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Flamingo Land: General Discussion

Dipper_Dave said:
Unexpected treat (if you can call a Pinfari looper a treat) the other day. Went on the Crazy Loop at Brean. Whilst in queue I thought it looked strangely familiar. Looked it up after and yes it’s the ex-Flamingoland Crazy Loop, that I probably last went on when I was about 16. A nice surprise as I didn’t realise it still existed.

Ride Op seemed to be a coaster nerd, loved my Funshine mask & was talking about Space Invader. Said they had done well to keep it running so smooth ‘unlike this’ (folllowed by maniacal laughter) and described the Crazy Loop train as an ‘Angry shopping trolley’. A fair description I think. I don’t worry about the safety of rides, but seeing a ride weighted down by a tank of water so it doesn’t collapse always seems a bit weird!
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The ride also used to be at Pleasure Island in Cleethorpes until it was sent ti Brean in 2003.
 
Ils said:
We went last August and I have to say without doubt they have the worst park operations. It was a busy day when we went and you had to end up buying their version of fast pass to get on any of the major rides. The big water ride had a 2 hour queue ...as there were about three boats going around.

To be fair we made a good day of it as the sun was shining but it was a near a 3 hour drive for a below average experience. We were told Velocity wasn't open and then suddenly at 11.30am it was then opened and luckily for us happened to be walking past at the time.

My advice is think long and hard about whether it is worth it.
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This park is about an hour from me but because of the poor effort of them creating a good day out with poor throughput, lackluster theming, minimal staff, sporadic opening hours of some rides to what basically is a part-time park which tries to be a full-time resort, I drive 3:30 hour to Alton Towers (or Blackpool or Thorpe) for my kicks.

Will be a long time before I part with my money to Flamingoland.
 
4 weeks to go before the park can open and they have said nothing about the new coaster. Nada. Zilch.

Surely they aren't going to open this big new coaster without a bit of a build up.
 
Benjsh said:
4 weeks to go before the park can open and they have said nothing about the new coaster. Nada. Zilch.

Surely they aren't going to open this big new coaster without a bit of a build up.
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It doesn't seem like they're very keen on advertising any sort of reopening date at present. The last update on their socials regarding reopening was when the lockdown roadmap was announced, with a promise of further updates but nothing since aside from zoo updates. Even the website still advertises their winter event!

My guess would be they've literally got pretty much everyone on furlough aside from zoo staff at present, so no one is around to actually do any build up until they make a decision on reopening and start to bring staff back.
 
Craig said:
It doesn't seem like they're very keen on advertising any sort of reopening date at present. The last update on their socials regarding reopening was when the lockdown roadmap was announced, with a promise of further updates but nothing since aside from zoo updates. Even the website still advertises their winter event!

My guess would be they've literally got pretty much everyone on furlough aside from zoo staff at present, so no one is around to actually do any build up until they make a decision on reopening and start to bring staff back.
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Yeah very possible that the entire admin / social / creative team are in fact still furloughed. It would make a lot of sense if that's the case. However it seems to be cutting it a bit fine.
 
Benjsh said:
Yeah very possible that the entire admin / social / creative team are in fact still furloughed. It would make a lot of sense if that's the case. However it seems to be cutting it a bit fine.
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And remember that the furlough scheme has been extended til October.
 
Flamingo Land have never really opened new rides before the summer to capitalise on those who come at Easter and then again in the summer ... they could easily do the same here, even if it is delayed.

Staffing was a bit of a headache for them last year, when they reopened they were essentially operating with permanent staff only for a good few weeks that meant a lot of staggered opening.
 
Don't forget they'd only got to doing the pull through last March so they might need to be getting Intamin back in for that, signing the ride off, and training on running the ride itself.
 
I agree it is odd that we haven't yet heard anything in terms of an opening date.

I certainly have no intention of visiting Mingo again until this new ride is open - and have now already planned trips to Paultons and Fantasy Island (both of which are opening new coasters) at their expense.

I'm sure many people who visited the park last year and saw the new ride under construction will also be in the same boat. The sooner they open this now the better.
 
The park is opening April 12th, with 5 rides open (Gallopers, Helitoys, Jungle Carousel, Muddy Duck Tractors & Wacky Races) on weekdays. Mumbo Jumbo, Cliff Hanger and Pterodactyl will also open on weekends.

Nothing regarding the 10 looper, it used to say opening 2021 on the park map but doesn't say that anymore.
 
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dazza4783 said:
The park is opening April 12th, with 5 rides open (Gallopers, Helitoys, Jungle Carousel, Muddy Duck Tractors & Wacky Races) on weekdays. Mumbo Jumbo, Cliff Hanger and Pterodactyl will also open on weekends.

Nothing regarding the 10 looper, it used to say opening 2021 on the park map but doesn't say that anymore.
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Wow, I guess they're not saying why.
I'd guess either they don't have staff or they don't have money because I don't see any reason to go to a park with only 5 baby rides!
 
Probably too expensive to staff every ride while visitor numbers still restricted and having the zoo and the outdoor kids rides near it open kind of makes sense.
When it comes to opening big new rides parks want to see what impact it has on how many visitors it brings in for it, that is how they know it was justified spending the money on and indicates what they can justify doing in the future, so they will want to wait until they can have as many visitors in as possible before they open it. If all goes to plan regarding easing restrictions it may open later in the year, hopefully.
 
They are probably just gaging how things go. If Lockdown is lifted as per schedule and all restrictions are gone by 21st June they might open it then just in time for the school holidays.

Not the worst idea either as I imagine there will be plenty of people wanting to visit in first few months purely just because we've been locked in for so long.

And if things turn sour again (let's hope not) then they have their new ride for 2022 all ready to go. I still think they will open it this year at some point though.
 
AstroDan said:
Mingo are open next to no rides, LWV is basically doomed.

Why are Mingo not capitalising?
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That's what I was thinking, if you're a thrill seeker in Yorkshire/the North East where are you going to go?
Fantasy Island is 85 miles away from Flamingo Land
Alton Towers 95 miles
Blackpool Pleasure Beach 96 miles
 
LWV just hasn't been any sort of competition for Flamingo for a long, long time to be honest. They've been leagues apart in recent years, no one really compares the two these days :(.
 
According to The Undead Creature over on CoasterForce, Flamingo Land is opening very little and has removed “coming 2021” from their new coaster because they have “literally run out of money”, and may even have to sell some rides off.

I hope the park is able to pull through this tough stretch and open their new ride eventually.
Source: https://coasterforce.com/forums/thr...rsion-coaster-2021.43277/page-43#post-1105717
 
That's a name I've not heard in a while.

Shame, but given that they are one of the places were expenditure has had to continue due to the zoo, it's no surprise that money issues are abound. I mean they even had to get the new cred on the cheap.

Going to be a very difficult season up ahead.
 
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