Draytonmanor Reviews 

Top customer service as we booked our family day at the park for our youngest’s birthday and unfortunately the night before I smashed my thumb at work so I couldn’t go on any of the rides and after visiting the park they have given us a full refund so we can come another day. Brilliant and thank you so much 👍

My wife booked yesterday for 4 adults one child for this Friday 27th and £108 was taken off her credit card. She hasn't received any email or tickets and the only way to contact is email which says allow 10 days for a response. What absolute rubbish customer service when 4 days time you've booked for. Now we have a dilemma, travel the 86 miles without tickets, with just the credit card statement and no booking number or not turn up and try to get our money back. Currently wished we hadn't booked.

awful customer service!! I tried to use 2 friends and family code which started to work until the drayton manor website crashed. This was 2 weeks. so I emailed as I was still hoping to take my 6 year old. they got back to me over a week later and there is no phone number to call to resolve quickly. I am disgusted that a large company has such poor customer service response times. When the lady replied on email she didnt even offer to resolve. she said "did you sort it then" then when I replied I was told a reply would be 10 days.... I am so angry with drayton manor park

Decent park but lots of graffiti
The park itself is good, we didn't do the zoo sadly, but the rides were good, did gold rush twice on both cycles which was really good! Unique. The Wave was good but short. Love the way the water ride uses the lake in the middle. Sadly the park is very run down with graffiti everywhere, wasn't many food places open when we visited.

Bad customer service, good rides have gone used to be much better which is why I decided to take the family, never again.
Go to Alton Towers

Would have been 5 stars as my family thoroughly enjoyed it and looked forward to their free return tickets but!!!!!! They tell you that you can use your blue light for a discount but if you do use it, then you are not entitled to the free return visit after getting a couple £££ off the original price…don’t bother using the blue light discount, because your penalised for doing so.

Drayton manor, we spent all day here and had a wonderful time. 2 grandparents, mum and dad and 2 children under 3. We realise we chose a quiet day, no queues for rides, weather was excellent, the attendants on the rides were helpful and mostly smiley, can't wait to come back again.

Seems to be going downhill which is a real shame. Rides keep closing early or always have technical faults which is worrying. Park doesn’t have long opening times too so hard to get on all rides. Disappointing.

Got fast passes only to be told the paper ones are not accepted as we were supposed to get on the ride. Why give them if they're no good. Stupid.

We came to Drayton Manor Park on 08/09/2024 after being given a complimentary return after a bad experience at last years Halloween Event.

I have to say it was just as bad yet in a different way.

Ride operations were shocking especially on The Wave. I understand the ride checks take a bit longer but when the ride hosts spend ages talking and not doing their job that process takes longer to be started. It took far longer than it should have to dispatch rides on The Wave today.

Maelstrom 3 members of staff, all 3 went over to the RAP/Fast Track to "go see who was over there" why did it take all 3 to do it when 1 could have gone, 1 stood half way to be told and the other start loading the main queue? It was a massive waste of time. Which meant slow ride operations again on this ride

Jormungandr there were 2 people both took far to long to dispatch the coaster. Surely 1 should have started pre ride checks at the back and the other at the front to meet in the middle? No they followed each other like sheep checking the same twice!!!

Ride availability today shocking. Accelerator closed, Air Racers closed!! Maelstrom massive down time! The Haunting opened very late, Sheriff Showdown massive down time.

The staff in The Burger Kitchen, we ordered food, given food, missing a drink, informed staff member, got ignored until we literally had to stop him from working to finally get our missing drink. Kind of paid for it so wanted it.

Customer service was great on the rides in Thomas Land. Spoke to a lady called Bernie in the cafe near the Dinosaur part of the park who was brilliant. Me and the family had a great time there.

Many points to my review.

1. Drayton manor do not care about safety of guests. My son was shoved by a women on gold rush. We was walking into bay 2 of gold rush air gates. The women came out of her bay in bay 1. Ran at my son. Pushed him and he was pushed into the air gates behind. Her carer didnt even bother to aplogise. I understand its not her fault she didnt know what she was doing. But neither the carer or drayton did anything. He was left uncontrollably crying and went to ride staff to explain what happened. They did nothing other than say we can wait for the next train.

I have emailed a complaint regarding this 9 days ago. Only today 9 days later have I had a reply. A reply that they didn't take responsibility for their lack.of care that day. They said they reviewed cctv and seen a women running towards my son but they can't be "clear" if contact was made as it was a "blind spot" from how we was stood. that is a utter lie. When she ran at him and shoved him it was all in the same spot. They can see some of what happened but not the major part of what happened?? They tried to say she tripped over first, again. A lie. She tripped and fell backwards AFTER she had pushed him.!! My son is 10 this women was in her 30s so a shove from a big women is of course going to hurt a 10 year old child. They also claim it didn't look like.a shove hard enough for him.to hit his back. But yet claim they didn't see the contact?? And then said if distress or concerns was shown security would of come. My son was crying uncontrollably that was clear to see on cctv and ride staff?? Is that not clear distress??

2. We went on 2nd Sept it was absolutely heaving busy all queues was over 1.5 hours long gold rush over 2 hours long. Operations were ridiculous staff eas more bothered about talking to each other than getting guests on and off rides. The wave Operations it took 5 minutes to load and dispatch the 1 train they have.

It took 9 days for them to reply to my complaint. 9 days!! For them to shift blame and try and discredit what actually happened and blame blind spots on cameras.

They offered 25 percent off next visit. That is insulting and disgusting offer to make after our day was horrendous and such a bad experience. A free return is the least they could offer!!

And also ended badly with us stuck st the top car park 1.5 hours trying to get out!!!

I am now waiting for their reply again which I'm guessing will be yet another 9 days!!

Be very careful if anything happens to your children here. They don't have the care and compassion that they should of. Don't take accountability for anything that went wrong.

Would also like to make a point of how my son is. He is 10 very brave boy rides all the coasters at thorpe and towers. Including hyperia which he rode alone twice at thorpe. He never cries or gets that distressed ever! For him to cry so uncontrollably clearly something major had happened!

Big fan of Drayton Manor, Thomasland is superb for younger kids.

Smoking and Vaping however, is a problem on your site, particularly in Thomasland where it is prohibited, but not adequately policed. The signage is exceptionally limited and quite honestly you could do with customer service announcements highlighting regularly that Thomasland is a no vaping or smoking area. This is my biggest disappointment with your park, appreciating that its the visitors who sadly think that it is okay to smoke and vape wherever they feel like is prohibited areas and around my child.
I do appreciate that you cannot help the behaviour of your patrons, I do feel that you could do more in an effort to improve the situation.

I would like to give special mention to the following members of your staff.
The Fat Controller (Richard), Dusty (Jack) and Rusty (Alex). These individuals are an absolute credit to you, your park and the experience. I have a 6 year old daughter and we have been visiting Draytonmanor to come to Thomasland from Cornwall on multiple occasions since she was 3 years old. She loves Thomasland, but what elevates her experience from great to Fantastic are the Fat Controller plus Rusty and Dusty, from the many character breakfasts we have had staying at your hotel, where we have experienced with the fat controller singing happy birthday to our daughter. There is an absolute professionalism and joy that these people bring in the their performances and their meet and greets within the park, these members of staff go above and beyond and are a real credit to Draytonmanor and its park. They deserve special recognition and praise and are a complete credit to Drayton Manor and the reason that even though we live well over 4 hours drive away that we have regularly visited over the past several years and even purchased annual passes this season.

I would also like to give a mention to staff member Louise who can typically be found on the Troublesome Trucks ride, she is exceptionally pleasant and helpful and another credit to your organisation and worth of specific praise.

I would also highlight whilst these individuals particularly stood out and have done so on multiple visits to myself and my family the general standard of your staff interaction and presumably the training behind it is very high and a credit to the park. Keep up the great work!

I would also mention that you could improve the contact options at the hotel, it can be challenging to get to speak to someone at the hotel rather than getting the answering machine, when making a call you are clearly looking to speak to someone to get an instance answer, so this could be improved.

Went there yesterday….sat down in Thomas land (kids area ) to feed my granddaughter had some grown ass women come park her bottom next to me smoking a cigarette breathing her smoke over the push chair 😡😡 come on it’s a kids area this woman should know better …. Or jus have staff walking around to address this

Awful experience first time visit Drayton manor - no manors in staff whatsoever, rude cheaters, money robbing scammers - won 5 games in row and given me one prize because I won first one so I’m not eligible for prize again even playing for different game - this was joke of experience - never again - people stay away from them rather go to Alton towers

First & Last stay at Drayton Manor Resort.

Arrival was quick and easy offered a £50 upgrade on arrival. Felt odd but ok.
Was given room 001.
It was a noisy room as it was right near the lift & a pair of double doors, banging every time someone entered. kids screaming, heard every thing.

went to the front desk to ask if they had an onsite pharmacy as I had a headache. 6 staff members aged what looked like 16-20 huddled having a conversation. We stood and was completely ignored. Found it myself in the end.

The room was tidy, but not clean, hairs everywhere in the bathroom, broke soap dispenser,
door stop and window lock!
The toilet started making awful sounds all night then over flowed & was spitting g out sewage it smelt disgusting.
When the shower was on it literally started bubbling and gurgling.

I tried to call reception & services on the phone, nobody picked up. Went to speak to someone the queue was out the door as people tried to check out.
House keeping knocked on & I showed her, she was disgusted and said she’ll let someone know.
Yet no one came. Ended up using the communal bathroom to go toilet and brush our teeth was wasn’t ideal or hygienic.

The park staff looked over worked wasn’t the friendliest. First day we got to go on most rides,
2nd day seemed everything had technical difficulties which meant long waits for the other rides.

Restaurant staff were very polite and attentive, they offered help throughout.
They saved the experience from being a complete disappointment.

We had never visited Drayton Manor before today, and in hindsight, I wish we had done some research beforehand, as it seems our experience mirrors that of many other visitors. We spent over £100 on a special offer, only to have seven rides break down while we were either on them or queuing for them, resulting in more than half our day being spent waiting in line.

We emailed to complain, but Drayton Manor has a 10-day – yes, 10 days! – turnaround time to respond to any correspondence. In this day and age, who takes that long for customer service? And here we are, more than 10 days later, still waiting for a reply…

Pros: Parking was relatively easy, although the roads leading to the park are busy; some of the staff were very friendly; and the site itself looks good.

Cons: It's expensive, especially the food; we only managed to go on about five rides, most of which were smaller ones, as the major rides had all broken down when we got to them; and the customer service, particularly after the visit, is abysmal.

If I could send a message back in time, I’d say either visit a smaller, local amusement park where it’s more affordable (we've had good experiences at Twin Lakes in Melton) or try one of the larger parks like Alton Towers. You may still have to queue, but in our experience, at least when you queue for an hour, the ride doesn’t break down. Whatever you do, don’t go to Drayton Manor – it’s anything but fun, overpriced, and they haven't even bothered to apologise for the entire ordeal. If we could give them 0 stars, we would. Avoid at all costs!

UPDATE
On the very last day within their SLAs the resort customer service replied with a pretty standard email. They did apologise, they did acknowledge the rides were broken down, and they offered to sell us more tickets at 50% (how kind). As i pointed out, we only had 50% working rides on the day so should really get back 50% of our costs to break even. The reply was, no refunds!

I should also point out that each reply comes on the very last day they can, adhering to their terms, so this email conversation took forever.

The long and the short; unsurprisingly I am not moved by an offer which involves me giving them more money, and is only 10% better than their standard offers which run out of season. I could spend another day queuing?! And not even get a working ride 50% of the time (again). Why risk it?

Great day out with kids (10 & 11)! Perfect for families with younger children who are just a bit too small for thrill rides at alton towers & thorpe park. Friendly staff, easy to navigate, clean park considering foot fall. Rides suitable for all of us to enjoy together. Short queues compared to other parks. Standout attractions: Thor, The Wave, and Gold Rush. Food pricey, and tickets were, but typical for theme parks. We'd come back again.

Been in Thomas park couple of times, first one seven year ago and just currently, to be fare nothing much has changed.. lots of children tracks are outdated and looked very old, compared with entry ticket prices back then and now had grown more then twice, but obviously not much was invested in the park it self. Toilets are horrible, cause my toddler is potty trained now and he needs toilet ofter, so every time we went there situation was getting worsed, blocked toilets, pee on the floor and smell on the hot day was breath taking.
For lunch visited Burger place ( can't even call them a restaurants) was just unbelievable. Medium burger £10.90, I mean just burger. Meal deal wich includes same burger with fries and drinking it's from £16. Place its self was filthy, rubbish on the floor, bins over loaded, tables not cleaned ( my hands were sticking on the table surface) after wiping 3 times, the dirt was still going of that table..
Game stol prices are just amazing as everything else. To throw ball once through the hoop to win a toy will cost you £4 per ball or £10 per 3 throws.
Gift shops are the same, fisher price Thomas pull down train with handle will cost you £50, yet same one on Argos you can get for £15 and the worse part that you can't avoid this shop because some track exists are going through the shop...
And in the end park is over loaded with people, no control of the flow because you can get tickets at any time.. so queues are massive, at some rides for small children you have to wait 45min for 2min ride. Todler high measurement line is not accurate at the entry, so after waiting 50min with TODLER you been told that you can't ride with him because he's 2mm to short. I do understand health and safety, but how about you stand and measure children before they join the queue, not after they waited for so long and eventually been told that they can go because they miss 2mm, its just beyond ridiculous.

DON'T GO HERE!

We all went yesterday as a family of 8 and almost all the rides kept having break downs. This is where they stop the rides for 20-30 minutes (bear in mind you have already qued for roughly 30 minutes). The issue is Safety and while they want to ensure safety the real concern is why they are always breaking down. Does it feel like only a matter of time before something disastrous happens. Most likely. If you are looking for a better day out spend £1.50 more and go to Alton Towers for example. It will be a much better experience and why more to do there with little que times. I wont even bother trying to claim back any refund it will only be denied. Better I just know that this place does not exist as a destination for a day out with the family in my mind. I paid for that as a consolation to the day!