I visited Flamingo Land for the first time this week.
Given what I'd heard from various forums and friends who’ve visited, I was a little sceptical about the park, its offering and the operations. The journey is also a commitment for me as I live In London and don’t own a car.
I went from Kings Cross to York station (1hr 50) and then got the 840 Coastliner bus direct to the park (1hr 15) from York station. It was a surprisingly easy and scenic journey which can be done in a single day... albeit a long day!
The Park
The initial vista as you approach is super impressive with all the thrill rides dominating the skyline, it reminded me of Thorpe park and builds the excitement.
The entrance is quite plain and could do with some more branding or the park name above the turnstiles. I think the entrance plaza could also benefit from more staff greeting guests on entry. I had the QR code on my phone and went straight in, which was efficient but lacked any sense of being welcomed into the park. This may be unique to my visit though.
I enjoyed the coasters but found the park to be incredibly disjointed. Although there are vague attempts at ‘areas’, there are no consistent themes and there are jarring clashes of old and new, making the whole place look cheap. The Dino stone area was probably the most cohesive. The park felt very RCT beginner mode with attractions placed wherever they can fit and paths leading to them sometimes unintuitive for guests.
Lack of cohesion extends to the staff uniforms, the flamingo logo and colour choice on these look more cocktail bar than theme park - I don’t know why they didn’t use the standard Flamingo Land logo and colours for staff clothing.
There are also 2 monorails which seem to serve little to no purpose, apart from potentially getting a good viewpoint of the park and animals. The railway line looping round the park however looks great but was closed during my visit.
FL feels like an amusement park but some sections literally felt like they belong in a travelling funfair. The upside is that the sections with rides were very clean and tidy with landscaped areas looking fresh, some with beautiful flowers planted. The zoo unfortunately looked very run down.
Atmosphere / Operations
I’m glad the park was quiet as the operations were relatively slow and the park was overrun with school trips. I find going to a park during the school trip period frustrating as the behaviour from school groups is usually pretty poor. There were some issues with queue jumping and long dispatch times as young guests were switching seats allocated at the air gates to be with friends or were generally struggling with restraints / loose articles. It’s not the fault of the park or ride staff but did slightly hamper the enjoyment.
There was also a lot of ride downtime with Velocity, Hero and Mumbo all being down at the same time for a short period. Sik and Velocity were on one train, Mumbo Jumbo and Hero on two. This was sufficient for the number of guests in the park. The longest wait time was 30 mins for Mumbo. The theoretical throughput of the thrill rides must be low, so I can imagine wait times are painful on a busy day. Kumali was unfortunately closed.
Hero
I was dreading getting this cred, but Hero was not as rough as I thought it would be! It is slightly jolty but I didn’t come off with any headache or shoulder pain.
Velocity
Velocity has a great launch acceleration with its cable system. It’s rare to find snappy launches on new coasters so this was a fun experience, especially being in the motorbike position. It did have a slight rattle and I found the G forces on this ride to be really intense!
Mumbo Jumbo
Mumbo was thoroughly enjoyable having not tried an S&S EL loco before.
There was a slight rattle on the last corner but I did not find this ride to be as rough as I expected. I surprisingly did not find OTSRs uncomfortable either. Visually this coaster is fantastic, I love how compact it is, love the colour scheme and also the Guinness world records sign out front for ‘World's steepest coaster’ when it debuted in 2009.
Sik
Sik is a brilliant coaster and made me pine for having this version at Thorpe Park for Colossus.
It’s smooth, intense and comfortable, although for me personally I’d rather airtime hills after the double corkscrew rather than another 5 inversions. The sensation of the quadruple heartline roll is really not for me, as the forces here seem to turn my upper body into a metronome! The 10 inversion USP and view ‘down the barrel’ of the quad heartline do add to the ride though.
For me personally, the theme for Sik is terrible. The blaring trance music in the station is so obnoxious and a lot of the clothing items in the shop and graphics around the ride look dated design wise. I also cannot stand the name and it has not grown on me at all!
I would have loved a space / industrial theme similar to Hyperion at Energylandia with some more atmospheric music to build anticipation, instead I felt like I was queuing for ‘Butlins Big Weekender: The Ride’. I do love the track / support paint scheme and this could have been better complemented with the station and shop design.
The landscaping and photo op areas around the ride are really well considered and as an attraction it feels like the jewel in the park's crown.
Future / Final thoughts
FL has a lot of coasters you can’t find anywhere else in the UK which is a cool USP for the park. It’s also great to see they are investing in their flume ride and the animal enclosures surrounding it.
The overall presentation of the amusement park and zoo is quite basic. The park feels more ‘quantity over quality’. It gave me Energylandia VIBES in some areas. The zoo could really do with a freshen up and some more audio in this area. The paths around the zoo were covered in leaves, twigs and bird muck - it really could do with some jet washing.
FL is definitely worth a visit but for me I won’t be rushing back, especially as the entry price is quite expensive for the quality of the experience. A large coaster investment or more focused efforts on theming / storytelling would entice me back for a revisit. I also missed out on riding Kumali so I would like to experience this in the future!
The area of land the park owns is significant.. it definitely doesn’t feel short for space at all. I think a ground up, bespoke statement coaster that isn’t purchased second hand would work really well in the park. A well themed UK first such as an RMC with the tag ‘UK's tallest, fastest, steepest looping wooden coaster’ could really capture the general public and drive attendance. I remember Mumbo Jumbo was successful for similar reasons.
A focus on themed experiences is desperately needed. I think they could learn a thing or two from Drayton and Paultons i.e. select an area and make a cohesive theme with a new / rebranded ride as the headline attraction.
An enjoyable park, but not one I'll regularly revisit.
Given what I'd heard from various forums and friends who’ve visited, I was a little sceptical about the park, its offering and the operations. The journey is also a commitment for me as I live In London and don’t own a car.
I went from Kings Cross to York station (1hr 50) and then got the 840 Coastliner bus direct to the park (1hr 15) from York station. It was a surprisingly easy and scenic journey which can be done in a single day... albeit a long day!
The Park
The initial vista as you approach is super impressive with all the thrill rides dominating the skyline, it reminded me of Thorpe park and builds the excitement.
The entrance is quite plain and could do with some more branding or the park name above the turnstiles. I think the entrance plaza could also benefit from more staff greeting guests on entry. I had the QR code on my phone and went straight in, which was efficient but lacked any sense of being welcomed into the park. This may be unique to my visit though.
I enjoyed the coasters but found the park to be incredibly disjointed. Although there are vague attempts at ‘areas’, there are no consistent themes and there are jarring clashes of old and new, making the whole place look cheap. The Dino stone area was probably the most cohesive. The park felt very RCT beginner mode with attractions placed wherever they can fit and paths leading to them sometimes unintuitive for guests.
Lack of cohesion extends to the staff uniforms, the flamingo logo and colour choice on these look more cocktail bar than theme park - I don’t know why they didn’t use the standard Flamingo Land logo and colours for staff clothing.
There are also 2 monorails which seem to serve little to no purpose, apart from potentially getting a good viewpoint of the park and animals. The railway line looping round the park however looks great but was closed during my visit.
FL feels like an amusement park but some sections literally felt like they belong in a travelling funfair. The upside is that the sections with rides were very clean and tidy with landscaped areas looking fresh, some with beautiful flowers planted. The zoo unfortunately looked very run down.
Atmosphere / Operations
I’m glad the park was quiet as the operations were relatively slow and the park was overrun with school trips. I find going to a park during the school trip period frustrating as the behaviour from school groups is usually pretty poor. There were some issues with queue jumping and long dispatch times as young guests were switching seats allocated at the air gates to be with friends or were generally struggling with restraints / loose articles. It’s not the fault of the park or ride staff but did slightly hamper the enjoyment.
There was also a lot of ride downtime with Velocity, Hero and Mumbo all being down at the same time for a short period. Sik and Velocity were on one train, Mumbo Jumbo and Hero on two. This was sufficient for the number of guests in the park. The longest wait time was 30 mins for Mumbo. The theoretical throughput of the thrill rides must be low, so I can imagine wait times are painful on a busy day. Kumali was unfortunately closed.
Hero
I was dreading getting this cred, but Hero was not as rough as I thought it would be! It is slightly jolty but I didn’t come off with any headache or shoulder pain.
Velocity
Velocity has a great launch acceleration with its cable system. It’s rare to find snappy launches on new coasters so this was a fun experience, especially being in the motorbike position. It did have a slight rattle and I found the G forces on this ride to be really intense!
Mumbo Jumbo
Mumbo was thoroughly enjoyable having not tried an S&S EL loco before.
There was a slight rattle on the last corner but I did not find this ride to be as rough as I expected. I surprisingly did not find OTSRs uncomfortable either. Visually this coaster is fantastic, I love how compact it is, love the colour scheme and also the Guinness world records sign out front for ‘World's steepest coaster’ when it debuted in 2009.
Sik
Sik is a brilliant coaster and made me pine for having this version at Thorpe Park for Colossus.
It’s smooth, intense and comfortable, although for me personally I’d rather airtime hills after the double corkscrew rather than another 5 inversions. The sensation of the quadruple heartline roll is really not for me, as the forces here seem to turn my upper body into a metronome! The 10 inversion USP and view ‘down the barrel’ of the quad heartline do add to the ride though.
For me personally, the theme for Sik is terrible. The blaring trance music in the station is so obnoxious and a lot of the clothing items in the shop and graphics around the ride look dated design wise. I also cannot stand the name and it has not grown on me at all!
I would have loved a space / industrial theme similar to Hyperion at Energylandia with some more atmospheric music to build anticipation, instead I felt like I was queuing for ‘Butlins Big Weekender: The Ride’. I do love the track / support paint scheme and this could have been better complemented with the station and shop design.
The landscaping and photo op areas around the ride are really well considered and as an attraction it feels like the jewel in the park's crown.
Future / Final thoughts
FL has a lot of coasters you can’t find anywhere else in the UK which is a cool USP for the park. It’s also great to see they are investing in their flume ride and the animal enclosures surrounding it.
The overall presentation of the amusement park and zoo is quite basic. The park feels more ‘quantity over quality’. It gave me Energylandia VIBES in some areas. The zoo could really do with a freshen up and some more audio in this area. The paths around the zoo were covered in leaves, twigs and bird muck - it really could do with some jet washing.
FL is definitely worth a visit but for me I won’t be rushing back, especially as the entry price is quite expensive for the quality of the experience. A large coaster investment or more focused efforts on theming / storytelling would entice me back for a revisit. I also missed out on riding Kumali so I would like to experience this in the future!
The area of land the park owns is significant.. it definitely doesn’t feel short for space at all. I think a ground up, bespoke statement coaster that isn’t purchased second hand would work really well in the park. A well themed UK first such as an RMC with the tag ‘UK's tallest, fastest, steepest looping wooden coaster’ could really capture the general public and drive attendance. I remember Mumbo Jumbo was successful for similar reasons.
A focus on themed experiences is desperately needed. I think they could learn a thing or two from Drayton and Paultons i.e. select an area and make a cohesive theme with a new / rebranded ride as the headline attraction.
An enjoyable park, but not one I'll regularly revisit.
