Yeah, a non IP based dark ride would be great. I feel a non generic dark ride might work well too. As great as British dark rides were in the early 90's, John Wardley commented that the UK was building 'It's a small pirates life haunted mansion'. As a reference to what British parks were doing by ripping of Disney themed attractions to build there own.
That said, I feel something works so well with Pirates, water and a dark ride. So it would be awesome to see one of those back. But failing that, a truly original themed, dark water ride would be amazing, amazing for Drayton Manor too.
Sadly, I do not think there is any company outside Merlin in the UK, that has the skills and most importantly the capacity any more, to be able to build something on such a large scale as Pirate Adventure. Even though we in the UK, built amazing and large dark rides (we even built massive parts of Disney Land Paris' Pirates of the Caribbean. The trade has sadly died in the UK outside Merlin, meaning help would almost certainly be needed from an international company. Further pushing up prices to build such a thing.
This is why, sadly, I do not see another large scale dark ride being built in place of Pirates Adventure. I hope I am wrong I really do, but the economics and realities to make it work inside 2023 Britain are sadly very much against such a project. Unless you are either Merlin, or have bucket loads of cash.
That said, I feel something works so well with Pirates, water and a dark ride. So it would be awesome to see one of those back. But failing that, a truly original themed, dark water ride would be amazing, amazing for Drayton Manor too.
Sadly, I do not think there is any company outside Merlin in the UK, that has the skills and most importantly the capacity any more, to be able to build something on such a large scale as Pirate Adventure. Even though we in the UK, built amazing and large dark rides (we even built massive parts of Disney Land Paris' Pirates of the Caribbean. The trade has sadly died in the UK outside Merlin, meaning help would almost certainly be needed from an international company. Further pushing up prices to build such a thing.
This is why, sadly, I do not see another large scale dark ride being built in place of Pirates Adventure. I hope I am wrong I really do, but the economics and realities to make it work inside 2023 Britain are sadly very much against such a project. Unless you are either Merlin, or have bucket loads of cash.
