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Flamingo Land: General Discussion
The problem with Flamingoland, is that it has a "reputation". Just like Thorpe Park has a "reputation" with regards to ride availability and chavs, Flamingolands is operational aspects.
Personally, I have never had a problem with the park. I have visited off-peak, the height of the summer and none of these times have shown me any problems. The longest I have had to wait is 30mins for Velocity. The good thing about Flamingoland is because of how many rides they have, how many shows they have and the fact that it has a huge zoo, the main queues for the rides are relatively tiny compared to the numbers that they claim to receive.
I therefore find it hard sometimes when the park gets criticised for being "Flamingoland". We are talking about the park that in the last 10 years has installed 5 coasters (3 kiddie, 2 adult), along with three good flat rides, a whole new kids area which is far better than anything Merlin have installed for kids and other supporting attractions like the Lost River, Splash Battle, water play area and a 4D Cinema. Remember that at present, Alton doesnt even have a juvenile coaster for the little kids, Flamingoland have 4 !!
So that brings us to the three new rides promised for 2013. Would I be disappointed if it was a 3 ride deal from Zamperla. Nope. Why? Because the park realise that having new attractions keep things fresh, gives people a reason to go back. Its very easy to say, they should have this, this and this, but lets not forget that this is a family run business, not part of some large organisation.
I know this post will probably get ripped apart, but I look at Flamingoland and see it as a park that has continually had investment and new rides and attractions on a yearly basis since 2000. Not many parks in the World, let alone the UK can claim that and in my view, for that they should be applauded.
Personally, I have never had a problem with the park. I have visited off-peak, the height of the summer and none of these times have shown me any problems. The longest I have had to wait is 30mins for Velocity. The good thing about Flamingoland is because of how many rides they have, how many shows they have and the fact that it has a huge zoo, the main queues for the rides are relatively tiny compared to the numbers that they claim to receive.
I therefore find it hard sometimes when the park gets criticised for being "Flamingoland". We are talking about the park that in the last 10 years has installed 5 coasters (3 kiddie, 2 adult), along with three good flat rides, a whole new kids area which is far better than anything Merlin have installed for kids and other supporting attractions like the Lost River, Splash Battle, water play area and a 4D Cinema. Remember that at present, Alton doesnt even have a juvenile coaster for the little kids, Flamingoland have 4 !!
So that brings us to the three new rides promised for 2013. Would I be disappointed if it was a 3 ride deal from Zamperla. Nope. Why? Because the park realise that having new attractions keep things fresh, gives people a reason to go back. Its very easy to say, they should have this, this and this, but lets not forget that this is a family run business, not part of some large organisation.
I know this post will probably get ripped apart, but I look at Flamingoland and see it as a park that has continually had investment and new rides and attractions on a yearly basis since 2000. Not many parks in the World, let alone the UK can claim that and in my view, for that they should be applauded.
Adam James
TS Contributor
In all honesty, it couldn't be worse than adding the three best flats from Camelot. 
Dar
TS Member
PeteA, I don't want to rip your post apart because evreybody has an opinion and is entitled to it.
However, in my experience FL is a rather horrid place. From entering and being greeted with a chairswing that looks like it was the very first one to have rolled off the production line, to the hideous operations on Kumali! One train, double checking the restraints before the train leaves AND when it returns!
My mother-in-law lives on a farm that over looks the park, I've sat at the window and timed Mumbo Jumbo on a clear summer's day in the middle of the school holiday, what I would presume was one of their busiest periods, and it achieved the heady heights of 240 riders per hour!
The zoo is fantastic and if I could pay a reduced fee to just visit that, I would be more inclined to visit again. At the moment though, I have no desire to return in the near or distant future!
Yes, the park may have seen constant investment, but that investment appears to have been misguided at best and downright rubbish at worst! They removed two classic Schwarzkopf coasters to place a tame SLC that has been neutered to run one train!
However, in my experience FL is a rather horrid place. From entering and being greeted with a chairswing that looks like it was the very first one to have rolled off the production line, to the hideous operations on Kumali! One train, double checking the restraints before the train leaves AND when it returns!
My mother-in-law lives on a farm that over looks the park, I've sat at the window and timed Mumbo Jumbo on a clear summer's day in the middle of the school holiday, what I would presume was one of their busiest periods, and it achieved the heady heights of 240 riders per hour!
The zoo is fantastic and if I could pay a reduced fee to just visit that, I would be more inclined to visit again. At the moment though, I have no desire to return in the near or distant future!
Yes, the park may have seen constant investment, but that investment appears to have been misguided at best and downright rubbish at worst! They removed two classic Schwarzkopf coasters to place a tame SLC that has been neutered to run one train!
A
Anonymous
PeteA said:
Whilst I get what you're trying to say, I think you seem to be getting the wrong idea of what people are saying. Sure, three new rides next year is great and all, no matter what it is, but surely it would be better to not add any rides and address the problems that the park already has.
A reputation for poor operations, poor service and shoddy ride maintenance isn't something that any theme park should have. What we're saying is that surely it'd be better to take a year out, look at where the loop holes are in it's operations, address it's ride throughputs, spend money on the engineering team, give them new tools, new maintenance warehouses and money and then they'll be a far happier team who take more pride in what they do. It's not exactly professional when you have bits of the restraint on Kumali held on with gaffer tape now is it?
What would you rather, three new rides, or for the park to spend the money on improvements that we can all see are needed. In the last 10 years, the rides have got good, but the operations have suffered. Maybe they should take a year out, fix it up and level things out between investment in new ride hardware and the parks operations.
Dar
TS Member
Jared said:
Thank you for saying what I was trying to get at!
It's great having new rides, but if they only work for a couple of seasons before getting rough then people aren't going to bother.
Also, the parks reputation isn't helped by the owner being in the paper on assault accusations!
I've got nothing wrong with flamingoland - it's just that the place looks run down and I have this unfortunate case of everytime I've visited the staff are plain rude or useless (swearing, smoking whilst working or shutting rides ridiculously early cos they're just "closed").
The investment sounds nice, yeah, but it's not fantastic investment. It won't make the park look good, the rides themselves won't have the capacity to deal with any potential crowds, and the rides themselves aren't good enough to make it worthwhile visiting/enjoying yourself.
Those are my only issues, sort them out and the park would be lovely.
The investment sounds nice, yeah, but it's not fantastic investment. It won't make the park look good, the rides themselves won't have the capacity to deal with any potential crowds, and the rides themselves aren't good enough to make it worthwhile visiting/enjoying yourself.
Those are my only issues, sort them out and the park would be lovely.
I don't really have an issue with the place either. OK, I did visit on a VERY quiet day, midweek in September, so I didn't have to queue at all as the place was empty, but they still have every major ride open. The only ride closed was the Go-Gator coaster.
I also applaud them on their maintenance inspection on each ride, which appeared to be very thorough.
On the other hand, the Seaside area of the park looked awful and really run down, but the rest of the place was ok.
If they get a Volare and an Air Race, I for one will be well chuffed, bringing 2 new ride type's to the UK!
I also applaud them on their maintenance inspection on each ride, which appeared to be very thorough.
On the other hand, the Seaside area of the park looked awful and really run down, but the rest of the place was ok.
If they get a Volare and an Air Race, I for one will be well chuffed, bringing 2 new ride type's to the UK!
John
TS Member
Seriously, are Flamingoland trying to be terrible?
First they remove a pair of spectacular looking Schwarzkopfs and replace them with mediocre Vekomas and now they've somehow managed to find a new coaster that's actually a step backwards from a Vekoma Corkscrew.
Flamingoland - the home of badly maintained, rubbish rides with awful throughputs :
First they remove a pair of spectacular looking Schwarzkopfs and replace them with mediocre Vekomas and now they've somehow managed to find a new coaster that's actually a step backwards from a Vekoma Corkscrew.
Flamingoland - the home of badly maintained, rubbish rides with awful throughputs :