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30/6/06When is Germany not Germany?When it's in England. The German beer Keller themed 'Drunken Barrels' ride is now open and early reports sound promising. Theming on the outside is as we expected, while the inside contains colourful banners, large barrels lined up around the walls and some spotlights which will be especially appreciated after dark for the fireworks. The whole ride looks pretty solid and should last for a considerably longer time than the Cyclone which blew out after less than 3 years, although I cannot say whether or not it plays fitting music which would add to the party. In other news the rumour mill is once again in motion spinning out tales of an Intamin Pirate Ship ride. I don’t necessarily advise taking rumours too seriously at this stage (although my source has proven to be reliable in the past), but it can make interesting discussion fodder none the less. 8/6/06A Leaf out of Drayton Manor's Book Firstly I’m back in town after writing my final sentence about why some old bloke had his head chopped off (Oh yeah, his name was Charles, I remember now!). I hope to start updating the site again and look out for the forum which should be returning soon. While I was away there was some reasonably exciting news so hold on tight. That’s right, Rooney broke his metatarsal and now its fixed and now there’s a world cup…sorry wrong site. What I should say is that Drayton Manor’s new book ‘Memories of a Family Fun Park’ is out which documents the history of the site as a theme park (rather than the original house). It’s in paper back and includes 96 pages apparently divided into 12 chapters featuring a good balance of text and photos which got the thumbs up from Justin Garvanovic (First Drop editor). It’s available from the park, selected WH Smiths stores and Amazon. Expect a review to follow soon. . Additionally the BBC have also featured a video interviews with George and Vera Bryan (founders) which is available on the BBC website It’s quite short but includes some interesting anecdotes including Vera carrying a plate of bread and butter on the park’s opening day which was blown off by the wind, besides footage from the park’s early days. In other news the park has a new Crazy Golf course, which is located near to the entrance. PS The book was written by Fred Bromwich and the ISBN is 0-9552779-0-6 7/4/06MM 4 DMP-a fair deal?Drayton Manor is now open for 2006 (yippee) and a surprise addition….drum roll… the final double down drop on Storm Force 10 has been painted to match Shockwave. Unfortunately on a negative the hotel has been pushed back a year, despite having received planning permission. Unfortunately there are now to be no Manor Mania updates for a while until the summer, but please visit the Drayton Manor links to discover more resources and bits and bobs. I have also made the difficult decision to suspend the forum, as clearly it was having little activity anyway and I know I will be unable to continue moderating it. If I am unable to moderate it and delete inappropriate posts it could reflect poorly on me, so many thanks for you understanding. For those that miss having the opportunity to discuss this hobby with like minded people the internet has a wealth or roller coaster forums including my pick of the bunch The Crazy Gangs (in association with RCCGB). I hope to bring Manor Mania back in the summer with many more updates and hopefully by then the park will have given us a little more fodder for discussing on the re-launched forum. Cheers-Neil P.S. I’d better get back to Philip Larkin revision, until next time 20/3/06The Big Count Down Oh sorry, that was Alton Towers-actually Drayton Manor's approach of the new season is spectacularly unspectacular! Nevertheless depite continued delays in the Shockwave repaint, the absence of any new ride until June...and a general lack of excitment their marketing campaign has the usual commendable level of effort. As we predicted an entirely new website was unlikely, but the exisiting one has had some tweaks and improvements leaving it as one of the best official sites for a UK park. The flash on the homepage does little to aid it's purpose, but looks cool so it gets my thumbs up. A new competition has been launched with the challenging question of 'how tall is Apocalypse?' (the park can not be held responsible for those who burn out their brain with this tease of a question) and finally a set of wall papers. The park leaflet is equally impressive and features an all new park map (people faint with excitement). Not really an improvement on the old one, but it's nice for a few coaster geeks like me. Their latest effort to clearly zone the park is to colour not the paths, but the rides themelves. Therefore they give you Shockwave in billious red, you can imagiene that the Pirate Adventure roof is red instead of green and find out what Apocalypse would look like if someone dropped a can of orange paint over it. I think this new appearence takes some getting used to and I prefered the style of colouring the paths, but there you go. On the plus side it's by no means the worse one I've seen and thank God it wasn't designed by the people behind Blackpool Pleasure Beaches new map that really does look terrible. The park opens next weekend, so I will leave it until then for some more tantalising updates. (ps I know what I will say in the next update already, but won't spill the beans just yet so I can make it look like there is more news than there really is!). 27/2/06Oomp Pa Pa, Oomp Pa Pa, It's drinks on the house The bad news is that there are still no major updates in the imminant future... the good news is that when there are (next summer) there will be a lot of fodder to cover. Apparently Drayton Manor's drunken barrels are to be themed as a German bier keller/fest halle. That's right, one little walk takes you past an obsessed vicar, a wild west shoot out into the gaiety of drunk Germans. A spokemans for the park told us ,'To compliment it we have plans to retheme neighbouring Wild West Shoot out to sour krout whip lash where riders have to don lader hosen and have an instant loose option for mentioning the war'. The ride will open at the front with the platform tilting at 15 degrees (elevating it up to 3.7 metres)and an hourly capacity of 1400 (that's about the same as Cyclone) apparently (according to a press release) making it the park highest capacity ride. There are to be three platforms with 4 barrels each (12 barrels) each seating up to six (slim?, nah, we're talking about Germans) people. In other words, if my maths is right (which I doubt) is 72 riders. At this point I could work out the assumed ride duration, but I think that's one for another day. 26/2/06Will price rises burst the bank? Again the price will continue to rise at the park for the 2006 season (for instance standard entrance for an over twelve has taken a leap and a bound of nearly £3 taking it to £20.95), however it still compares very favourably to nearby Alton Towers who are charging £29.50 for the same style admission (or any Tuassauds park for that matter) and in our view continues to represent value for money. I wonder whether we can bank on their increased income being splashed into bigger rides. With the park currently financing their move into a fully fledged resort such price rises have been inevitable. Click here to view more price changes Many thanks to Andy (Djsavo81) for his continued help. 25/2/06Q:What do you get when you get someone drunk and then hurl them round in circles?...Give in? A:Drayton Manor's new thrill ride (if, ofcourse, our source is correct). According to a reader of the site, 'Djsavo81', Drayton Manor are to replace the Cyclone with a Intamin Drunken Barrels. You may rememeber that a few months we gave our predictions for what the mystery ride could be and the Drunken Barrels topped it, so it would be nice if we were proven right (at this point everyone bursts out in a chorus of 'Do you want to teach the lesson?'). I won't give you a photo cos I'm too lazy, but to see the official site click here As can be seen it is essentially a tea cups on a tilting platform (and maybe with some alcohol? Oh well, worth a try). Please note that this is by no means the first rumour for the site (the Cyclone site-that is!), but nevertheless good gossip all the same. The next issue of magaziene Airtime will hopefully support this rumour. Edit (later that very same day,-Djsavo (Andy) has confirmed his source, and although I may not be able to post it here incase the person involed gets in trouble (not sure whether the cat is supposed to be out the bag or whether it escaped!), but it sounds very convincing. So once again cheers (so the bottom line is if you see a hang over kit going half price buy a few and next time you go to DMP they may come in handy). 23/2/06A Cyclone is now making it's way across the Country threatening to swallow up it's next set of victims in Surrey. An official spokesman is advising people 'not to panick'- Many thanks to Jason for this rumour (news?), apparently Thorpe parks Huss Enterpirse with, that's it, another Huss Enterpirse from Drayton Manor. Thorpe Parks Zodiac arrived as second hand at the park in 2000, but has since been plagued with problems. By accounts it has now left the park for scrap and the beautiful golden theming (star signs) are to be fitted to Cyclone (sorry folks. No chance to buy your star sign on ebay for £50 while Tuassauds/the King of Dubai generously gives 10p to the chairty of his choice). In his email Jason told me, 'I can now confirm that cyclone has arrived at thorpe with the drayton manor logo still on the pods, clearly zodiac was too costly to repair!'. With less than a month until offical opening the mystery thickens. Will Cyclone be shipped to the Huss factory for a make over, will Drayton Manor find a replacement in time, will the Thorpe have the misfortunate to be hit by Tidal Wave, exploding Volcano and Cyclone is fast succession? Find out after the break... 5/2/06 Will they/Won't they?- more false starts than a 54 week pregnant chicken Since Drayton Manor unveiled their excitting long term development strategy (scroll down for details on this item) the clue creek has dried up causing some enthusiastes to believe we are travelling into a DMP Dark Age as far as ride development is concerned. Fear not though my fellow enthusistes as a member of the RCCGB has announced that 'Details of 1 of the new rides will be in the next issue of AIRtime. The new ride featured won't open until June.' They have later revealed as another 'teaser' that it will be built by Swiss manufactorer Intamin, however only time will reveal the full details. If muiltiple rides are planned then it does not necessarily spell the end of an enclosed Huss ride to replace Cyclone, and a member of the Towers Times forum who claims to have 'contacts' suggests that the Intamin ride is neither for this site nor the empty building near Pirate Adventure. Although we can not confrim the realiability of this second source it is atlest fair to say that the rumour mill is now back in motion and if it continues to spin out good yarns in no time atall we'll be gazing at pics of the completed hotel. As always watch this space for further information. 14/1/06 It's what it says on the tin: Thrills and entertainment all year round Well Friday the 13th certainly wasn't unlucky for us as it seems to have reopened the rumour stream (which was no doubt being held back by the rumour mill!). This news is perhaps a little belated but I've just picked up a copy of the All Year Round guide which has a rather more limited distribution than the normal leaflet. There are several interessting points I picked up from it. Firstly the initial 'ride page' contains 5 rides, arguably atleast 4 of which are aiming themselves at the thrill seeking market. Secondly it is also note worthy that whereas in the past the different components of the site (conference centre, party area...) have been pretty much marketed as individual attractions we now see much evidence of cross marketing. Finally the very notion of such a leaflet shows willing to expand on all year round trade and printing such leaflets isn't cheap. While neither of these latter ideas are new as such it does seem that they are expanding on these two aims of cross marketing and around the year trade in preparation for the hotel. Since 2001 they have been rather cautious about expaning on all year round trade for the theme park when the lost money on their only ever Christmas opening, it does seem that their confidence is gradually seeping back so let's hope they are successful. Who knows, once the hotel is opening all year round it may even be possible to open a few rides in the winter by taking a leaf from Alton Towers book but we'll just have to wait and see... 13/1/06 Hark-the 2006 season hath cometh, but what shalt ye bringeth? Well now the initial shockwaves created by the parks medium term development plan have died down fans are casting their minds towards the rapidly nearing new season. According to a number of sources Cyclone hasn't quite blown out although the queue line has now been dismanteled ready for it to be sold to another park after a detour via the Huss factory. It is now looking uncreasingly unlikely that a new ride will spin into her place ready for the seasons opening, however a ride could be installed part way through it (incidentally Cyclone originally debuted half way through 2003 partly to compensate for Excalibur's unfortunate down time). The G Force train shall no longer be lonely as the second one is on site and Shockwave hasn't been ignored as work on her re-paint has once again commenced. The vertical loop and barrel roll are finished with the lift hill awaiting its treatment. As you may have noticed there was a fair delay before this update but I will try to be a little prompter with the next. I will leave you to discuss this and other items on the Manor Mania forumand for photos of the closed season I would recommend Drayton Manor Unofficial and Drayton Manor Plus The Cyclone has been placed for sale on the offical 'Huss Used Rides' page ( http://www.hussrides.com/61experienced.htm ): many thanks to the Drayton Manor fan who sent us this information (visit is website- http://www.draytonmanorsunofficial.s5.com/ ) We are cuttently unsure of the cost however it is described as: "...and fully refurbished.". We had reported that it was second hand when it arrived at Drayton Manor, but this is another instance when I'm afraid we were wrongly misled by an internet rumour (it was apparently new in 2003). Another as of yet unconfirmed rumour is that they are planning new planting of trees in a boarder between Aerial Park and a neighbouring residential area. As always I will try to get these rumours confirmed by official sources. 9/11/05RIP Topsy-The Chimpanzee: 1965-2005 One of the parks longer standing residents, Topsy, has died having spent over 40 yars at the park. Abstracted form a statement made by the park, "Her partner, Toto, who turns 40 next year, is said to be coping well. Joyce Roberts, manager at the zoo, said: "The staff have been deeply affected by Topsy's death, as happens with the loss of a close family member. "She was quite shy and retiring in character, especially compared to her partner Toto, and she had a very pleasant, gentle nature. "We take comfort from the fact that she enjoyed a long and happy life at Drayton Manor Zoo." Towers have made a number of advertising blunders including the 'I hate work campaign' (that urged people to pull a "sickie" to visit the park): it is now Drayton Manor's turn. The parks official website claimed that they had won, "visitor attraction of the year 2005", however this award ac8/11/05We have (honest!) In the past Alton tually went to Alton Towers leaving them with the claim of "Best UK Attraction for Children" (oh dear) apparently they are going to correct the situation although as I type, the error remains in place. This new advancement raises the question "What on earth have they done this year to deserve such acclaim?" when the only addition suitable for children was a pair of alligators...oh well, I'm sure there must be some logic involved. Unfortunately things often come in pairs including mistakes on their website. On several pages it ambiguously states, "For a copy of our 2006 brochure, email us on info@draytonmanor.co.uk". While this may be true, it gives the impression that next years leaflet is already ready to be sent out to eager fans, whereas in fact they haven’t even started designing it (for a start they are still finalising plans as to what editions they will add next season). In recent times there have been many excuses for updates, mostly fairly insignificant. There are more and more rumours washing round forums and websites, however to avoid disappointing people we are holding back until we can gain credible and official confirmation. WATCH THIS SPACE. 7/11/05 OK-so I can now establish that the award of "Visitor attraction of the year" was presented by Group Leisure, an orgainisation for promoting British tourism. It seems that they too are a fan of the park having awarded them with such honours in the past! The Meercats have also now been added to their new enclosure opposite Dinosaurland. "Groups visiting Drayton Manor Zoo can now see four new arrivals, as meerkats Malik, Zengha, Cleo and Aja have moved into their brand new home. The meercats enjoy all mod cons such as a heated indoor area, a large outside area with bark flooring, and replica termite mounds, one of which doubles as a feeder of tasty mealworms and locusts! Drayton Manor is hoping that the meerkats will breed, so their enclosure has been especially adapted to include readymade burrows in which they can nurse their young. Niki Bennett, manager of the zoo's Discovery Centre said: "The meerkats have taken to their home very well, and there is still plenty for them to discover and explore in this novel new habitat. We hope that over the coming months we are able to breed them successfully, and have more new additions for visitors to come and see in 2006." 6/11/05Can you ride out the closed season?Well not at Drayton Manor, although a small number of UK theme parks do have limited winter openings. However, the good news is that the zoo opens 10am-4pm every day exluding 23rd-22nd January (the reason being that keepers have an all year round duty caring for the animals so it is little hassle for them to keep the zoo open), also for those living in the area there's the garden centre and they are filling up the remainder of their spaces for Christmas and New Year parties (see the official website for more details...)-The rides re-open the 18th March 2006 (prior to which a recruitment day will take place). We can still not confim any of the rumours for 2006 with the exception of them adding Meer Cats to a new enclosure in the zoo and carying out work on G Force to soften her sound. Besides rides they may consider replacing the 'Circus Show' (still just a consideration!) Popeye stayed for two seasons and the circus has just finished it's third). My final comment in this bitty update is that the park were awarded "visitor attraction of the year 2005" (however who gave them this honour they seem to be keeping remarkably quiet so you can draw your own conclusion!) A section has sheered off the huge Archimedean screw that works Storm Force 10. Late season visitors are likely to be disappointed that the storm has blown over on one of the parks most popular rides (or at least it has for the remainder of the season!). Although she won't be available for this weekends firework spectacular poor weather forecasts could make this insignificant. Manufacturer Bear rides will custom build a new part and replace it in time for the 2006 opening. The incident has been accounted to normal ware and tear as the ride is six years old and the part is put under considerable pressure, however the incident was unlikely to cause a safety issue. In terms of new rides the park continues to place most emphasis on the resort side of the development with the rumoured 3D Cinema being set back from 2007 to 2008. This reduces the likelihood of rumours circulating the internet that the new building next to the Bucaneer Burgar Bar could be used to house the said attraction. A new book about the history of the park is planned with a release date later this year meaning it will be out just in time for Christmas. Although the park will probably stock it we are unsure whether there is any official conextion between the book and park. A background on the histoy of the Peels who owned the estate prior to it being a theme park is likely to be included, yet it does seem that the more recent history with rides may also get it's fair share of space. The will prvent too much overlap with the now out of print book-"Drayton Manor and Villiage: From Bassett to Peel". 16/10/05Should G-Force soften her tone?Allegedly locals are complaining about their newest neighbour G Force. Following on from our last update in which we announced concerns over The Cyclone, we have been informed that G Force is recieving similar complaints and will thus have to soften her voice too. It is thought that the wheels will have to be replaced by ones formed from an artificial new material and sand or foam may even be added to the track to absorb the vibrations that the problem stems from. The extension to the Pirate Adventure building has also now been completed. Although no official advancements have been voiced, enthusiastes are currently considering whether this could be the location of the planned 4D Cinema. Only time will tell, although a maximum of one of the rumours can come to fruitation (others include an extention to the Buckaneer Burger Bar or small suspended dark ride!) May e-mail inbox has been going into over drive recently with a third rumour including additional "Big Boy seats" being added to more rides. Again no official conformation, although the park's owner and manager has been highly complementary of their first "Big Boy seat" which was installed on the new coaster G Force. Has Drayton Manor really been overtaken by the obesity epidemic? You can discuss any of the rumours posted in this section on the new forum!!! 2/10/05Can the locals blow away The Cyclone? The Cyclone was bombarded by complaints from locals living in the neighbouring houses from day one. They complained that the noise was an unwarranted nuisance meaning the park had to install signs picturing Uncle Sam with the slogan “I want you to stop screaming!”. According to members of the ECC (European Coaster Club) who recently visited the park-the manager, Colin Bryan, announced that Uncle Sam was not enough to make riders stop screaming an consequently the ride may have to be removed at the end of the season. If so she will be replaced by an enclosed Huss (the same manufacturer that built Cyclone) flat ride. The Cyclone was added to the park in 2003 in a bid to compensate for lower than forecasted attendance. She was a second hand installation that replaced the aging 180-degree cinema, which had been made obsolete partly by newer 4D cinemas. It is possible that the park are worried about being prosecuted for creating too much noise pollution. Earlier this year the Ropers set a president when they won a private prosecution against rival park Alton Towers because they claimed it made too much noise. In other news there are also rumours that the park intends to install a 4D cinema themselves in 2007. Currently the project is still on the drawing boards, but a likely film choice would be ‘The Haunted Light House’ by RL Stein. | |
  
      
 
 
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