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Flamingo Land - Opening Day

Mackem Lad

Mega Poster
Total joke - today reminded me of just why I cannot stand that hole they call a theme park.

They were quite clearly unprepared for a public opening. I, along with others, filled in a complaint form that left no room for empathy, I hope my strong words hit home. I will be writing a very long and strong-worded email tomorrow aswell.

Barely any rides were open - those that were broke down constantly. Velocity sat doing nothing until 3pm, only then did the park finally decide to start working on the problem, too late I'm afraid. Perhaps they just decided to pull their finger out after the severe amount of complaints that were being filed at Customer Information.

Kumali didn't even start testing until 3pm. Utter joke.

Waited 30 minutes for my food at American Diner, which seemed bad until the table behind us complained that they'd waited over an hour. To add further insult, it took over 30 minutes just to pay our bill as the staff had no idea on how to work the damn thing. Staff training is obviously not a priority at Flamingo Land.

Staff still smoking in operator cabins, so much for the park clamping down on this sort of thing. Some things will never change I guess. Same old slow loading - god help these so called operators if they worked at a proper park that set throughput targets such as Alton Towers. They wouldn't last two minutes.

4D Cinema not open at all, haven't even got the film installed. You've had since November 3rd, Flamingo Land. But I suppose you had too much on your hands with a new sports bar...

And finally, what on earth is that hideous thing they've put on Kumal's cobra roll?! Oh, and the "new" park map is worse than the last. Same old crude drawings.

Year after year the park continue to fall flat on their face come public opening and continue to settle for second best. Their "it'll do" approach to the park is one that fails to attract me back.

Absolutely pitiful.
 
Sounds like you had a great day and it's nice to hear the park can run as efficiently as some of the major parks like Thorpe. :p
 
Very sad to hear this as I have really enjoyed my visits to Flamingo Land in the past couple of years and wanted the park to carry on it's success :(.
I was hoping that with Mumbo Jumbo coming later on in the year, the park would improve it's standards and ride reliability so that people will want to come back again and again. But by the sound of this trip report, many people, like yourself will leave Flamingo Land feeling robbed and angry. Not a good start for Flamingo Land. Let's hope that the park will improve it's reliability for the opening of Mumbo Jumbo and for the Live. :)
 
I started reading this topic thinking I was reading a Thorpe trip report. Was it seriously that bad? Blimey, this was the park that I never heard complaints about. Sorry to hear about your day, hopefully they can get their act together with Mumbo Jumbo.
 
peep said:
I started reading this topic thinking I was reading a Thorpe trip report.
That was my immediate reaction as well... Does indeed seem quite strange that they have such a bad start to the 2009 season - not that I'm a regular visitor, but I very rarely read bad reviews of the place on here - though I will agree with complaints of unfriendly/unprofessional etc. ride staff, which I recall as one of my only moans following a weirdly good day at the park back in May last year.
Can only say I hope they've got their act together before September, and that this unreliability of rides isn't the beginning of a slow decline into Thorpedom.
 
Now I can see why the Live has been planned a good bit after Mumbo Jumbo is scheduled to open.

Sorry to hear you had such a bad day, it seems like parks don't expect too many people to turn up for openings and such they don't bother having much running. Same story with Thorpe.
 
Like Nathan said,

Kumali - 3pm
Velocity - closed all day
Wild Mouse - Approx 2pm
4D Cinema - Closed all day
Cliffhanger had technical issues at some point during the day, as did Splash Battle.
Also we had a walk round the zoo, still looks as if the catch on the lift for River Ride is still having problems connecting to the boats as a couple of guys were looking at that.

Rollercoaster Tribute Café & the café down by the monorail in the zoo both didn't bother opening either.

Upon entering they said "go for your passes after 12 as they are a little busy at the moment due to the special offer" we filled the forms and got our photos took, was told they'd be ready about 4pm... got back at 4.10pm they weren't ready, they said they will hold them at the gates where you pay entrance for next time.

Just phoned them today and asked if they could post them out as we won't be going for a while, which they said no! Even though our forms have the names & addresses on.

Everything which was "New for 2009" wasn't open, if I'd have paid the £23 on the day price I'd have felt ripped off.
 
As much as I have defended Mingo on this forum, and others over recent years, I think that the situation from yesterday is simple indefensible. Thank god I didn't go.

I was sucked into buying a new Annual Pass with the special offer. I doubt I will be collecting it for a long time.

It seems that they were totally unprepared for opening, the responsibility for which must fall firmly on the shoulders of management. In recent years they have made massive strides in the rides department, albeit on a budget, and that is fantastic.

Last year I saw the first signs that things were beginning to crumble and these reports from yesterday underline what I was saying last year - that the current management are the wrong people for the job. Like football, they are fine for the lower leagues, but simply won't cope with the expectations of the premier league.

They have sat comfortably in third equal place in the UK attendance figures, but in order for them to achieve the next level, they have one massive hurdle to overcome - they must sort out staffing. The poor customer service does not come from the 'coal face' workers, but the management team who fail at almost every level to ensure that customer service is delivered.

I find it laughable that Flamingo Land wont post out Annual Passes - they have posted mine out in the past, so why not now? It is crazy that staff don't know how to operate a cash register, madness that so many rides failed to open in the morning, and totally unacceptable, not to mention illegal, for operators to me smoking in a cabin.

So, yeah it's time for Flamingo Land to take some serious stock of where they actually are, and act to move forward. They need a premier League manager ... and now, or all the hard work they have done in recent years will be lost ... Simples!
 
Hmm, not a flattering trip report and tbh, I'm quite surprised.

I'm heading there in May, fingers crossed they would have ironed out the opening day creases by then.
 
Ah, but you were doing that prior to visiting :p

I still say that they have the potential to take on the big three, they simply don't seem to see where their key priorities lie.
 
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