Flamingo Land
Flamingo Land, one of the most northerly theme parks in England, played host to the final ECC trip of the season on Saturday. It was to be the first of two new parks for me over the weekend and, as it turned out, the much more pleasant of the two.
Our day began with an ERS on Velocity, the park�s new Vekoma Motorbike coaster. It�s a pretty comfortable ride with some nice elements, but lacks a punchy launch like Rita�s. Late on in the ERS, one of the ride ops told us to put our heads down on the �handlebars� and close our eyes. Apparently that made it feel like you were going upside down. I sort of felt the effect, but not enough for it to have been worth looking as stupid as we must have.
After riding their Wild Mouse (minus the usual sign at the back) we wandered over to Corkscrew, which turned out to be the same model as Corkscrew at Alton Towers. There is a huge difference between the rides though. While Alton�s has become a very rough uncomfortable ride, Flamingo Land�s is smooth and extremely enjoyable. Apparently this is down to them keeping the original trains with some decent wheels.
Next to Corkscrew is Dragon Coaster, a small kiddie coaster themed as a dragon. Obviously it was the perfect candidate for a ride takeover, but not before waiting for ages because the ride op had to wait for the key (I say ride op, but he was actually one of the park�s security men who complained that he had never operated a roller coaster before). With a train load of adults, the coaster did seem to struggle a bit and came very close to stalling as the track passed over the station roof.
The Cycle Monorail is something I�ve never ridden before, but does exactly what it says on the tin: Two people sitting side by side ride bikes which drive a Heath Robinson contraption around a monorail track. It�s all human power, which means that it is extremely hard work if one person stops pedalling (Richard).
After invading all the kiddie rides, we went to take the park�s cable car. At the ride entrance is a large sign saying �Maximum 2 Adults and 2 Children Per Car�. That didn�t stop psycho-ride-op-man from loading Richard, Paul and me into one, telling us it was OK because the cars were �his babies�.
Having just about survived the cable car journey, Richard and I rode the Lost River ride, following a detour to ride the pirate ship next to Thorpe�s old Hudson River Rafters (sadly not in operation that day). Apparently the park ran out of budget to theme it last year, so floating around the animal enclosures was new. We did fear our safety at a couple of points where there didn�t seem to be much of a barrier between us and the Rhinos and Giraffes. I�m sure we were safe though?
I decided to pass on Flamingo Land�s drop tower, which looked a bit too high for me to cope with considering how long it was waiting at the top. Anyway, somebody had to look after the bags. Ok, ok, I know. Call me a chicken all you want, but I did conquer Apocalypse the other weekend and I rode the cable cars so I�ve been quite brave recently.
Circulator is a mad ride: similar to a cross between an Enterprise and a KMG Afterburner which can do complete 360� revolutions. So good we did it three times in a row. Thankfully, before lunch.
Lunch was a buffet provided by the park, featuring all sorts of quiches, sandwiches, crisps, chicken, pork pies and chips. A few managers and senior technical bods were available to answer questions and tell us more about next year�s Vekoma SLC coaster and a possible out-and-back woodie down the centre of the park for 2007.
We spent the rest of the afternoon taking in the rest of the park, re-riding and of course experiencing the mighty Magnum Force.
The triple looping coaster was also the venue for our evening ERS. Magnum leaves the park in the next few weeks, with its rumoured return to the German fair circuit. It is an incredible ride: intense in all the right places, fast and rough but not uncomfortable. I�m sure it will be missed by many. I took my final ride on the front, but that didn�t mean I could see the track stretching down the seemingly near-vertical drop (a bit like on The Big One) any better!
To top off a superb day, while some were taking the last ride of the night on Magnum, the rest of us gathered around one of the park�s maintenance carts and were given an old wheel from the coaster: a unique park souvenir. Just as well, because the stuff they had in their gift shop was complete tat.
Flamingo Land turned out to be a very impressive park. There was a great atmosphere with generally very friendly staff and a lack of rowdy kids. It should be a very exciting time watching it grow over the next few years.
Photos coming soon
