{"id":37867,"date":"2025-04-21T08:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T08:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/37867\/"},"modified":"2025-04-21T08:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T08:38:11","slug":"huge-uk-theme-park-announces-free-admission-but-theres-a-catch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/37867\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge UK theme park announces FREE admission – but there’s a catch"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the first day of April chimed in, one of Britain’s biggest theme parks announced its plans to remove admission fees…but back-pedalled hours later<\/a> when midday struck.<\/p>\n

Drayton Manor Resort in Staffordshire sparked criticism for the April Fool’s Day prank, which saw it suggesting it would scrap entry fees to mark its 75th anniversary in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few hours after the initial announcement, the park appeared to have confirmed the news was an April Fool’s joke – but drew anger from some who had recently forked out for an annual season ticket.<\/p>\n

Taking to Drayton Manor’s Facebook<\/a> page, one person described the joke as ‘poor form.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

The misfiring move then got even more confusing when the park added a cryptic ‘…or is it?’ after confessing the free entry had all been in jest.<\/p>\n

Happily, there’s cheering news on the horizon; the park has confirmed that this weekend – April 24th and 25th – entry really will cost nothing for theme park-goers…but, alas, that doesn’t mean the rides are free.<\/p>\n

The park says for the two days in question, it will return to its original token pricing system from the 1950s – allowing free entry but with pay-as-you-go ride admission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Visitors to the park and zoo can purchase tokens or an unlimited wristband (for \u00a330) that gives access to the park’s thrills and spills.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Drayton <\/p>\n

Drayton Manor Resort in Staffordshire will let visitors enter for free on April 24th and 25th to mark its 75th birthday<\/p>\n

\"Bigger <\/p>\n

Bigger rides, such as Thor, pictured, will require more tokens, which can be purchased in advance or on the day<\/p>\n

Drayton Manor serves up more than 50 rides and attractions, including pre-school favourite Thomas Land – and a zoo that’s home to over 500 animals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those seeking more high-octane rides plump for\u00a0Thor, a whirling ‘Disk’O Coaster’ or Wild West coaster Accelorator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For those simply interested in finding out more about the history of the park, which is set over 180 acres, there’s free entertainment on offer and a chance to visit the park\u2019s newly opened 75th anniversary museum.<\/p>\n

The museum reflects on the theme parks heritage via rare artifacts and vintage memorabilia.<\/p>\n

Victoria Lynn, MD of the park, which has been voted ‘Britain’s best value park’ at the UK Theme Park Awards for the last three years, said: ‘Our 75th anniversary celebrations are in full swing, and as part of that, we want to give families the chance to discover Drayton Manor for less. <\/p>\n

‘Whether you choose to join us at the park with a picnic or browse the rides, arcade, museum, and zoo for free, or go for it with a full wristband, there\u2019s plenty of fun to be had at Drayton Manor throughout the weekend and beyond.’<\/p>\n

In the park, tokens can be bought in batches of five or ten in advance of visiting or around the park on the 24th and 25th April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The biggest rides at the attraction will require five tokens, with smaller ones costing just one token per person.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"For <\/p>\n

For those less keen on rides such as Accelerator, pictured, there’s a newly opened pop-up museum on the park’s history to enjoy\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The April Fool’s joked that was dubbed ‘poor form’ by some; the park claimed to be offering entry for nothing, before backtracking – and then adding confusion with a cryptic ‘…Or is it?’ note about their seasonal joke\u00a0<\/p>\n

Free entry tickets must be booked online in advance, says the park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year sees the park celebrate its 75th anniversary, with a packed calendar of events celebrating fun through the decades, monthly fireworks extravaganzas, Easter<\/a>\u00a0egg hunts and Thomas the Tank Engine’s 80th birthday party.<\/p>\n

Drayton Manor also made the top three for best value for money attraction<\/a> earlier this year, with a day\u2019s entrance priced at \u00a324.90 – which equates to \u00a34.15 an hour.<\/p>\n

The Manor is based in 180 acres of land and gets 1.5mn visitors each year, making it a popular UK spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the first day of April chimed in, one of Britain’s biggest theme parks announced its plans to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,92,393,4884,459,1144,712,183,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-37867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-instagram","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-travel","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}