Themed Areas
- Thread starter Apoc56
- Start date
Emphasis on the word former! Drayton Manor has, on the whole, lost the right to call itself a theme park (with themed areas) really. There's always a lot of debate about what makes a theme park a 'theme' park (the word is heavily overused by the general public and theme park enthusiasts alike) and the subject is definitely open to discussion rather than being black and white; but I'm sure there is broad agreement on it being some sort of place that has large areas devoted to particular themes or styles; and typically with every area gelling together in some way. Was Drayton Manor a theme park in the past? It was fleshing out as a major theme park during the 90s and early noughties for sure, perhaps even in Thomas Land's early years, Drayton Manor was maintaining itself as a major 'theme' park. What made it so back then, and why isn't it now?
It definitely used to have themed areas and these themed areas were designed by world class talented designers involved in setting up theme parks (turning existing amusement parks in to themed lands and areas) such as Bobbejaanland and Bellewaerde in Belgium, and also Alton towers in the early 80s. Drayton Manor's go at being a theme park did not start until the 1990s, when these attraction designers were used to modernize the park. Within two years of Pirate Adventure opening, the Jolly Buccaneer was added to compliment the area, and all the rides surrounding Pirate Adventure were given a Pirate Castle style make-over. Pirate Cove was officially launched in 1992 and for that year a new restaurant and play area was built that was stylishly given a sailing ship shaped appearance. All the fencing around the ride was also made to match up with the big pirate castle building. Nonetheless, at this stage, the rest of Drayton Manor had virtually nothing in the way of themed areas, or even themed attractions; with the exception perhaps of Jungle Palladium and Jungle Cruise.
But the park immediately capitalized on the success of the themed aspects of the park, and by 1993, Action Park began to emerge. With the log flume and Rio Grande miniature railwayalready having a Western style theme, Splash Canyon and Shockwave (completed the following year) alongside the rebranded Black Revolver, Klondike (which was upgraded from Python in 1995) and Cowboy Town arcade formed the Wild West Industrial themed area. This created two major themed areas of Pirate Cove and Action Park.
But the area at the top of the park by the ParaTower and Snake Train was still mostly unthemed; the final major area of the park that needed a major theme or style. After the Snake Train closed due to an incident in 1995; Haunting was launched the year after as both a highly themed ride and an interactive story driven experience, encompassing a large area at the top end of Aerial park and featuring its own themed shop building. With the arrival of Haunting, Drayton Manor finally featured a large selection of themed rides and more defined themed areas; and the park officially branded itself as 'Drayton Manor theme park' with a new logo during this season.
With the arrival of Stormforce 10 and the Cornish coastal town themed Fisherman's wharf, Drayton Manor had a brand new highly detailed themed area and themed attraction to accompany it; with the entire Arcade rebranded from Cowboy town to the more seaside appropriate 'Neptune's Arcade', and the introduction of the Cornish themed Polperro Express. Apocalypse in 2000 took on board an... apocalyptic theme, and the area surrounding it was made to match up with the ride. Skyflyer was painted to match the colors of Apocalypse and the plaza in front was given theming props to match the ride. Golden Nuggets did not really fit in to any area, it would of been far better in Action Park given the Wild West theme, but it was a themed ride nonetheless. Drayton Manor was definitely doing well at being a theme park at this stage. By 2002, Maelstrom complimented the Fisherman's wharf theme even more, and finally, in 2003, Excalibur had its own themed area to accompany it. Not only was the area around Excalibur made to look like a medieval marketplace, but the lakeside tearoom was given a medieval excalibur style overhaul by Space Leisure. This was Drayton Manor at its peak stage of being a theme park, with the most themed areas. So at its peak in 2003, Drayton Manor had:
Then G force came along. G force, to the surprise of many people; did bring a theme and a themed area. The problem with the post modernistic abstract theme is that it is quite bland, and doesn't fit very well between the Fisherman's wharf area and Action Park. It broke up the coherency of the themed areas in the park and didn't blend in very well at all. Bounty gets off lightly with being in Fisherman's wharf given it is a pirate ship. but the theme is still inappropriate. Drunken Barrels is perhaps the more bizarre example off being completely out of context in where it's positioned and not really making any sense whatsoever.
Thomas Land of course helped the park as it was a coherent themed area with its own boundary, name, and style that was carried over to all the rides within it. And in 2009, the retro style cinema area with the diner and gift shop to accompany it helped create a small new themed area, but this was lost as the years went by and now it has no real theme. Ben 10 was a good standalone ride and provided a future opportunity of creating a themed area. Attempts were made to create a themed Cartoon Network land around the area, but after these failed and the IP lapsed; Ben 10 becoming Accelerator ( as cool and highly themed as the queue job was ) again put a dent in Drayton Manor retaining its status as a theme park.
With the loss of Pirate Adventure, Excalibur, Splash Canyon, the impending loss of Shockwave (and Apocalypse?), and potentially other themed attractions in the future; Drayton Manor has lost its appeal as a theme park and is nowadays nothing more than a basic amusement park with a couple of themed rides dotted here and there, which is very unfortunate given the optimism around the place in previous decades from people like me who take a huge interest in both the design and experience of rides that are given themes, stories or artistic styles. I think it's fair to say that themed areas and being a theme park were a huge part of Drayton Manor in the modern era; and that Drayton Manor as being a place with themed areas is no longer a thing which we can identify it with. In light of this, Drayton Manor is a shadow of its former self and really needs to look at returning to introducing themed areas, or risk being seen as a glorified fun fair.
It definitely used to have themed areas and these themed areas were designed by world class talented designers involved in setting up theme parks (turning existing amusement parks in to themed lands and areas) such as Bobbejaanland and Bellewaerde in Belgium, and also Alton towers in the early 80s. Drayton Manor's go at being a theme park did not start until the 1990s, when these attraction designers were used to modernize the park. Within two years of Pirate Adventure opening, the Jolly Buccaneer was added to compliment the area, and all the rides surrounding Pirate Adventure were given a Pirate Castle style make-over. Pirate Cove was officially launched in 1992 and for that year a new restaurant and play area was built that was stylishly given a sailing ship shaped appearance. All the fencing around the ride was also made to match up with the big pirate castle building. Nonetheless, at this stage, the rest of Drayton Manor had virtually nothing in the way of themed areas, or even themed attractions; with the exception perhaps of Jungle Palladium and Jungle Cruise.
But the park immediately capitalized on the success of the themed aspects of the park, and by 1993, Action Park began to emerge. With the log flume and Rio Grande miniature railwayalready having a Western style theme, Splash Canyon and Shockwave (completed the following year) alongside the rebranded Black Revolver, Klondike (which was upgraded from Python in 1995) and Cowboy Town arcade formed the Wild West Industrial themed area. This created two major themed areas of Pirate Cove and Action Park.
But the area at the top of the park by the ParaTower and Snake Train was still mostly unthemed; the final major area of the park that needed a major theme or style. After the Snake Train closed due to an incident in 1995; Haunting was launched the year after as both a highly themed ride and an interactive story driven experience, encompassing a large area at the top end of Aerial park and featuring its own themed shop building. With the arrival of Haunting, Drayton Manor finally featured a large selection of themed rides and more defined themed areas; and the park officially branded itself as 'Drayton Manor theme park' with a new logo during this season.
With the arrival of Stormforce 10 and the Cornish coastal town themed Fisherman's wharf, Drayton Manor had a brand new highly detailed themed area and themed attraction to accompany it; with the entire Arcade rebranded from Cowboy town to the more seaside appropriate 'Neptune's Arcade', and the introduction of the Cornish themed Polperro Express. Apocalypse in 2000 took on board an... apocalyptic theme, and the area surrounding it was made to match up with the ride. Skyflyer was painted to match the colors of Apocalypse and the plaza in front was given theming props to match the ride. Golden Nuggets did not really fit in to any area, it would of been far better in Action Park given the Wild West theme, but it was a themed ride nonetheless. Drayton Manor was definitely doing well at being a theme park at this stage. By 2002, Maelstrom complimented the Fisherman's wharf theme even more, and finally, in 2003, Excalibur had its own themed area to accompany it. Not only was the area around Excalibur made to look like a medieval marketplace, but the lakeside tearoom was given a medieval excalibur style overhaul by Space Leisure. This was Drayton Manor at its peak stage of being a theme park, with the most themed areas. So at its peak in 2003, Drayton Manor had:
- Pirate Cove (pirate)
- Excalibur area (medieval fantasy)
- Fisherman's Wharf (Cornish seaside)
- Aerial Park (Vicarage area, Apocalypse area and cheesy Wild West area)
- Action park (industrial Wild West)
- Rainforest area around zoo, zoo shop and pizza cafe area (tribal theme)
Then G force came along. G force, to the surprise of many people; did bring a theme and a themed area. The problem with the post modernistic abstract theme is that it is quite bland, and doesn't fit very well between the Fisherman's wharf area and Action Park. It broke up the coherency of the themed areas in the park and didn't blend in very well at all. Bounty gets off lightly with being in Fisherman's wharf given it is a pirate ship. but the theme is still inappropriate. Drunken Barrels is perhaps the more bizarre example off being completely out of context in where it's positioned and not really making any sense whatsoever.
Thomas Land of course helped the park as it was a coherent themed area with its own boundary, name, and style that was carried over to all the rides within it. And in 2009, the retro style cinema area with the diner and gift shop to accompany it helped create a small new themed area, but this was lost as the years went by and now it has no real theme. Ben 10 was a good standalone ride and provided a future opportunity of creating a themed area. Attempts were made to create a themed Cartoon Network land around the area, but after these failed and the IP lapsed; Ben 10 becoming Accelerator ( as cool and highly themed as the queue job was ) again put a dent in Drayton Manor retaining its status as a theme park.
With the loss of Pirate Adventure, Excalibur, Splash Canyon, the impending loss of Shockwave (and Apocalypse?), and potentially other themed attractions in the future; Drayton Manor has lost its appeal as a theme park and is nowadays nothing more than a basic amusement park with a couple of themed rides dotted here and there, which is very unfortunate given the optimism around the place in previous decades from people like me who take a huge interest in both the design and experience of rides that are given themes, stories or artistic styles. I think it's fair to say that themed areas and being a theme park were a huge part of Drayton Manor in the modern era; and that Drayton Manor as being a place with themed areas is no longer a thing which we can identify it with. In light of this, Drayton Manor is a shadow of its former self and really needs to look at returning to introducing themed areas, or risk being seen as a glorified fun fair.
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I think it’s a generation thing like when I was at school my friends parents use to take them to Alton Towers and Drayton Manor fast forward 20 years we all got kids now aged between 2 and 12 and only I have taken my kids to a theme park. I speak to the teens and early 20’s age range at work and they not been to Drayton since Junior school and many have never been to Alton Towers many joke saying they don’t want to die or lose any parts of there body. I watch the crowds and Thomas land had been busy all the time but the rest of the park has been dead. Kids/teens are just happy nowadays on there IPads, watching you tube and on there video game consoles.
I think the theme areas name was dropped in 2008.
I think the theme areas name was dropped in 2008.
Until the park release any news publicly, do not treat anything as absolute concrete fact! Some people who likely work at Drayton Manor have released speculative information, and rumors on forums have spread around for a while, but all we can do is wait and see if a decision is made. (I don't work there!
)I wouldn't go that far. Of course, I don't doubt that the Smiler crash had an affect on perception as the 2015/16/17 AT guest numbers reflected this. But it was more of a hysterical short term craze fueled by the gutter press. By 2018, numbers improved, media coverage improved (with less mention of the crash or victims) and the focus in general moved on; so I don't think it's as important necessarily. I also accept that home leisure (playing console games etc) has substituted for outdoor leisure including theme parks over the years.
The idea that these factors are the underlying reasons for the recent poor performance of Drayton Manor, in both company house reports and visitor numbers, however, I don't accept at all. We're talking about a sudden sharp drop in performance, a clear lack of any major investment, and the loss of multiple attractions without replacement over the last 7 years and no sign of any changes in future (recent tragic events too, but that is a separate and less relevant issue). Similar patterns are definitely not occurring at other major UK parks, even at Thorpe Park which is quite clearly geared at an older audience anyway; the RTP division of Merlin is improving in performance not receding. That isn't necessarily saying that Merlin are doing everything right; far from it. They also suffer from lack of major investment and have seen CAPEX drop over the years; it's just not been as bad as Drayton Manor, and they've had good investments recently like Wickerman. Merlin do suffer with similar problems though, although the causes of those problems are often down to their poor top down bureaucratic approach rather than gross spending levels. With Drayton Manor, it seems the issues are far more fundamental; perhaps even existential. Not only have themed areas disappeared at the park, rides have been left SBNO for years, the park has lost a highly popular major family dark ride, and there is no sign of improvement.
Drayton Manor definitely had, and in my opinion still has the potential to be a superb theme park (time is running out though as each season goes by). But the only way it will achieve this is to focus on creating defined high quality themed areas each with boundaries (which Drayton Manor has never really attempted before) in the main park that cater to wide audiences rather than narrow audiences. The sort of audience that Wickerman or Stormforce 10 has, which everyone enjoys. Of course this will require borrowing and investment; but similar decisions had to be made in the 00s with Thomas Land and that proved a real success.
Unless Drayton Manor takes the route of looking to its past success with themed areas like Pirate Cove and the old Action Park (ideally through creating a new dark ride to replace Pirate Adventure, and a new themed ride elsewhere with a themed area to accompany it)
then unfortunately the park may soon become consigned to history for the aforementioned reasons.
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Pirate Adventure failed a H&S report in 2014 as they needed better exit areas if the ride broke down the money was put aside for this but the money disappeared and rumours pointed to a former manager at the park so the work didn’t take place so that’s why the ride closed a few weeks into the 2015 season. Also the big difference with Drayton Manor has been the park budget like the most the park spend in 1 season has been £4 million on Thomas land. The Cartoon Network street was a failed project with the 2012 Scooby doo project cancelled for the haunting overall. The last time they added a thrill ride to the line up Air Race visitor numbers were down.
looking at the past 10 years:
2010 new 4D movie
2011 new hotel, Ben 10 coaster
2012 Blue Mountain Engines
2013 Winston’s whistle stop tour
2014 Air Race
2015 Thomas Land explanation
2016 Retheme of the Haunting
2017 James and the red Balloon/ Ice age 4D and Retheme of Ben 10
2018 Retheme of the Golden nuggets
2019 Sodor cars upgrade
Where Drayton spend on average 1 million a year on new rides in the 90’s Tussaud’s were spending 12 million each on new SW coasters.
looking at the past 10 years:
2010 new 4D movie
2011 new hotel, Ben 10 coaster
2012 Blue Mountain Engines
2013 Winston’s whistle stop tour
2014 Air Race
2015 Thomas Land explanation
2016 Retheme of the Haunting
2017 James and the red Balloon/ Ice age 4D and Retheme of Ben 10
2018 Retheme of the Golden nuggets
2019 Sodor cars upgrade
Where Drayton spend on average 1 million a year on new rides in the 90’s Tussaud’s were spending 12 million each on new SW coasters.
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Which shows that ingenuity and creative flair are often more important than throwing money at something! Drayton Manor grew hugely in the 1990s despite the rapid growth of Alton Towers close by, and they were still going for similar markets! Whilst Tussauds had the gigantic financial powerhouse of Pearson, Drayton had to be much more careful about what they invested in; but also take huge risks and make large scale investments when necessary. Pirate Adventure did so well for DMP because it was unique in the UK (at a time where going to Disney for working people was less common), gigantic, highly detailed and highly memorable as a high quality ride experience. Action Park investments were also high quality. Whilst Drayton Manor should not be going for the thrill market now; at the time, Shockwave was a great investment, the stand up element was unique (if a bit of a fad) and Shockwave at the time did well given it was a large box track roller coaster.
Despite lacking budget, Drayton Manor competed well with Tussauds in the 90s, and if the park had continued to produce creative themed rides like Stormforce 10 and Pirate Adventure they would of achieved much more success. The themed areas are more of a subconscious thing. Only a small number of geeks notice them for what they are! For most members of the GP, it's a background thing which reinforces a positive impression of a place and makes them think "That place was amazing" instead of the "it's run down" "poor" "poor mans alton towers" etc. which sadly you do hear on review sites and among the public. G force without a doubt was a mistake, mainly because the focus was so much on adding an unusual ride that all the other important elements like themed ride experience and having a themed area/boundary were left behind.
What the park needs is a complete overhaul. Themed areas encompassing every square inch of the main park, no more existing ride removals. All future investments being family rides (not just junior rides, rides that appeal to literally all audiences) and dark rides. I'm not convinced any of this will happen, because it seems the park is on a death spiral, but I hope I'm proved wrong