Flamingo Land
Set off to my home park (and the park I am apparently a guide for :lol
at 8:30 as I was supposed to be picking up Lain, Joey and Will from MaltOn but luckily I can read texts whilst driving (I don't advise this!!) and Lain had texted me saying they were going to be late as they missed the train! D'oh!
It was absolutely thick fog in Middlesbrough when I left, then approx 12 miles out of Middlesbrough theres a large bank, on the top of that bank it just immediately turned to blue sky :lol: w00t!
Got there approx. 9:30 some of the group were there already meeting up for the group rate, however Rob left his phone in the hotel so had to go back and get it!
Had a chat to a few people and got my ticket with my 2007(8) season pass and went in. After a while of waiting around me & Sam got a bit bored and went for an early morning exercise on the Cycle Monorail! Nobody in sight to bump into though
Got off that to find some CFers had been on the Wave Swinger and some more were queueing up so we joined the queue for the next go! Got a middle seat which was rubbish.
Pretty soon after that the whole group had pretty much arrived so off to Velocity! Queue was tiny so we were on in no time, and of course being the fanboy I am Velocity was as awesome as ever
and me and Sam ruined a lot of peoples photos by having our arms up in the air and fighting with each other on the launch LOL.
We did the Navigator next, which I think is the most boring ride ever, although they have spiced it up with ILLUMINOUS seat belts :roll: Hoyer is a cock, he spent most of the ride trying to shove my restraint in even further so it was uncomfortable! He won in the end I think.
Off to the Corkscrew after that, I'd rode it two weeks ago and knew how rubbish it was with the ridiculous amount of extra padding thats been added so sat out. Me & Lucy went for a slush but were told "errrr 'BOUT twenty minutes mebbe morrrreeeee!" so ended up with a Coke and Sprite respectively. By the time we got back to the group Mr. Bell had arrived, so he got one of his many "So come on, is it illness/hangover?" questions from my kind, concerning self!
After the group ripped their ears apart from Corkscrew the credit-seekers did the Dragon coaster, but again I sat it out as I got that 'credit' at a respectable age
The freshly painted Wild Mouse beckoned next with the new on-ride DVD system. I went on with Sam & I think Lucy & Rob. The DVD clip was funny, just me and Sam leaning into each other causing as much pain as possible to each other on the corners :lol:
OK so its the middle of the day, and its REALLY HOT! Splash Battle was a good choice Rob! This is the first time I'd rode Splash Battle when it was really hot, and with a large group and it was great fun and nicely refreshing too! Had to LOL at Stone Cold as he only find out we could switch the water features off right at the end of the ride by spraying the targets hahaha... like people have said though, if they can get more boats in closer proximity with each other, it would be brilliant making it a proper 'battle'.
Dinner Break and me, Sam, Rob, Lucy and Hoyer went down towards the zoo end as I knew there was a fair bit of choice and semi-decent food down there (there was also some large grassy areas with trees to shade too!
) The pie, chips & gravy we got were pretty nice, even if a 'splash' of gravy was 90p!! After that we had a little walk around the zoo, and lol'd at the Emu trying to peck the keep out barrier off his fence!
Got the people MOOver down to Kumali and found the group mincing around the grassy area by the train station, as we got the Moover down we noticed flip-flop testing
Again the queue for Kumali was pretty much non-existent so we were on and off that in a flash, and made our way to Flip Flop! There was however a small stop on the way at the splosh area while everyone cooled off again! Myself and Sam tried pressing all these "buttons" which weren't buttons at all so theres plenty photos of us looking bewildered and stupid.
Flip-Flop came and was awesome, the ride spins quite a bit, gives some unreal airtime and is just generally more intense. If you face up you get awesome airtime, if you face down it looks like you're about to smash into the fountain!
Over towards Cliff Hanger which was on shot 'n' drop... sat next to Sam and a Cliffhanger newbie in Rach... all three of us loved it... could see the anticipation in Rach's face waiting for the drop, it always gets me, awesome ride!!
We went to the rock slide next, my race was with Ciaran, Stone Cold and Lain! Lain got pwned immediately by getting the mat with the big piss-patch on it :lol: .... Stone Cold cheated so I couldn't fight with him, I think Lain won though.
What was next, what was next?! BONGO WARRIORS!
Always amaze me every time, even had a few new tricks before the limbo show which even I'd never seen before
bit disappointed it was the limbo show again as there are far better shows, I think its because we did them at the 4pm slot in 2006 as well.
Group photo next... LUCY! I agreed it would be OK for her to pour a bit of my £1.20 bottle of water over my head for the silly group photo, but noooooo she has to pour the rest of it out and did it as soon as Hoyer pressed the button so didn't even try and judge the time delay
Hahaha the Green River Ride came next... got to have a bit of a laugh with Jordan and Ali in this queue for first time! Got on the ride went round the zoo, the Rhino looked like it wasn't happy and was gunna charge at us! Haha we got stuck at the top and some pigeon flew up, it proper looked like it was lording it up that it was free to do whatever it wanted while we're stuck in this boat, about to get covered in slime. Eventually we did go and did get covered! No on ride photos though
We went for another quick go on Velocity to pass some time, I got front row!!!
Shame it was with some random 10 year old lol, and urgh someone was sick in the exit line ... Velocity isn't that bad!! By the time we got of that we headed over to Kumali for the ERT! I originally said to Ian that I wasn't going to take advantage of the ERT much but how I lied.
Oh yeah on the way to ERT I got a tray of chips... which got absolutely hammered by everyone (now I know how Sam felt with his nachos!) and I ended up with next to nothing lol, Mushroom was finally the last straw (sorry Mushroom) so I hid round the games machine to finish my quarter tray of chips lol.
Kumali ERT was awesome, sorry to Harveys brother though we wanted the front-row because Sam intended on buying the DVD of it (which he did!) ... we left Kumali after that so hope you got front row!
Like Ian I loved the spontaneous round of applause to Nick, and it was well deserved! The park thoroughly impressed me, and a lot of previous doubters, throughout the day, and I can honestly say I've never had so much fun at Flamingo Land. Even though I don't own the park, I felt quite proud that my home park that I've visited every year of my life (seriously... the first time I went I was six weeks old
!) was bringing so much fun to everyone.
Thanks Rob, Ian, Flamingo Land, Nick, Weather and CF Members for giving me a truly memorable day!
