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2024: General Discussion

DrukenBarrel said:
Hi Elise, do you know what happened to Sir Topham Hatt's Steam Team, before Rusty and Dusty took over? We had a really memorable trip one Halloween and they were on top form. The three of them were really funny, and obviously enjoyed working together. There was a Miss Kiki (who later went by the name Station Mistress Sally) and Chloe (who was lovely and friendly with our little ones when they also ran the hotel entertainment in the evening). We love Rusty and Dusty but I hope the Steam Team were able to go on to new adventures.

Oh, and another memory now I'm in a nostalgic mood, does anyone remember Freddie the Fungineer?
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I do not I'm afraid but I'll see what I can find.
I didn't meet any of them personally - do you remember what sort of time they were around?

I remember the circus many many years ago.
Used to visit the park a lot as a kid then didn't go for ages and now I visit more than ever
 
Dan_R said:
I do not think this new coaster will be opening until very late into the season. It is pretty bad to be in mid April, with the three headline attractions the park has, all still shut, plus they are still charging full price gate entry.

There are ALOT of very angry people on social media regarding this and quite rightly so to be honest, when all three of the parks largest attractions are shut, this includes the yet un announced new coaster.

Parks will always hide behind their 'we reserve the right to close any ride at any time' T&C crap, which is not worth the paper it is printed on to be fair, not when people are leaving the park early, leaving angry and are not inclined to return, which is a frequent sentiment I am seeing on social media.

Drayton Manor have possibly dropped the ball a little bit regarding this if you ask me. They are advertising that this is their biggest season yet, Is it? It does not look like it, you are already angering customers left right and centre and are yet to open three headline attractions. So far, one of the worst season starts yet.
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I agree it hasn't been the best start to the season... hopefully within a few weeks they can get The Wave open, which might decrease the amount of angry customers.
 
I think the park has had some bad publicity and given the removal of the friends and family tickets from annual passes then reinstatement and new offers, the ride availability with the loss of shockwave and the more thrilling rides, plus Maelstram it has created a few problems. I think the new coaster could be open for the main summer season, hence why I suspect the hype hasn't really been there. Stormforce reopening for the season now, they do need to make a bigger splash about these things, mind the pun.

It has been a weaker ride offering in one sense, but if you look back 5 years, the future looked bleak. The loss of the marketing team has seen a reduction in overall marketing in my view. However some of the marketing has been good, so maybe it will pick up. Alton Towers and Thorpe park have massive rides opening along with Legoland. Once Hyperia is open then maybe the hype will focus on the new coaster, which if they are targeting July opening, could be a marketing strategy and actually a good move. I think everyone wants this open in May, but only if it is finished. I will be going to Legoland in late may to try their offering. Looking at vlogs, Legoland opened the new dualling coaster unfinished in terms of theming, so hopefully Looping get this right.

Hopefully the wave will be open very shortly, it could still be the biggest for the park, but there have been mistakes that the park needs to learn from. I note the comments on T&C and the ride availably on the website. A lot of people book in advance and want to. There is too much last minute announcements, like the Bank holiday announced two weeks in advance.

I am hopeful that with some of the events, that they can pull this back and the new coaster is the ride that takes everyone by surprise. We may have seen the layout and the general construction, but we don't really know a lot about it. All of the coasters will be rideable by 1.2m, which means that the park will only have a couple of rides which children can't ride until they hit 1.3m.

Lets try and be positive, Looping have invested heavily and the future of the park could be great.
 
Elise said:
I believe they are all external hire yes
A lot of attractions outsource their entertainment - its a common thing to do, especially when looking to cover events and particular dates :)
The dinosaur team who look after the dinosaurs at Dinobreakout are another external company.

As to how I know, I am a part time performer myself so I know a lot of entertainments companies. (At the moment, I do not work with any companies in particular, I am a charity based performer.)

I think the only one that uses an in-house entertainment team that I know of is Merlin Entertainments.
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Do you know what company they are with??
 
So gutted for my son today. We decided to do a last min trip to Drayton Manor this afternoon. Got to the park at 2.10 then I realised that I had left my phone on charge at home. So went home to get it and took him to the park instead.
 
Elise said:
I do not I'm afraid but I'll see what I can find.
I didn't meet any of them personally - do you remember what sort of time they were around?

I remember the circus many many years ago.
Used to visit the park a lot as a kid then didn't go for ages and now I visit more than ever
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Chloe and Miss Kiki were there in 2016.
 
These look nice, they’ve popped up on accelerator.
 

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They should offer discount tickets for Annual pass holders. Like 20% off the online price for the Safari park would be good. They could even include pleasurewood hills.
 
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