Flamingo Land: General Discussion

[Shaggy_Dog_]

trip report:
did every major coaster minus sik which was down pretty much all day

Sorry to hear that you didn’t get the cred. But it’s been having a hell of a lot of downtime recently, it wasn’t running when I visited a fortnight ago and had been down for a few days before that. I wonder what’s actually going on with it?

 

[Poisson]

If you could afford it that is...

But yeah, sorry to hear what's happened on your trip @Alexsniff7 as my trip was actually not bad for what it's worth, still could have been better but I'm not going to ramble on about that.

Cardiff to Mingo and back in fuel, plus entry, is probably close to flights and hire car to Energylandia.

It is a struggle for recommend Mingo as it is poor at best and horrible at worst.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

I had a bit of a weird experience the other day on Navigator, the Zamperla Disk’O. It started its cycle and was running nicely but then when it came time for the cycle to end instead of finishing with a couple of smaller runs and parking it just carried on rocking backwards and forwards for a couple of minutes under its own momentum. It was almost like the ride had no brake and had to keep rolling to gradually come to a halt.

That was my first time riding it, does it normally do that? I’ve never experienced that on a Disk’O before.

 

[Poisson]

E stop? Things like pirate ships with no actual brakes will go into free swing mode when e stopped

 

[Benzin]

E stop? Things like pirate ships with no actual brakes will go into free swing mode when e stopped

It probably depends. I had to e-stop Black Buccaneer once and the tyres did a great job of stopping it very quickly.

Couldn't say how the Disko system works. Might be slower to stop as there's no physical braking system.

 

[Poisson]

Huss Pirate Ships drop both wheels and go free swing

 

[Leigh]

I had a bit of a weird experience the other day on Navigator, the Zamperla Disk’O. It started its cycle and was running nicely but then when it came time for the cycle to end instead of finishing with a couple of smaller runs and parking it just carried on rocking backwards and forwards for a couple of minutes under its own momentum. It was almost like the ride had no brake and had to keep rolling to gradually come to a halt.

That was my first time riding it, does it normally do that? I’ve never experienced that on a Disk’O before.

I had an E stop at the Disk’O at Brean a couple of weeks ago and that is what happens. Was definitely an E stop as once it did finally stop they had to get maintenance over to drag the gondola back to its parking position and manually release the restraints.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

This happened to me one time on Rush, it had to swing at its own momentum to come to a stop and it took ages. I felt so queezy

 

[Livin’ the coaster life]

I think some people's expectations are incredibly high. I'd rather have this than the sky rocket rides that the Sea World parks keep on adding. At a time when Merlin have little real competition, visits to UK theme parks are in decline and the whole British industry is dying on its arse, a roller coaster on this scale seems very positive to me. Would I rather have a custom designed ride? Of course I would, but if they've managed to pick up a ride on this scale at a significant discount it is a great investment for the park.

It’s funny reading these comments now knowing how much of a cool (and popular) ride Sik is .

Totally agree with you that it was a great investment although I do miss corkscrew - just for my own nostalgia purposes.

 

[Livin’ the coaster life]

I had an E stop at the Disk’O at Brean a couple of weeks ago and that is what happens. Was definitely an E stop as once it did finally stop they had to get maintenance over to drag the gondola back to its parking position and manually release the restraints.

That actually happened to me too and that’s in 2023

 

[Harv]

The Lost River Ride is currently being removed from the park. I read some comments suggesting that it is being shortened rather than completely removed but it looks pretty knackered to me, I can't see it sticking around in any form.

The ride wasn't all that popular with riders due to its slow start and lengthy queues, but I always really enjoyed the drop so I'll personally miss it!

 

[Skyscraper]

The Lost River Ride is currently being removed from the park. I read some comments suggesting that it is being shortened rather than completely removed but it looks pretty knackered to me, I can't see it sticking around in any form.

The ride wasn't all that popular with riders due to its slow start and lengthy queues, but I always really enjoyed the drop so I'll personally miss it!

I heard rumours that something was happening to it. Where did you find the info?

 

[Squiggs]

I heard rumours that something was happening to it. Where did you find the info?

There are some pics of work going on here.

 

[Poisson]

Theme park Insanity posted this. It's even more extreme than posted above

 

[Skyscraper]

Theme park Insanity posted this. It's even more extreme than posted above

They posted a video as well. It's a goner in my opinion.

Will YOU miss Lost River Ride's iconic drop? 🌊👀 #lostriverride #flamingoland #lostriver #iconic #demolition #changes #reelsfb #reels #reel #reelsfbシ #reelsfypシ #reelsviralシ #reelsfbviral #tpi #themeparkinsanity | Theme Park Insanity | Elephant Music

Will YOU miss Lost River Ride's iconic drop? 🌊👀 #lostriverride #flamingoland #lostriver #iconic #demolition #changes #reelsfb #reels #reel #reelsfbシ #reelsfypシ #reelsviralシ #reelsfbviral #tpi...

www.facebook.com

Not surprising tbh, it had a throughput so small you'd need a microscope to read it.
Gosh I feel old now, it opened in 2004 and I remember watching a documentary on the park which showed it being built. Then I went not long after it opened I think.

 

[Livin’ the coaster life]

The Lost River Ride is currently being removed from the park. I read some comments suggesting that it is being shortened rather than completely removed but it looks pretty knackered to me, I can't see it sticking around in any form.

The ride wasn't all that popular with riders due to its slow start and lengthy queues, but I always really enjoyed the drop so I'll personally miss it!

I don’t think it’s being removed. I think they’re lowering the drop to make it more ‘young person’ friendly.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

I don’t think it’s being removed. I think they’re lowering the drop to make it more ‘young person’ friendly.

I’m not sure there would be too much need to lower the drop on the ride to make it more “young person” friendly as the park has plenty of kiddie coasters and attractions for younger riders (and with the opening of a thrill ride in Sik last year they haven’t shown any indication that they are wanting to do a Lighterwater Valley or Drayton and reposition themselves in terms of their audience (.

To be honest though I don’t think the drop on it was anything too extreme anyway. It was a 1m height restriction ride and was fine as a family ride in terms of its drop height, but it was a very long drawn out meandering ride in terms of length. I wonder if running costs, potential maintenance issues, and poor throughput could be more likely reasons for it to be either leaving the park or having some massive changes.

 

[Benzin]

The biggest worry was being covered in that disease-ridden lime green water.

 

[Livin’ the coaster life]

I’m not sure there would be too much need to lower the drop on the ride to make it more “young person” friendly as the park has plenty of kiddie coasters and attractions for younger riders (and with the opening of a thrill ride in Sik last year they haven’t shown any indication that they are wanting to do a Lighterwater Valley or Drayton and reposition themselves in terms of their audience (.

To be honest though I don’t think the drop on it was anything too extreme anyway. It was a 1m height restriction ride and was fine as a family ride in terms of its drop height, but it was a very long drawn out meandering ride in terms of length. I wonder if running costs, potential maintenance issues, and poor throughput could be more likely reasons for it to be either leaving the park or having some massive changes.

I would agree with you but quite a few people have said that’s what they’re doing now. So it’s probably got some truth to it. Flamingo Land are usually so hush hush so I guess it’s a wait and see scenario. Either way, most people are saying they aren’t removing the ride - just altering it - will be interesting to see what they do! Just a shame they didn’t tell people so those who were fond of the ride could have had their ‘last rides’ on it.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

Lost River Ride was always an odd ride anyway. The idea behind it was a nice one, and was actually the same idea as Chessington incorporated into their log flume with the Tiger Rock re theme. But the main issue was it was poorly executed. A very low throughput ride with an incredibly weird mid-course section where boats would sit for what seemed an eternity.