We took our young son to Drayton Manor last week primarily to visit Thomasland. My wife and I are not particularly keen on theme parks but it seemed like a good idea with it also having a zoo and some rides specifically suited to that age group. It was very much a mixed day and we left the place thinking we probably would not return any time soon.
The good points are definitely the speed with which we got into the park. For some reason we were unable to get tickets prior to the day so we had to wait by the coach while the organisers got them. Still once we were sorted it was a quick trip across a car-park (crossing a busy entrance road but there was someone stopping the traffic) and then to the main entrance. Maybe we arrived after everyone else, but there was absolutely no waiting to get into the park which was a real joy after spending 90 minutes on the coach.
We visited the zoo part first as it seemed a little quieter than the rest of the park. It was quite a hot day so we both felt a bit sorry for the penguins stuck in their manky concrete enclosure which didn't have any water in it (they did fill it up later at feeding time). We thought that it was probably a good thing that the sealions had been removed from the park as part of a breeding program. At least it spared them a similar fate. There were lots of primates and exotic birds to see and also a zoo shop (but why steps at the entrance of it?). The tigers were very impressive and the glass window of their enclosure allows you to get very close to them. This is great as so many of the other enclosures are the double-barrier type which keep you further away for safety and play havoc with auto-focus cameras.
It didn't take long for us to see everything at the zoo and our little monkey really enjoyed the play-park at the back. Although we were quite wary of the big sand pit as one little lad had been left unsupervised and seemed to enjoy throwing sand in other peoples faces. Still you can't blame the park for irresponsible parents. It was quite annoying to see the ice-cream kiosk was closed on such a hot day; but it was nice to see the toilets were clean. My wife later commented that the baby-changing facilities were awful though. It was nice to see good provision for bad weather in the form of the reptile and small mammal buildings. It was also good to see the keepers giving talks about the animals when we popped back later for feeding times.
Thomasland was the main reason for our visit and it soon became apparent that just about everyone else was there for it too as it really was crammed. There were a good selection of rides for the youngsters, some of which have height restrictions but the majority were accessible to youngsters accompanied by A parent (capitalised A because most of them had a one-adult only restriction imposed). The queues were awful though, typically about 30+ minutes per ride and most of the rides only lasted a couple of minutes. The whole place was crowded with pushchairs and prams giving the place a real claustrophobic feel. Still, junior really enjoyed the classic car ride and the merry-go-round. We considered ourself very lucky that he is not that interested in Thomas as the prices in the toy shop were around 20% higher than high-street stores (we bought him a my-first-Thomas the day before just incase he took an interest and I would advise others to likewise think ahead).
We did enjoy the train ride which we could all go on together and it also showed us a bit more of the park. If D.M. have any future expansion plans I would really advise them to extend this to go further, possibly even linking up all the park entrances. Our little monkey was absolutely fascinated by all the big rides which he is too young to go on but he could see from the train. Again it was nice to see things like a soft-play area although this seems to be run using timed sessions. Our lad seemed quite keen on this but as we had a wait of 20+ minutes we decided to look for a picnic bench instead. There are plenty of these around the pirate-ship lake.
It was quite annoying to see lots of food & drink kiosks in the main park were also closed, leading to mammoth queues at the ones which were open. Buying an ice-cream took as long as queing for the rides. We also had difficulty finding a place that sold bottled water for the journey back but we were lucky enough to discover the little shop by the light-house which had some fruit-shoots in their fridge. We ended up here during a shower which gave us a chance to visit the Neptune amuesement arcade. It was nice to see some traditional machines like the penny cascades (or 2p and 10p as they were). There were also traditional coin roulette machines and an assortment of grabber machines filled with all manner of stuffed toys. There were also lots of slot machines and video games for older kids.
On the whole it was not a bad day out but I'm not really sure it would be worth as much as it would have cost us to go by car. If we do go back it will be when our son is old enough to go on more of the rides and we will definitely be avoiding the school holidays. Having one entry fee and free rides may make it better value for those with older children but I suspect our next trip will be to Blackpool instead.
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cool review! Omg, the pics look, well, terrific o_O
cport80 04.08.2008 16:42
Yes we still had a good day thanks to the weather being on our side. My review was not meant to put people off going but to give some idea of the day we had. The thrill-seeker rides were a bit pointless for us as O/H can't ride them for medical reasons and junior is too young & small. Your experience may differ.
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Aug 4th, 2008
very helpful by (100%):
