In the heart of the park, you will find a charming little area next to Pirates Cove. A castle in ruins towers a small village of little stalls of food, all excellently themed, and through the middle is the queue entrance to the park’s signature Family ride… Excalibur!

Excalibur joined Drayton in 2003, opened by Atomic Kitten. The ride took the title of best family ride at the park, and today puts the buzz back into Pirate Cove.

The Experience

Moving through the queue, there are lots of things to catch your attention. First you will find yourself on a straight, walking beside the water were ahead people board the Excalibur boats. Next you take a left turn into a pleasant cattle grid queue enclosed with castle walls, curving around theming of the food stalls, with crates of themed vegetables. On the outer edge of the queue, next to the castle wall, you will be greeted by some charming animatronics making quirky remarks for you to have a giggle at. Under the signature animatronic, in the form of a wise owl, you will enter through a doorway where you will be greeted by the boarding area you saw earlier.

Boarding the boats, you are quite unsure of what the ride will be like, as you cannot see much of the vast waterfront you are about to journey upon, but soon your boats starts moving forward. It moves pretty slowly through a lake of various theming, yet more could have been used to really make the ride astounding. Along its rather random course you will confront an archway, pouring down with water with the knights on the top trying to fix the problem, all the while shouting remarks to one another. To rider's relief, the water stops just before the boats goes through the arch, although you can’t help being slightly disappointed you didn’t get wet. Next you take a rather sharp right turn and move beside a low wall, with a big castle hut in front of you.

On entrance to the hut everything becomes dark, and this may be slightly frightening to young riders. Soon enough though you are met by some good themeing, and dialog between a child and mother. A light reveals it is infact a child dragon, and you begin to fear where the mother is. Turn you head round and you will be confronted by a huge, and pretty impressive, mother dragon animatronic. Suddenly she let’s out a roar and breathes a huge gust of fire! As impressive as this is, parents may want to hold young before the event that appears to be a great finale of a good family boat ride.

Unfortunately, Drayton Manor didn’t use the amazing quantity of themeing in the queues for the actual boat ride and because of this the ride may become a disappointment. However, it is an excellent adventure for parents with young wanting to visit the zoo, and it as a must ride in such occasions. Teenagers may be denied the opportunity to ride as otherwise they could participate in delinquent behaviour jeopardising families good will on board, and in any case this ride should not be on your list for a must ride.