After Festival of Thrills, we headed over to Fazeley to stop for the night in Fazeley Inn as it’s right on the doorstep of Drayton Manor!
The pub itself was fine, standard UK pub, with very well priced breakfast options! The room however, did leave a lot to be desired. This was arguably the worst room we’ve ever stopped in. Not that it was a health hazard or dangerous, but it was in a serious state of disrepair.
The staff were nice and very friendly too so it wasn’t all that bad of a stay! We paid £44.65 for the night which was about a quarter of what Drayton Manor’s hotel were charging!
The next day we arrived at Drayton Manor for our first visit of the season!
First stop was Shockwave, the UK’s only stand up coaster. We managed two rides through the day and the first was excellent. It rode so well, taking each element smoothly and really showing how fun stand up coasters can be. The second ride was a bit rougher, but not terrible by any stretch! I’ll have to do a dedicated blog to this seemingly forgotten beast in the future as I love this ride more and more each time I ride it!
New camera for this trip too!
Next we had our first go on Air Race, the parks’ Zamperla Super Air Race model. I was pleasantly surprised with how fun this ride is. I was expecting to feel a bit ill with all the upside down spinning going on but it was fine. Tracy didn’t like it so much but she really doesn’t like being suspended upside down for too long and Air Race does hold you inverted for a good amount of time!
After Air Race, we headed up to Apocalypse for a go on the sit down tower, Tracy’s first go on a proper drop tower. The photo says it all!
Though this thrill ride has been listed as being for sale on Interlink, I can’t find anything on their site to suggest it’s still up for sale, so hopefully it’ll end up staying as it is a really good ride for the park.
After Apocalypse, we went on Sherriff Showdown, The Haunting and the Accelerator before having a wander around the park for some photos and such.
Speaking of The Haunting, I will be doing a comparison between the Vekoma Madhouses’ in future, but in brief, this one has one of the best preshow sections I’ve seen so far. Hex and Monster Party are great and I think Hex is still the best but this one is a close second. The actual Madhouse ride section is definitely the worst though as it doesn’t synch up very well or give you the weird sensation of movement like Hex and Monster party do to begin with. More in a future blog!
We had a wander around Thomas Land, rode Troublesome Trucks a couple of times and were disappointed to find out that adults can’t ride Sodor Cars alone, you have to have a child to be able to ride which could be advertised a little clearer!
Shoutouts to the gentlemen who plays Sir Topham Hat in Thomas Land. He’s such a nice and friendly guy, and seems like such a perfect fit for the role, same for Rusty and Dusty who are also excellent!
After Thomas Land we just wandered about, checking in on the shops and have a few re-rides on the attractions. Overall a great day for riding as the park wasn’t too busy and the queues were moving nicely.
I’ve now been to Drayton Manor on 3 separate occasions and it seems to get better with every visit. Looping group, the current owners, seem to be investing in areas the park needs most. Their last effort went into Adventure Cove, and though it isn’t the absolute best themed area in the UK, it does show a deal of care and attention has been undertaken here.
With the new Vikings themed area coming later this year, I will be returning and hope the same levels of attention are prevalent there too! Hopefully it’ll be nothing but good news for Drayton going forward as the park has some stellar attractions and is set on a lovely plot of land too.
This year, there isn’t as much to be excited about as there was last year in terms of new rides, but there are still plenty of new attractions coming to look forward to!
Valhalla and Enso at Blackpool Pleasure Beach are probably the best that we have this year, with Valhalla being regularly rated as the best dark ride in the world on many lists, so I look forward to experiencing this for the first time!
Won’t be too long until we’re spinning through the junior immelmann!
Enso will see one of Icons trains modified so the rear two seats will spin freely. If Time Traveller and The Ride to Happiness are anything to go by, then I can’t wait to try Icon with spinning seats, Mack seem to build top tier spinning coasters. This is currently the closest we have to a Mack Extreme Spinner in the UK so hopefully it goes down well and we get a ground up thrill machine!
Next would be Farmyard Flier at Paultons Park. We’re heading down there for our first stop of the season in March but the attraction won’t be ready for when we get there which is a shame, but it does also mean another trip to Paultons and I certainly won’t complain at that prospect! I hope as much care has gone into this attraction as the others at Paultons.
Farmyard Flier from the air!
Alton Towers are introducing 3 new children’s attraction to CeeBeeBees Land, but I’m certainly not the intended demographic here!
Next up is Drayton Manor. They’ve been teasing a new Viking themed area and a retheme to Buffalo coaster. There aren’t many details on the new attraction(s), but based on the time frame, we can probably rule out a new rollercoaster for now.
Drayton Manor, with investment, will be even better!
Hopefully we’ll see a nicely themed area, with a good replacement for Pandemonium. If Adventure Cove is anything to go by, then we should be in for a real treat here!
This year should hopefully see the opening of Flamingo Land’s new rollercoaster. As yet it hasn’t had an official name released but everyone is calling it ‘Inversion’. I hope they come up with a better name personally but I am looking forward to getting on this for the first time. I’m expecting it to be great as its a near clone of Colossus at Thorpe Park, a ride I’m warming up to. The biggest difference is that it has lapbars instead of over the shoulder restraints which is definitely a plus!
The Colossus clone, ‘Inversion’, from the air!
Finally, there are a few smaller additions to the smaller parks such as Adventure Island getting a Tivoli Extreme, Barry Island getting a KMG speed 2, and Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach getting 2 new rides, Pendulum and a Rockin’ Tug. All of which I hope to get to throughout the year!
I haven’t been to a lot of the smaller parks such as Barry Island and Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, so everything they have to offer will be new to me!
More attractions joining Rage at Adventure Island mean more to enjoy!
I’m hoping to get to many of Thorpe Parks new events such as Mardis gras and Carnival, as well as sampling their Oktoberfest to compare to Alton Towers’ version.
I’d like to see Chessington refine Wilderfest this year and to get back to Alton Towers for their Oktoberfest and newly announced Festival of Thrills!
Dragons Fury at Chessington World of Adventures.
Our bigger trip this year will be to cover a lot of the Halloween events going on, with the hopes of seeing Paultons, Legoland, Thorpe park and Alton Towers, with potential for Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Chessington if time allows!
Plenty of Halloween events lined up this year, including Brick or Treat!
I also plan to see Legolands fireworks this year, as well as Alton Towers’ display too!
Finally I hope to get back to Oakwood and ride Megafobia and Speed: No limits to death and visit a few parks in the south west.
A busy year lined up this year, visiting more new parks and seeing new events!
After we’d finished at Alton Towers for Oktoberfest, we headed to Drayton Manor Hotel for an overnight stay before our visit to the park the following day
The Hotel
The hotel itself is right at the front of the resort with ample parking for plenty of vehicles. On the subject of parking, we were allowed to leave the car in the hotel car park while we visited the park the second day, so staying in the hotel means you don’t have to pay for parking too, which is an added bonus!
Being a 4 star hotel, it does have a bit more to offer than what Splash Landings did, with that being only 3. In the rooms we got a fridge and a very comfortable double bed, as well as all the things you’d expect such as a kettle and TV.
The rooms here are of a more classy approach than what they were at Splash Landings, but Splash Landings is a themed hotel, where Drayton Manors isn’t. There are odd pieces of artwork dotted about showing you the parks history and photos of the rides, but other than that, it did feel set apart from the park.
Just a side note as well, but there is a mini golf course on site, costing £2 per person, and it’s a great little course if very different from any I’ve ever played on. It only has 12 holes, but it’s built using bricks and wood as obstacles and hole 4 is a nightmare! It doesn’t collect your ball at the end too, so you can go round a few times if it isn’t busy!
Drayton Manor’s 12 hole mini golf course!
Dining was excellent on the evening we stayed. Though a bit on the pricier side, the quality and service were excellent and much needed! Breakfast was included and the following morning we headed down to find a good variety of food and drink on offer, from hot food, to cereal and fruit. Plenty to go at!
Drayton Manor Zoo
The zoo is located just after the carousel inside the park itself, and offers plenty of different species to see. It’s laid out very well and doesn’t have too many branching paths so you’ll definitely be able to see everything to zoo has to offer!
The only niggle I had with the zoo is that all the enclosures are built using wire mesh, which is probably great fro maintenance and safety, but its a nightmare for taking photos through! Maybe it’s just me as I’m still an amateur at using my DSLR, but I did have trouble focusing in on the animals, rather than the mesh!
A pair of Pygmy Marmosets
During your travels, you’ll see allsorts ranging from Tamarins and Gibbons, to Fishing Cats, Northern Lynx, Sumatran Tigers, Red Pandas and Meerkats. There’s also an indoor section comprising most of the zoos reptiles and amphibians. All the enclosures were clean and tidy and the animals looked in great health too!
Snowy owl resting on the ground
Though I do feel that Chessington’s enclosures are better designed and themed, for the most part, I think Draytons Zoo is better laid out and isn’t split up as much as what Chessington’s or Flamingo lands zoos are.
We’ve visited the zoo twice and thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly the big cats they have here as you can usually see them lounging about in the enclosures!
The Northern LynxA very sleepy Red PandaAn African Grey ParrotAnother Northern Lynx enjoying the afternoon sunA few photos of some of the species to see at the zoo.
It’s certainly worth a visit, and will only take around an hour or so to get around so doesn’t eat into the very limited open hours Drayton Manor has!
This will be my first full resort review of Drayton Manor, my thoughts of the park and what I’d like to see moving forward.
Drayton Manor is a large theme park located near Drayton Bassett, Staffordshire, UK. The park has a hotel, zoo and a theme park with over 40 different attractions to enjoy.
I’ll do a separate review of the hotel and zoo as they warrant their own blog post, so for now, this will be all about the park.
I like Drayton Manor. It doesn’t have the thrills of Thorpe Park, or the beauty of Alton Towers, but it has its own identity and is definitely worth a visit to collect some credits!
The parks signature attraction is Shockwave, the UK’s only stand up rollercoaster, and also the only one in the world to feature a zero-G roll. It opened the same year as Nemesis at Alton Towers and Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and yet I rarely hear anyone talk about it!
It’s a shame, and I will go into more detail in another blog about Shockwave, but for now, I like it. It’s unique, it’s fun, it’s a bit rattly and rough in places, but it’s a good classic coaster.
Shockwave is now located in the brand new for 2021 area, Adventure Cove. This new area saw a refresh and reopening of Splash Canyon, now called Adventure Cove River Rapids. Without being too dramatic, but I’d go as far as saying that this is the best river rapids ride the UK has. It’s bright and fun, the soundtrack is funky and the ride incorporates a few special effects here and there which is rare to see on UK rapid’s rides these days.
Also new to the area is Wave Swinger, a Zierer Waveswinger offering both single and double seats. If you’ve been on a Waveswinger before then this doesn’t really do anything new, but it does give a nice view of the new area and its a pleasant little sit down after riding Shockwave or Air Race.
Speaking of Air Race, I’ve yet to get on it, so I can’t talk much about it, but it does look like fun! The same can be said for Maelstrom, the parks Intamin gyro swing. Maybe next time!
The final ride in Adventure Cove is Storm Force 10, a 500m long, 3 drop flume ride. I’ve ridden it once on the very back of one of the boats and you will be thoroughly soaked on this one.
I’d argue that this is the best water ride in the UK as it’s the only one I’ve been on that I had to get changed after riding! The first and last drops are fine, giving you a light spraying but nothing major, it’s the second drop that does the work.
The thing about the second drop is that it’s taken backwards and the back of the boats is flat and not very tall, so when the boat splashes down, it flops into the water rather than gliding over the top, causing a large wave to engulf the boat. Those at the back will get soaked through so bring a change of clothes, just incase (and I’d advice everything from socks and shoes, to underwear). Great ride though!
Next there’s Thomas land, a themed area dedicated to everyone’s favourite, number 1 engine! There are loads of rides here for the the whole family and all are themed around Thomas and Sodor. All in, there are currently 20 different rides and attractions within Thomas land, including a rollercoaster, a fully themed train ride, and plenty of Zamperla junior rides.
Highlights for me are the Troublesome Trucks Runaway Rollercoaster, Cranky’s Drop Tower, Captain’s Sea Adventure and the Thomas and Friends Exhibition.
You could easily lose a day just doing Thomas Land attractions, as most have good throughput, with only Troublesome Trucks and Engine Tours (the themed train ride) having really long queues throughout the day.
Once you’re done in Thomas Land, you would then start heading towards the back of the park. On you way you’ll pass the Carousel and guest services, before coming to a small pirate themed area.
The pirate themed area has a little theming here and there but not quite as much as other themed areas and includes 3 rides. The rides here are a Pirate ship called Bounty, a Seastorm ride called Jolly Buccaneer and a dodgems ride.
I’ve not ridden Bounty or Jolly Buccaneer, but I’ve been on similar at Chessington World of Adventures. As for the Dodgems, I’m not entirely sure why they decided to theme a dodgems around pirates, but it’s something at least!
After the pirate area, you’ll reach Accelerator, a Vekoma Junior boomerang with a racing theme. This is the original prototype Vekoma built, which eventually led to Velociraptor at Paultons Park being built, which I found interesting to know!
The theming is good as the queue line takes you through a garage testing performance cars, and there is plenty to look at here. Though I do think I prefer Velociraptor at Paultons Park to Accelerator, I do like the effort they put into theming the attraction, and the ride itself is good too.
You’ll also find the 4-D cinema adjacent to Accelerator, which for this year is showing Thomas & Friends 4-D Bubbling Boilers. When we went, the 3D effects weren’t working, but we got the same show as intended, just without the 3D glasses.
It was a decent time, not mind blowing or anything but still a pleasant show to experience.
Moving past the 4-D cinema you’ll find the Haunting, Sheriff’s Showdown and Drunken Barrels. All three of these have something good to offer, so I’ll start with The Haunting.
The Haunting is a walkthrough attraction and Vekoma Madhouse ride themed to a haunted vicarage. The queue was a bit long for this one, but when we did eventually get brought in, we were shown a video setting the scene. The story goes that the vicarage is supposed to be haunted and we’ve been brought in to see if we notice any paranormal activity.
There are two areas next, a corridor with lights and effects that leads into the second area, a square room. Here the attraction really shined for me as I really wasn’t expecting what happens in that room. I won’t spoil that part, but it’s not too scary or anything, just very interesting and really well done!
The room then leads into the ride section of the attraction, the lapbars come down and the ride begins. I’ve ridden both Hex at Towers and Haunted House Monster Party at Legoland, and personally, I feel The Hauntings Madhouse section is the weakest of the three.
It’s still good and give you the same feelings as the other two do, but there were a few synchronisation issues that I noticed that spoilt the illusion for me.
Next along is Sheriff’s Showdown, and interactive shooting ride themed to the wild west. I like this ride, and I think Merlin could do to take some notes from this for Duel and Tomb Blaster.
Unlike Duel and Tomb blaster, Sheriff’s Showdown is more than a pleasant drive through a themed shooting gallery as many of the targets cause things to happen when shot. Be it shooting out lights, or causing cans to fall which are really nice touches and gives the ride character and reridability. Sheriff’s Showdown is definitely a highlight of the visit!
Drunken Barrels is the last ride along and is a teacup style ride themed to Oktoberfest. Each rider sits in a barrel with up to 5 others, and as with other teacup rides, you can decide how much or how little you want to spin. The big difference here is that the entire platform tilts and raises you up to a 45 degree angle, which is both fun to ride and great to watch from off ride too.
The show building is themed excellently and the ride is also indoors so it’s great if the weather isn’t quite so good too!
After coming off Drunken Barrels, you’ll see a toilet block as well as Apocalypse, the parks thrilling drop tower. At the time of writing this I believe that Apocalypse will be leaving Drayton Manor at the end of the season, which is a real shame as the ride is excellent.
It consists of 5 drop towers all together, two are sit down and two are stand up and the final one is a stand up floorless tower, the first of its kind. I’ve managed to experience both the floorless and sit down drops this year, both are excellent, but the floorless one is in another league.
I used to really detest drop towers as they were a bit out of my comfort zone, but having tried a few this year, I can honestly say I see the appeal and I’d love to have a go on the really tall ones!
At the foot of Apocalypse is Pandemonium, a Fabbri swinging inverter. This was my first go on one of these and thought it was a great experience, I did suffer quite badly with my shoulders digging into the restraint when we were held upside down. I don’t recall this being an issue on Rameses’ Revenge when that was at Chessington, so I gather it’s Fabbri’s restraints.
Next is Flying Dutchman, another Wave swinger, this time manufactured by Intamin. The key difference between this and the other one in the park, is this one has you say in little boats, and it doesn’t tilt. It’s quite a relaxed ride, and really should be in the pirate themed area!
Finally there’s the Buffalo Rollercoaster off to the side. I don’t have much nice to say about this one I’m afraid! The theming is ok, but the ride itself is quite dull!
The coaster is powered by what looks to be two drive wheels and a hamster as it has little force at all and doesn’t really do much for me! I know it’s a junior ride, but I’ve been on plenty at Adventure Island, Chessington and Alton Towers, and all of theirs have a decent helix or something!
I’d love to see this themed up more, a few little airtime hills added and it sped up just a little. Still keep it as a junior coaster of course, but give it something for you to remember it by!
There is also a lovely train ride that takes you around Adventure Cove, the lake and behind Shockwave but I felt that this was criminally underused as more than half of the ride has you looking at nothing but behind the scenes parts. Shame really!
I’d love to see Drayton add a new modern thrill coaster to its lineup, maybe next to Buffalo Rollercoaster or to replace it entirely. I never got to ride G-Force when that was at the park, but something along those lines would be great!
Since Apocalypse is up for sale, maybe move the rides around at the back of the park and create a new themed area there. Incorporate Sheriff’s showdown and a few new junior and thrill flat rides, maybe even have a new version of the Buffalo Rollercoaster for this area!
There is plenty of potential at Drayton Manor, and with it being sold to Looping Group, hopefully they’ll invest money to make a good park, into a great one!
loopsandlapbars.com 