26 May 2024
Drayton Manor has an exciting 2024 season ahead of them and we are here to cover one of the biggest updates of them all. This being The Wave, the retheme and adjustment from the thrilling coaster Shockwave. The Wave has been introduced to add a more thrilling family ride to fit the target audience of the resort, as well as a refreshed theme to the area it is situated in.
Drayton Manor Resort is a theme park which can be found in Tamworth, Staffordshire in the UK. Known for its Zoo and Thomas Land, the park has been expanding & developing to be one of the best family theme parks to visit. With recent developments in the park, they have in recent years been adding more to the park, redeveloping areas and existing attractions to bring them more in line of the audience they are appealing to. You can experience a range of newer events, from Halloween to the Vikings Festival, through to the colourful Fiestival.
They have also added the new Vikings area back in 2022 which has been a huge success for the park with the latest addition of more family friendly events. With the rapids area being rethemed and now with The Wave, the park are on a roll with great updates. Earlier this year, they even redeveloped another area of the park with a Wild West theme which will include a new coaster for 2024!
However, with all these exciting developments, below is our experience of The Wave media preview at the end of April…
On arrival to Drayton Manor, we collected our media passes and headed to the The Wave area for some food & drinks that had been put on from us. With plenty on offer, it was hugely popular with all of the invitees. After settling in, Victoria Lynn (managing director), gave a short speech to welcome us, and briefly explained the process behind retaining the parks iconic coaster as the next step for the resort. From here, it was now our turn to take on the new coaster, labelled as the UKs most thrilling family coaster.
We believe The Wave now stands out in the area with its colourful surf theme and is perfect for the target audience the park is now more focused on than ever before. Entering through the queue line, you can see a number of surf themed items and feel good posters throughout. Whilst quite simple in theming, it is much better than it was before.
Entering into the station, they have two queues where it splits, with guests wanting the front row going one side whilst the rest of the rows can choose the other. We would say that waiting for the front can extend your waiting time a bit, so only choose this option if you really want the front. With the ride now being sit down only, this has brought the height restriction down to 1.2m to ride, which allows a whole new audience to experience The Wave.
The Wave is still the same track and ride as Shockwave, so not much has changed from that side of things. With this said though, the ride is completely different. With it now being sat down and trains being new, it feels a lot smoother and much more comfortable as you travel around the track. So much so, you could happily go on this time & time again, compared to Shockwave being quite a lot for many guests and therefore only wanting to ride once. Another key feature of the ride is now it has a lap bar as its restraint, which is a very popular style in this day & age. This gives you more of a free experience as you ride and provides a whole new experience.
The ride has had a few new bits of theming adding to it, with this being from the entrance portal and the new billboard which you ‘break’ through half way through the ride. Small additions like this was nice to see and fits the ride experience.
After several rides on The Wave, we spent our time in front of the ride and enjoyed the entertainment Drayton Manor had put on in the form of a DJ. He was playing some great party classics to keep the good vibe going for this event.
As this event came towards the end, we had a fantastic time checking out The Wave has only one of the new additions coming to the park for 2024. The Wave provides a colourful, fun and family aimed attraction to the resort whilst keeping it thrilling. The Wave was so much better than we thought it would be and we look forward to coming back later in the year to ride it again.
A huge thank you to Drayton Manor for inviting us to the event and letting us be one of the first few people to try out The Wave. The ride is now open and you can experience The Wave during your next visit.
As we said, this is not the only ride that Drayton Manor are excited to launch, with a new coaster on the horizon to be launched this summer. For more news and information on this, keep an eye on ours and Drayton Manors social media!
@thrillnation Do you want to experience THE WAVE at @Drayton Manor... Now with an upgraded theme and lap bar seating!? 🌊🎢 #thewave #shockwave #new #rollercoaster #experience #themepark #draytonmanor #staffordshire ♬ Happy Summer - Vin Music
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