Tag: Velocity

Blog, Reviews

Flamingo Land April 2023 – First visit of the season

Loops&Lapbars

Our first visit to Flamingo Land was an impromptu one. We had a gig on Friday and met up with friends for it and had an airport run on Saturday which left Sunday completely free, which for us is unusual. So we decided on visiting Flamingo Land much earlier than expected as we had planned in to visit later in the summer.

We paid the full gate price of £52.50. We did pre-book online but it was less than 48 hours before our visit as advertised so I have no issue there. I’ll get it out of the way now and say that £52.50 is a bit of a price hike and it does feel like Flamingo Land are going a bit too high with this but I also understand that they have a zoo to run, rides to maintain and we’re all in a cost of living crisis too. All other parks prices have gone up so it’s natural to expect Flamingo Lands to have done so too.

What I do think is a bit of a kicker is the way the park was being run on the day we visited. There were a lot of closed shutters around the park, meaning that a lot of grab n’ go food units were unavailable. It’s not like there wasn’t anywhere to eat or anything of the sort, but any time we thought we’d stop to refill drinks or get something to eat, we found ourselves going to the same 2 units throughout the day, one in The Hub and the other in The Zanzibar restaurant area.

Moving on from the food side of things we head into photography and merchandise. Our first ride was Sik, then Hero and both of these offer on ride photography and their shops were open all day so you could, if you wanted to, buy on ride photos from this two rides. Mumbo Jumbo and Kumali also have cameras but most of the times that I’ve been, they haven’t been functional but they were today. We had a ride on Kumali but didn’t like the photo it took but we noted that Mumbo Jumbos photo unit was open. We had a wander around the back of the park to see if we could see the tigers as that’s another thing we’d like to see (and have missed them every time we’ve been). Still no sign of the tigers today, so we headed back around to Mumbo Jumbo to find that the photo kiosk was closed, and it wouldn’t reopen all day.

This was such a shame as I was planning on buying a photo from there as I’ve only got one other Mumbo photo and that was from 2017! I believe we were at Mumbo Jumbo for around 1pm so the photo kiosk was closed for more than half the day, which was a shame but it didn’t ruin the day or anything of the sort!

As for the rides, Sik was riding vert well once it got going as there was a bit of a breakdown as we boarded but we did eventually get a ride and it was just as good as I remembered from last year! Kumali rode well too, giving one of its signature smoother rides for it’s ride type and Mumbo Jumbo and Hero were still great fun. Velocity was closed so we couldn’t have a go on the motorbike coaster, but we had our first go on Voodoo, a pirate ship ride that I often overlook, as Tracy had her first go on Cliffhanger too.

Once we’d done with the bigger stuff, we moved onto Muddy Duck Farm to slow down a bit and had our first rides on The Tractor Ride and Wacky Racers. Both of these could do with a little attention to make them a bit more fun, but they were decent nonetheless. To finish the day we had a go on Mischief Manor, the parks only dark ride and it was running ok. Most of the scenes were running as intended but it does look a little worse for wears and could possibly do with a refresh in the coming years!

Not only was this our first visit to the park this year, but it was also the park I’ve chosen to star having a go a vlogging. You can find a link to the video here. I’m fairly pleased with how it turned out, especially for our first time doing one of these. There are a few rough spots but I’ve learnt a lot from this one video alone! Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

We had a great day at the park, despite sounding mostly negative earlier. We rode some of our favourite rides and had a great time figuring out the whole Vlogging thing too. I hope to get back to Flamingo Land later ion the year if we can, but for now, this was our first visit and a great day was had by all!

Blog, Fantasy

Flamingo Land – What I’d do if I were in charge

Loops&Lapbars

Welcome to a new series of blogs I’d like to introduce. In these blogs I intend to talk about many of the UK’s parks, what I like and what I don’t. These are purely from a fantasy point of view and more so, just a bit of fun!

I’ve been meaning to talk about Flamingo Land a few times now. We visited in July 2021 and I did intend to blog about our day but was kept busy with the holiday blogs so it fell to the wayside. I feel there is a lot to talk about with this park so thought I’d do it here at the same time as discussing changes I’d make if I were in charge!

The good stuff

Flamingo Land has some really decent rides, especially its roller coasters. Velocity, Mumbo Jumbo and Kumali are all fine examples of their respective types, and a couple are quite unique in their own right. Velocity is the only Booster Bike rollercoaster in the UK, Mumbo Jumbo is the steepest, and though people give Hero a lot of negativity, it’s a unique take on flying and the only Zamperla Volare in the UK too.

The spiral lift hill of Hero

The zoo is also good and though it has a lot of different species, it isn’t too spread out and kept to one side of the park, away from the noisier rides. I also like that they do a lot of work for conservation, much like Chessington does in their zoo.

The not so good

The first thing I think needs discussing with Flamingo Land is its dire lack of proper theming and how untidy the park looks!

The park does have named areas such as Metropolis, Dino Stone Park and Lost Kingdom Reserve, but they all feel a little lacking. Dino Stone Park is probably the better area in the park as it has a few dinosaurs scattered about and a bit of theming here and there but not much!

There is also a fair few buildings that are standing but either don’t have a use or have seemingly been left abandoned. Specifically around the side of Velocity. Now this could be an access route for construction traffic to build their new rollercoaster, but if this is the case, couldn’t they close it off from view a little bit? If it’s not the case then they could really utilize it better than leaving it in a state.

Will this new ride open in 2022? Hopefully!

Next is the shocking lack of merchandise on offer at the park. This will be a common complaint from me in many of my future ‘What I’d Do’ blogs.

So what would I do about it?

We’ve seen what Paulton’s Park can do with their theming and I’d love to see Flamingo Land get the same sort of treatment.

Metropolis would look great with some facias put up around Hero, include the new 10 inversion rollercoaster and Velocity in the overall theme and add a shop beside Velocity that sells Metropolis ride themed merchandise.

Velocity is the only Vekoma Booster Bike ride in the UK.

Lost Kingdom Reserve could do with seeing a load more rock work and planting, and a general tidy up, repaint some of the existing theming on Mumbo Jumbo and Kumali and add a bit more static theming here and there. Maybe some tribal huts or a campsite or something like that.

An overview of Splosh, and the River Reserve areas of the park

I’d put some really good quality animatronics in around Dino Stone Park too, and really lean into the prehistoric theme! There’s some decent rockwork surrounding Pterodactyl that I’d love to see extended a bit more around the area, and the plants and green spaces spruced up.

Navigator in action

The entrance to the park could do to see some work too. I feel that the Pirates of Zanzibar show and stage are great to welcome visitors but the area surrounding it hasn’t got the same theme and it feels a bit mismatched!

To the left of the entrance is a large plot of unused land that I feel could be used for a new entrance to the park, with it leading through the lost River Reserve area before Metropolis. To achieve this, I’d swap all the rides in both areas around so that you’d be greeted with a safari themed area, before the other areas of the park.

This is of course a purely hypothetical idea as it would cost far too much to move the rides about! It would mean that you’d see Lost River Reserve, followed by Dino Stone Park and then a Pirate themed area too before Metropolis.

As for the ride line up at Flamingo Land, personally I think its decent. It has a good mix of thrill rides, transportation and gentle rides, as well as rides for younger audiences too. I don’t think much is needed at the park, especially when their 10 inversion rollercoaster opens, but they could maybe do with a few more flat rides here and there, or an interactive dark ride!

A Peahen and her chicks

I’d really like to see an obscure record breaker here again, since Mumbo Jumbo did once hold the record as world’s steepest roller coaster. Something along the lines of that, or maybe a particularly long coaster or an exceptionally themed one would go down well.

I don’t really think anything needs removing as such, since most of the rides seem to fit in the parks overall line up, though I would remove Flip Flop and replace it with something like a Top Spin, heavily themed so it fits in the Splosh area of the park and make sure it interacts properly with water jets.

Another drone shot showing more of the park

I know it used to have a Waikiki Wave called Tidal Wave until 2008, and it would be great to see another one as they’re dying out all over the place and it would fit right at home here.

I’d also do some work on Mischief Mansion and turn it into an interactive shooting ride, along the lines of Laser Raiders at Legoland. Keep the theme and family friendly fun, but add some guns, targets and activatable effects to help it stand out from the others. I know we have a good selection of these in the UK, but only Laser Raiders and Sheriff Showdown have interaction between the targets and animatronics.

I’d leave Muddy Duck Farm mostly untouched as it’s a fine area on its own. The rides suite the area, there isn’t much theming but I don’t feel it needs it.

Other than that, I think the park isn’t bad in its current state, but far from the best. I’ve essentially laid out my hypothetical plans to turn Flamingo Land into Paulton’s of the north. I think Paulton’s is a great park on it’s own but Flamingo Land has much more thrilling rides so could very easily stand on its own, especially since Lightwater Valley seems to be moving towards a younger audience!

Final thoughts

For me, Flamingo Land sits somewhere between Fantasy Island, Oakwood and Drayton Manor. All 3 of those parks do similar things to Flamingo Land, targeting the audiences that Merlin Entertainment and Blackpool Pleasure Beach don’t manage to entice into their properties and Flamingo Land should be doing the same.

Currently it’s probably middle of the table when stacked against the other attractions here in the UK, but with investment and a good plan for the future, it could easily sit on par with Paulton’s Park or even play with the big boys like Alton Towers or Pleasure Beach!