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Pleasure Island, Cleethorpes to Close

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SimonSays99

Guest
Having an outside view on UK parks when planning for coaster trips only 3 parks really look interesting after looking into all parks coaster and ride lineups. First rate are Alton and Thorpe with premium coasters from Intamin and B&M. Second rate - but still a must-do due to their classic wooden coaster lineup is Blackpool. Blackpools newer coasters are just +1 material as they are bouncy Arrow/Vekoma contraptions not living up to their way older wooden coasters - and flats is also meh except for some wacky darkrides, they sold their only decent flat to Skyline Park - Zierer StarShape - were it is until today very popular with young riders.

All other parks in the UK are looking from meh to mehmeh - the better ones having some Vekoma coasters but many trying to bruise you with a variety of Zyklon coasters.

For my future coaster trips I think Scandinavia, Spain and Italy have an overall far better lineup than the UK.
 

witchfinder

Hyper Poster
DelPiero said:
Pleasure Island suffers from 3 main issues imo. The first being location, It's based in the north, where Alton, Lightwater, Flamingoland and the two Skegness parks are all within around an hour.
Your point is valid but you may want to check your geography - Alton is a lot more than an hour away (more like 3) and is most definitely a Midlands park! :wink:

SimonSays99 said:
For my future coaster trips I think Scandinavia, Spain and Italy have an overall far better lineup than the UK.
Difficult to argue with this tbh, at least until 2018, although I would say Drayton Manor and Flamingoland are worth a visit if you were over here, especially if you like flat rides.
 

Lofty

CF Legend
^ Flamingoland literally has quantity over quality though? Everything it has is incredible mediocre and dull, I just don't get why people say it's worth visiting? It's really not.
 

witchfinder

Hyper Poster
I did say if he was over here... It's certainly not worth visiting the UK for, but if you were here anyway and had spare time... :)

Personally I thought Velocity and Mumbo Jumbo were decent enough.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
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Lofty said:
^ Flamingoland literally has quantity over quality though? Everything it has is incredible mediocre and dull, I just don't get why people say it's worth visiting? It's really not.

Well, the question of quantity and quality only really applies if you can tell them apart and care about the difference. An enthusiast may consider Flamingoland "lots of boring stuff to do", whereas families think "lots of stuff to do". If you ride a hundred different coasters every year across dozens of parks, Flamingoland is nothing interesting. If you visit a park maybe once every two years, Flamingoland is a perfectly serviceable alternative, with several rides to choose between.
 

gavin

Moderator
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DelPiero said:
Pleasure Island suffers from 3 main issues imo. The first being location, It's based in the north, where Alton, Lightwater, Flamingoland and the two Skegness parks are all within around an hour.

Way off on that one if you mean those parks are around an hour from Pleasure Island? Alton Towers, as has already been mentioned, would be just shy of three hours. Flamingoland and Lightwater would be around two hours each. It's only the Skegness parks that are close.

If you mean those parks are around an hour from anywhere in "The North" in general, I think you'd need to be more specific; I don't think there's anywhere that puts all those places at even roughly equal distances.

You're right about location being a thing, but not necessarily because of competition from other parks.

Pleasure Island is not going to be a destination park for anyone, though that's how they've set themselves up. Like most seaside parks, it should rely on passing trade from holidaymakers, but Cleethorpes doesn't get the visitor numbers that other seaside towns get. Outside of those holidaymakers - many of which won't want to spend the time and money at a pay-one-price park (paying one price, for most people, implies spending a full day there) - nobody is going to think to bother with Pleasure Island.

Essentially, they've got a comparatively low catchment of potential visitors based on Cleethorpes being a "minor" seaside town. then they've reduced that potential number further by setting themselves up as a "proper" theme park that people will see as a whole-day activity with all the costs that implies.

Nobody would go to Adventure Island as a main park trip, but Southend gets loads of people through during the season, many of which will pop in to Adventure Island for a couple of hours.

The parks around Skegness and Great Yarmouth will be the same; people are there anyway and they don't have to pay to get in or make any real effort to just have a look and then probably ride a couple of things.

Pleasurewood Hills will be next to disappear even though the seaside parks just up the road in Great Yarmouth seem to be doing really well. It was obviously built with the Great Yarmouth/Lowestoft holidaymakers in mind, but it's just a slight bit of an effort to get to and would be seen as an "expensive" all-day thing to do when you've already got a few rides on the seafront.

The only 'destination" park to really target a seaside market successfully, rather than passing trade, and without actually being on the seafront, has been Flamingoland. They manage to get plenty of day trippers who are staying on the Yorkshire coast for a holiday, advertising heavily in towns and holiday parks around the area. They're also well-positioned for day-trippers from York and Leeds as well though, as well as being the closest proper park to Hull, Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesborough and Scotland (along with maybe Blackpool for Scotland, but people visit more for the place as whole rather than the Pleasure Beach specifically).

Pleasure Island, along with Pleasurewood Hills, has been relying on a market that just isn't there.
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
witchfinder said:
DelPiero said:
Your point is valid but you may want to check your geography - Alton is a lot more than an hour away (more like 3) and is most definitely a Midlands park! :wink:

gavin said:
Way off on that one if you mean those parks are around an hour from Pleasure Island? Alton Towers, as has already been mentioned, would be just shy of three hours. Flamingoland and Lightwater would be around two hours each. It's only the Skegness parks that are close.

If you mean those parks are around an hour from anywhere in "The North" in general, I think you'd need to be more specific; I don't think there's anywhere that puts all those places at even roughly equal distances.

I was looking at the Doncaster area as a base point, and all of those parks are around an hour to an hour and a half away (Skeggy maybe a bit further). I'd call them direct competition, would you rather drive an hour to Grimsby or an hour and a half to Alton?
 

Martyn B

CF Legend
Whilst this is sad, ever since the brief closure in 2010 when it split from Flamingo land, it's just been a matter of time.

They just haven't had the money to invest, and when they do, they seem to make the wrong choices IMO. Like that Zoltar this year.... did they really need ANOTHER flat??

The farm was probably the only worthwhile invest as it gave the park the 'animal' tag. And most kids to tend to enjoy small farms anyways, so it was always going to be a hit.

It was a weird place really. On paper it was a actually god: 2 solid dark rides, 2 solid coasters, great/unique selection of flats, good shows and the farm. But in reality, the place always felt depressing. And I always left wanting to BARF.
 

WelcomeToOblivion

Giga Poster
I went in the summer holidays this year on a weekend and it was absolutely dead. The only ride really worth mentioning is the ghost train but other than that it was so old and outdated. The fact that the dodgems still say Flamingo Land on them say something. They haven't even taken down that Flamingo Land parachute tower ride thing and it's been defunct for years. We sat and waited for 10 mins on the Boomerang in an attempt to get more people on the ride. Also, all the theme park tat in the shop was literally the same as what it was in the late 90s/early 00s when I went for the first time. It wasn't the worst day I've had at a park, but it wasn't great. I only paid £12 to get in and I wouldn't pay it again. It's not a shock to see this happen at all, sadly.
 

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
I really think/hope that the Vekoma Boomerang goes to Lightwater Valley. It would be a great fit, and I could potentially see it happening. I mean, it isn't like they don't have the space, and I'm fairly sure a second hand boomerang would only cost a couple of million...
 

owentaylor121

Giga Poster
ATI said:
I really think/hope that the Vekoma Boomerang goes to Lightwater Valley. It would be a great fit, and I could potentially see it happening. I mean, it isn't like they don't have the space, and I'm fairly sure a second hand boomerang would only cost a couple of million...
"Only cost a couple of million"
It definitely wouldn't cost that much, however out of all the UK parks, I really don't think Lightwater have a spare few million...
 

gavin

Moderator
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^ Exactly. It probably wouldn't cost even close to that. However, Lightwater took two years to finish a f**king tractor ride because they couldn't afford it. Don't get your hopes up.
 

witchfinder

Hyper Poster
I'd expect a few of the rides might be taken by Flamingoland since the owners of the two parks are related. Probably flat rides though rather than any of the coasters.
 

Ben

CF Legend
Have they maintained a relationship with FL after the split?

Either way PI is more a dumping ground for FL - I can't see much going up there.

If I'm honest if they got a decent price for it I wouldn't be shocked if they shoved the Boomerang in at FL. Don't think it'll happen but I wouldn't be clutching my pearls in shock if it did.
 

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
I guess they are due for a new coaster, you know how they like Vekoma, and the Corkscrew site is about the size of a boomerang...
 

airtime_uk_ash

Mega Poster
I actually think it could be a good fit for flamingoland, it has a high capacity and would help mop up the queue on busier days.

Get it on the cheap and make it the standard of speed of sound at walibi Holland and your on to a winner!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

gavin

Moderator
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Flamingoland moved away from second hand rides years ago. I really can't see them going back down that route, especially for a pretty old Boomerang.

Also pretty sure that the relationship between the parks is now non-existent.
 
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