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Flamingo Land: General Discussion

Flamingo Land now probably has the superior coaster lineup then in the past, but the flat ride lineup looked to be much better. I first visited in 2021 so correct me if I am wrong but the flat ride lineup at Flamingo Land used to be one of the best judging from pictures
 
Well that's a load of ********.

I've just read through Flamingo Land's 2025 financial statements, and the narrative presented in the YouTube video is coloured (to be expected, really).

The video states they made a £2.8 million profit the year prior. That's wrong. Their 2024 profit was £1.19 million. The £1.5 million loss for 2025 is real, but it's not a sign of a park in terminal decline. It's almost entirely driven by heavy capital investment and expansion.
Benjsh said:
Energy bills rising is not only hitting us in the pocket when it comes to paying our bills....it's hurting lots of small, medium and large businesses too. Theme Parks have probably been hit as hard as most too. Staggered ride openings have almost certainly been a response to it.

Net Zero is hurting this country more than people think it is. All whilst countries in Europe open new Power Stations almost every month. Complete waste of space if you ask me to go on a Net Zero journey when others aren't coming along with us.
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The loss has nothing to do with Net Zero, or the broader energy crisis. The company's own carbon reporting shows their overall energy usage decreased slightly by 0.05% year on year. Although the heating and lighting bill did go up by £538k, the directors explicitly state this is "largely attributable to the Alpamare site".

Which brings us to the real reason for the loss... Flamingo Land leased the closed Alpamare Water Park in Scarborough.

They didn't get it open until late July 2024, meaning they missed the entire spring and early summer season, but still had to foot the bill for running an expensive water park through the winter. Combine that with a £600k jump in staff wages, a £601k increase in depreciation charges from building Dewars Hotel, Sik and the Lost River Ride, and a £1.38 million drop in turnover due to the awful British summer weather, and that's where your loss comes from. Not energy costs.
NuttySquirrel said:
The main reason I won't go to Flamingoland is the ticket price. It's considerably higher than what it should be for what you get. If it was £35ish I might be tempted.
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Staff wages eat up 39.27% of their turnover. If they were to drop the ticket price to £35, they'd need a colossal increase in footfall just to break even.

If you think their operations and queues are bad now, imagine what happens when you slash the gate price by 40% and flood a park which already struggles with capacity.

They've also got the constant, unyielding overhead of running a fully functional zoo, which includes charitable outgoings like £27,000 to Tanzanian wildlife conservation and feeding / housing stock. They can't afford to run a high volume, low margin model. The high gate price suppresses attendance just enough to keep the park functional while covering their massive baseline overheads.

It was a bad year on paper, but it reads much more like a hangover from expansion rather than a structural collapse of the core park.
 
Hid said:
Flamingo Land now probably has the superior coaster lineup then in the past, but the flat ride lineup looked to be much better. I first visited in 2021 so correct me if I am wrong but the flat ride lineup at Flamingo Land used to be one of the best judging from pictures
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Many years ago, they used to have some very rare flat rides such as a HUSS UFO, HUSS Tri-Star, Vekoma Sky Flyer, Vekoma Waikiki Wave, Fabbri Evolution and even a Intamin Flight Trainer!!
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Well that's a load of ********.

I've just read through Flamingo Land's 2025 financial statements, and the narrative presented in the YouTube video is coloured (to be expected, really).

The video states they made a £2.8 million profit the year prior. That's wrong. Their 2024 profit was £1.19 million. The £1.5 million loss for 2025 is real, but it's not a sign of a park in terminal decline. It's almost entirely driven by heavy capital investment and expansion.

The loss has nothing to do with Net Zero, or the broader energy crisis. The company's own carbon reporting shows their overall energy usage decreased slightly by 0.05% year on year. Although the heating and lighting bill did go up by £538k, the directors explicitly state this is "largely attributable to the Alpamare site".

Which brings us to the real reason for the loss... Flamingo Land leased the closed Alpamare Water Park in Scarborough.

They didn't get it open until late July 2024, meaning they missed the entire spring and early summer season, but still had to foot the bill for running an expensive water park through the winter. Combine that with a £600k jump in staff wages, a £601k increase in depreciation charges from building Dewars Hotel, Sik and the Lost River Ride, and a £1.38 million drop in turnover due to the awful British summer weather, and that's where your loss comes from. Not energy costs.

Staff wages eat up 39.27% of their turnover. If they were to drop the ticket price to £35, they'd need a colossal increase in footfall just to break even.

If you think their operations and queues are bad now, imagine what happens when you slash the gate price by 40% and flood a park which already struggles with capacity.

They've also got the constant, unyielding overhead of running a fully functional zoo, which includes charitable outgoings like £27,000 to Tanzanian wildlife conservation and feeding / housing stock. They can't afford to run a high volume, low margin model. The high gate price suppresses attendance just enough to keep the park functional while covering their massive baseline overheads.

It was a bad year on paper, but it reads much more like a hangover from expansion rather than a structural collapse of the core park.
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Nice summary our @GooseOnTheLoose
Just read the report myself and everything you have said is spot on.

The board seem to be indicating that profit will remain lower due to higher costs being expected. There does seem to be a large increase in depreciation costs which hit the bottom line.

I wouldn’t say the park is struggling. It seems to me that they are actually planning to invest accepting lower short term profit as a result.
 
jon81uk said:
I think a large part of the issue is Alton Towers and the other Merlin parks are too cheap, Alton probably should be a lot more than £35.
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If your charging high prices people expect more. Towers just isn't in that space, if I'm buying Universal tickets in 5 years they will be expensive but I should be getting a premium experience. Until Towers can offer that they can jog on.
 
Quantum said:
If your charging high prices people expect more. Towers just isn't in that space, if I'm buying Universal tickets in 5 years they will be expensive but I should be getting a premium experience. Until Towers can offer that they can jog on.
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So are you saying Flamingo Land is better quality than Alton Towers just because it charges a high price?

Realistically Flamingo Land cannot afford to charge less and Alton Towers really should be charging a similar price as it is better quality than Flamingo Land.

I'm not expecting Universal to be under £50, but Alton Towers should be £40+ most weekends same as Flamingo Land (although weekdays are still £30 at 'mingo, which is cheaper than AT weekdays).
 
Shaggy_Dog_ said:
Nothing is ever, ever going to happen to M&D's no matter how much you wish for it. Just let it die and move on.
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Sadly it won't die, it defies many moments where others fall but I digress. I can't as its the only so called theme park in this country so I have a chip on my shoulder but back on topic please.
 
Secret Weapon said:
In fairness, I don't think M&D's even has its own thread on this forum, and so I'm not sure where else it can be discussed!
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Here you go:

M&D's: General Discussion

I'm sure we all know M&D's, everyone's favourite butt monkey park, so no introductions needed. Being an enthusiast North o' the border, me and many of my fellow countrymen have suffered many frustrating years putting up with a lack of anything decent theme park wise, the unfortunate closure of...
towersstreet.com towersstreet.com
 
I was there this weekend, and would have this to say. Like Alton, the park is looking tired, but equally it's clear that the rides have been well maintained during the winter, with most of them barring Sik with it's rattle riding as well as I've ridden them.

It's also fair to point out that unlike Alton et al they don't scalp people for parking, and to have food in the onsite pub cost 18 quid for a decent Sunday lunch, something you wouldn't even get at Alton, let alone have your eyes out for.

COVID hurt them badly because of the expense of a zoo without visitors, in the same way that it brought the Bryan family to the brink with Drayton.

To me, it has came down to bad luck and bad decisions. Sik is superb, but it's overall cost was near to that of Hyperia, which is lunacy, and most of the installations post Mumbo Jumbo have at best been odd - zzooom, F1 and Hero, I'm looking at you.

I've yet to see a queue on Sik either, suggesting it's not the draw the price would suggest, and the idea of making the already underwhelming lost river worse and taking two years to do it smacks of being a vanity project for Gordon Gibb, it being the first big ride he installed after inheriting the park.

The truth is this though. FL aren't really after the same market as the likes of Alton. Nearly 60 quid is ludicrous for an on gate price, but truthfully most won't pay that much, I paid 97 quid for a family of 4, which at least than 25 quid seems decent to good value, and at least they haven't been staggering rides openings or opening dates unlike Alton.

FL is very much built on its caravan park. Almost occupying on its own (with FI possibly) that odd space between holiday park like Butlins and a theme park like Alton, and as such, they know their audience is very much likely geared to quantity over quality, as long as there is enough to entertain all present...

Sigh.
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jon81uk said:
I think a large part of the issue is Alton Towers and the other Merlin parks are too cheap, Alton probably should be a lot more than £35.
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I was thinking more along the lines of Flamingoland seeming expensive compared to Efteling and Phantasialand, not Towers. I also can't agree that Alton Towers is too cheap. For the product currently on offer, £40-50 is not value for money.
 
I’ve got absolutely no clue how it’s taken them so long… this project was started in the 2023/24 off-season, was it not?
 
It actually looks much worse now, certainly round the back. I think the idea will have been to produce something akin to what the original idea was, but can't see the simulator element being anything more than an unreliable and underwhelming white elephant. Even if it does open soon, I suspect it will have more issues than something that would have been a lot cheaper and quicker to install.

Like Valhalla, but without the benefit of being a good ride in the first place.

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