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Flamingo Land: General Discussion

rob666 said:
Ok, a more detailed review of mingo's zoo.
I went early autumn 2019 with tyke mates and their kids.
While the kids went on the worlds slowest big splash flume,with the worlds slowest water ride queue due to fast pass abuse, I wandered the zoo twice, once while the kids queued, once while they were on the ride.
The latest "New for 2019" big cat enclosure was empty, still waiting for the animals out of quarantine apparently.
The new enclosure looked ok, but overall the tidy up from the decade before needs redoing.
The other enclosures were reasonably sized for a modern zoo, but nowhere near safari park standards for space and visibility of the animals.
Very large concrete walls were shedding their render, glass viewing windows were filthy, none of the animals looked happy, there was evidence of lengthy pacing of the boundaries of the enclosures by many of the larger animals...worn out grass around the walls.
The penguin enclosure was very poor indeed, the viewing windows within a concrete bunker that smelt strongly of urine appeared to be fogged out...but it was very, very murky water, catering for a single penguin.
The meerkat enclosure with pop up dome viewing windows used to be good, but the enclosure has deteriorated over time, and the viewing domes were closed when I visited.
Many of the viewing windows were cracked, scratched badly or damaged, there were a number of gaffer tape repairs.
The kids only went through part of the zoo to get to the excellent pub within the park at the far end of the park from the rides... they, and their parents, did not want to see, as they described it, big animals in small enclosures.
I saw no evidence of conservation talks or educational provision on the day I was there at all.
The flamingoes were nice,and the layout, though not easy to fathom, was well landscaped, at least for the humans.
Having visited a large number of zoos as part of my job, I can honestly state that I hate them all.
Ban cages and small enclosures first, close the safari parks last, but shut every last one.
Do the conservation work in the country of origin.
Use television and the internet to educate and inform about conservation and ecology.
Do meaningful scientific research with the animals in their natural environment.
We no longer need zoos.
They serve no real purpose anymore, and are cruel.
If you aint going to eat it, dont keep it in a box.
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All Lost River Ride needs to stop it from being 30minute lift hill- the ride, is a faster chain and some kicker wheels in the indoor section!
 
I have never ridden Lost River Ride, nor do I expect to. It's either too cold for me to want to ride or it's got a 2hr wait because the capacity is so utterly appalling.
 
Thank you for all your thoughts on Flamingo Land's Zoo. I understand the zoo came first but I really think that you should either be a theme park or a zoo. I already think some people view zoos as simply days out anyway, and adding a theme park into the mix makes it even more so.

I'm not going to get into a debate about zoos, I personally believe the good zoos (and even then I have issues with somewhere such as Chester for a few of their enclosures), the ones that are dealing with conservation and just as importantly education, do need to be around. You can't always have conservation in the country of origin, because some species now have no countries due to habitat loss etc but the animals still need to be looked after and bred for the day they can be re-introduced. Chester Zoo has had some amazing success with saving animal species from areas where their homes have been destroyed only for new policies and lands being secured so the animals can return to the wild.

Ideally we should have no zoos but until frankly, there are a lot less people on the planet from areas of the world where the destruction of nature be it land or animals is the norm, we won't see this happening in this generation or the next or even the one after that.

The only good thing that has come of COVID-19, is that I think the entire world now has some idea of where this virus came from and how and why it is here. I am hoping that his trickles into other animal welfare issues across the world and that maybe there will be some kind of movement because of it.

Thanks again for all your thoughts. I think visiting the zoo would be something I would do, simply because I've been to three of the top zoos in the UK, and it would be interesting to see how it compares.... then I could complain. Even the good zoos need a kick up the backside if you see things you don't like (such as areas of pacing) so a smaller one definitely would need a polite reminder.
 
I really struggle with zoos, there aren't many things I could debate on either side of, but I reckon I could on the future of zoos. Not least because, I think a lot of people's concern for the animals comes from visiting zoos or safari parks, I know that's the case for me.

There's an example in my family at the moment, with someone in their mid teens:
  1. Not very interested in animals
  2. Visits a zoo (Chester in this case)
  3. Becomes interested in animals + does some research
  4. Becomes anti zoo
I think there are things you can do with television and the internet in terms of education, but I don't think it's the same.

We had a great day at Knowsley SP last year, also enjoyed a (very cold) day at Blackpool Zoo too. Given the choice, I'd visit a theme park with a zoo, they're both a half day experience for me these days, on the whole.
 
Pleasure Beach Valhalla said:
All Lost River Ride needs to stop it from being 30minute lift hill- the ride, is a faster chain and some kicker wheels in the indoor section!
Click to expand...
Pleasure Beach Valhalla said:
All Lost River Ride needs to stop it from being 30minute lift hill- the ride, is a faster chain and some kicker wheels in the indoor section!
Click to expand...
Ok you mentioned, that there was only a single penguin, this is wrong there is actually 12, they have a well looked after enclosure with an above open viewing area. You also mentioned that there is no conservation? This is also wrong as flamingo land are involved in the most conservation than any other zoo in the uk. The animals are flamingos top priority and we look after them very well

Poisson said:
I think you'll find every park is held to a high regard and most find FL have some failings. Take a look at say Velocity and tell me it doesn't fail on themeing terms?

I'm not sure where this aggressiveness has come from but we can't all have a civilised debate with such attacks.
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It’s a very underrated park that gets lots of hate from enthusiasts just because it’s not go top class rides
 
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charlie craig said:
Ok you mentioned, that there was only a single penguin, this is wrong there is actually 12, they have a well looked after enclosure with an above open viewing area. You also mentioned that there is no conservation? This is also wrong as flamingo land are involved in the most conservation than any other zoo in the uk. The animals are flamingos top priority and we look after them very well
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Flamingo Land does more conservation than something like ZSL? By what metric?
 
Rick said:
Flamingo Land does more conservation than something like ZSL? By what metric?
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yes but you have to remember ZSL is a large charity that owns zoos around the world. As a privately owned zoo it does more conservation than any other privately owned one. We recently realised a black rhino into the wild which was part of the biggest rhino project to date. A lot of work has been done and still is being done in the uwanda rainforest to pony trees, save species and help people. Flamingo lands have helped save over 2000 endangered species since 2014 and there are plenty of signs in the zoo telling you that, there’s also the education centre to !
 
Construction update courtesy of TPWW.



Coming along nicely! Can't wait to get back to Mingo and ride it next year. :)
 
Looking like it’s coming along nicely! I hope it does well for them whenever it opens!
 
More track and supports have been painted grey and black respectively, so it looks like that will be the final colour scheme.
 
Unpopular opinion; I actually think I prefer the grey and black colour scheme to the red and yellow one!

Painting it while it’s up is an interesting approach, however; I’m surprised they didn’t paint it before assembling it.
 
Any word on an opening date for this? Hoping they stick with this year at least.
 
Is it just me or has Velocity had a repaint? Track looks brighter in this video;



Also, I've never understood why Mingo hold guests before the air gates on all the coasters, then let them onto the platform after opening the gates. Completely contradicts the whole point of air gates lol. Does anyone know why they do that? :confused:
 
skyscraper said:
Also, I've never understood why Mingo hold guests before the air gates on all the coasters, then let them onto the platform after opening the gates. Completely contradicts the whole point of air gates lol. Does anyone know why they do that? :confused:
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I've never been, but could this just be during COVID? I can see why if so, as it would be more manageable to distance in the main queue than in bays that are right next to each other. :)
 
They've always done it on both Velocity and Kumali from what I've seen. In the case of Kumali, the op panel is between where they hold the queue and the air gates, which might have something to do with it. No idea about Velocity.
 
I think it stems from an incident where someone use an air gate as a climbing frame and caused a near miss.

Velocity has been repainted.
 
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