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Flamingo Land: General Discussion

Matt N said:
Could it be a possibility that Flamingo Land literally doesn’t have the money to enact the COVID procedures?

As much as it might sound like a silly thing to say, I’d imagine that enacting the safeguards does cost a fair bit of money; they require a fair amount of additional staff (e.g. crowd stewards, temperature checkers), they require money to be spent on the manual labour of actually preparing the park for social distancing (e.g. signs, painting distancing markers on the floor), and in a fair number of cases, distancing rules has resulted in a complete redesign of parts of parks, such as entrance plazas.

This may not sound like much, but I’d imagine it’s all quite expensive for a struggling business like Flamingo Land.
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But operating a safe workplace is a basic requirement!
Would you be saying the same if a restaurant was operating with no soap for handwashing as they "couldn't afford it"?
 
Surely any business that isn’t able to keep their customers safe (for whatever reason) should not be allowed to open until they can?

Imagine if, for example, a hypothetical theme park was to experience a major incident on one of their rides, and their response was “sorry we couldn’t afford to keep our rides safe”
This just wouldn’t happen.
 
I’ll admit I am surprised that Flamingo Land was allowed to open with seemingly quite minimal COVID procedures (in fact, are there any COVID procedures?), but I guess the local health board must have deemed it safe enough to open.
 
Matt N said:
I’ll admit I am surprised that Flamingo Land was allowed to open with seemingly quite minimal COVID procedures (in fact, are there any COVID procedures?), but I guess the local health board must have deemed it safe enough to open.
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Most inspections would be retroactive, so the council would only visit if there are complaints.

As someone already mentioned (maybe another thread) social distancing is guidance not law.

It's quite possible following the newspaper headlines that the local council are now coming this week.
 
jon81uk said:
Most inspections would be retroactive, so the council would only visit if there are complaints.

As someone already mentioned (maybe another thread) social distancing is guidance not law.

It's quite possible following the newspaper headlines that the local council are now coming this week.
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I was under the impression that all businesses had to have their COVID procedures reviewed by the government prior to reopening, and if they passed, they would be able to reopen with the “We’re Good To Go” green tick to show that they’re “COVID Secure”? I know all the Merlin parks certainly had this inspection prior to reopening, anyway…

I may be getting that wrong, however…
 
Matt N said:
I was under the impression that all businesses had to have their COVID procedures reviewed by the government prior to reopening, and if they passed, they would be able to reopen with the “We’re Good To Go” green tick to show that they’re “COVID Secure”? I know all the Merlin parks certainly had this inspection prior to reopening, anyway…

I may be getting that wrong, however…
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We're good to go green tick is a scheme run by Visit England not the UK government.
 
Matt N said:
I was under the impression that all businesses had to have their COVID procedures reviewed by the government prior to reopening, and if they passed, they would be able to reopen with the “We’re Good To Go” green tick to show that they’re “COVID Secure”? I know all the Merlin parks certainly had this inspection prior to reopening, anyway…

I may be getting that wrong, however…
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That is not correct, businesses do not have to be inspected before opening. Although the vast majority of businesses are likely to have had at least one Covid check by either the local authority or the HSE (they certainly have here in Leicester).

I have no idea what is happening at Flamingo Land but if they are not able to adequately demonstrate that they can meet their risk assessment criteria for being open then they probably shouldn't be.
 
I guess it’s very different being inspected before you’ve opened to a year later. If the council were to visit most Merlin parks now they wouldn’t think they are covid secure at all. However if they visited last July and saw loads of hand gel, markers on the floor and screens at food outlets then I’m sure that would be good enough to go.
 
Was thinking of meeting tyke mates at 'Mingo for the day at the end of the holidays.
Checked out the tripadvisor reviews, jeez, won't be bothering.
Still hiding behind covid/staffing issues and half the main rides remain closed.
Only one and two star reports, poor ops, food, closures and rancid toilets are the main issues.
Milk those staycationers...
 
rob666 said:
Was thinking of meeting tyke mates at 'Mingo for the day at the end of the holidays.
Checked out the tripadvisor reviews, jeez, won't be bothering.
Still hiding behind covid/staffing issues and half the main rides remain closed.
Only one and two star reports, poor ops, food, closures and rancid toilets are the main issues.
Milk those staycationers...
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Yeah definitely don't visit yet. I'm planning to go next year after the new coaster (hopefully) opens, but if operations/crowd control still aren't good then I'll wait even longer.
 
rob666 said:
Was thinking of meeting tyke mates at 'Mingo for the day at the end of the holidays.
Checked out the tripadvisor reviews, jeez, won't be bothering.
Still hiding behind covid/staffing issues and half the main rides remain closed.
Only one and two star reports, poor ops, food, closures and rancid toilets are the main issues.
Milk those staycationers...
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Blimey, you weren't wrong, I don't think I've ever seen a park get such a slating - even the rare recent 3 or 4 star reviews are pretty terrible. Admittedly they'll be having difficulties recruiting in the same way as all leisure and hospitality, but let's be honest the rot started at the place long before Covid, the pandemic merely accelerated it.

I think out of any park, it's the one I'm most annoyed about in terms of the potential they've absolutely wasted over the years. Excluding LWV, it's my local park and I've seen it grow from the truly awful zoo that it once had, to showing some real potential after some really decent investments. Sadly it's clear that they weren't willing to keep up with maintenance on these additions, hence why we've seen trains disappear on Kumali, seats (quite literally) disappear on Flip Flop and theming fall apart around the park too.

Aside from a little bit of kick back over height issues with the likes of Cliffhanger, this is a park that has a comparatively easy ride planning wise in comparison with other parks. They have considerably more space than other parks, and an established (if not hideously overpriced) popular holiday park to help prop up things too. They were in a prime position to cater to multiple markets and complete with the likes of family parks such as Paulton's, safari parks and thrill parks combined. With a location that offers barely any competition nearby, it's insane that potential hasn't been properly capitalised on.
 
Craig said:
Blimey, you weren't wrong, I don't think I've ever seen a park get such a slating - even the rare recent 3 or 4 star reviews are pretty terrible. Admittedly they'll be having difficulties recruiting in the same way as all leisure and hospitality, but let's be honest the rot started at the place long before Covid, the pandemic merely accelerated it.

I think out of any park, it's the one I'm most annoyed about in terms of the potential they've absolutely wasted over the years. Excluding LWV, it's my local park and I've seen it grow from the truly awful zoo that it once had, to showing some real potential after some really decent investments. Sadly it's clear that they weren't willing to keep up with maintenance on these additions, hence why we've seen trains disappear on Kumali, seats (quite literally) disappear on Flip Flop and theming fall apart around the park too.

Aside from a little bit of kick back over height issues with the likes of Cliffhanger, this is a park that has a comparatively easy ride planning wise in comparison with other parks. They have considerably more space than other parks, and an established (if not hideously overpriced) popular holiday park to help prop up things too. They were in a prime position to cater to multiple markets and complete with the likes of family parks such as Paulton's, safari parks and thrill parks combined. With a location that offers barely any competition nearby, it's insane that potential hasn't been properly capitalised on.
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I too find it crazy that there isn’t some major investment going in there. People have said the park won’t be sold - but why?
 
Jb85 said:
I too find it crazy that there isn’t some major investment going in there. People have said the park won’t be sold - but why?
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Because it’s a family business and the current owner is an interesting character to say the least. Unless they start to see a financial loss they won’t sell up and a lot of people visit the holiday village yearly so they have a bit of a captive audience that props up the bottom line.
 
Jb85 said:
I too find it crazy that there isn’t some major investment going in there. People have said the park won’t be sold - but why?
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The whole family politics surrounding the Gibbs has always been a weird one. I guess the place still makes a profit, albeit a reduced one in their latest accounts up until March last year, so it's worth keeping to them. New coaster aside though, the state of everything else on the park just seems to be getting worse and worse. Couple that with the ever increasing number of negative reviews, and I'm not really seeing the place as an asset that's appreciating in value at the moment, quite the opposite.
 
Considering all the bad reviews and press they've been receiving recently, this is actually really good. A family turned up at the caravan site to find that their booking didn't exist and they'd been duped by a scammer. As Mingo's site was fully booked, three staff rang around all the off-site caravans so that the family could have their holiday. Well done Mingo! :)

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/family-travel-40-miles-flamingo-21472120.amp
 
Skyscraper said:
Considering all the bad reviews and press they've been receiving recently, this is actually really good. A family turned up at the caravan site to find that their booking didn't exist and they'd been duped by a scammer. As Mingo's site was fully booked, three staff rang around all the off-site caravans so that the family could have their holiday. Well done Mingo! :)

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/family-travel-40-miles-flamingo-21472120.amp
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Just a shame they had to then endure Mingoland though so swings and roundabouts.
 
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