ROLLERCOASTERS – some people love them, some people hate them.

I love them. Being thrown around at high speeds with no control whatsoever is rather exhilarating. There are a few I avoid, like the ones that are just designed to spin you in to oblivion because I like to keep the junk food I eat at the theme parks in my body.

For week three of the 6 Things to do in the School Holidays feature we went to Tamworth’s Drayton Manor.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite the magic wonderland we like theme parks to be.

I have only experienced the UK’s theme parks – Alton Towers, Flambards, Flamingo Land, etc – whereas Matt has travelled further afield and has been to the USA’s Universal Studios. Maybe he’s been spoilt, but I definitely haven’t.

Drayton Manor is rather different to any other park I’ve been to – it’s compact, it’s brighter, it’s more of a family resort.

Along with rides and rollercoasters, there’s a 4D cinema, diners, restaurants, a train around the park, a zoo, Thomas Land, and a river boat cruise.

The rides at Drayton Manor are great. There’s a mixture of old and new, small and big, family-friendly and thrilling, and wet and dry. We were well and truly thrown around. The waiting times were also extremely minimal for a Saturday afternoon in the school holidays. The longest wait we had was for the Ben 10 rollercoaster (which is worth it if you do go).

The rollercoasters were not what we had the gripes with.

We then went into the 4D cinema to watch the snippets from the 2007 movie, Yogi, with all the special effects 4D offers. We were sprayed several times, jolted in our seats, slapped on the backs of our legs, and sprayed some more. And then it was over. Having not seen the movie I quite enjoyed it, but as we were walking out, there was a family commenting to the staff member collecting the glasses on how much they enjoyed it and her reply was “oh well, I just don’t find it funny because I’ve seen it so many times.” Way to ruin that, anonymous staff member! The family left awkwardly.

Customer service didn’t improve throughout the day. I think I saw one staff member smile once throughout the day and I think that was a requirement of working in Thomas Land because of the amount of children in the area. While on our final rollercoaster, G-Force, there were three members of staff on duty. One stood still at the back, there was a girl and a guy. The girl barked orders at the guy telling him to “hurry up”, “get a move on” and “wake up” in the maybe minute-and-a-half we were on the platform queuing and getting strapped into our seats, and then proceeding to shout to him and the other staff member about how quickly the day had gone and how she wanted to go home as she pressed the button to send us off on the tracks.

The staff in the zoo were nowhere to be seen. We spent a good 45 minutes wondering around the animals enclosures and did not see one zookeeper. We did, however, note that in a monkey enclosure the glass had been smashed in several places from the inside, denoting a very unhappy animal, and a rather agitated leopard pacing his cage while growling. It was a very sad sight.

The food on the day was great value. We had beef and chicken burger meals from the Burger Kitchen and weren’t overpriced and came very well made and hot. The staff, again, didn’t want to be there and almost threw our food onto our tray. We then got an amazing three scoop ice cream topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. It was far too much for one, so we got a couple of spoons and shared. If you’re not afraid of ice cream, get one.

Overall, if you’re taking your family to a local-ish theme park which has something extra to offer, Drayton Manor is a good choice, but keep in mind that the staff might be having a bad day.

For more information, or for tickets, visit draytonmanor.co.uk.