What's New

Pirate Adventure

Ollie said:
Didn’t they spend 1m on the new coaster? And that was the biggest investment in years. So if that was the cost of pirate adventure don’t expect it for many years yet
Click to expand...
I think £1million would be a very cheap ride, since Looping has taken over they spent £3.3 million in 2021 (Adventure Cove), £7.1 million in 2022 (Vikings), £3.9 million in 2023 (Thomas plus work on Drunken Barrels) with a commitment of £2.5 million.

If memory serves me right, there was a publicised commitment to support the regeneration of the Manor of £5 million per year for the first 5 years before this drops to £3 million per year. Therefore I am thinking the cost of this new ride would be significantly higher. The above information is taken from their financial statements.
 
Does anyone besides Myself feel that the work currently being undertaken in and around Pirate Adventure is because of a reopening next year. I suspect that the work has been started early so the Ride is ready for Theming up and testing over the Closed Season. I wouldn’t be surprised if next year sees the reopening of Pirate Adventure,Retheming of Accelerator to fit into Frontier Falls and Relocation of The Flying Dutchmen to Pirate Cove or the Vikings Area.
 
The Hedgenator said:
Does anyone besides Myself feel that the work currently being undertaken in and around Pirate Adventure is because of a reopening next year. I suspect that the work has been started early so the Ride is ready for Theming up and testing over the Closed Season. I wouldn’t be surprised if next year sees the reopening of Pirate Adventure,Retheming of Accelerator to fit into Frontier Falls and Relocation of The Flying Dutchmen to Pirate Cove or the Vikings Area.
Click to expand...
Pirate Adventure will most likely not be opening next year. I suspect 2026 or 2027, as they have just had a massive investment this year, i don’t know how they would be able to afford that. I most definitely think Flying Dutchman will be moved and the Accelerator retheme.
 
My suspicions are rather when the building was damaged externally they decided to fix it up inside and out.
But I’m still dreaming and hoping
 
If Pirate Adventure did reopen next year who would attend the reopening day?

If Pirate Adventure was at another Theme Park particularly one owned by Merlin I’d say it would be demolished. Drayton Manor however do things differently they listen to customers requests and since owned The Looping Group take pride in maintaining and opening world class Rides.

A prime example is The Buffalo Rollercoaster. Prior to The Looping Group’s involvement the Ride was on the chopping board. Fortunately when The Looping Group bought Drayton Manor The Buffalo Rollercoaster was reimagined and incorporated into the Viking Area.

Another example of this is Splash Canyon or Adventure Cove River Rapids as they are now called.
 
I started visiting the park regularly in 2016. So Pirates adventure doesn't really mean anything to me.

One thing that I think is not considered in the discussions that keep going around is that it doesn't really mean anything to the kids in the families that are now the parks key audience.
 
The park are currently in the phase of working out what is coming next. There is no solid plan - or not anything they can tell us just yet.
This year was a major development and is Drayton's "Biggest year ever" - The next year or few will see smaller investments as they cannot make major investments every year (Other parks in the Looping family are waiting their turn for their big investments).

However, I am fairly confident the next "Major" investment area will be either our Pirate themed area or the back of the Zoo where the old Thomas Exhibition was as that area has been closed off for some time.

I know everyone gets excited for the next "big" thing, and parks would love to go big every time, but it isn't financially viable.

Also, it may be cheaper to keep a building up than demolish.
Merlin parks have a habit of hiding old buildings / reusing them for storage (E.g the old 4D cinema which is now storage in Alton Towers)

Just know one thing, Drayton are listening. They know what the guests want and what they miss most. For example, they put a memorial down for Apocalypse as they acknowledged how much it meant to guests. Unfortunately, Apocalypse was not able to be saved because it was an end of life ride. It was no longer cost effective to try and repair/maintain with outdated parts. They also know people want to see another dark ride in the park.


But to answer the question. If we see the day where a new dark ride takes the place of Pirate Adventure, I will be there on opening day and covering all aspects of the construction I possibly can.
 
Elise said:
The park are currently in the phase of working out what is coming next. There is no solid plan - or not anything they can tell us just yet.
This year was a major development and is Drayton's "Biggest year ever" - The next year or few will see smaller investments as they cannot make major investments every year (Other parks in the Looping family are waiting their turn for their big investments).

However, I am fairly confident the next "Major" investment area will be either our Pirate themed area or the back of the Zoo where the old Thomas Exhibition was as that area has been closed off for some time.

I know everyone gets excited for the next "big" thing, and parks would love to go big every time, but it isn't financially viable.

Also, it may be cheaper to keep a building up than demolish.
Merlin parks have a habit of hiding old buildings / reusing them for storage (E.g the old 4D cinema which is now storage in Alton Towers)

Just know one thing, Drayton are listening. They know what the guests want and what they miss most. For example, they put a memorial down for Apocalypse as they acknowledged how much it meant to guests. Unfortunately, Apocalypse was not able to be saved because it was an end of life ride. It was no longer cost effective to try and repair/maintain with outdated parts. They also know people want to see another dark ride in the park.


But to answer the question. If we see the day where a new dark ride takes the place of Pirate Adventure, I will be there on opening day and covering all aspects of the construction I possibly can.
Click to expand...
waiting for their big investments.. pleasurewood hills * wink wink *
 
Ollie said:
waiting for their big investments.. pleasurewood hills * wink wink *
Click to expand...
Pleasurewood Hills is next for the "big investment" out of the UK based Looping group parks from what I was told :)
(I met with some of their team during my visit earlier this year )
 
As of now I don’t know whether Pirate Adventure is returning next year. There’s a lot of work going on in and around the area. I’ll wait until September before giving my opinion. If Pirate Adventure is returning I anticipate an official announcement in or before September.
 
I grew up visiting the park from the late 80’s so I seen the park change so much some for the better and some even worst.
Pirate adventure was my 1st major dark ride as I never went to Florida to 3 years later in 1993. Even the Jungle Cruise and Jungle palladium was only available to go on at Drayton Manor in the uk.
I was 9 when it opened and my sister was 7 and the queue was always by the entrance. It was very popular and if it don’t come back as a pirate boat ride I’m glad my daughter got to ride it in Oct 2014 shame she was 2 at the time.
As for the building itself outside it’s not been touched since the start of the season when they put the temporary wood up. All they done since is move the rest of the Ivy off the tower part. With the park now open to September every day you won’t see much more work done to the building to then.
 
She remembers bits but there’s many videos on you tube of the ride. I do keep looking for a 2015 video uploaded to see the improvements they made to the lighting in the ride.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
She remembers bits but there’s many videos on you tube of the ride. I do keep looking for a 2015 video uploaded to see the improvements they made to the lighting in the ride.
Click to expand...
Themeparksandy1981 hopefully in the near future you’ll be able to take your Daughter on Pirate Adventure again. I half expecting an announcement in September about Pirate Adventure next year. The ride is still there as is a few scenes. The main thing that would need doing is purchasing new theming. In comparison to recent enhancements carried out by Drayton Manor the return of Pirate Adventure would be cheap.
 
If anything, Pirate Adventure's site would be likely when the park focus on that central part of the park as the next big redevelopment project.

PA would be considered a "Major investment" due to the size of the building and the surrounding area inclusion in the project.

If anything, I would say the area will be considered for development in the next 2-3 years (minimum) as they will do a few smaller developments in the next few years (Whilst Looping give some larger funding toward other parks - e.g Pleasurewood who are waiting for their turn)


All parks would love to do everything in one go, but financially that isn't possible (A statement I heard from another park director, non Drayton)

The area and site for PA will get a development, it may not be soon, but it will be worth the wait I assure you.
 
Pleasure wood will at best get a 2nd hand ride.
Outside the school holidays they only open weekends only.
I do think they will start in the closed season taking it back to the show building as it is in a bad state and dangerous.
Next year will see the frontier falls area finished off and a new flat ride on the Flying Dutchman site.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top