UK Theme Parks!

Drayton Manor is a family theme park with a mixture of scenic and white knuckle rides. It covers 280 acres (1.1 km²) of land, and is visited by over one million people annually. Drayton Manor opened to the public on 16 October 1949 as an 'inland pleasure resort' and has since grown substantially in size. In 2006, the park received two awards: 'Best UK Attraction' awarded by Group Leisure and 'UK Attraction of the Year' awarded by Coach Tourism. In 2009, Drayton Manor celebrates its 60th birthday.

Rides in the park include StormForce 10 (Funding RNLI), Shockwave, Europe's only stand-up roller coaster, Apocalypse, a Freefall Tower with a choice of sit-down, stand-up or floorless ride positions, Pirate Adventure, a dark ride loosely based on Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean which takes riders through a dark journey of a pirate's life, The Haunting, a walkthrough attraction that incorporates a haunted swing, Excalibur, a boat ride attraction with medieval scenes, Splash Canyon, a river rapids, G-force, a steel roller coaster with three inversions, Pandemonium, a double inverted swing and Maelstrom, a gyro swing.Drayton Manor is also home to a 15-acre (61,000 m²) zoo. It contains over 100 species from all over the world.

G Force is a steel roller coaster designed by German company Maurer Söhne and opened in 2005.It replaced the 'runaway train' that used to be in the area in previous years. G Force is the second X-Car coaster to be built after the prototype in Skyline Park, in Germany, called Sky Wheel. The coaster train has a hip restraint (instead of the usual over the shoulder restraint) and 'Big Boy' seats that are capable of safely holding larger riders. After a short drop out of the station the train negotiates a 'Humpty Bump Lift' which is a 180 degree chain lift, where riders hang upside down as they are lifted to 23 m. The ride includes a camelback hill, a loop and a new inversion known as the 'Bent Cuban Eight' an element that is modelled on aerobatic manoeuvres. G Force riders experience 4.3g during its 385 m long ride with speeds of up to 70 km/h (or 43 mph).

Apocalypse is a 54 m (180 ft) high freefall tower ride built by Intamin AG in 1999 and opened in 2000. The ride has been voted 'Britain’s scariest ride'. It has three different forms of seating: one is the normal sit down; another is stand-up position (the world's only stand-up tower drop until 2005 when the Hurakan Condor opened in Port Aventura) and the last one is a stand-up floorless (which was introduced in 2002 and is known as the 'Fifth Element'). Riders experience 4g as they decelerate after falling 54 m in 4 seconds.

Shockwave is a stand-up roller coaster that was built in 1994 by Intamin AG. The ride was created as part of a two year £4 million project in 1993/1994 to build Splash Canyon with Shockwave.^{[citation needed]} The ride, which reaches 53mph and delivers up to 4 g, features a lift hill up to 120 ft (37 m), then into an 80 ft (24 m) drop and a medium size loop followed by aZero G roll and then finishes with two corkscrews and a bend around back to the station. Shockwave is located in the 'Action Park' area next to G Force. In 1994 after the completion of the ride, neighbours complained that the final bend was too close to the edge of the property.^{[citation needed]} In fact it had been built as planned but local Councillors had not noticed the proximity to the boundary on the plans.^[1]

Stormforce 10 is a water ride that recreates the story of a lifeboat rescue, launched in association with the RNLI. It holds the title of world's first charitable ride and accepts donations on site.^{[citation needed]} Opened in 1999 to replace the ageing log flume, the idea was said to have been thought up by the manager's nephew. Stormforce 10 is the most popular ride in the park.^{[citation needed]} It starts with a small drop into water and is followed by a backwards drop and finally a large drop. For every ride photograph sold a donation is made to the RNLI through which Drayton Manor has raised £66,000 since the opening of the ride and have funded a lifeboat named the 'Drayton Manor' Atlantic 85 rescue boat.Pandemonium is a swinging inverter ride manufactured by Fabbri and opened in 2004 at a cost of £1,000,000. It is on the site of its similar predecessor, SkyFlyer which closed in 2003. The ride has two large swinging cars that feature over the shoulder restraints and a large lap bar. The two cars swing progressively higher, in opposite directions, until they swing right over 360 degrees at the height of 24.7 m.