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March Event: March Of The Dinosaurs

Elise

Elise

Team Member
Team Member
With February's Dinosaur Breakout event over and done with, we move onto the next event in Drayton's event calendar for 2023: March Of The Dinosaurs which runs from the 10th – 31st March
The Raptors are on the loose! Venture into the DINOverse on selected dates between 10th – 31st March.

Be sure to keep your wits about you, as our sneaky Raptors like to keep a close eye on any guests. Venture into the park to see our adorable baby dinos, and train like to be a pro ranger in our Raptor Live Show.

Alongside all this excitement, you can also enjoy some of your favourite rides & attractions including Thomas Land, the Dino Trail, Jormungandr, Loki, Bounty Pirate Ship and much more.

What do you think of this second installment of Dinosaurs at Drayton Manor? Do you think there will be many changes from Dinosaur Breakout?

This event looks like it will focus more on the Raptors so expect a return of Raptor Training and Echo the Raptor from Dinosaur Breakout!
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I don’t think there will be much entertainment wise, I enquired about what to expect when planning which events to go to and this was the response via Twitter.
 
Charliie said:
Here’s the message
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Sounds like we will see the return of Raptor training and maybe see some roaming raptors instead of the other dinosaurs - a lot less dinosaurs so less Meet&Greets. I would have done the events the other way around if that is the case.
 
Loved the Feb event but this one seems a bit ‘let’s make it an event for the sake of it’. It’s basically a normal low season day with Bubbling Boilers replaced with a show that does a meet and greet?
 
Yeah, I think its a sign of how well the half term event was done that our visit today was pretty underwhelming to be honest.

Nothing against the staff that were there doing the dino stuff (they were great) but it basically consisted on the raptor show and some of the baby dinos doing meet and greets. It was a bit sad seeing the promo materials and schedules for the Dino Breakout still in place in the toilets etc. Just showed the contrast.

I think the lack of input was shown by the queue for the raptor training at 2.30 with a very large queue and very few remaining seats.

Thor was in use, although there was some downtime, and the trucks were back in order. The wet rides in Thomas Land (flynn and salty(?)) both appeared to be waterless.

It meant that although we didn't get to the park before 1, we were done by 3.30 Although the lack of queues for everything (apart from the show) was beneficial in that regard.

Can't help but feel that if anyone booked after seeing the promos for the half term event they were going to be a bit disappointed. Its almost if Dino Breakout was and amazing party and this was the hangover.
 
RustyShackleford said:
Yeah, I think its a sign of how well the half term event was done that our visit today was pretty underwhelming to be honest.

Nothing against the staff that were there doing the dino stuff (they were great) but it basically consisted on the raptor show and some of the baby dinos doing meet and greets. It was a bit sad seeing the promo materials and schedules for the Dino Breakout still in place in the toilets etc. Just showed the contrast.

I think the lack of input was shown by the queue for the raptor training at 2.30 with a very large queue and very few remaining seats.

Thor was in use, although there was some downtime, and the trucks were back in order. The wet rides in Thomas Land (flynn and salty(?)) both appeared to be waterless.

It meant that although we didn't get to the park before 1, we were done by 3.30 Although the lack of queues for everything (apart from the show) was beneficial in that regard.

Can't help but feel that if anyone booked after seeing the promos for the half term event they were going to be a bit disappointed. Its almost if Dino Breakout was and amazing party and this was the hangover.
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I think this was just a space filler event more than anything to fill the days before the main park opens. I do agree that a bigger effort should have been made especially as this is advertised as a special event. In regards to the water rides in Thomas land , I asked about why there was no water and a few different staff members told us that they keep the water switched off during the colder months but still operate the rides.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
I think the budget will be saved for next month’s Thomas Land 15th birthday celebration.
I think they know the park will be dead with just annual pass visitors and families with young kids as most visitors will be waiting for the summer season.
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Yeah, it's just that I think that its a rare misstep in the midst of what has been a brilliant image and profile building strategy.

We're all fans of the park here and want to see it do well. When I see some, frankly ridiculous, criticisms from guests on review sites who couldn't organise their way out of a paper bag I roll my eyes so hard others can hear it.

But on this occasion I can't help but think that they should have just said it was a normal day but there may be extra or bonus additions, a raptor training show and the chanec to see and have your photo taken with baby dinosaurs then I reckon folks would have been really happy with that.

To go so big at half term, to (completely correctly) show and publicise the event may have lead folks to think that the "March of the Dinosaurs" event would be comparable. Those who may have seen and then booked yesterday on the basis of that would probably been disappointed. It invites the 1 star reviews and the snarky comments on Facebook. Which is such a shame.

If you aren't going to do a lot, much better to under-promise and over-deliver rather than the other way round.
 
Dinosaur Breakout was a brilliant event - I agree that this does feel like a strange event to put just after it... Its a very "light" version of Dinobreakout.
I haven't had a chance to get to MOTD yet, might be able to get there later this month if I get the time to see if there are any changes from the format you're mentioning but I feel like this will be all we see for this event.
 
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