Another visit to Drayton Manor? So soon after the last? Yep, this year we’re season pass holders and with Drayton Manor doing a good job of turning the park around, I’ve decided to try and visit as many of their events as possible to see how they’re getting on. This time its a 3 day event for the Coronation of King Charles III culminating in a fireworks finale for each day!
We visited on Saturday, the day of the actual coronation and because of this we did actually miss seeing the event on the TV, which I would have thought might have been shown somewhere at the park, maybe it was and I missed it, but besides the 4D cinema, the park doesn’t really have anywhere it could show it.
Anyway onto the event, things didn’t really kick off until quite late on in the day when there was a live DJ playing a set from 5-6pm. Then there was a tribute act on from 6-8pm, another DJ set between 8-8:55pm and finally the fireworks at 9pm. This marks the first time we’ve ever stayed in the park beyond 5pm too!
The DJs were good but nothing overly special. They did mix the tracks quite well and played a good range of music so you didn’t have to listen to too much of something you didn’t like! The tribute acts were for Queen on Friday, Ed Sheeran on Saturday and Elton John on Sunday. As we visited Saturday, we got Ed Sheeran and I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of his music! This didn’t much matter though as he played a lot of different songs and did a good job keeping us entertained.
There was also a very small stage show where Rory, the parks mascot, was doing a bit of a singalong with the kids too, but this wasn’t very long, but it was followed by a photo opportunity if anyone wanted photos!
To finish the day, the park had put on a fireworks display and it was great to see fireworks again, especially in warmer weather! The show lasted about 8 minutes and it was good. It won’t challenge Alton Towers or Legoland’s displays, but they were also up charged events so I really can’t find any faults with the display at all! It was also lovely to hear voice clips of King Charles played during the show too, so it felt properly linked to his coronation too, so another good job there!
Besides a few photo opportunities around there park, there was also a stall selling afternoon tea and alcoholic drinks to those who wanted them, and the Castle Bar was renamed to The Windsor Castle Bar for the event too.
I mentioned in my Alton Towers Festival of Thrills blog that it would have been nice to see some event specific merchandise and the same can be said here. They did offer some coronation flags and a couple of other bits and pieces, but no pin badges or anything park specific, but that’s only a minor thing here.
Outside the event, we had a leisurely stroll around the zoo, rode Sherriff Showdown, Accelerator, Sleipnir, Shockwave, Winstons Whistle Stop Tours, Troublesome Trucks Runaway Rollercoaster and the new for 2023 Thomas and Percy Submarine Splash, which I’ll go into in a minute.
Sherriff Showdown was having issues with its scoring system which meant you couldn’t see how much you’d scored, but the guns and targets still worked so it was nice to go through the attraction and see more of it rather than concentrating too much on winning!
Shockwave was riding great today too, both rides were relatively smooth and very forceful too. The more I ride Shockwave, the more I love it and the more I wish we could get another stand-up coaster in the UK. I hope next year they celebrate its birthday properly!
Finally there’s Thomas and Percy’s Submarine Splash. This is an incredibly cute Soquet S.A. babyflume with submarine shaped cars. The cars are very pretty but also quite uncomfortable as the backrest doesn’t have much padding in it! The ride is a very simple layout, but it’s well presented and has 2 small drops. The subs have a weight limit to them of 18.5 stone/120kg and you can ride as a single adult, as we did! We were hoping for this as some of the rides in Thomas Land don’t allow single adults but the information board didn’t say anything so we had a go. It’s very relaxed, nice and slow and the drops don’t get you wet too which we both liked!
So that was The Coronation Street Party. A nice little event, long park hours and plenty of opportunity to ride many of the ride and see the zoo before things got going. We won’t see another event like this for a while now so this will probably be a completely unique event for many years, unless they decide to do it again next year as just a street party event which would work too!
Next up will be a breakdown of our big holiday this year, so look out for that one!
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