QTXAdsy
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Black Hole
Well then, some of you have been waiting to hear what I have to say about a park that is TS's favourite chew toy park though I'd argue there are better targets out there. Anyway, let's get on with how it all went down for my first time at Flamingo Land though some context in how I got here in which as part of a big family trip along with my parents, sister, brother in law and nieces, Scarborough was chosen to be our location for the holiday and it just so happens that Flamingo Land is just up the road from where we staying at this luxury lodge in which the family all seemed excited to go somewhere different where none of us had been before and I was just happy to get more credits under my belt which as you know is few and far between...plus there is the North Yorkshire Moors Railway just a stones throws away from the park which knowing my love for steam trains is like my dream sort of situation.
So anywhere, off we went with perhaps no clue what we getting ourselves into here though I have been made very much aware of some of the negative comments about the place so I was rather wary or what I might encounter but to make matters worse today was to be a school outings trip which we all know is hell on Earth for some of these parks which I hadn't factored in as north of the border, schools are out a week earlier than down south so I feared the worst of not planning this right. Whatever though, we were all going and while the rest of the family would go their own separate ways, I'd do my own to get the most out of the park and the first port of call would be to ride Sik...or so I thought.
Things didn't go all to plan as despite testing all morning, Sik was suffering from some early morning downtime in which meant it wouldn't open until at least another half hour which seemed to cause much frustration for many of the school trips there who all seemed to want to ride Sik so a quick change plans had to come into place. The first ride of the day would be Velocity which like most things with me was the first time I had to deal with this ride type so like always not clue what to expect. Other than some kids around you to deal with, the ride itself was actually quite fun even if when I did it a second re-ride I nearly crushed my privates which had me walking off rather feebly and not something I'd like to think about.
Thankfully by this time though, Sik had reopened and this was the ride I have been looking forward to riding after all this time though this was the the ride that pretty much all the school kids would all flock to like bees round a honeypot and it was here that I would first encounter the infamous operations of Flamingo Land in which the ride staff seemed to faff about which I felt the nerve at times to cry out 'get on with it!' I can say any kids were actually blameless here as they wanted to get going too, not that I blame them. Now for the ride itself, did it live up to all that I've been told about it?
Oh yes, very much show, the lack of any OTSR makes it such a breeze and such an enjoyable ride though the five heartline rolls were rather dodgy to me in which I don't know if it is just me or something that happens to everyone else but I felt like I was about to fall out of my seat which is a shame for if not for those final inversions, I would have been given this ride a higher rating but nonetheless I feel it is a solid edition to the park and would get a total of three re-rides on it. Following this, it was time to head over towards the rather scary looking Vekoma SLC on the other side of the park and I'm not saying that as in being scary as ride experience, scary as in it is a Vekoma SLC which should be scary to many which you all know as Kumali which would be my first custom Vekoma SLC. Yeah, lots of ground-breaking things for me that happened there.
Kumali would sadly have the poorest of the ride operations of the day in which the moment I sat on it by getting a front seat, we were stuck for about five minutes until they tried to help get this big fellow to sit in though given that I was at the front I have no clue what was going on back there. Thankfully the ride would get going and I'm pleased to say that it was a smooth ride though I feel was missing something to give it that extra edge though perhaps the funniest thing that happen was this lady sitting next to me in thick Yorkshire accent saying that the ride was budget Nemesis which I honestly can't stop laughing when you consider the history of SLC's back in the day which was done as budget versions for those parks who couldn't afford a B&M suspended ride. All in all, a nice ride I will say and certainly the best SLC I've ridden though I've yet to get to Fantasy Island...
Next up was to try out the utter oddball of a ride known as Mumbo Jumbo which had the longest wait time though operations did seem better that Kumali oddly enough. I must say I did think this would be a rough rider and I wasn't excited when I saw how the strange restraint system worked which I've never seen anything like it before so I had no clue what to expect. What I did experience was a strange yet enjoyable ride which I'm not sure where to rank it though perhaps what was the more funnier aspect on the ride I had was I was sharing the ride with three fellow Scots who were two brothers and a little sister in which the sister was scared to go on and was pretty much roped into going on the ride with them and spent the whole time screaming her way round in which the two brothers were telling her to shut up which did add to some of the humour of the day.
After that, it was lunch in which with so many kids about, getting food was going to be tough so I instead got myself a pack of donates and a cup of tea which wasn't actually all that bad as I did get to watch Wimbledon on the big TV screen thingy. After that, it was time for a shot of Cliff Hanger and despite all that happened, this ride would actually be the ride that stole the show for me as the combo launch/drop element I'd love as that airtime was just perfect and I will say that it has gone up as perhaps one of my favourite tower rides and got four ride on it and is just such an enjoyable ride which I haven't nothing much to say about it other than that. Up next I was heading to Lost River Rapid however I 'noped' out of that queue and instead watched from afar and got footage of the rest of the family on the ride getting a soaking and I wasn't in the mood for getting soaked.
But anyway, next would be perhaps the worst part of the day that only needs one word for it...Hero. Yeah, you know how this will go. At first I wasn't going to go on it like what I had been warned by so many but call me a glutton for punishment or for having such a bile fascination to see if this thing was as bad as people say it was. And the end result, yes, absolutely dreadful, perhaps one of the worst coasters I've ever been on and this is someone who has been been on both Tornado and Furious Baco. All my criticisms about the ride are yours so I won't go into further detail. More Italian crap that is poorly built and the lesson I've learnt from all this is that when the Italians come together to make fast cars, food or play football then they are great yet when they come together to make a coaster...run, run for your damn life and I even go as far as saying that this was worse than Tornado for at least the first half for that ride is actually rideable...this was just bad from start to finish, yeah I said it.
The sooner that sort of ride is scrapped the better and that ride really lets the rest of the park down though you can argue that there are other elements that make the park worse but that is hear or now. One good thing that did happen was that later on in the day, my nieces were about to ride it until it broke down and they gave up on it...they dodged a bullet you will all agree. Actually, if no one had said anything about how terrible Hero was, I might not have ridden it at all so that's all on you.
After that the hours were getting shorter so it was time for two more flats which the first would be Flip Flop...such a meh ride ride but credit is a credit and finally the last ride of the day I would get was Pterodactyl which I just so happened to be reunited with my sister and my nieces and it is rare these days I share a ride with my older sister who on that ride seems to now have a sense of vertigo just recently though my nieces seemed to be catching the coaster bug in which I found out that Mumbo Jumbo was actually their first upside coaster given that it was the only one they could ride with their height in mind and I suppose there are worse rides to experience an upside coaster with. Finally at the end of the day, it was a nice pint at the end in lovely sunshine watching that pirate show that the rest of the family all wanted to see which I thought 'You know what, end of the day, might enjoy the sunshine as I drank my beer...in which I ran back into the bar when that God forsaken Baby Shark song started playing during that show in which I'd rather have my liver rot than having my brain rot from hearing that song ever again.
Other than that bad bit on the end which I drank away to get the song out of the head (yes, I drink a fair bit I'll admit), it was all in all a successful day for the family who all seemed to speak highly of the park with the main talking point being of have compact the park was and that everyone was able to get as much as they could get in compared to something like Alton Towers and at the end of the day after hearing so much about how poor things were at the park, I was stunned that it wasn't all as bad as I feared though maybe if I went a lot then I might have other things to say. Is it perfect, no but it I can see that it has the chance if done well to become a better park with more to offer and then it struck me at at the end that the park is actually has a M&D's feel about it.
What I mean by that is that Flamingo Land is, if you remove the zoo, a alternate version of what M&D's could have been had they committed to more permeant editions in which we might have gotten a Sik or Kumali in Scotland had the owners of M&D's hadn't been so stupid but that is going off topic. Anyway, I'm glad to say I've done the park, not one that I'll be rushing back to in a hurry but I'm glad to say I've ticked that park off the list. Let's hope its not my only UK park of the year...
The Good
So anywhere, off we went with perhaps no clue what we getting ourselves into here though I have been made very much aware of some of the negative comments about the place so I was rather wary or what I might encounter but to make matters worse today was to be a school outings trip which we all know is hell on Earth for some of these parks which I hadn't factored in as north of the border, schools are out a week earlier than down south so I feared the worst of not planning this right. Whatever though, we were all going and while the rest of the family would go their own separate ways, I'd do my own to get the most out of the park and the first port of call would be to ride Sik...or so I thought.
Things didn't go all to plan as despite testing all morning, Sik was suffering from some early morning downtime in which meant it wouldn't open until at least another half hour which seemed to cause much frustration for many of the school trips there who all seemed to want to ride Sik so a quick change plans had to come into place. The first ride of the day would be Velocity which like most things with me was the first time I had to deal with this ride type so like always not clue what to expect. Other than some kids around you to deal with, the ride itself was actually quite fun even if when I did it a second re-ride I nearly crushed my privates which had me walking off rather feebly and not something I'd like to think about.
Thankfully by this time though, Sik had reopened and this was the ride I have been looking forward to riding after all this time though this was the the ride that pretty much all the school kids would all flock to like bees round a honeypot and it was here that I would first encounter the infamous operations of Flamingo Land in which the ride staff seemed to faff about which I felt the nerve at times to cry out 'get on with it!' I can say any kids were actually blameless here as they wanted to get going too, not that I blame them. Now for the ride itself, did it live up to all that I've been told about it?
Oh yes, very much show, the lack of any OTSR makes it such a breeze and such an enjoyable ride though the five heartline rolls were rather dodgy to me in which I don't know if it is just me or something that happens to everyone else but I felt like I was about to fall out of my seat which is a shame for if not for those final inversions, I would have been given this ride a higher rating but nonetheless I feel it is a solid edition to the park and would get a total of three re-rides on it. Following this, it was time to head over towards the rather scary looking Vekoma SLC on the other side of the park and I'm not saying that as in being scary as ride experience, scary as in it is a Vekoma SLC which should be scary to many which you all know as Kumali which would be my first custom Vekoma SLC. Yeah, lots of ground-breaking things for me that happened there.
Kumali would sadly have the poorest of the ride operations of the day in which the moment I sat on it by getting a front seat, we were stuck for about five minutes until they tried to help get this big fellow to sit in though given that I was at the front I have no clue what was going on back there. Thankfully the ride would get going and I'm pleased to say that it was a smooth ride though I feel was missing something to give it that extra edge though perhaps the funniest thing that happen was this lady sitting next to me in thick Yorkshire accent saying that the ride was budget Nemesis which I honestly can't stop laughing when you consider the history of SLC's back in the day which was done as budget versions for those parks who couldn't afford a B&M suspended ride. All in all, a nice ride I will say and certainly the best SLC I've ridden though I've yet to get to Fantasy Island...
Next up was to try out the utter oddball of a ride known as Mumbo Jumbo which had the longest wait time though operations did seem better that Kumali oddly enough. I must say I did think this would be a rough rider and I wasn't excited when I saw how the strange restraint system worked which I've never seen anything like it before so I had no clue what to expect. What I did experience was a strange yet enjoyable ride which I'm not sure where to rank it though perhaps what was the more funnier aspect on the ride I had was I was sharing the ride with three fellow Scots who were two brothers and a little sister in which the sister was scared to go on and was pretty much roped into going on the ride with them and spent the whole time screaming her way round in which the two brothers were telling her to shut up which did add to some of the humour of the day.
After that, it was lunch in which with so many kids about, getting food was going to be tough so I instead got myself a pack of donates and a cup of tea which wasn't actually all that bad as I did get to watch Wimbledon on the big TV screen thingy. After that, it was time for a shot of Cliff Hanger and despite all that happened, this ride would actually be the ride that stole the show for me as the combo launch/drop element I'd love as that airtime was just perfect and I will say that it has gone up as perhaps one of my favourite tower rides and got four ride on it and is just such an enjoyable ride which I haven't nothing much to say about it other than that. Up next I was heading to Lost River Rapid however I 'noped' out of that queue and instead watched from afar and got footage of the rest of the family on the ride getting a soaking and I wasn't in the mood for getting soaked.
But anyway, next would be perhaps the worst part of the day that only needs one word for it...Hero. Yeah, you know how this will go. At first I wasn't going to go on it like what I had been warned by so many but call me a glutton for punishment or for having such a bile fascination to see if this thing was as bad as people say it was. And the end result, yes, absolutely dreadful, perhaps one of the worst coasters I've ever been on and this is someone who has been been on both Tornado and Furious Baco. All my criticisms about the ride are yours so I won't go into further detail. More Italian crap that is poorly built and the lesson I've learnt from all this is that when the Italians come together to make fast cars, food or play football then they are great yet when they come together to make a coaster...run, run for your damn life and I even go as far as saying that this was worse than Tornado for at least the first half for that ride is actually rideable...this was just bad from start to finish, yeah I said it.
The sooner that sort of ride is scrapped the better and that ride really lets the rest of the park down though you can argue that there are other elements that make the park worse but that is hear or now. One good thing that did happen was that later on in the day, my nieces were about to ride it until it broke down and they gave up on it...they dodged a bullet you will all agree. Actually, if no one had said anything about how terrible Hero was, I might not have ridden it at all so that's all on you.
After that the hours were getting shorter so it was time for two more flats which the first would be Flip Flop...such a meh ride ride but credit is a credit and finally the last ride of the day I would get was Pterodactyl which I just so happened to be reunited with my sister and my nieces and it is rare these days I share a ride with my older sister who on that ride seems to now have a sense of vertigo just recently though my nieces seemed to be catching the coaster bug in which I found out that Mumbo Jumbo was actually their first upside coaster given that it was the only one they could ride with their height in mind and I suppose there are worse rides to experience an upside coaster with. Finally at the end of the day, it was a nice pint at the end in lovely sunshine watching that pirate show that the rest of the family all wanted to see which I thought 'You know what, end of the day, might enjoy the sunshine as I drank my beer...in which I ran back into the bar when that God forsaken Baby Shark song started playing during that show in which I'd rather have my liver rot than having my brain rot from hearing that song ever again.
Other than that bad bit on the end which I drank away to get the song out of the head (yes, I drink a fair bit I'll admit), it was all in all a successful day for the family who all seemed to speak highly of the park with the main talking point being of have compact the park was and that everyone was able to get as much as they could get in compared to something like Alton Towers and at the end of the day after hearing so much about how poor things were at the park, I was stunned that it wasn't all as bad as I feared though maybe if I went a lot then I might have other things to say. Is it perfect, no but it I can see that it has the chance if done well to become a better park with more to offer and then it struck me at at the end that the park is actually has a M&D's feel about it.
What I mean by that is that Flamingo Land is, if you remove the zoo, a alternate version of what M&D's could have been had they committed to more permeant editions in which we might have gotten a Sik or Kumali in Scotland had the owners of M&D's hadn't been so stupid but that is going off topic. Anyway, I'm glad to say I've done the park, not one that I'll be rushing back to in a hurry but I'm glad to say I've ticked that park off the list. Let's hope its not my only UK park of the year...
The Good
- Sik being worth it.
- Cliff Hanger being the ride that stole the day for me.
- School trips todays were shockingly not that bad and you didn't notice them after about 2 hours.
- Managed to get much rides done as well as many re-rides.
- Sunshine all day.
- Operations were pretty faff worthy.
- Never got the chance to take in some of the other food options due to many school kids hogging the F&B sections.
- Hero...need I say more?
- Baby Shark at the end during that pirate show when I was wanting to enjoy the sunshine...ugh.
- Only wish there was a dark ride on offer or another water ride though this is likely a nick pick.