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Any tips for a first time visitor to Flamingo Land?

Matt N

Matt N

TS Member
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Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Hi guys. It’s my 20th birthday today, and as my main present from them, my parents have surprised me with a trip to Flamingo Land on Monday 7th August! Well, actually, they initially said “a UK theme park” and let me ask 3 questions about the mystery destination, but I was able to deduce the destination in 3 questions and my dad did confirm to me that it is Flamingo Land.

It’s probably the most noteworthy UK park I’ve never been to, and Sik is probably the most noteworthy UK coaster I haven’t ridden, so I’m really interested to try it out, but I’ll admit that there are probably many things I don’t know about the park having never been there. So I made this thread to ask; does anyone here have any tips that could help me out for my first visit to Flamingo Land? Is there anything I desperately need to know before going?

In terms of some specific questions, I do have a couple:
  • Is there an ideal ride to start on or an ideal way to traverse the park?
  • Are there any notable “hidden gems” that I should make time for?
  • I know that the park has 10 coasters, but in my head, I’d always limited the amount I would probably ride there to 5 (Sik, Kumali, Velocity, Mumbo Jumbo, Hero) as I don’t generally do kiddie coasters. I’ve looked at the park’s RCDB file, and I’ve deduced that Dino Roller, Go Gator and Runaway Mine Train are things that I will almost definitely not ride as a result of my personal policy to not ride kiddie coasters. However, I was interested to know; are Twistosaurus and Zooom what you would call embarrassing kiddie coasters in the same vein as the above 3, or are they worth a go? I was unsure whether they were more universally appealing family coasters rather than kiddie coasters, as they look a bit more substantial.
And other than that, I would appreciate any general tips or advice that anyone might have for a first time Flamingo Land visitor.

Any advice is highly appreciated!
 
Matt N said:
Hi guys. It’s my 20th birthday today, and as my main present from them, my parents have surprised me with a trip to Flamingo Land on Monday 7th August! Well, actually, they initially said “a UK theme park” and let me ask 3 questions about the mystery destination, but I was able to deduce the destination in 3 questions and my dad did confirm to me that it is Flamingo Land.

It’s probably the most noteworthy UK park I’ve never been to, and Sik is probably the most noteworthy UK coaster I haven’t ridden, so I’m really interested to try it out, but I’ll admit that there are probably many things I don’t know about the park having never been there. So I made this thread to ask; does anyone here have any tips that could help me out for my first visit to Flamingo Land? Is there anything I desperately need to know before going?

In terms of some specific questions, I do have a couple:
  • Is there an ideal ride to start on or an ideal way to traverse the park?
  • Are there any notable “hidden gems” that I should make time for?
  • I know that the park has 10 coasters, but in my head, I’d always limited the amount I would probably ride there to 5 (Sik, Kumali, Velocity, Mumbo Jumbo, Hero) as I don’t generally do kiddie coasters. I’ve looked at the park’s RCDB file, and I’ve deduced that Dino Roller, Go Gator and Runaway Mine Train are things that I will almost definitely not ride as a result of my personal policy to not ride kiddie coasters. However, I was interested to know; are Twistosaurus and Zooom what you would call embarrassing kiddie coasters in the same vein as the above 3, or are they worth a go? I was unsure whether they were more universally appealing family coasters rather than kiddie coasters, as they look a bit more substantial.
And other than that, I would appreciate any general tips or advice that anyone might have for a first time Flamingo Land visitor.

Any advice is highly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Don't miss Cliff Hanger (the S&S shot and drop tower), especially if it's on combo mode. Keep in mind that most of the coasters only run one train, so you may want to get as many of them done early as you can. Also if you want to do the Lost River Ride you should do it early as it is a long ride but doesn't have many boats.
Hope you have a good time!
 
Skyscraper said:
Don't miss Cliff Hanger (the S&S shot and drop tower), especially if it's on combo mode. Keep in mind that most of the coasters only run one train, so you may want to get as many of them done early as you can. Also if you want to do the Lost River Ride you should do it early as it is a long ride but doesn't have many boats.
Hope you have a good time!
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Thanks @Skyscraper; I’ll definitely keep Cliffhanger in mind, as I love a good drop tower!

I’ll also try to see if we can get there early… I’m not sure what the arrangement for this visit is going to be, as we live 4.5 hours away, but if we are driving up the day before and staying somewhere locally (which wouldn’t surprise me based on previous visits to more far-flung UK parks), then an early start might be feasible.
 
Matt N said:
Thanks @Skyscraper; I’ll definitely keep Cliffhanger in mind, as I love a good drop tower!

I’ll also try to see if we can get there early… I’m not sure what the arrangement for this visit is going to be, as we live 4.5 hours away, but if we are driving up the day before and staying somewhere locally (which wouldn’t surprise me based on previous visits to more far-flung UK parks), then an early start might be feasible.
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Yes definitely try and stay overnight so you can get to the park for opening. Also forgot to mention, SIK has a single rider queue which may be useful for you. It's accessed via the main entrance then splits off. Also the entrance is odd in that you enter through the gift shop. Entrance is on the right and the exit is on the left (iirc).
 
I’d head straight to the back of the park at opening and knock off Mumbo Jumbo first and Kumali immediately afterwards before the queues start to build on them as they both have slow operations.

Cliff Hanger is indeed absolutely tremendous in combo mode, very likely the finest tower ride in the UK and it makes Ice Blast look positively pedestrian.

Be aware that The Lost River Ride will probably have an absolutely massive wait, it’s a long meandering ride with very limited capacity, sometimes it’s hard to even tell if it’s running due to the infrequency of seeing a boat go past. And also be aware that the Pterodactyl star flyer for some reason feels pretty pterrifying. Don’t worry too much about getting on the driving ride, it’s really not much fun.

And sad news, the much loved Cooplands bakery in the park has closed down.
 
My only advice...the pub towards the back of the park, sort of behind the zoo, is very nice indeed for a park of this style.
Oh, and beware of Yorkshiremen, there will be quite a few about.
I don't think the queues will be too bad because of the weather.
 
I'd say Zooom is worth doing for how unique it is, and Twistosaurus is a fun family coaster. It's a wild mouse spinning cars on a different sort of layout.

As mentioned above go straight past Sik and Velocity. And make a start with Hero, Mumbo Jumbo, and Kumali. Then Zooom and Twistosaurus. Then back to Velocity and Sik.

Cliffhanger is a great shot/drop tower, and the star flyer is terrifying.

The zoo is great for a break from the rides, try and attend the sealion show.
 
Your dad is taking you to Flamingo Land on your 20th birthday? What an awesome guy! My dad started "forgetting" my date of birth around about the time I was 20. Or that me or his other 5 children existed for that matter. A tradition that's carried on for a further 21 years......

I've never been to FL either. No idea why, as it's only up in Yorkshire and I spent over a year working in Bradford a few years ago.
 
Burbs said:
Out of interest @Matt N, what 3 questions did you ask to work it out?
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My first question was “Is it a park I’ve visited before?”, which I think floored them a tad. They answered “no”, which certainly ruled out quite a number of UK parks seeing as I’ve been to a fair percentage of the semi-major ones (I’ve been to all 4 Merlin parks, BPB, Drayton, Paultons and Oakwood in terms of the semi-major ones, with WMSP and South Pier Blackpool also visited in terms of more minor ones).

My second question was “Is it in the South or the North?”. They answered “the North”, which ruled out a few more unvisited UK parks in the South such as Brean Theme Park, Dreamland Margate, Adventure Island and the Norfolk/Suffolk area parks.

I’d pretty much deduced it after 2 questions, and I think they’d realised that, so my third question was “Is it Flamingo Land in Yorkshire?”. They of course answered “yes” to this question.

I think they’d hoped that I might still not know where we were going even on the drive up there, but they said that my first question surprised them and was far too good for me not to guess it beforehand!

Come to think of it, I should have joined up the dots earlier, as my parents were asking some oddly specific questions about Flamingo Land just after we got back from America… I genuinely thought that they were just interested to learn more about the park at the time!
 
Matt N said:
Come to think of it, I should have joined up the dots earlier, as my parents were asking some oddly specific questions about Flamingo Land just after we got back from America… I genuinely thought that they were just interested to learn more about the park at the time!
Click to expand...
My parents were asking me about Energylandia yesterday, this bodes well 🤣
 
Thanks for your replies, everybody; this will be a great help!

I must admit that I'm not really sure what to expect from Flamingo Land in many regards. I'm very aware of the less-than-stellar reputation that precedes the park, but I'll go in with an open mind, and I am certainly looking forward to seeing what the park has to offer!

I have to say that even though I don't like Colossus, I am quite excited and intrigued to try out Sik, not least to see how much of my disdain for Colossus can be attributed to the trains and roughness. I've heard some very good things about Sik, and seeing as the trains are the same brilliant trains as can be found on VelociCoaster, I'm cautiously optimistic!

Some of the other rides also look intriguing, and I'm actually going in with a surprisingly oblivious level of expectation for some of them. I know that Hero is almost universally condemned as terrible, but other than that, I actually don't really know what to expect from the others. I don't have overly high expectations for Kumali given that my current least favourite coaster is an SLC, but Velocity and Mumbo Jumbo look interesting and quite unlike anything I've ridden before, and I'm hopeful that they could be really good fun! And besides, any park with 5 decent-size thrill coasters is not to be sniffed at in the UK, in my view!

Hero will also be quite an interesting one to ride... it's been on my "morbid curiosity" bucket list for a few years now, so I'm intrigued to see whether it lives up to its notoriety...
 
Matt N said:
Thanks for your replies, everybody; this will be a great help!

I must admit that I'm not really sure what to expect from Flamingo Land in many regards. I'm very aware of the less-than-stellar reputation that precedes the park, but I'll go in with an open mind, and I am certainly looking forward to seeing what the park has to offer!

I have to say that even though I don't like Colossus, I am quite excited and intrigued to try out Sik, not least to see how much of my disdain for Colossus can be attributed to the trains and roughness. I've heard some very good things about Sik, and seeing as the trains are the same brilliant trains as can be found on VelociCoaster, I'm cautiously optimistic!

Some of the other rides also look intriguing, and I'm actually going in with a surprisingly oblivious level of expectation for some of them. I know that Hero is almost universally condemned as terrible, but other than that, I actually don't really know what to expect from the others. I don't have overly high expectations for Kumali given that my current least favourite coaster is an SLC, but Velocity and Mumbo Jumbo look interesting and quite unlike anything I've ridden before, and I'm hopeful that they could be really good fun! And besides, any park with 5 decent-size thrill coasters is not to be sniffed at in the UK, in my view!

Hero will also be quite an interesting one to ride... it's been on my "morbid curiosity" bucket list for a few years now, so I'm intrigued to see whether it lives up to its notoriety...
Click to expand...
Kumali is regarded as one of the smoothest SLCs, I rode it last year and there were only a couple of small jolts towards the end of the ride. You're tall like me so you shouldn't have an issue with head-banging on the restraint. I'm going to BPB on Sunday and will have the chance to ride Infusion, not sure if I will be and expecting it to be much more uncomfortable.

Mumbo Jumbo is really fun, definitely one of my favourites. Watch out when getting on and off though, I bumped my head on the shoulder bars. Also, take note of how many cars it's running. I think it runs up to three max but usually just two. They seat just four riders each so the queue moves very slowly.

Unfortunately for me, I found Velocity so uncomfortable to the point that I didn't enjoy it. Will be interesting to see what you think of it.
 
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