Visiting Flamingo Land to ride Sik, and Alton Towers to see the latest on Nemesis and Sub-Terra's reopening...
Visiting Flamingo Land to ride Sik, and Alton Towers to see the latest on Nemesis and Sub-Terra's reopening...
It's been quite a few years since I last visited Flamingo Land, the Yorkshire theme park which attracted a huge amount of rollercoaster enthusiast attention last year when they opened the unusually named Sik, a massive Intamin 10-inversion coaster which was a huge new addition for the park. I finally made it up North to try it out myself on what turned out to be a wonderfully warm sunny Saturday in early June - only one year late!
To break up the journey back, the next day we popped in to Alton Towers to see how the Nemesis retracking project was going, plus have a go on the recently re-opened (but still piss-poor) Nemesis Sub-Terra.
The day started with a 90 minute drive from my overnight stop at the Doncaster Lakeside Premier Inn
Cloudless blue skies welcomed me to Flamingo Land, arriving just ahead of Paul
First up was the coaster we had travelled up to Yorkshire to ride, Sik
We joined a small queue of people waiting for the ride to open
We were soon inside Sik's colourful station waiting to board one of the first trains of the day
The previous train returned to the station, and we boarded ready for our turn ...
... only to have to disembark as the ride had broken down. Unlike several other parks, though, Flamingo Land were very apologetic and gave us exit passes so we could come back and ride later.
Instead we made our way over to Mumbo Jumbo, where we bumped into friends Shane, Michelle and Toby!
There was a small wait, made slightly longer because some poor girl's phone had fallen out of her pocket on the first drop
The ride ops were kind enough to stop the ride and have a quick look for it, rather than making her come back at the end of the day ... luckily they managed to spot it!
Mumbo Jumbo was more violent than I remembered it, but still good fun
We timed our ride well, as the queue had grown quite a bit by the time we got off
Over to the Dino Stone area next for a ride on Flamingo Land's Zamperla spinning family coaster, Twistosaurus. We managed a fantastically spinny ride thanks to a very unbalanced car!
I love the park's colourful dark ride, Mischief Mansion
A leisurely drive through the countryside on Wacky Races
We declined the chance to have a go on the upcharge zorb attraction, which mainly seemed to involve people falling over and struggling to get back on their feet!
The cute little Peter Rabbit themed Lily Bobtail Nature Discovery
Time to catch the People Mover back to the other end of the park
It goes so slowly I suspect it wouldn't have taken us much longer to walk!
Sik was back in operation so we were able to take our first ride, skipping the minimal queue and getting on straight from the exit
Ten - count 'em - inversions
While it does vibrate its way around the track like a sex toy, it is a great ride
One thing I really noticed at Flamingo Land was the cleanliness of the park, in stark contrast to Alton Towers: cleaning staff walking around all day, no discarded litter blowing around, no overflowing rubbish bins, pleasant smelling toilets - everything looked spotless
We found a table outside and had a very nicely cooked and tasty lunch at Metropolis Bar & Grill
It was great timing, and we were able to watch the pirate show going on opposite
Flamingos ... at Flamingo Land
Chilled out camel
The Zoo Monorail is good for spotting monkeys
Up close with the wallabies
Black Rhino
Picturesque penguins
How many theme parks have views of a pretty Engish church and a goat?
Back for another go on Sik
The ride exits through a shop selling SikSilk branded clothes
Sik is by far the best rollercoaster at Flamingo Land ...
... but Kumali is still pretty good too (for an SLC!)
An afternoon train trip around the park
We bumped into more friends Chris and Sarah in the queue for Zooom!, which became our final ride of the day
We'd had a fantastic time at Flamingo Land - the park feels like its come on since my last visit, it looked great and Sik is a superb addition
A two and a half hour drive later, and I arrived at my bed for the night at Premier Inn Uttoxeter - in a fancy pants Premier Plus room no less!
One of the benefits of staying in Uttoxeter was I only had a short drive to Alton Towers the next morning
Visitors were greeted at the entrance by two large inflatables
The park's Mardi Gras event was in full swing
Good morning
Hello ladies
First ride of the day on the always awesome Wicker Man
Time for Paul's first ride on The Curse at Alton Manor
It felt as though a few of the empty black gaps have been filled in with the missing effects since opening day, making the experience even better
The park has installed an observation platform in Forbidden Valley
Looking over the Nemesis retracking construction site
The new track is being installed
Nemesis Sub-Terra has recently reopened
The experience remains pretty much identical to when it closed in 2015 ... it's still shit
We had lunch in Rollercoaster Restaurant. Alton Towers recently contracted out their food offerings to third-party company Aramark, and sadly the quality seems to have gone vastly downhill.
The Skyride is down at the moment, which means a lot of walking across the park
There's live entertainment and a food street near The Towers as part of the Mardi Gras event
Oblivion was walk-on
We were gangsta enough for a ride on Gangsta Granny
Browsing the classifieds
Along with the Skyride, Hex has also been broken since the start of the season, so we ventured into Dark Forest
Rita was just re-opening after a breakdown as we walked past, so we were able to ride it with almost no wait
And then, of course, we rode Th13teen - you have to take advantage these days when it's not raining!
Stupidly, even though it was only a short queue, we were made to walk through every section of the extended queueline
We took advantage of the fantastic weather to have a stroll through the Gardens
We ended up in Forbidden Valley, where we decided to end the day
Thankfully we were able to exit through the gate by Galactica rather than having to walk all the way back around to the front of the park
Several pieces of the new Nemesis track were sitting in the car park waiting to be installed
Overall it was a great weekend in the sunshine. Flamingo Land was much better than I was expecting, and Sik is a solid ride which gives a much more comfortable ride than its sister Colossus at Thorpe Park. Sadly Alton Towers was a bit of a let down: having major rides down (Nemesis obviously being the exception) just before the summer season starts in earnest is not a good look, and the food has become dire. As expected, Nemesis Sub-Terra is still pretty rubbish, but at least it might soak up a few of the crowds.