve heard, the park is very busy and queue times are pretty high. Much higher than I would expect for DMP anyway.
Click to expand...

Thanks, part of the reason for going there is the zoo element so suppose we can spend more time there if queues are a joke.

Fingers crossed I get on Shockwave!
 
Probably, some parks are only heading down the kiddie route at the moment such as Light Water Valley. It is perhaps safer considering Drayton's recent history.

To get the entire family back I think a small GravityKraft hybrid or a GCI Heidi clone would do well. But it will never happen I guess.
Probably only a matter of time before Shockwave and Apocalypse go.
 
It definitely looks like something is being built there judging by that photo! I don’t think it’ll be a Thomas Land expansion, personally, as from what I remember from my last visit to Drayton Manor, the entire entrance path and Maelstrom, as well as the Carousel and the train ride (I think it’s Polperro Express?) sat between Thomas Land and G Force’s area, so they’d have to remove all of that as well if they wanted to link it with Thomas Land.

I do remember an interview with Colin Bryan that talked about a “family track ride” with a seaside theme for G Force’s area (this bit was abruptly removed from the interview), but I’m also open to it being something different.

I agree with @AndrewRollercoaster in thinking that a small wooden coaster would be a fantastic addition to Drayton Manor. Something from GCI or the Gravity Group, even it was a tamer ride aimed at young families, would probably be in with a decent chance of being my favourite ride at Drayton Manor. Even though Shockwave was more fun than I was expecting, I think it is definitely quite an easily beatable roller coaster with modern technology, even if the ride is more family-focused, and I think a family wooden coaster would fit the park’s target market while also being appealing to enthusiasts. Wicker Man has proven that wooden coasters can be popular with the British public, so I think a more family-sized wooden coaster could work very well at Drayton.
 
Matt N said:
It definitely looks like something is being built there judging by that photo! I don’t think it’ll be a Thomas Land expansion, personally, as from what I remember from my last visit to Drayton Manor, the entire entrance path and Maelstrom, as well as the Carousel and the train ride (I think it’s Polperro Express?) sat between Thomas Land and G Force’s area, so they’d have to remove all of that as well if they wanted to link it with Thomas Land.

I do remember an interview with Colin Bryan that talked about a “family track ride” with a seaside theme for G Force’s area (this bit was abruptly removed from the interview), but I’m also open to it being something different.

I agree with @AndrewRollercoaster in thinking that a small wooden coaster would be a fantastic addition to Drayton Manor. Something from GCI or the Gravity Group, even it was a tamer ride aimed at young families, would probably be in with a decent chance of being my favourite ride at Drayton Manor. Even though Shockwave was more fun than I was expecting, I think it is definitely quite an easily beatable roller coaster with modern technology, even if the ride is more family-focused, and I think a family wooden coaster would fit the park’s target market while also being appealing to enthusiasts. Wicker Man has proven that wooden coasters can be popular with the British public, so I think a more family-sized wooden coaster could work very well at Drayton.
Click to expand...
I was thinking the exact same thing about Thomas Land, don’t see it happening after looking at the areas on google maps. There is a good chance it will be a coaster imo, wouldn’t mind a Kentucky flyer type coaster
 
G force's footprint was absolutely tiny, there's a reason why it had that awful lift hill. Whatever goes in there will be small and boring.
There's also no chance of it integrating with Thomas Land as they would need to move the entrance, which would cost as much as a small coaster.
 
DelPiero said:
G force's footprint was absolutely tiny, there's a reason why it had that awful lift hill. Whatever goes in there will be small and boring.
There's also no chance of it integrating with Thomas Land as they would need to move the entrance, which would cost as much as a small coaster.
Click to expand...
I don’t think a wooden coaster is compact enough but maybe a small scale eurofighter
 
I don’t know how big the plot is, but maybe the smallest of the intamin single rail coasters- if it ends up being cheap- the red and blue duelling model if Drayton managed to get the money and it fit in that space, it would be a great, advertisable investment, as it includes a bunch of “worlds firsts”, first launched single rail, first duelling single rail etc but yeah that’s just my opinion


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
DelPiero said:
Twister @ Grona Lund is around the size of that plot but no out and back woodie would fit, not even the small ones like Wooden Warrior.
Any ground up woodie, or new Eurofighter would be too expensive, Rob is 100% right. It would have to be 2nd hand so that rules out wood.
Click to expand...
Who says they can’t afford a eurofighter? They could get one of the eurofighters like vertika at that french park which opened a month ago. It only cost €5,000,000 and they could have that money by 2022
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top