Flamingoland april 17th PTR (photo heavy)

[slappy mcguire]

You know there are times when you just think...when the bloody hell did that happen? Well That just happened to me at Flamingoland. I have had plenty of visits over the last few years whereby I've been impressed at the park progress, but this year, (partly due to the fact that I didn't really get a chance to ride much because we were there for my son's birthday, and he had his diminutive friend, brother and cousin in tow) it struck me just how far they have come from the concrete jungle they were in the mid nineties. It struck me how Merlin-like the park was starting to become, the Children's world interactive play area set amongst meercats and lemurs out-Chessying Chessie, although mid construction was astounding to see, when considered that the site not two years previous was still full of tacky funfair rides and concrete.

I'll just let the piccies tell the story (save for mentioning the poor Asian lad sat in the firing line on Splash Battle when it broke down for five minutes, and got wetter than a Westlife tune...). If the park could just get around to marketing itself properly, then it really does have the potential to be quite a big hitter one day.

Children's World

parrot show

ariel views

kumali

cable cars

mumbo Jumbo

cliff Hanger

velocity

Splash Battle/Splosh

Mine Train

 

[furie]

I just can't get excited for Flamingoland. It suffers from X:\NWO syndrome I think.

As a kid's park, it's superb. It's expansive, full of loads of fun little kiddy rides and the zoo is easily the best "none dedicated" zoo I've been to. Really, really cracking place on that that front (as you say slappy).

However, it's also presented as a thrill park, but I find all the 'big rides' completely mediocre (with the exception of Flip-Flop). So where it succeeds massively as a great family park, it never reaches potential as a thrill park. DMP suffers something similar to be honest, only the zoo is nowhere near as good at DMP.

Hence X:\NWO syndrome... It's a great kiddy coaster, only presented as grown up one. Flamingoland is a great kiddy park, but presented as a thrill park.

 

[Lucy]

I went to Flamingoland for the first time recently and I really enjoyed myself - but I can see where you're coming from.

I think it probably needs another big coaster like Kumali in order to tempt more people or a couple of thrilling flat rides.

 

[slappy mcguire]

Flamingoland reminds me of Chessie in so many ways, and while I generally always enjoy it, I always feel it is slightly undercooked. One of the reasons I champion LWV is I love to see the way they are innovatively making the best of the two pennies they have to rub together. When Flamingoland is good, it is superb, where it isn't it is dreadful.

Chip shop staff that can't speak English, the completely neglected Corky, the horrendous plaza with all the funfair noises which reminds me of the 'welcome to the circus of value' noise from Bioshock, amongst other things all take the shine off the park at key places, which is a shame given the astonishing strides the park has taken over the last ten years. The park will move ever forward, but I still wonder whether it will fall under Merlin's win before this happens.

I actually like the thrill rides; both MJ and Kumali are decent rides, but you can't help feel the park lacks a genuine 'killer app' coaster, which Zooom certainly won't be. It feels ultimately like the sort of park Tesco would make if they did their own line of theme parks; close, but you can't help hankering for the real thing.

 

[Lofty]

I NEED another trip to Flingo!

Have they sorted out the stupid batching and stuff on Mumbo Jumbo or does it still have stupidly long queues?

 

[slappy mcguire]

Actually, it was walk on, so I'm really not sure.

 

[DanielCoasterFan94]

i really want to go there to ride kumali

 

[MouseAT]

Re:

Have they sorted out the stupid batching and stuff on Mumbo Jumbo or does it still have stupidly long queues?

Queues on Mumbo Jumbo seemed fairly minimal on the 20th.

Kumali seems to have recieved some TLC over the off season as well - it seemed a lot smoother than I remembered it.

 

[Martyn B]

However, it's also presented as a thrill park, but I find all the 'big rides' completely mediocre (with the exception of Flip-Flop). So where it succeeds massively as a great family park, it never reaches potential as a thrill park. DMP suffers something similar to be honest, only the zoo is nowhere near as good at DMP.

Thats funny as I think the complete opposite about the Zoo's. I guess a zoo experience can differ depending on when you visit.

Though I do agree on the thrill ride front, apart from maybe adding Velocity and Cliff Hanger to that list.

 

[Pierre]

^ I'm obviously biased but if you think Drayton Manors zoo is superior to Flamingo Lands you must be insane...

 

[Martyn B]

From my experience's, Drayton's Zoo is a lot more interactive than Mingo's. Mingo's zoo is a lot bigger, but there's not necessarily that much more to do/see. There were quite a lot of empty enclosures when we visited, and when did come across some animals, we couldn'y get very close to them. For example, the lions that are within the River ride.

Drayton's just felt a lot more up close and interactive, where as Mingo's felt like the H&S manual had been thrown all over it.

 

[Ben]

Flamingoland's zoo is AWFUL. It's actually terrible... You can't see ANYTHING, all the interesting animals are like a mile away...

I have to agree with Martyn on this.

Flamingoland <//3

Drayton's is hardly the BEST, but, you can SEE stuff.

 

[slappy mcguire]

The quality of Flamingo land's zoo is better, but sadly yes, it isn't much fun because it is so scattered, and because the nature of more humane enclosures mean that animals would rather have 'animal time' than pad for onlookers meaning there is simply less to see. Neither are a patch on Chessie though, although the new Children's planet area in Mingo does have a lot of promise.