Towerslover
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Icon
Much appreciated haha! 
Gotta get the cred!
Gotta get the cred! 
-
ℹ️ Heads up...
This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.
Flamingo Land: General Discussion
- Thread starter soundwave96
- Start date
Enter Valhalla
TS Member
To be fair, Velocity isn't a bad coaster at all. And as for customer service, an area which has traditionally always been a big weakness at Flamingo, has improved a lot over the past few years.
Enter Valhalla
TS Member
That's very true actually, but I say that from an enthusiast point of view. The public seem to love Flamingo Land even though it's generally ridiculed by ride geeks. Whilst, for me, parks like Lightwater Valley and Oakwood with their big main coasters are a better way to spend a day than visiting a park with a load of mediocre coasters, the public look at those smaller parks and complain that there aren't enough rides.
Flamingo Land may lack quality in an enthusiast's eyes but for the public it has lots of rides which are all quite different and a zoo for added appeal, so it's a winner. If they were to install a new hybrid coaster, the enthusiasts would flock but the public would just see it as one more ride.
Spike
TS Contributor
- Favourite Ride
- Taron
It may be a very controversial opinion but I would much rather ride Velocity, Mumbo Jumbo and Kumali than any coaster at The Pleasure Beach but I can't put my finger on why I don't visit more often (last time was just after Mumbo Jumbo opened) I haven't even ridden the newest additions, or seen the park since then.
I suppose the location is very awkward to get to via public transport and the food is usually always terrible. The staff are appauling and throughputs are shocking which are a factor.
I would love to see a Troy/Wodan style woodie in the park and it's the perfect park for a wooden coaster in my view.
I suppose the location is very awkward to get to via public transport and the food is usually always terrible. The staff are appauling and throughputs are shocking which are a factor.
I would love to see a Troy/Wodan style woodie in the park and it's the perfect park for a wooden coaster in my view.
ItsDavid
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako
Whats everyone's issue with flamingo land?
Firstly, there a small independent park which has transformed from a zoo to a resort.
They have always added a unique ride weather its good or bad. There no alton towers, but they know how to do theming, better than merlin in some points. At-least they dont theme to construction sites, shipping containers or paint a train to look like trees went over it. Names are decent too, some are pretty silly but you remember the names well.
They also have some creativity in them, at least all there coasters isnt black like merlins, correct me if im wrong, but the last coaster that isnt black or white in merlin was rita's refurbishment, not counting the repaints of big loop or galactica.
Hero was a poor ride, but for 2.8 million, it did its job; get people in, and marketing wise it was very well received, to the GP, its a decent ride. some of my friends who I visit with like it, I dont find it too bad, I prefer it to speed at oakwood, saw or rage which i find to be way rougher. Rage I just find bland.
Throughputs are poor? There not great, but there no where near as bad as people say. I live about an hour and a half away, and visit quite a bit... Never once seen kumali take longer than 5 min to dispatch with a queue, they also always have 2 staff on cliff hanger, which lets take Blackpool for example, where sluggish operations actully take away from your day, usually have ice blast on 1 staff, taking it far longer to shoot.
They run all there flats on long, good cycles, I cant think of 1 flat ride in the full merlin chain, atleast in the UK than run on a strong cycle, but ramesis on a good day, which usually ends up breaking down for the rest of the day. Flip flop for example is always on a very very good cycle, Pterodactyl is also on a really good cycle, it is much better then mellors traveling star flyer for some reason, it feels faster.
Lacks a quality coaster? Velocity, Kumali, Mumbo Jumbo? All pretty good coasters in my eyes. There no B&M's, but the vekomas run much better than infusion or rita for example. They dont kill you. Mumbo is also far smoother, and a better ride to saw layout wise, it doesnt smash your head at all apart from the jolt in the over bank towards the end.
They maintain there coasters much better than towers do, which is why cliff hanger runs much better than any other S&S tower in the country, Hero is far far far smoother than the cony island volair, and they dont have much downtime as a park.
Lets also talk about there resort, and how much better the park looks now to most parks in the UK, firstly, the food there has improved very well since 2012/13. Its also well priced too, a hot dog there isnt £6 like it is at towers, its half that, and much better. Heard the fish and chips are really good too. There are 3 pubs/restaurants that server amazing food too, the coach house, metropolis cafe and the diner are really nice, Been to all 3 and never had an issue.
Visually, the area around mumbo jumbo is really nice too, they tore down the toilets building near the monorail which housed the station to the professor bubbles car ride, fish and chips shop and are rebuilding it into a multi story restaurant, monorail station and toilets, which will make the full area look better, moved the carousel which im sure will be refurbished and made to look very nice again, and the whole riverside 1 area looks very good, and when your there at night, its a nice area with very good wifi and other facilities.
The enterance is also in a 4 year development plan, including the full plaza being rebuilt, which I believe the main bit of work is to be done at the end of the 2017 season, along with something new on the former corkscrew site.
Also, they offer some good shows, what other park does in the uk? Cant think of any but the hot ice one at blackpool..
To me, its worth every penny you pay to go, For a zoo and decent rides, much better value to drayton, which food prices are far too high and rides are all rubbish apart from air race and maelstrom, and chessington, which is far to busy most of the time to what it can handle capacity wise.
Firstly, yes the rides are better because they have the quantity to keep people happy of good rides, Pleasure beach have aload of old and rough rides that are only there because the owner spends there profits on fountains, and are about to make there first major investment since 1998.............
2ndly, staff are not bad there at all now? In the last 2 years they have massively improved, there past Thorpes standards atleast. They are all nicer people, they know what to do. Operations could be better, but they operate Hero very very well, ive seen the operations on coney islands version and there far better at flamingo land, they run it on more trains, and it barely ever needs to stop in the station. Velocity is ran well too, thats in and out the station, it loads and unloads much faster than rita and stealth, just suffers the 1 train. Kumali and cliff hanger i can understand, and mumbo jumbo im not sure about, it sometimes runs well mainly when its on 3 trains, but when its on 2 its usually sluggish..
Firstly, there a small independent park which has transformed from a zoo to a resort.
They have always added a unique ride weather its good or bad. There no alton towers, but they know how to do theming, better than merlin in some points. At-least they dont theme to construction sites, shipping containers or paint a train to look like trees went over it. Names are decent too, some are pretty silly but you remember the names well.
They also have some creativity in them, at least all there coasters isnt black like merlins, correct me if im wrong, but the last coaster that isnt black or white in merlin was rita's refurbishment, not counting the repaints of big loop or galactica.
Hero was a poor ride, but for 2.8 million, it did its job; get people in, and marketing wise it was very well received, to the GP, its a decent ride. some of my friends who I visit with like it, I dont find it too bad, I prefer it to speed at oakwood, saw or rage which i find to be way rougher. Rage I just find bland.
Throughputs are poor? There not great, but there no where near as bad as people say. I live about an hour and a half away, and visit quite a bit... Never once seen kumali take longer than 5 min to dispatch with a queue, they also always have 2 staff on cliff hanger, which lets take Blackpool for example, where sluggish operations actully take away from your day, usually have ice blast on 1 staff, taking it far longer to shoot.
They run all there flats on long, good cycles, I cant think of 1 flat ride in the full merlin chain, atleast in the UK than run on a strong cycle, but ramesis on a good day, which usually ends up breaking down for the rest of the day. Flip flop for example is always on a very very good cycle, Pterodactyl is also on a really good cycle, it is much better then mellors traveling star flyer for some reason, it feels faster.
Lacks a quality coaster? Velocity, Kumali, Mumbo Jumbo? All pretty good coasters in my eyes. There no B&M's, but the vekomas run much better than infusion or rita for example. They dont kill you. Mumbo is also far smoother, and a better ride to saw layout wise, it doesnt smash your head at all apart from the jolt in the over bank towards the end.
They maintain there coasters much better than towers do, which is why cliff hanger runs much better than any other S&S tower in the country, Hero is far far far smoother than the cony island volair, and they dont have much downtime as a park.
Lets also talk about there resort, and how much better the park looks now to most parks in the UK, firstly, the food there has improved very well since 2012/13. Its also well priced too, a hot dog there isnt £6 like it is at towers, its half that, and much better. Heard the fish and chips are really good too. There are 3 pubs/restaurants that server amazing food too, the coach house, metropolis cafe and the diner are really nice, Been to all 3 and never had an issue.
Visually, the area around mumbo jumbo is really nice too, they tore down the toilets building near the monorail which housed the station to the professor bubbles car ride, fish and chips shop and are rebuilding it into a multi story restaurant, monorail station and toilets, which will make the full area look better, moved the carousel which im sure will be refurbished and made to look very nice again, and the whole riverside 1 area looks very good, and when your there at night, its a nice area with very good wifi and other facilities.
The enterance is also in a 4 year development plan, including the full plaza being rebuilt, which I believe the main bit of work is to be done at the end of the 2017 season, along with something new on the former corkscrew site.
Also, they offer some good shows, what other park does in the uk? Cant think of any but the hot ice one at blackpool..
To me, its worth every penny you pay to go, For a zoo and decent rides, much better value to drayton, which food prices are far too high and rides are all rubbish apart from air race and maelstrom, and chessington, which is far to busy most of the time to what it can handle capacity wise.
Firstly, yes the rides are better because they have the quantity to keep people happy of good rides, Pleasure beach have aload of old and rough rides that are only there because the owner spends there profits on fountains, and are about to make there first major investment since 1998.............
2ndly, staff are not bad there at all now? In the last 2 years they have massively improved, there past Thorpes standards atleast. They are all nicer people, they know what to do. Operations could be better, but they operate Hero very very well, ive seen the operations on coney islands version and there far better at flamingo land, they run it on more trains, and it barely ever needs to stop in the station. Velocity is ran well too, thats in and out the station, it loads and unloads much faster than rita and stealth, just suffers the 1 train. Kumali and cliff hanger i can understand, and mumbo jumbo im not sure about, it sometimes runs well mainly when its on 3 trains, but when its on 2 its usually sluggish..
Last edited by a moderator:
Dave
TS Founding Member
Flamingo Land
The good: They turned the zoo around, it's a lot better now than it used to be.
The theming is ok.
Kumali is ok.
Mumbo Jumbo is ok.
The bad:
Park operations are terrible, you say they despatch on kumali every 5 minutes with a queue. Even on the worst operating coaster at "they who must not be named" (Merlin) dispatch quicker than that. Blackpool also have better throughputs on most coasters.
The staff are miserable
I usually enjoy my day at FL but it's a mediocre park even by UK standards.
The good: They turned the zoo around, it's a lot better now than it used to be.
The theming is ok.
Kumali is ok.
Mumbo Jumbo is ok.
The bad:
Park operations are terrible, you say they despatch on kumali every 5 minutes with a queue. Even on the worst operating coaster at "they who must not be named" (Merlin) dispatch quicker than that. Blackpool also have better throughputs on most coasters.
The staff are miserable
I usually enjoy my day at FL but it's a mediocre park even by UK standards.
ItsDavid
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako
hero they could of done far better, I was very dissapointed, But dino stone park is really nice, Kumali/mumbo jumbos area is done nice and the zoo has a good theme around it, just need to pay attention to some of the other things around the park which they will end up doing sometime.
I much prefer merlin, but its generally upsetting to see a park like flamingo land being bashed so much and people saying oakwood and lightwater are better.. Explains why there on the verge of closing and flamingo land is getting 1.8 million+ guests a year really.
Its mediocre yes, but its far better as a day out to lets say Lightwater, oakwood ect. The ride lineup fits to so many more demographics to any other UK park, by that i mean that chessington has 1 proper thrill ride, Paultons has none, which is very understanding because its a family park, and I dont expect or think they will get a thrill ride, and thorpe has so little. Blackpool, Alton and Drayton have very little for the older kids who dont really fit to the target audience to there IP areas, and theres very little else for them to do as they just keep on expanding on that instead of others. I have a cousin who has a 8 year old boy and a 6 year old girl, Drayon manor they both got bored of because the only rollercoaster they went on was the ben 10 one and they had no interest in thomas land at all. Alton they both liked mutiny bay and the rapids/minetrain, but diddnt want to go on Sonic, and the few rides there they diddnt like, and Blackpool, one of them really enjoyed but now, he most probably wouldn't. Every time they go to flamingo land they have 3 coasters [Zoooooom, Run away train and twist-o-saurus] one of them enjoying Mumbo Jumbo, and they have a zoo when they run out of things to do.
So to wrap up what you all are saying, To an enthusiast, it is far from a superior park, but to the average guests of the park, its probably one of the most entertaining theme parks in the country for a family with a varied demographic, along side alton if they continue with the family market which I hope they do, because i do much prefer them over Flamingo land.
Rick
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Crux
I think it's a good park, it has little finesse - but perhaps more so than it once did. The ride line up is pretty credible - in the past couple of decades, I'd be hard pressed to choose between Flamingo Land and Thorpe in terms of which has gone through the most significant change, but in a heartbeat would conclude that Thorpe has got the better product in 2017.
Their ride additions have been quite sporadic, sometimes adding nothing for a couple of years and then adding two coasters in the same year. They've made some bad hardware choices - Lost River in particular. They had some great spin rides around 1998/1999 - the park was literally a fairground with a Corkscrew. The whole place feels a little Roller Coaster Tycoon - particular around Metropolis. The zoo is cool - if you're into that kind of thing.
I do miss Bullet & Magnum, but also recognise that they had to move on and get more reliable signature rides "Today is a Green Show Day..." etc.
Although I would rather cut off my right arm than sleep in a caravan, the holiday village has ensured that the park has the capital to expand and ultimately thrive in the way it has done. Guests on tap ... as it were. Some of the folks that stay live and breathe that park.
Their ride additions have been quite sporadic, sometimes adding nothing for a couple of years and then adding two coasters in the same year. They've made some bad hardware choices - Lost River in particular. They had some great spin rides around 1998/1999 - the park was literally a fairground with a Corkscrew. The whole place feels a little Roller Coaster Tycoon - particular around Metropolis. The zoo is cool - if you're into that kind of thing.
I do miss Bullet & Magnum, but also recognise that they had to move on and get more reliable signature rides "Today is a Green Show Day..." etc.
Although I would rather cut off my right arm than sleep in a caravan, the holiday village has ensured that the park has the capital to expand and ultimately thrive in the way it has done. Guests on tap ... as it were. Some of the folks that stay live and breathe that park.
ItsDavid
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako
After riding the munich looping at winter wonderland, im pretty sad they did remove magnum force, sorry very sad. I dont think it will be to long until we see a smaller hotel, they seem to be moving away from caravans slowly, they have started remarketing there log cabins, and only starting to let higher class caravans in the holiday park, The new seaside cottages are very nice too. I stayed in one last year with 2 friends.
They also get some pretty solid musical guests to the park too, so I guess they want to make it so there is more of a resort.
I feel that Flamingoland is slightly better than average. It still has a lot of issues that stop it from being an actual good park, but elements of it have improved over the past decade. Throughputs are very bad for a park its size and the staff are very miserable, but there clearly is a level of care there in terms of park upkeep. There are some well themed areas such as the submarine theme around Flip Flop and the Splash battle, plus the whole Lost Kingdom area, but then there are still a few areas that feel a bit funfair-ish for me, in particular the entrance plaza with those randomly placed, dated children's flats; plus the Metropolis area is themeless and tacky.
I'm not a massive fan of the coasters there bar Mumbo Jumbo, which is oddly addictive (but only when the park is dead and there's not even a trace of a queue, as the loading times are dire on that ride). Flip Flop, however, is probably my favourite flat in the country. And the zoo is better than the one at Drayton. I would agree that it is a better park, on the whole, than Lightwater and Oakwood.
In conclusion, FL is worth visiting, but not an essential park for me.
I'm not a massive fan of the coasters there bar Mumbo Jumbo, which is oddly addictive (but only when the park is dead and there's not even a trace of a queue, as the loading times are dire on that ride). Flip Flop, however, is probably my favourite flat in the country. And the zoo is better than the one at Drayton. I would agree that it is a better park, on the whole, than Lightwater and Oakwood.
In conclusion, FL is worth visiting, but not an essential park for me.
ItsDavid
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako
the dated childrens rides are gone now I believe, and I really like metropolis, its nothing special theming wise. I think navigator will eventually get painted to a new colour, probably orange and dark blue with the odd theming/support things heros support colour, and the vortex thing to go.
I always thought a starshape would fit so well there, doubt it will happen but one can hope. One thing i cant deny is hero has one of the nicest colour schemes in the UK, It looks really nice, I really like the station too for the space they had to work with, shame about the cheap metal queue not having any effort in it. but i see what you mean, both areas do need work, and its confirmed that the full entrance plaza is getting a overhaul in 3 phases, phase 1 was the pirate show & customer service being moved from a caravan to the park entrance area
DiogoJ42
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Metropolitan Line
Thats not hard... though it is a bit like saying Fukushima was "better" than Chernobyl.
All zoos are essentially prison camps for animals, nomatter how many fake rocks are scattered round the fences.
MakoMania
TS Member
I'd take issue with that DiogoJ42, many species would be extinct by now if it were not for ACCREDITED zoos & aquariums. The reason I say accredited is that if a facility is not accredited, you have no guarantees on animal welfare or husbandry etc.
But since this is a theme park forum, I'll save my complete and utter rage at your post for another day.
EDIT: This is a good article even though I don't agree with 100% of it:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....hy-zoos-are-good?client=ms-android-tmobile-gb
But since this is a theme park forum, I'll save my complete and utter rage at your post for another day.
EDIT: This is a good article even though I don't agree with 100% of it:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....hy-zoos-are-good?client=ms-android-tmobile-gb
Last edited:
ItsDavid
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako
Flamingo lands is good on an ethical scale too, they have signs up informing you about each of the animals they have, including there names and how they got there. Most of the newer animals there from the past 5-7 years are from zoo's where they were not treat well, and closed, or saved from the wild [For example, one of the tigers they have] and they let them breed naturally. All well treat by the looks of it too, the zoo staff are on a much much higher standard to the park staff, they all seem to love there job. Chessingtons zoo looks great but the enclosures are far to small, they have big monkeys in cages the size of living rooms.. animals there also look healthy though.
ItsDavid
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Mako
I'd take issue with that DiogoJ42, many species would be extinct by now if it were not for ACCREDITED zoos & aquariums. The reason I say accredited is that if a facility is not accredited, you have no guarantees on animal welfare or husbandry etc.
But since this is a theme park forum, I'll save my complete and utter rage at your post for another day.
EDIT: This is a good article even though I don't agree with 100% of it:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....hy-zoos-are-good?client=ms-android-tmobile-gb
Thanks, I totally agree with you. When the animals look happy and at home, im fine with it. I asked last year when i visited during winter why they dont have polar bears, and they replied that they cant make a habitat for them to live in at a good scale for them to be happy. Same with why they dont have large marine animals, and they stick to animals that can live in our climate happily, like the bigger cats, the selection of monkeys they have ect.