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Drayton at 70

Themeparksandy1981 said:
What’s the crowds like?
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They were ok. We walked on accelerator, Emilie’s play are and Winston were busy, the rest of Thomas land was fairly quiet. The troublesome trucks were closed the whole time we were there.

g force has gone and the main entrance was closed so you couldn’t get close enough for decent pictures. From accelerator you could see that they’re breaking up the concrete and loading it into containers. The only thing still there was the photo booth.
Malrestrom was covered in tarps which I assume was to protect it from the dust.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
Is there much work been done around the park?
I hope they have the top entrance open next week as I hope to Pick up my new annual pass
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I was disappointed at the lack of apparent work done tbh. It doesn’t look like they’ve done any painting which some rides like accelerator desperately need.

There may be some new soft play items inside emelies play area according to my 6 year old but there was no way I could confirm.
 
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I think they just been doing maintenance work on the Thomasland and the other rides open now as they only had roughly 5 weeks to do it and they not got round to finishing the maintenance on the troublesome trunks before the start of half term. The park open now every day to the 23rd with weekend openings to the main season starts. They could be putting all there work into getting the g force area ready for the main season so guests can get round to shockwave and air race.
 
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They probably go for a Wednesday so that the guest numbers are low and they can ensure the rides are reliable and some training is done before they get busy on the weekend? Saves throwing them into the deep end I suppose.
 
Anth0ny said:
some training is done before they get busy on the weekend? Saves throwing them into the deep end I suppose.
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Operations at the start of a holiday always crack me up with the response "we are expecting sudden large crowds" always like the school holidays are sprung upon the park unexpectedly and only Drayton Manor are unaware of them ?
 
jjwitton said:
Operations at the start of a holiday always crack me up with the response "we are expecting sudden large crowds" always like the school holidays are sprung upon the park unexpectedly and only Drayton Manor are unaware of them ?
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We actually avoided Drayton during the summer holidays last year. The crowds are crazy and staff can’t cope. I would be really unhappy if I’d paid for a day ticket and ended up queuing for 90% of the day.
 
remlap said:
I was disappointed at the lack of apparent work done tbh. It doesn’t look like they’ve done any painting which some rides like accelerator desperately need.

There may be some new soft play items inside emelies play area according to my 6 year old but there was no way I could confirm.
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We never made it into the soft play either as we are keeping our kiddies away from all the germs. I did spot the Exhibition has some work done to it over January. A number of new trains were spotted and new scenery items added. I think it's an ongoing process as lots of the trains were static.
 
MPDarby said:
We never made it into the soft play either as we are keeping our kiddies away from all the germs. I did spot the Exhibition has some work done to it over January. A number of new trains were spotted and new scenery items added. I think it's an ongoing process as lots of the trains were static.
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I’ll have to check out the exhibition at the weekend.

I noticed that the seating from mrs kyndleys was in Thomas land by Harold helicopter it looked out of place in the glass seating area. I didn’t venture over to the zoo to see what was in its place.
 
MPDarby said:
We never made it into the soft play either as we are keeping our kiddies away from all the germs. I did spot the Exhibition has some work done to it over January. A number of new trains were spotted and new scenery items added. I think it's an ongoing process as lots of the trains were static.
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Great to hear of some improvements to the Thomas & Friends Exhibition, thanks for sharing! Will take a look when I visit the park next - this is another hidden gem Drayton Manor have, it gives Thomas Land and the Thomas Product at the park that little extra touch that no other Thomas Land or IP area can offer, really.
 
Always thought that the Thomas & Friends Exhibition is one of the best things (non-ride wise) Drayton Manor offers. However I think it could be better off within the main Thomas Land. Although it’s well connected by the train, I’d imagine it’d be more popular somewhere like the site in the area that was supposed to be used in 2016 for something, than it is in it’s current spot.

Considering it would be right by one of the entrances to the park, it could be more popular than some of the rides they offer elsewhere on park. Maybe something they could have done for their 70th, as it would be something cheap, and they could be sneaky and brand it as new with the likes of new models (if Merlin can do it with all their investments and get away with it, anyone can).
 
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