Drayton Manor has had some great investments over the last few years with the opening of Vikings, the new site-down train on Shockwave (now, The Wave) and the opening of Gold Rush and the re-themeing of the area surrounding that but one area of the park remains untouched, the pirates area. In this blog I’ll share about the area, some of the history and speculate what could happen next!
Whilst not officially labelled on the map as a themed area the pirates area of Drayton Manor feels like it should be. You have the pirate ship by the lake and then on the other side you have the Jolly Buccaneer (a sea-storm type ride), Dodgems Ahoy and the Burger Kitchen (although with it’s tiny portions and crazy prices I’d recommend avoiding this for food at the park).
All three of these carry this Pirate Theme and sit right next to the former site of Pirate Adventure, an indoor dark ride alongside being next to another building which has been used for events such as Santa’s Grotto in previous years and a lake area which used to house a boat ride.
A previous map from the mid-1990’s even shows Drayton Manor calling this area Pirate Cove back when it played home to a variety of attractions including a tracked dark-ride The Crypt (I’m not sure what it is Drayton Manor like about putting horror-themed rides in areas where they don’t fit!)
Towering above this area even to this day is the impressive facade of Pirate Adventure which was an indoor boat ride manufactured by Mack rides which opened in 1990. This indoor ride had the feeling of a budget Pirates of the Caribbean ride with animatronics and (from what I remember) a fun soundtrack throughout the 7 minute ride.
This ride closed to the public in 2015 as part of cuts at the resort and shortly after they auctioned off a lot of the theming and just left the building abandoned but still standing.
Whilst it’s known that a lot of the theming of the ride has been removed speculation continues to grow about whether this ride could have a refresh and reopen with some rumours even suggesting for this year to mark 10 years since it’s closure (this seems pretty unlikely).
This reopening however, in my opinion, is a very real possibility for a few reasons.
The outside facade was damaged in storms a couple of years back and Drayton Manor have repaired it with fresh wood…whilst they’d have probably needed to do this for health and safety the option to repair rather than remove the theming is curious.
Last year Theme Park Guide spotted an open door and some new wood inside the ride suggesting that some work within the building is ongoing. Whilst this isn’t 100% proof of work going on within the ride itself it would be an odd place to store supplies given the location so perhaps work has been happening inside.
Other rumours I’ve read have seen people spot the boats move outside the building with speculation that they could have been there to be sent to Mack rides for refurbishment (or scrap!) and lights were seen on within the pirates building during the 2024 Christmas event.
Whilst all of this is very speculative, with the things we’ve seen so far and the size of that building (before we even talk about the disused land around it from rides like Excalibur) I think we could see Pirates Adventure return in the near future although probably not 2025.
Drayton Manor is missing a good, indoor dark ride and if they can refurbish the boat, bring the ride system back into operation and re-theme the ride then this would be an excellent re-addition to the park and would continue to see the park go in the right direction.
Whilst I do think it’s unlikely we’ll see a 2025 reopening we don’t actually know how much work has been going on inside the building and Drayton Manor could easily have kept this very quiet and surprise everyone but we shall see!
As Drayton Manor continues to thrive under the ownership of the Looping Group it’s certainly one to watch and I don’t think investment will be stopping anytime soon!
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