Potential first time visit to Flamingo Land; any tips? Is it feasible/worth it from the South West?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. As most of you know, Sik, an Intamin 10 Inversion Coaster, is not far off opening at Flamingo Land. This is arguably the most exciting UK coaster to open in a number of years, and as such, I was thinking about possibly making a solo trip up there once the new coaster has opened. I’ve never been to Flamingo Land before, so it would be a totally new park to me! As such, I only made this thread to ask for any tips or advice for a first timer and whether you think a solo trip up there is feasible and worth the effort.

Now, I should point out that this is very much me spitballing here; this is not a set in stone plan by any stretch, and I could well sack the idea off yet. In fact, I’m not actually sure if this will happen at all; I’m literally just floating ideas in my head here.

But in terms of what I was hypothetically thinking; this trip would be around 3 days long in total. My plan was:

• Day 1: Getting there via train from Lydney to Malton (Lydney-Birmingham New Street/Birmingham New Street-York/York-Malton, or similar)
• Day 2: Park day in Flamingo Land itself
• Day 3: Getting back home via train from Malton to Lydney (similar route to getting there)

I am not within a day trippable distance of Flamingo Land; I live in Gloucestershire, in the South West of England, so the park is around 4 hours by car and around 5 hours by train from my area.

Therefore, I would be staying in a local hotel for 2 nights; I was thinking the Premier Inn in Pickering, as it is a chain I’ve stayed at numerous times, tends to be reasonably priced, and is only 4.5 miles from the park, but I’m open to any alternative suggestions.

I’ve calculated that all in, the trip would probably cost me about £400, possibly closer to £500 dependant on circumstance; the train ticket is £82 at minimum (but may be higher dependant on day and time), the hotel tends to be about £150-200 for 2 nights dependant on exact nights picked, the park ticket is £34.50 on the types of dates I was looking at, and when you add in things like food, bus/taxi costs etc, I can see it costing somewhere in the £400-500 ballpark overall.

My questions were;

• Do you think my plan sounds feasible, or worth the effort and cost from the South West?
• Does Flamingo Land necessitate more than 1 day? Have I been too stingy only allocating 1 day on park?
• Are there any particular times of year between Sik’s opening on 2nd July and mid-to-late September that you would recommend? I was looking at early to mid September earlier, but is there another time of year that might be more ideal?
• Is there any time of week that works best? I assumed midweek would be quieter, but does Flamingo Land throttle the throughputs on the peak days so as to make the queues move faster than off peak?
• By my rough trip calculations based on what I’m hoping to do, the potential is there for me to hit 100 coasters at Flamingo Land… but the 5 thrill coasters alone (Sik, Kumali, Mumbo Jumbo, Velocity, Hero) may only get me to 99. If it comes to it, which of Flamingo Land’s family coasters is least shameful for a lone adult to ride? I’m thinking either Twistosaurus or Zooom, as Dino Roller, Go Gator and Runaway Mine Train all look like bonafide kiddie creds while those two look to have slightly more universal appeal, but I’d be keen to know if you think differently.
• Is there anything in particular you think I should know about Flamingo Land if I choose to go? Any ideal starting points, things not to miss etc?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! As I said, though, this is literally just me spitballing; this is by no means something I am actively planning to do at present. It’s merely an idea I have at the moment of something I could do; Sik is an exciting investment, and a lone hotel stay might be a good way to push my solo theme park visiting boundaries!

 

[Burbs]

I’ve calculated that all in, the trip would probably cost me about £400, possibly closer to £500 dependant on circumstance; the train ticket is £82 at minimum (but may be higher dependant on day and time), the hotel tends to be about £150-200 for 2 nights dependant on exact nights picked, the park ticket is £34.50 on the types of dates I was looking at, and when you add in things like food, bus/taxi costs etc, I can see it costing somewhere in the £400-500 ballpark overall.

I've done multi-day trips to some of Europe's best theme parks for less.

 

[rob666]

In answer to your bullets and spitballs Matt, sadly I have done @mingo in every decade of my sad and idle life...
1.Your plans are feasible, but not worth the time, money or effort.
2.Easily done in one day, you will have had enough.
3.The ride will have horrible queues every day, big new coaster in a park with crap ops.
4.'mingo "throttle" ops every day...that is choke them, not accelerate. All ops are poor, every day, just longer or shorter slow queues. Quebusters make things worse.
5.Do your milestone coaster elsewhere, in a nice park.
6.There is nothing to know, poor ops, half decent coasters, lousy zoo, in a big flat featureless field full of flies and wasps. You might have fun recording your worst throughput average at any park, but that would be it.
Just say no.

 

[Vik]

With that sort of money you could have a long weekend at somewhere like Phantasialand and still have money to spare, especially as you don't drink alcohol. Probably easier to get too also . I really wouldn't bother with the place for a special trip given the potential costs involved.

Lets just hope that if you do go and manage last train of the day on Vomit (Sik), that the restraints open when you get back to the station as its likely that the staff from the ride are probably already 1/2 way home.

 

[Benzin]

Doing the journey by public transport alone is off-putting to me.

Also why would it have to be a kiddie cred that is the 100th? Pick whatever ride it is you want to be the landmark and ride stuff in order to get that.

Besides, with Mingo's operations you're probably better off riding the kids creds first anyway.

As others have said, save money and go to places like Köln or Gothenburg. Far better parks which are arguably easier to access via public transport. Though that is assuming how easy it would be to go via Bristol Airport, but given at a guess you're looking at 5-6 hours to get Oop North anyway there's probably not much difference.

This being said. The zoo at Mingo is nice. But it's very much at odds if you're cred running things.

 

[Rob]

Although the cost of the trip seems very expensive for what it is, I can see Matt has said that a lone hotel stay trip like this may be a good way to push his solo theme park trip boundaries, which is fair enough. Travelling to Flamingoland on your own is very different to travelling to say Phantasialand on your own, especially if you are not used to travelling solo, even if the travel time involved may be similar.

I've not been to Flamingoland for over 10 years now so don't really have any tips I'm afraid.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

Whilst your trip plans are feasible I’d echo what the others have said, that £400 can get you a great trip to somewhere like Liseberg that would be very easy to do via public transport. However of course the difference is that a solo trip to North Yorkshire is one that you’d be comfortable with whereas one to an overseas country might be a very different prospect.

I quite like Flamingo Land, it’s not a top tier park but you can definitely have some fun there if you try and go on a quieter day. Of the family and junior coasters I’d say that Twistosaurus is definitely worth a go (though it has extremely slow ops and gets very long queues) and the Runaway Train is with a ride for the cred as well. The others aren’t really anything to be too bothered about, Zoom is very sedate and the other couple are kiddie only.

But going back to your question as to whether it’s worth doing a solo trip I’d be more inclined to suggest seeing if your parents fancied a little break in Ripon or Harrogate and for you to all drive up together and for them to drop you off for a day at the park.

 

[NuttySquirrel]

I would really be inclined to save your money and try to tick off the park at a future date when you are in the area anyway. My husband and I were on holiday in Yorkshire about 20 mins from the park and even then we sacked it off as being far too expensive for what it is given the terrible operations and poor upkeep. We would have done it had the new coaster been open but even then my expectations for the day would have been exceedingly low.

Why not jump on a Eurostar and tick off a few parks in northern France or Belgium instead? I think that would be a much more enjoyable trip and you could pack in a lot in 3 days.

Also please do pick a good park for your 100th coaster if that's an important milestone for you

 

[Burbs]

For the record @Matt N, I've never been to Flamingo Land, nor do I have any intention of doing so, even though I am a bit of a cred grabber and would do most of the kiddy creds.

I am going to Belgium in August to mop up the 2 new coasters at Plopsaland and Walibi. 3 nights in the middle of Brussels, taking the trains to the parks and the Eurostar (with upgrade to Premier Class) between London and Brussels. It is costing us less than £350pp and had we not booked at precisely the wrong time, it would have been less than £300pp, excluding spending money.

I echo what others have said though, and a solo trip abroad isn't necessarily for the faint hearted (it's certainly not my cup of tea but that's not to say I won't do it at some point), but equally, neither is a day at the seemingly hellish Flamingo Land.

Just something to think about.

 

[Matt N]

Cheers for your input, everybody!

I’ve been reading through the replies, and while there are some varying opinions and responses, I noticed a few continuous themes. To address a few of them:

• Many posts advise me of foreign alternatives costing the same amount of money and taking the same amount of time. While I do appreciate the input, I am still quite an inexperienced solo traveller, and I think I would rather do a UK hotel stay first before jumping straight into solo foreign holidays. The furthest I have gone on my own so far is 1h 40m on the train to Drayton Manor for the day, so I think leaping straight into “European foreign holiday” would still be running before I can even walk. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this… but I have never stayed somewhere overnight on my own before. If I’m being honest, I think I’d feel more comfortable if my first lone sleep was in the UK.
• Even putting aside my own feeling; I get the impression that my parents only let me go to Drayton Manor last week through very gritted teeth, and I think they’d rather I didn’t try a lone foreign holiday until I’ve done a lone UK one. Even though me going somewhere doesn’t really affect them much at all aside from a 5 minute lift to Lydney train station (I pay for myself entirely, and do the travelling entirely by myself once I’ve reached Lydney station), I need to take their feelings into account as well; I wouldn't want to worry them unnecessarily.
• My plan wasn’t for the kiddie coaster I rode to be the milestone, but rather for Sik to be the milestone coaster instead. It's certainly not what I’d originally had in mind for my 100th, but within Flamingo Land, it did look like their most significant coaster, and it is certainly an exciting investment for the UK.
• In terms of posts advising me to go with my parents; I'm trying to gradually reduce my reliance on my parents somewhat, and even putting that aside, they vetoed it instantly on the grounds of distance. As soon as I uttered the word "Yorkshire", my mum said "that's too far; we're not going"...
• The summer holidays are kind of ruled out for me by default unless I want a more complicated train journey; engineering works are being done on the line between Lydney and Gloucester from 18th July to 3rd September.
• I may have overstated the cost a tad; I think the £500 figure being thrown about would very much be a worst case scenario rather than what it would definitely cost at a minimum. However, when all things are considered, I do think that the trip would likely cost at least £400 all in, if not a bit more.

With all the comments and potential options in mind, however, I have decided against pursuing this idea further.

I would still like to do a UK hotel break before thinking about a solo foreign holiday, but I have accepted that there are far easier and cheaper options in this avenue than the one I was proposing. Maybe I could try somewhere like Blackpool instead? The train tickets are (bafflingly) less than half the price of train tickets to Malton dependant on what trains I pick (Malton was £82 at lowest, while Blackpool North got as low as £36 depedant on trains picked), the train journey is shorter and less complex (slightly under 4h compared with 5-6h for Malton, only 1 change at Birmingham New Street as opposed to 2 at Birmingham New Street and York for Malton), there's a wider range of affordable accommodation available within close range of Blackpool (so I could possibly reduce the price more compared with FL), the park is bigger and arguably more "worth the trip" than Flamingo Land, and it's a park I've visited before, which makes things a bit easier. And there's no potential for significant milestones in Blackpool, either (I only lack 2 of the Steeplechase creds)...

On a side note, all this travel discussion got me looking at Jet2 package holidays to PortAventura (the European theme park I'm aspiring to visit next). I was stunned at both how cheap and how easy these can be! A 3-night package holiday entailing direct flights from Bristol Airport to Reus, park tickets for 3 days, accommodation, and a free coach transfer to and from the airport, cost as little as £430 in September if I went half board in a local hotel, and even full board in a PortAventura on-site hotel with an upgrade to unlimited 3 day park tickets only cost £750! Looking at that has made me think; a Jet2 package holiday to PortAventura is what I want to do as my first solo foreign holiday, whenever that might be. There's very little that could go wrong there; with free coach transfer to and from the airport and meals and park tickets already paid for, all for a fair bit under £1,000, the ease of access for an inexperienced foreign traveller like me sounds remarkable!

 

[Burbs]

There's very little that could go wrong there;

Port Aventura is another place I've never been, but I think this is slightly naïve based on trip reports for PA.

In terms of the cost, it was never my intention to suggest you ditch FL and head to continental Europe instead, more just to put into perspective how bleedin' expensive it was looking to be!

 

[Matt N]

Port Aventura is another place I've never been, but I think this is slightly naïve based on trip reports for PA.

In terms of the cost, it was never my intention to suggest you ditch FL and head to continental Europe instead, more just to put into perspective how bleedin' expensive it was looking to be!

I was more thinking in terms of getting there, which is the main thing I’d be worried about when planning any trip. With a DIY trip, there’d be an awful lot of variables to consider and an awful lot of faff to take into consideration, whereas a Jet2 package holiday takes care of everything for you, pretty much. With that in mind, I thought that ease of access would be very good for a first time solo foreign traveller like myself.

And a trip to PortAventura is by no means on the cards in the near future as a result of that look; I just looked out of curiosity and liked the sound of Jet2’s package deals. I will do a UK break by myself before heading to Spain on my own, but I’ve decided to ditch the Flamingo Land idea and look for an easier and cheaper alternative park to plan a break around. I’m not even sure if this UK break will happen in 2022 (I’m very much spitballing here rather than committing to anything concrete), but I do want to do it at some stage.

 

[Burbs]

I was more thinking in terms of getting there, which is the main thing I’d be worried about when planning any trip. With a DIY trip, there’d be an awful lot of variables to consider and an awful lot of faff to take into consideration, whereas a Jet2 package holiday takes care of everything for you, pretty much. With that in mind, I thought that ease of access would be very good for a first time solo foreign traveller like myself.

Ah I misread about the package holiday thing. I was on about folks from here having issues getting to and from the park but I think this was with transport that PA (intended to) provide(d).

 

[Matt.GC]

1. As a father myself, I know your parents love you but sod what they think as you're an adult. You display high intelligence in your posts in this forum so trust me when I say that a train journey to Yorkshire and a snug night in a secure Premier Inn is completely within your capabilities. It's like sleeping at home, only someone else makes your bed, cleans the bog and you sleep behind 3 locked doors rather than 1.

2. Get yourself a driving license ASAP. When you do, public transport becomes an expensive luxury to enjoy whilst your car is in for MOT. A train ride will be a yearly treat rather than a necessity where you can enjoy a cold beer whilst someone else does the driving. However, when your car is back, you can enjoy going wherever the hell you want whenever want once more without having to rely on timetables, cancellations and extremely expensive tickets. Only downside is you can't drink beer.

3. As someone else who hasn't been to Mingo, I get the feeling it's not worth it. Although that Vomit ride does sound tempting. I'll hopefully swing by one day if I ever find myself in the north again for whatever reason. But I agree with others that you're probably far better off saving your cash and going to some awesome parks on the continent. I highly doubt it is true that visiting Phantasialand costs similar to your Mingo trip plans (plus Bristol Airport has the worst transport links from the FOD as is imaginably possible). But if it were to be true, I would highly recommend. Second best park I've ever visited.

 

[RicketyCricket]

I was more thinking in terms of getting there, which is the main thing I’d be worried about when planning any trip. With a DIY trip, there’d be an awful lot of variables to consider and an awful lot of faff to take into consideration, whereas a Jet2 package holiday takes care of everything for you, pretty much. With that in mind, I thought that ease of access would be very good for a first time solo foreign traveller like myself.

I think that's quite a dated viewpoint tbh. Package holidays used to be convenient but in the modern world with contactless payments and Google at your fingertips I find there is no faff whatsoever with trips abroad.

Phantasialand for example...

- Get to airport With hand luggage only so no check in desk, boarding pass on phone
- Land and go to train station inside the airport
- Train to Bruhl and shuttle bus service to park

 

[JAperson]

@Matt N a good alternative to a package with someone like jet2 is using a site like On The Beach or Loveholidays these book a package for you and you can add only the things you need I.e luggage, transfers and other things. It’s like a middle ground between a package and a solo booked trip. It’s what I was looking at doing for my trip to PA that has had to be cancelled for now. It also gives you a single point of contact if something goes wrong, however booking trips yourself sometimes works out cheaper and usually causes no major problems.

 

[Poisson]

My advice: Don't. It's crap.

I went to Spain for less and did a Batman Clone and a GIB.

I went to a steam gala, Movie Park and 2 days at Phantasialand for about the same.

For a simpler trip in the UK do something like Adventure Island if you're desperate for the creds