I visited Drayton Manor over the past few days and had a wonderful time. We felt completely safe and secure with the measures in place, the staff appeared confident and did a great job at reassuring customers, the entire experience was professional and reassuring - a real good job done by th park, they should be proud.
Entry - the entrance process was seamless, we opted to use the Clock Tower / Apocalypse Entrance although I believe all three gates were open to spread the load. A member of staff was present at the first gate to check tickets were booked, the next member of staff took our temperature in a non-invasive manner and tickets were scanned - we were then straight into the park.
Park Capacity - the park was not too busy at all, with it being more than possible to keep a safe and comfortable distance from all others throughout the entire park, I've no idea of exactly how busy it was on the date of my visit, but it most certainly wasn't quiet, but wasn't too busy either, it was absolutely a comfortable capacity.
Rides - until 18th July, only Thomas Land and selected other attractions are available, we managed to fill our day with these combined with the Zoo. In terms of rides, the waits were not long, with most queues being non-existent with the virtual queueing measures in place (more on that later). The rides appeared to close for cleaning frequently, this lasted for around 10-15 minutes, but I imagine this varies from attraction to attraction. I watched the cleaning process and this was very thorough and reassuring to see. In terms of capacity, Accelerator loaded with bubbles being separated by a row, the same sort of process was followed on Troublesome Trucks. Other than that, the available rides do the distancing for you, really.
Zoo - the operation in the zoo was exemplary, with the entire zoo being arranged into a one way system with entry in the main gate (near the Reptile House), the Reptile House was open but I believe the Meerkat House was closed, I'm not entirely sure though. As for the reptile house, a member of staff was positioned at the front monitoring capacity and giving the go-ahead to enter. We had a short wait whilst windows to the enclosures were sprayed and cleaned, which was great to see. High touch points had also been identified, which is a great move. Inside there is a one way system in place, with distancing tape clearly visible. Once the Fishing Cat & Lemur Area was reached, there was the option to continue through the one way system to Dino Land / Tidmouth Hault, or to skip this area and pass straight through to the Spider Monkeys, etc. You come back to the Spider Monkeys, Tigers, Birds, etc regardless, unless you catch the train at Tidmouth Hault. A really smooth operation here with distancing clearly marked. It is worth saying that the farm section of the Zoo with the Thomas Exhibition and Terrence's Driving School is currently closed and is not possible to access.
Food Outlets - we used Mrs Kyndley's Shop on our visit to the park, this was great with all tables being stacked away and distancing tape in place, benches outside were distanced and wipes were available for use on these from a dispenser, a great touch. Inside, staff were wearing PPE and the food offering was great, I'm not sure if this was limited or not as the outlet looks to have had some work done since last season and the offering may have been reduced then instead.
App - this is really great and is a stark improvement on the previous app, and is incredibly useful. We found that the app really enhanced our day, and made it potentially as pleasurable / more pleasurable than a normal day on the park. A map of the park can be seen, this can be filtered to show different filters, directions can also be provided. The queue times could also be accessed, although these remained mainly on 0 minutes when we visited, with a few closed for cleaning. When a ride is tapped on the map or the queue section, a virtual queue can be joined with a barcode scannable by the staff on the ride to grant entry; this worked really well and we had no issues, I imagine if there is a wait then the virtual queue can be joined and the barcode is visible once the time has been waited. It is worth saying reservations have time limits, and I believe only one attraction can be reserved at once. Visually the app looks really great too, I like the logo overlay on the images of the rides.
Below are some images of my day highlighting social distancing enforced, other images have been shared on the relevant threads.
