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Flamingo Land | Sik | Intamin 10 Inversion Coaster | 2022

Matt N

CF Legend
Hadn't realised this will have lap bars - could end up a better experience than Thorpes! As long as everything was looked after properly while waiting to be built (see, we are funny).
I think as long as the cars are a bit bigger than Colossus', that is a genuine possibility! Getting onto Colossus in the first place is a bit of an adventure in itself...
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
Well, I'm being forced to spend a week camping at Mingoland, starting this Saturday. Pray for me @DelPiero. ?
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MouseAT

Hyper Poster
I get what you mean, but surely Flamingo Land is far better than no theme park at all?
In most cases, I'd agree with the sentiment, but in the case of Flamingo Land I have a real loathing for the place.

See, parks are supposed to be fun. The way I see it, that means that the rides either have to be good enough that you don't mind waiting around, or at least be entertaining enough and get people through quickly enough that the fun of experiencing what the park has to offer outweighs the frustration caused by waiting around. The frustration rapidly starts to ramp up for me if the park is horribly inefficient at getting people through rides.

Now, Flamingo Land always suffered from low ride capacity on most of their flagship attractions, but they've been getting worse and worse over the years. I've not visited in years, but the last time I was there, they were dispatching trains approximately once every five minutes on Kumali, and since then they've removed seats from both their frisbee and their star flyer. I expect exactly the same from this new coaster - long dispatch times, and single train operation. The park is only 90 minutes from me, and I actually quite like their quirky collection of rides and zoo, but I honestly can't stand spending time at the place when the park is even remotely busy. A Flamingo Land that I can't stand visiting is a Flamingo Land that I never visit, and therefore its existence is irrelevant - if the park disappears, it makes no different to me.

I've no desire to attend a CF Live there unless the park is really quiet. If I'm going to ride the new 10 looper, I'll probably end up taking a day off work mid-week during term time so that I don't have to deal with crowds, and the dire operations will be less of an issue. Last time I attended a Live there, I'd pretty much lost the will to live by lunch time, and that's really not something that's happened before at a CF Live.
 

Dar

Hyper Poster
Sounds like they've started piledriving for something over there. Maybe the station or something to do with the new enclosure
 

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
The entire ride hardware including the trains have been inspected by Intamin and is deemed to be in a good condition, so both trains will e shipped and used. However Flamingo Land will likely only operate one train and tear the other one apart for parts as they seem to hate paying for new parts.
 

emoo

Hyper Poster
Sounds like there is more hope for a decent ride experience than I have been expecting. Maybe they will start with 2 trains and see where that takes them.
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
I imagine the key difference with this coaster and buying it brand new is that it comes with two trains. If Flamingo Land were to buy brand new from Intamin, a second train would be an additional expense (which would be expensive). But since they're buying it old, they just get whatever the original buyer wanted.

Whether it will run two depends on the park. They may not have the resources to operate two, or the long-term budget to replace and maintain all the equipment necessary to make running two viable.

One would hope they keep themselves in a position to be able to run two should demand be there in the long term, but I somehow doubt that.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
To be fair I’ve seen colossus on one train more times than I’ve seen it two. I’ve also seen it on half a train with several bays closed using wooden blocky thingies (technical term) but I guess this is the thing with having Mondays and Tuesdays off work every week :)
 

witchfinder

Hyper Poster
But the thing that wins it for me with this place is that we can take our doggos, so the WHOLE family can visit.
This interests me. Is there anywhere to leave your dog if everyone in your group wants to go on a ride? Or do you have to have someboy stay with the dog all the time?
 

rob666

Hyper Poster
Will be going in the next few weeks with tyke mates taking the three legged mutt pictured left.
Note the large amount of filler in the door behind him.
B'stard Bailey as he is known.
Never taken him to a park or fair before.
Can't wait!
He will spend all day eating junk food scraps and putting on half a stone in a day.
Cheers Nicky!
 

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
Its been a long time since i went to Flamingo Land but last time i was there on a CF live (2006?) the train on Corkscrew skipped the brakes and the station and ended up half way up the lift hill. Maybe they should only run one train :p
I know this is a joke but the brakes on this are failsafe as they are permanent magnets, so it's a guaranteed stop every time, so it could still run two trains. But it won't.
 
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