Flamingo Land: General Discussion

[Matt N]

To me, as someone in the South West who lives 236 miles and over 4 hours away, it definitely feels like a North East park!

If we’re being pedantic, Flamingo Land isn’t actually in the ONS region of “North East England”, instead being within the ONS region of “Yorkshire & The Humber”, but for all intents and purposes other than statistical, Yorkshire is still the North East. And Flamingo Land is far enough into North Yorkshire that it’s not that far at all from the southernmost parts of the ONS region of North East England, like Middlesbrough, Cleveland and Redcar.

It is interesting how the North East is one of a number of UK regions that used to have a number of semi-major parks, but now has only one that basically holds a monopoly within the region:

• With the considerable downscaling of Lightwater Valley and the closure of the likes of MetroLand, Flamingo Land now effectively holds a monopoly in the North East.
• The North West used to have quite a selection of semi-major parks. However, with the likes of Camelot, Frontierland Morecambe and Granada Studios closing and Pleasureland Southport majorly downscaling, Blackpool Pleasure Beach now effectively holds a monopoly in the North West.
• The East Midlands used to have a few parks. But with the closures of the likes of American Adventure and Pleasure Island, Fantasy Island now effectively holds a monopoly in the East Midlands.
• Wales used to have a few semi-major seaside parks. But with the considerable downscaling of the likes of Barry Island Pleasure Park and Coney Beach Pleasure Park, Oakwood now effectively holds a monopoly in Wales.
• Scotland used to have a few semi-major parks such as Codona’s and Loudoun Castle. But with the closure of Loudoun Castle and considerable downscaling of Codona’s, M&D’s now effectively holds a monopoly in Scotland.

The only regions where there’s really any semblance of local competition these days are the East of England (Adventure Island, Great Yarmouth, Pleasurewood Hills), the West Midlands (Drayton Manor and Alton Towers), and the South East (Chessington, Thorpe Park, Legoland Windsor, Paultons Park and Dreamland Margate).

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

…but for all intents and purposes other than statistical, Yorkshire is still the North East. And Flamingo Land is far enough into North Yorkshire that it’s not that far at all from the southernmost parts of the ONS region of North East England, like Middlesbrough, Cleveland and Redcar.

Anyone from Yorkshire or Tyneside would vehemently disagree with you over the suggestion that Yorkshire is “for all intents and purposes” part of the North East. They are very different regions and I’ve never actually heard anyone else suggesting that before.

I’m thinking perhaps Matt that you may not have visited the actual North East before?

 

[Matt N]

Anyone from Yorkshire or Tyneside would vehemently disagree with you over the suggestion that Yorkshire is “for all intents and purposes” part of the North East. They are very different regions and I’ve never actually heard anyone else suggesting that before.

I’m thinking perhaps Matt that you may not have visited the actual North East before?

I mainly said it because the southernmost part of Yorkshire (Sheffield) is not really any lower than, say, Cheshire or Manchester, which are both generally considered to be the North West and are considered to be in “North West England” by the ONS. If Cheshire, Manchester and Liverpool are in the North West on the other side of the country, then why wouldn’t Yorkshire be in the North East? Sheffield, Leeds, Hull and York are no lower than the likes of Chester, Manchester, Liverpool and Preston, all of which are generally considered to be in the North West. I thought that the only reason Yorkshire had its own ONS region is because of how massive it is and how many big population centres close together it contains? London also has its own ONS region for similar reasons, but most would consider London to be part of the South East for all purposes aside from statistical.

Heck, I live in Gloucestershire. That is considered to be in the South West, and is part of the “South West England” ONS region, despite it being quite some distance northeast of the likes of Devon and Cornwall; the northernmost part of Gloucestershire, Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, is as far from Land’s End in Penzance as it is from the Scottish border at Gretna Green! Gloucestershire directly borders both the West Midlands (Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire) and the South East (Oxfordshire) and is quite far northeast of some parts of the South West, yet most people, including the ONS, consider it to be part of the South West England region.

If Yorkshire isn’t in the North East, where is it? I wouldn’t exactly call it part of the East Midlands, as I’d say it’s a bit too far north to be in the Midlands.

I do digress, however, that as you’ve guessed, I have never visited the “proper” North East. Well, I did go to a Dog’s Trust centre in Darlington when I was about 7, which is technically part of the ONS region of North East England, but the bigger places in the “proper” North East like Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and Sunderland still elude me… the Tyneside region is a 5 hour, nearly 300 mile drive from where I live.

When me and my parents drove to Flamingo Land last year, our halfway service station stop was at Trowell services on the M1, near Nottingham. We all looked slightly incredulous that this was only around halfway given that from where we live, Nottingham itself seems quite far north… and when we drove over proper Northern-seeming places like Sheffield and Leeds on the M1 and the satnav said we still had over an hour to go, it definitely felt like Flamingo Land was a long old journey northeast!

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

If Yorkshire isn’t in the North East, where is it? I wouldn’t exactly call it part of the East Midlands, as I’d say it’s a bit too far north to be in the Midlands.

Yorkshire is part of its own region, Yorkshire & Humber that contains a large number of towns and cities that share a common cultural heritage and historic ties as well as having shared infrastructure. And that’s the important thing, it’s not just about what part of a map a place physically sits but it’s also about how a place relates to the areas around it and what places “feel” though they go together culturally as well as geographically.

It’s actually a really fascinating discussion as to how we divide the country in to different regions and where we consider the boundaries for each one (especially so for the regions that are at the other end of the country from our own ones), and we define as the characteristics of each. It would be a great one for a thread on here if you wanted to discuss it further.

 

[rob666]

As a good Lancastrian, I consider myself a northerner, and have always considered Yorkshire as the north east (amongst other things)...it certainly is on the map.
If Yorks isn't in the north east, where is it then?
It certainly isn't in the midlands.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

If Yorks isn't in the north east, where is it then?
It certainly isn't in the midlands.

Scotland.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Everything outside the M25 is north.
Especially the bits to the south.

 

[Poisson]

We in Yorkshire are Northerners. Not NE, just North. The North East is a different kettle of fish altogether. We are also the superior land.

Anyone from Yorkshire or Tyneside would vehemently disagree with you over the suggestion that Yorkshire is “for all intents and purposes” part of the North East. They are very different regions and I’ve never actually heard anyone else suggesting that before.

Damn right.

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.

I have had the fortune to visit a fair few parks ranging from world class to absolute dives and Mingo isn't good. Poor ops, mediocre to awful hardware and a zoo full of sad animals don't make for anything good, plus it all feels plonked down. Not being a snob, just being a realist. It is a bit depressing to be at and gets downright awful when busy.

 

[Jb85]

@Matt N living in Stratford upon Avon I’m relatively close to the Gloucestershire border. It’s in the Midlands ;-)

 

[Matt.GC]

Heck, I live in Gloucestershire. That is considered to be in the South West, and is part of the “South West England” ONS region, despite it being quite some distance northeast of the likes of Devon and Cornwall; the northernmost part of Gloucestershire, Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, is as far from Land’s End in Penzance as it is from the Scottish border at Gretna Green! Gloucestershire directly borders both the West Midlands (Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire) and the South East (Oxfordshire) and is quite far northeast of some parts of the South West, yet most people, including the ONS, consider it to be part of the South West England region.

If Yorkshire isn’t in the North East, where is it? I wouldn’t exactly call it part of the East Midlands, as I’d say it’s a bit too far north to be in the Midlands.

'The West' is Somerset, Bath, the Bristol and Greater Bristol conurbation, and parts of Gloucestershire. Devon and Cornwall is the 'South West'. Dorset, South Wiltshire, and Hampshire are 'The South'. The Forest of Dean is practically the very posh district of South Wales.

But I like to keep my English Geography simple. Everything north of Gloucester (the city itself) is The North, anything east of Chippenham is London, everything to the south of the M5 and west of Sedgemoor services is just plain weird.

But in all seriousness, Yorkshire has a very distinct cultural identity from that of the North East. They are very different regions and I've never regarded them as the same. It's more heritage, culture, and customs dating back generations that define regions more than geography for administrative categorisation purposes. In reality, most of the South East feels like a world away from London. North Wales is almost nothing like South Wales. The Cornish, being an old Celtic nation with it's own language and independence movement, could have more in common with rural Scots than they do with someone living in Wiltshire.

Anyway, I'll be visiting Northern Land soon, visiting Drayton on the way up for my first ever trip to Flamingoland. I've just realised how bloody expensive entrance tickets are. I presume there aren't any available deals and stuff out there to get this cost down?

 

[rob666]

Mingo tends to be very expensive...offers wise.
They do the occasional three for two in the summer holidays, and keep an eye on the sad local press for Yorks, that is often the only source.
We have saved good money by stopping at a newsagents in Pickering for the local rag more than once.
Take a good picnic, expect crap ops, but you can make a fun day from it, simply because of the strange line up.
So we are coming to the opinion that the Yorkshiremen are part of the north, but not the north east then.
I sort of take your point.
In my local eyes, the south starts just south of Stockport...where the mills run out and people start to get posh accents.
So Cheshire is definitely in the South of England, as they are posh down there.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

'The West' is Somerset, Bath, the Bristol and Greater Bristol conurbation, and parts of Gloucestershire. Devon and Cornwall is the 'South West'. Dorset, South Wiltshire, and Hampshire are 'The South'. The Forest of Dean is practically the very posh district of South Wales.

But I like to keep my English Geography simple. Everything north of Gloucester (the city itself) is The North, anything east of Chippenham is London, everything to the south of the M5 and west of Sedgemoor services is just plain weird.

But in all seriousness, Yorkshire has a very distinct cultural identity from that of the North East. They are very different regions and I've never regarded them as the same. It's more heritage, culture, and customs dating back generations that define regions more than geography for administrative categorisation purposes. In reality, most of the South East feels like a world away from London. North Wales is almost nothing like South Wales. The Cornish, being an old Celtic nation with it's own language and independence movement, could have more in common with rural Scots than they do with someone living in Wiltshire.

Anyway, I'll be visiting Northern Land soon, visiting Drayton on the way up for my first ever trip to Flamingoland. I've just realised how bloody expensive entrance tickets are. I presume there aren't any available deals and stuff out there to get this cost down?

The only deals I’ve seen for Flamingoland are the half price for a family of four ones that are sometimes available on the Planet Offers site. It’s worth keeping an eye open for them but I don’t know when they’ll be available again as I think they are more the start or end of the season.

Search results for: 'Flamingoland' | Planet Offers

Planet Offers has limited stock, half price vouchers for family days out to incredible theme parks, zoos & safari parks. There's also plenty of restaurant deals, spa discounts, cheap wedding packages and much more. No sneaky catches.

planetoffers.co.uk

They also used to do 3 for 2 tickets with a coupon from packs of Cooplands frozen baked goods that you could find in some supermarkets by since the Cooplands bakery branch inside the park closed down a couple of years ago in don’t think they are running that offer these days.

 

[John_P]

If your a member of coaster clubs they usually get a discounted entry into Flamingo Land, got a day ticket for about £30 last year as a member of the European Coaster Club. Think RCCGB offer a similar offer.

 

[slappyofmcguire]

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.

On ocean beach, I find it utterly shameful that the park is now a better place for rides than Lightwater Valley. They've made the best of the space they have, while Lightwater absolutely dropped the ball.

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[rob666]

Seaside has large amounts of passing trade.
Ripon doesn't.
Poor comparison, in the wrong topic!

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

On ocean beach, I find it utterly shameful that the park is now a better place for rides than Lightwater Valley. They've made the best of the space they have, while Lightwater absolutely dropped the ball.

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At the risk of going off topic, Ocean Beach is fine for the occasional quick blast when they get a new ride but I always feel like I’m done after about half an hour. It’s just not a place that I feel like relaxing and enjoying just spending the time there like some other seaside parks are. Maybe if they had wristbands rather than it just being pay per ride I might feel like a longer visit.

Whereas with LWV it’s a kiddie park now but when I visit as a family with my kids you can have a nice day there. The rides aren’t anything to exciting but there’s a couple that are fun and it’s in a nice setting. I’d take a day out to LWV over Ocean Beach. I do miss night rides on Ice Jet though, the new Matterhorn just isn’t the same without all that theming.

 

[slappyofmcguire]

Seaside has large amounts of passing trade.
Ripon doesn't.
Poor comparison, in the wrong topic!

It's more the north east generally. Flamingoland has it's detractors and serious issues, but is very much the last man standing. Lightwater Valley was much, much easier to get to than flamingoland but the ultimate screwed that park as much as it put it on the map. At least with flamingo land, like Ocean Beach there has been a sense of investment over the years rather than just running things completely into the ground. However iffy it can be at times I remember how bad a park it was in the nineties, and where it is now is still light years ahead of that even if some of the ride experiences are a pale imitation of the likes of magnum force and the bullet.

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[Call_um]

Another park I'd never visited was Flamingoland, so I visited on Friday for the first time.

Where I can, I always try to visit theme parks when they're quiet so I've seen a lot of quiet theme parks (BPB the day before for example) but never have I ever seen a park so dead before. According to staff, there was less than 100 people on park? It honestly felt like there was more staff than guests on park. Most of the rides I had on Sik I had the train to myself.

I only got my ticket the day before as it was a last minute visit, but this cost me £56. I believe if you book over 7 days in advance its £44.50, pricey for a UK theme park. First impressions of the park were good, it looked fairly well kept and it was actually much bigger than I expected.

The park was open 10-5, and the only advertised closure was Flip Flop, however this actually opened for the first time this season which was a nice surprise. Was running terribly though, long cycle but was hardly reaching 90 degrees. Certainly didn't have that KMG power.

I'll list the main coasters in the order I rated them worst to best;

5. Hero - Had already done one of these at Prater Vienna so I knew exactly what to expect. Nothing else needs to be said.

4. Velocity - Heard a lot of good things about this but I really didn't enjoy it, found the restraints to be really uncomfy. Punchy launch but I was in pain for most of the layout so didn't particularly enjoy this.

3. Mumbo Jumbo - Always been a fan of S&S Flats so was nice to finally give one of there coasters a go. Its a solid coaster, although them restraints were fine on Slammer they aren't the best on a coaster like this but it's still a fun coaster and I didn't find it to be particularly uncomfy.

2. Kumali - After finally getting to ride as I needed to wait for a minimum of 6 to ride definitely the best SLC I've done. Some really good force in places and is really impressive to look at, and not as rough as the others I've done. Unfortunately the staff were only letting us sit near the front so didn't get a chance to sit anywhere near the back.

1. Sik - I've always had a soft spot for Colossus, so I've been really wanting to get on this to see how it compares. It's really good fun, definitely feels much quicker than Colossus. They've also finished it off really well, it looks good off ride and the station is great. Its even got a single rider queue and pre loading information screens.
The only thing I didn't like about it is the heartline rolls with them restraints, they really dig into your thighs. Intamins new lap bar trains are much better.

I had some lunch which was reasonably priced and good quality and a walk around the zoo which was nice, and there was also a couple of flats I particularly wanted to get on. I heard Pterodactyl was particularly intense, and even though I've done one more than double the height in Vienna this was more intense. It was very windy so I'm surprised it was even operating to be honest.

Cliff Hanger was another one I'd heard good things about. It was nothing special, although it was only running on 'shot' setting so didn't get a drop on it. I'm more of a fan of drop towers myself so that was a shame.

After getting on everything I wanted to get on multiple times, I went back to Sik for some re-rides and left the park before 2pm, much earlier than planned but had a long drive ahead and had done everything I wanted.

Overall it's a nice park, with a good selection of coasters, flats and a good zoo. I just can't believe they have the park open daily 10 - 5, with every ride fully staffed for there to be less than 100 people on park. Whilst walking round the zoo I saw a peter rabbit character standing around with a few staff for a meet and greet, not 1 person had turned up to it. Some rides I didn't see a single rider on the whole time I was there. Doesn't seem viable for them to be open on these days but can't complain!

 

[Harv]

I just can't believe they have the park open daily 10 - 5, with every ride fully staffed for there to be less than 100 people on park. Whilst walking round the zoo I saw a peter rabbit character standing around with a few staff for a meet and greet, not 1 person had turned up to it. Some rides I didn't see a single rider on the whole time I was there. Doesn't seem viable for them to be open on these days but can't complain!

Could be wrong but I think this might be about resourcing/staffing. Because the park is in such a rural area, it's probably more cost-efficient to a). hire and train then retain during the quieter months than to b). hire and train before Easter (which is a busy time for the park), then risk losing a chunk of that workforce during the pre-summer lull by reducing hours, then have to hire and retrain staff again before summer.

There isn't a huge pool of potential employees in the area so the park aims to keep hold of those that they can secure.

 

[Fuct]

Could be wrong but I think this might be about resourcing/staffing. Because the park is in such a rural area, it's probably more cost-efficient to a). hire and train then retain during the quieter months than to b). hire and train before Easter (which is a busy time for the park), then risk losing a chunk of that workforce during the pre-summer lull by reducing hours, then have to hire and retrain staff again before summer.

There isn't a huge pool of potential employees in the area so the park aims to keep hold of those that they can secure.

I wonder if they keep them payrolled year-round when they shut the park November - March.