Draytonmanor Reviews 

By far the worst theme park in the United Kingdom. Let’s start with the operations — easily the worst I’ve ever seen. Most attractions run at less than half of their possible capacity, and rides are not tested before opening, which results in high-demand rides being closed for half the day.

Overall, the park is poorly maintained — plenty of unclean areas and even some insulting graffiti.

The zoo section is also disappointing, with many empty enclosures. Some social animals, like capybaras, are kept alone, which is just not right.

All in all, I would never consider coming back and can’t recommend it to anyone.

You cannot contact Draytonmanor by phone or email. The email is treated as feedback and not an enquiry.
The idea is to take a chance and hope for the best. I wanted to know if there is a ticket to purchase to avoid queues. It was not offered on the website - so I guess only for certain cases. This is very disappointing to know that the theme park does not help before or after a visit.

If you are thinking of coming here in the school holidays and want to go on the bigger rides then I’d seriously not bother. My daughter has special needs and they wouldn’t accept my national carers card for her, luckily they did give us the access pass, even though we used it in Disney, London Eye, London Aquarium and various other places. I’d love to know how much of a cut either they or Nimbus get from parks who only accept their cards.
We got here at 10.15, it took 30 minutes to get parked then and by 1pm we’d still not been on a single ride and were still queueing for over an hour for Gold Rush for then there to be a technical problem we waited another 25 minutes and then another announcement saying support team were still on there way meaning we never even got on it!! My daughter then had a meltdown as did lots of other children in the queue. I then had to try and clam her down and then then didn’t want to go on any other rides as was anxious she’d have wait 1.5 hours plus to get on it.
We paid over £110 for our tickets and I’d not have paid £20 for! God knows how long people without the access passes had to queue.
Some of rides were shut, they were also doing something where people could ride for 75 minutes on a ride, non of this we were informed about before booking had we been we’d never have visited.
There’s no app or signs saying what wait times are it’s an utter shambles, how with technology today is it not possible to let people know how long the wait is? We queued far less on bank holiday weekend at Disney than what we have here. I dread to think how long people queued without an access pass you’d be lucky to get on 3 of the big rides.
TOP TIP DON’T BOTHER, SAVE YOUR MONEY!

Having read the other reviews (sadly after my visit) and having looked into the ownership of Drayton manor I can take a guess at what's happening.
Our visit yesterday was hard work. It shouldn't have been. Of the 7 hours we were on site 6 of them were spent standing in queues, including for two rides which broke down. Chatting with other visitors they reported a lot more breakdowns on the day. Seems like they aren't maintaining the equipment, but have money to spend on branding and merchandising. All the waiting areas had an inch of dust on them, cobwebs and offensive graffiti. Again, lack of maintenance.
It seems to me that since the Bryan family sold to the Looping group there is no longer any local involvement, so it's run for profit from a European HQ. That's my guess.
Some stats:
Food - £17 plain pizza; £4 for a thin syrup mix Coke; £7.50 Hot dog. Locker hire £5. Parking £10 (major profit on this).
There is currently a free return visit offered with tickets purchased, but really I don't fancy spending most of the day standing waiting.
The queue jumpers were allowed to do so, despite the signs, by the staff.
For further info check these out (links not allowed by TP):
looping-group
paipartners
Wikipedia Drayton_Manor_Resort
Finally, I notice there are no replies to the comments in Trust Pilot for Drayton.

Might be an idea to actually put better signage as we waited in a queue for 15 minutes to be told it was the fast track queue and were told to go round to the normal queue. I didn’t bother going on the ride spoilt the day really

After coming to Drayton manor previously and be dealt with in awful way my daughter who has turned 17 has requested to go here again!! I’m reluctant to take her, there’s no family tickets available online, the 2 tickets for 45 with a time frame of going before the 8th of August is utter rubbish, prices sky high try
To contact Drayton manor no response I’ve tried all there social accounts and sent emails over the past week NOTHING!

The reason im giving it a 1 star isnt because I hated the place or the rides.It is because of how HORRIBLY they delt with a situation yesterday.Yesterday a child hit my son in Emily Soft play area and both my childs came out crying.I asked them what happend they say someone hit them.I told the person who was at the entrance at the soft play about it and then they called security and someone else comes.They didnt take ANY action about this.All she did was talk to the child and smile laugh with the child.Thats all she did not only my son the child hit but the child hit other people's children too and she didnt take any action.This happened on 28th of July 2025 at 15:00-16:00.
The name of the staff member who was in this situation is Emma.
The tag on the radio said Emma-A1 and she was wearing black uniform.

Had a great day,long ques for rides but that’s to be expected in the summer holidays… only complaint is the amount of rubbish in the car park, have your picnics by the car but CLEAN up your MESS …. bottles, crisp packets, napkins, food… disgusting especially when most people who are having picnics are with children who should know better and teach their children and themselves to take their rubbish home or put in the bin.

Visited Drayton Manor on 28th June 2025 as a birthday treat for my young son and unfortunately the experience left us all incredibly disappointed.

Two rides broke down during our visit Storm Force 10 (which broke down twice while we were on it) and Maelstrom. This caused a lot of stress, especially for the children, and left us trying to manage upset little ones instead of enjoying the day.

No real support was offered at the time, and we weren’t made aware of the option to visit Guest Services for an exit pass. After reaching out to the park following the visit, I received an apology and a 25% discount on a future trip but nothing more, despite the safety concerns and the ruined birthday outing.

For a park that brands itself as family-focused, I expected more compassion and accountability. I hope others have a better experience than we did, but sadly, this trip wasn’t the special memory we hoped to create.

Dear manager, this is my review for your horrible park. It started off as a wonderful car ride, pulling into the signs saying “adventure round every corner” that got our hopes up. When we walked in, we discovered “queues around every corner” was the real deal. Anyways, our first ride was river rapids, it was really good. Then this is where the horror starts. Storm force 10. The worst ride in the park. The horror all started when I was happily waiting in the queue. 20 minutes turned to 30, 40, an hour! I looked to see what was happening. Somebody was stuck! But they got going again after, 20 minutes or so. Then the conveyor belt stopped working! 30 more minutes of waiting! Lastly, SOMEBODY ELSE GOT STUCK! An hour they were stuck right at the giant drop. Then after 3 warnings (which proves they need someone else to check the ride before anyone rides it) they shut the ride. RIGHT AS WE WERE 2ND IN LINE!! AN HOUR WASTED. We could’ve gone on so much more 😭. Then we went to check out the haunted house. “Technical difficulties” the man out front said. I felt like crying. But that means they got the best of me. So I did Thor and ended the day because all the other rides, either weren’t on, or I did already do them but they were good so I didn’t need to put them in this review. Over all, 1 star. If I could do zero stars, trust me, I would.

My family and I have been trying to book tickets to visit this park since April 2025. I’ve already booked a hotel as well as a minibus to coincide with this visit.
I have sent a few emails asking about the availability of tickets for the theme park. As the month of July, August, September and October 2025 were completely unattainable, I was wondering if there was a problem with their site.
There is no telephone contact at all. No response from emails sent. Dare you call the hotel, you will get a quick and frosty response redirecting you to the online services. I have never in my 60+ years of life experienced someone quite as rude as this.
If this is the person on the frontline of your business, God help you!!!!

My two children went on a school trip on Friday 11th July. We paid £80 for this, plus spending money. Neither of them got to go on a single ride! My daughter said it just wasn’t worth queueing and my son queued for 4.5hours(!!!) For maelstrom in horrendous heat and had to give up in the end. How can this possibly be acceptable?! Staff were dealing badly with the whole queue, and fast passes were overly prioritised (my son wasn’t aware of the opportunity to purchase one, and why should we have to pay twice just to enable them to go on ONE SINGLE RIDE after already paying £80?!)

There were far, far too many other school bookings on the day. It is completely unethical of the park to allow so many group bookings at once. I don’t think a single child at their school enjoyed the trip, and this was supposed to be a reward day! Absolutely appalled, will never return as a family and will recommend others don’t either.

Massive wait times for rides, no app to inform que times.
Child got to go on 1 ride all day..
Disgusting.

Our daughter went today on a school trip to Drayton Manor. She was there for a good portion of the day and only went on one ride. The queue was 4 hours long. I asked her why on earth she waited that long or even got in the queue in the first place ? She said there was no staff at the queue entrance or any indication as to the length of the queue and once in the queue, no way to get out. To be honest, Alton Towers is just as bad, they have a mad rush of school trips this time of year and clearly are happy to massively oversell tickets. Personally I think its pretty disgusting, kids that are hugely excited about going on loads of rides then totally let down. These places should limit the amount of tickets sold per day, so everyone enjoys themselves. Need to do better ! Profit over quality, not good.

Had a enjoyable experience at times but..... We went specifically for Thomas land as we have very young children and 2 older children. Myself and one child had access pass due to disability. On rides with small ques we chose the use the normal lane rather than waiting at the exit. We were first in line for one ride. We got let in and I assisted my disabled son on the ride, by the time I was done the ride attendant had let too many people in and there was not enough spaces for my family (remembering we were first in line and had 2 disabled people in our party) when questioning it the ride attendant just shrugged and said I must have miss counted. My disabled son was already on the ride and needed me to ride with him, getting him off would have been a nightmare, then one of my older children needed to be with me. Fair play my 13 year old said don't worry mum il just sit out. He was first in qué, no other person offered to get off so our party could ride despite our disabilities, clearly displayed access passes and being first in que. So be prepared to be let down at times. Was our second ride so didn't start great

My daughter was on a school trip but became very poorly so was asked by the teachers to come collect her at the entrance car park, I was less than 5 minutes and got charged £9.90! I could understand if parking all day but think this is extreme in these situations, didn’t expect free but they could charge less for under 30 minutes she was too Poorly to walk to the barriers

had a great day out, kids said it was the best day ever.

pre paid parking worked flawlessly, plenty of space to park. was some queues but its always to be expected at theme parks, as are delays due to breakdowns/safety checks. we managed to get on pretty much everything on a busy day without any fast pass (which seem awfully overpriced).

nice that a lot of the queuing is under cover in case it does rain.

least shocking thing of the day was that a ride called storm force 10 got you wet.. some of these negative reviews really are beyond pathetic.

Drayton Manor Theme Park – Disappointing Experience
I visited Drayton Manor with my three children, having purchased tickets online in advance for four people, plus parking. Worth noting: parking isn't included and costs an extra £8, bringing the total to around £130.
We arrived just before opening, at around 10:30am. After queuing for about 20–25 minutes, we headed straight for what’s advertised as the park’s highlight attraction – Stormforce 10. Only one of my daughters (aged 10) was brave enough to try it, so I went with her while the others waited.
The ride has several safety restrictions, including warnings against riding if you're pregnant, have heart or back problems, or are afraid of heights. The height requirement is 1.3m+.
We were seated in the fourth row of the boat (the first three rows were taken or left empty for balance). The seats were already wet, which was a bit unpleasant, but we didn’t think much of it at the time.
What followed was, frankly, shocking. Within seconds of the ride starting, we were absolutely drenched with freezing water – not a light splash, but full-on soaked from head to toe. It was about 10°C outside, cloudy, with a cold wind – and this was at 11 in the morning. Our clothes were saturated: coats, jumpers, t-shirts, underwear, socks, and even our closed shoes. There was a puddle in the boat and our feet were sitting in water. Water was literally dripping from our hair and faces.
The ride itself seemed to pause several times – likely waiting for the next group or due to wind – so we sat there freezing for what felt like 10–15 minutes, only to be soaked again near the end. By the time we got off, we were completely soaked and shivering. My daughter was literally chattering from the cold.
What was most frustrating was the lack of any prior warning. If we had been told that we’d get completely wet – not just a bit sprayed like on most water rides – we’d have made a different choice or at least prepared better. When we asked staff why there was no proper warning, we were met with the usual “It’s only water” response.
We asked where we could dry off and were directed to the toilets, where there was a Dyson hand dryer – which blows cold air for about 10 seconds, then stops for 30. We spent about an hour trying to dry anything with it – completely in vain.
We eventually found Guest Services and explained the situation – that we were soaked, freezing, and genuinely concerned about getting ill. We asked if we could book a room at the park’s hotel (visible just across a fence) even just for an hour to get warm and dry – we were willing to pay – but we were told to go back to the toilet and use the same cold hand dryers.
At this point, we left the park. At the gate, they stamped our wet hands so we could return – but the stamp rubbed off within seconds.
What was meant to be a special day out for the kids was ruined before it had even properly started. But worse than that – I ended up seriously ill afterwards, developing a throat infection that turned into severe tonsillitis requiring antibiotics with strong side effects. I’m still recovering and unable to work. I gave my daughter all the dry and warm clothes we had with us, but I caught a bad chill as a result.
I absolutely cannot recommend this park. At the very least, they need to put clear and visible warnings on that ride and provide a proper place for guests to dry off. The way the situation was handled was completely unsatisfactory.

We had an absolute ball - just an unbeatable day last week. However, we purchased a railway set from the gift shop which is missing all off the track pieces. I’ve tried two phone numbers and 3 emails, none of which work. I’ve messaged instagram. Nothing.

Please can someone contact me asap.

Thankyou

Absolutely love wasting police time over nothing