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Flamingo Land: General Discussion

I thought that the scratched/worn effect was just part of the design of Sik’s train?

I have to say that I personally found the lap bar trains to enhance that layout no end compared to Colossus. Perhaps it helps that I’m quite thin and don’t have overly big thighs, but I found that for the most part, the overall ride experience was much more comfortable than that of Colossus. I also found that the enhanced profiling on the first drop in particular made me like the layout somewhat more than that of Colossus even taking the trains out of the equation.

I’m still not entirely sure I overly like second half with the repeated rolls, though. The rolls didn’t feel as nice as the rolls on, say, VelociCoaster or Blue Fire, and the consecutive nature of them made the sequence feel mildly nauseating.
 
Matt N said:
I thought that the scratched/worn effect was just part of the design of Sik’s train?

I have to say that I personally found the lap bar trains to enhance that layout no end compared to Colossus. Perhaps it helps that I’m quite thin and don’t have overly big thighs, but I found that for the most part, the overall ride experience was much more comfortable than that of Colossus. I also found that the enhanced profiling on the first drop in particular made me like the layout somewhat more than that of Colossus even taking the trains out of the equation.

I’m still not entirely sure I overly like second half with the repeated rolls, though. The rolls didn’t feel as nice as the rolls on, say, VelociCoaster or Blue Fire, and the consecutive nature of them made the sequence feel mildly nauseating.
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From: https://twitter.com/ThemeParkWW/status/1778736054670946561?t=J2a-AvUeI8vXxxQ2W5Q7kQ&s=19

Had a look back at the opening photos and yeah you are right.. Part of the design! 🤯 I genuinely don't get it. I recall the silks in the station and thinking, oh they've tried to make it look nice. But then put a "distressed" look on the train? Looks like an old Big One train 😂
 
Poisson said:
It hurts my legs so much. I'd like it if the trains were good.
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Slightly off topic but it will be interesting to see how Hyperia rides with lap bars, some of those elements will probably be insane. Although Mack restraints are a bit bulkier so should be comfortable.
 
Skyscraper said:
Slightly off topic but it will be interesting to see how Hyperia rides with lap bars, some of those elements will probably be insane. Although Mack restraints are a bit bulkier so should be comfortable.
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I've done GCE with stupid amounts of hangtime and the new Intamin trains are great. These are old trains, just were sat in a field for 10 years.
 
The thing with Sik’s trains is that although they have overhead lap bars, they’re effectively just the Rita/Stealth trains without the hard rubber vest-type portion, so other than the lack of those, they effectively share the same flaws as Rita and Stealth’s trains and restraints. I didn’t think they felt quite as uncomfortable as Rita or Stealth’s bars, though, and certainly nowhere near as uncomfortable as those horrible old Colossus trains…

I agree with @Poisson in thinking that Intamin’s new trains are a lot better. The ones on VelociCoaster were absolutely brilliant, so roomy, and so exposed; they have to be some of my favourite coaster trains and restraints ever! I dare say I possibly even preferred the VelociCoaster trains to the Mack overhead trains…
 
I’ve just watched the TPWW vlog filmed yesterday and I see that Kumali is running with only the front half of the train being loaded (which sounds absolutely terrible for queue times).

What would be the reason that the park would run it with the back half of the train empty, risk of it running too fast if fully loaded?
 
rob666 said:
Simple...it is done to make the queue longer.
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If that was the only reason, though, wouldn’t they have done it a long time ago? I’d imagine it’s probably a maintenance issue of some description.

I can imagine that being a slow queue… with 5.5 minute dispatches and a throughput of around 200pph on a full train, I can only imagine that half a train causes a painfully slow queue on Kumali…
 
rob666 said:
Simple...it is done to make the queue longer.
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Mingo Land isn’t a particularly fast track focused park so I’m not sure if half loading the train is being done to make the queue longer order to generate sales as you might see at some other parks. But the idea of them doing it for staffing reasons is an intriguing one.
 
I have to say that while absolutely not the greatest theme park in the world or even a particularly high-ranking one within the UK for me, I didn’t find Flamingo Land to be nearly as bad as reviews made out when I went last August.

Yes, the operations are very slow. Yes, the theming and overall aesthetics are somewhat inconsistent. However, I have to say that I didn’t have a bad day at the park at all, despite my visit being in the summer holidays.

The park often gets lambasted for slow operations and long queues, but the longest I waited for anything was 45 minutes, so I didn’t think that the operations were overly disproportionate to crowd levels on the day I visited. I could hardly complain about a 45 minute queue during the summer holidays.

I also thought that the park had a surprisingly decent coaster selection for an independent UK park. Sik is a pretty decent headliner, and while I wouldn’t say I rated any of the other coasters super highly (Kumali is the only other ride there to make the top 50% of my coaster rankings), I think that having 5 thrill coasters is not to be sniffed at within the UK, and Flamingo Land has quite a diverse, unique range of coasters! I certainly think you could do worse than Flamingo Land’s coaster selection, anyway.

I was disappointed not to get on Cliff Hanger, as it was closed all day, and I did get kicked off Pterodactyl after waiting 45 minutes due to a breakdown just before my cycle was about to go, but maintenance problems can’t be helped.

All in all, I had a fairly enjoyable day at Flamingo Land despite its dire reputation. Would I rush back any time soon? I probably wouldn’t rush back there in its own right unless they added a new major draw (likely another major coaster), but that is purely due to how far away the park is from me; I live 236 miles and around 4h 15m from the park by road, and I can’t imagine that the public transport situation is an awful lot better. If I found myself in the North East for whatever reason, though, I’d quite happily consider a revisit!
 
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Does Flamingoland have issues? Ofc, much like any theme park and I can name a list but honestly I do feel the park is overhated by enthusiasts to a degree in which I feel that the same crowd can have a snobbery in them about places which can lead to a bias which in the case of Flamingoland make it look and sound worse than it is.

In truth, those who bash Flamingoland clearly have never been to a cesspit like M&D's which deserves more criticism than what Flamingoland has ever done.
 
Relife said:
The North east needs Flamingoland now that Lightwater Valley has entered the Camelot death spiral. It's not the biggest or best but they have a decent lineup of coasters. I think people would be more forgiving if the ops were better and tickets were a bit cheaper.
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I’m in Newcastle and my local park (Ocean Beach in South Shields) holds very little appeal to me, it’s a 30 minute drive away yet I haven’t even been bothered yet to go and get the cred for their new spinning coaster that opened up a couple of weeks back.

Flamingo Land is a a 2hr drive away from Newcastle, yet it doesn’t really feel like a North East park, I think because it’s such a long winded drive going the North Yorks Moors National Park. It’s a scenic drive though mind you, but it’s only 30 mins from York so I think it feels more like a Yorkshire based attraction than a North East one. It’s fine though for a visit or two during the season, especially since Sik opened.
 
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