Drayton Manor Theme Park media

On the 12th of August, my aunt and uncle, two cousins, my brother, our friend, another friend of our cousins, and myself all went to the Drayton Manor Theme Park. I have some pictures and at least one video of our time there:

This is G-Force, and was the only ride all eight of us went on (though not at the same time). It is the first "proper" rollercoaster I have ever ridden, and was the second one our group visited during the trip to Drayton Manor (the first was Maelstrom, which I have a video of later on in this post). I impressed everyone by being the only one who did not make any sound whatsoever while on the ride; if anything, I was more worried about my camera being crushed by the brace than I was about anything else going on. Still, it was my first-time on a real ride and it was fun.

This is actually an image my brother took while we were waiting to ride G-Force. It shows a little more of the park, and the ride pictured is entitled Splash Canyon.

I took this of G-Force's car returning to its bay: everyone except my aunt and I rode it when it went next, as there was not enough room for us to board, but we went on the following turn.

My aunt, both cousins, and I all then went on a ride called Shockwave, a high-capacity ride where you had to stand, though you did have a large "bicycle seat" underneath you (I was silent on this ride too). I did not get any images of Shockwave, but I did take this picture of Splash Canyon form the ground once the Shockwave ride had finished.

We went to the zoo area of Drayton Manor after lunch, as it is not a good idea to go on any rides for at least an hour after eating. I have to admit that the zoo was my least favourite part of Drayton Manor, as I felt that a zoo really should not be at an amusement park (too much noise from people, and animals need peace and quiet), and because I thought that the enclosures were too small for some of the animals. The tiger had a large enclosure, however, and I heard that it had actually been expanded, which I thought was good. My brother got this nice picture of a mallard with her ducklings, though none of them were part of the zoo and were free to roam!

My two cousins really want to go on this ride, Apocalypse. Essentially, a car (one on each side) takes four people to the top of the tower, and once there, it rushes back down to the ground again at high-speed (less than five seconds from the top to the bottom). All eight of us watched the people going before us so we could make a decision on whether to go on it or not: in the end, only my cousins and my aunt went on it. Even though we did not want to go on Apocalypse, it was still good to watch.

Now I certainly have a story to tell about this one! This picture is of the Haunted House: everyone except for my aunt and two cousins were waiting in line for to go on it. However, they finished their ride on Apocalypse and went to join us to see what we were up to; they had decided that they wanted to go on a ride called the Splash Canyon Rapids, and anyone who wanted to go with them was welcome to do so. Everyone except my uncle and I went with them: after all, my uncle and I had been in the queue for half an hour, and we wanted to stick with the Haunted House at least to justify the wait.

Let me say that the others made the right choice to go on the Splash Canyon Rapids! When our wait was finally over, both of us plus a large group of people (the ride is high-capacity) were herded into a small room with two monitors. Then, the monitors activated, and a man somewhat reminiscent of Dr. Evil informed us that a "team" had been sent into the house and never returned. Once the video had finished informing us of our possible doom, we were led into the house.

The first part of the house was a hallway that went pitch black, made lots of "scary" noises, and a skeleton appeared from the ceiling. We then went into a larger room with a painting of what was presumably the "owner" of the house, and the lighting went and the subject of the painting changed to become some sort of "shrunken head" (the real "owner" of the house). In the words of my uncle, the painting became "some German guy who wanted to destroy us", as the head spoke in a German accent and told us about all the horrible things he was going to do to the group. The final room of the house contained the ride itself...a pendulum with benches: the ride had only a mild swing to it, plus lots of darkness, more "scary" noises, evil laughter...and that was it. My uncle and I walked out laughing and went to meet the others. If anything, the ride was worth going on just to talk and laugh about later!

Finally, this is the video I took of Maelstrom, the first ride members of our group went on. It can be unnerving to even watch this ride in motion, so imagine what actually being on Maelstrom is like!

We had ice cream after the others got off the Splash Canyon Rapids ride (I managed to get two cones for my ice cream somehow!), and then we made our way back to the car park. One of our friends was dropped off at her home on the way back to my aunt and uncle's house, and our other friend was to spend the weekend camping with one of my cousins. The rest of us went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner: surprisingly, I never got to eat at a Mexican restaurant while living in the United States (though I had eaten Mexican food), so this was another first for the day.

Drayton Manor Theme Park was a fun experience, and if I had the chance to go again I would. Everyone had a fantastic time at the place and left with satisfaction.