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HEMANCLOFTY 20 Oct 18 11:22 AM

13 Theme Parks This Year - 8: Drayton Manor Park
 
Tom’s 13 So Let’s Try to Do 13 Theme Parks this Year
8: Drayton Manor Park
(Bank Holiday) Monday 27th August 2018


The Index is here

We knew that today was unlikely to be the best of our theme park days this year, as it was a bank holiday Monday, plus there really isn’t that much to offer at Drayton Manor, but it’s fairly close to home and Rich had managed to get passes for £20 each.

As usual, the day started with me making a packed lunch and Rich going to the shop to get us some drinks. We set off at about 8:30 and were parking up (for free) by about 9:15...





We were let into the park early, so none of the rides were running yet. We thought we’d get in the queue for Apocalypse first, as we’d been looking forward to seeing if it’s as good a Drop Tower as Shaun on Theme Park Worldwide said it is, and we thought it would be likely to get a big queue later.







We ended up waiting over an hour as it didn’t open on time due to some issues with testing, but eventually made it in and were on the 2nd set of launches (sit down seats) of the day. It was really good and more intense than most drop towers we’ve done this year. The queue was still short, so we all went straight back on and did the stand-up tower, which was even better :grin:.

We all had a quick loo break next, then I went on Drunken Barrels by myself (the boys didn’t fancy the spinning). It was a bit boring riding alone.

I think we did Sherriff's Showdown next – it’s fairly decent for a shooting game, but I can’t remember an of our scores or who won.

Next was The Haunting – it was showing as a 15-minute queue, but I think we waited about 25 in the end. We made the most of the time by making a start on our sandwiches...







The queue / pre-ride theming is better than the ride itself. I’m not really a fan of Haunted Swings and find them a bit boring :zzz:.

We headed over to G-Force next (about 12:15) – it was a long queue, and after about 30 minutes, there was an announcement saying the ride had broken down and that we should exit the queue. We were fairly close to the front by now (just at the bottom of the stairs), so we hung back a bit with a few others, but eventually gave up, and got a ride pass for Shockwave, which was handy as it was showing as an 80-minute wait...



We still had to wait over 10 minutes, as a lot of people had had the same idea as us and the operators were very slow at loading the train (only 1 train was running too), but we got the back row. The ride itself was a bit rough and too short, but Tom enjoyed his first stand-up coaster experience.

Rich and I finished our packed lunch afterwards – Tom didn’t fancy his sandwiches, so we said he could have something else and we popped into Safari Pizza & Pasta, where he had a very tiny pizza (I cat remember how much it cost)...





It was about 2pm by now. We mooched around the zoo for 45 minutes...





A lot of the monkeys / primates were inside, so I got lots of pics of signs rather than the animal's themselves...



I did manage to get a few pics though...





Dino Trail...







A few more animals...







Investment coming soon...





Snoozing Tiger...





And finally, the Meercats...





Tom and I had a quick look in the gift shop whilst Rich had a cigarette, but they didn’t have any magnets that I liked (only generic zoo / animal ones), then we caught the 3pm showing of Ice Age No Time for Nuts 4D, which was really good...



We went straight from here onto Accelerator (formerly Ben 10), sucking up the 1-hour queue...





It’s a good little family coaster, but no worth such a long wait.

It was about 4:30 by the time we came off the ride. None of us really fancied any more queuing and G-Force was still down, so we all agreed that we were ready to make our way home.

Thoughts on the park

It’s a decent enough park, and the Thomas Land area is great for younger kids, but there just aren’t enough thrill rides (especially now that it’s been announced that GForce is going), and having Storm Force 10 out of action all day didn’t help either. It’s definitely not worth the usual ticket price, and we all agreed that had we paid more than the offer price of £20 each, we’d have been very disappointed.


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