The best value for money theme park in the uk?
Flamingo Land Resort located in north Yorkshire is a family theme park with over 30 rides and attractions. With the park not owned by Merlin we don’t normally cover this park however during a recent trip up north we thought it would be rude not to visit the park. For a theme park that’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere we were pleasantly surprised!
Adult Tickets: £30
Child Tickets: £20
*Prices correct at time of publication
The entrance of the park was nicely presented with pirate themed ticket booths and entrance plaza. Apparently this was re done only recently?
Flamingo Land has something that most Merlin parks don’t have… a show that you actually leaves you speechless. The Pirate show located on the stage near the entrance of the park doesn’t belong in the UK it’s like the park management went to PortAventura and picked the best bits and brought them over to the UK. Pirates, Comedy, Acrobatics and pyrotechnics this show has it all. We would even go so far to say that it’s our favourite live action show we’ve ever seen in a UK theme park!
Over the past few years the theme park has continued to invest in new rides such as Hero and Mumbo Jumbo and you can really tell that management care about the park. Also, the length of the ride cycles where as long as they could get without a massive queue forming! Flip Flop a ride similar to Vortex at Thorpe Park which lasted around 5 minutes rather than the minute and a half cycle you get at Thorpe Park.
Flamingo Land isn’t just home to thrill rides; the park is also a zoo on a bigger scale of Chessington! With animals such as Lions, Tiger’s, Giraffes and White Rhinos the park really does have everything. Even though the park is 240 miles away from Chessington World Of Adventures we think Flamingo Land could give Chessington a run for its money in the next few years.
Facilities at Flamingo Land where exceptional! We choose to eat at a restaurant called pizza shack apart from a few issues with the kitchen staff we have to say the service was great and the food was reasonably priced! Possibly the cheapest theme park food we have ever seen.
One thing that we always look at when it comes to reviewing parks is FastTrack and if the park sells to much of it! Unlike Merlin theme parks the FastTrack at Flamingo Land are timed and cost very little. From £2 per ride the cost of a FastTrack is actually bearable and most importantly it wasn’t oversold! However, what would have been nice was if the rides had a dedicated FastTrack entrance rather than going up the exit of the rides as it often got confusing trying to work out who was queueing and who was waiting for the rest of their party to get off the ride.
Something we were slightly disappointed with was the theme parks merchandise. If you wanted something with the Flamingo Land logo on it you had kids stationary and cups but that was it! Would have been cool if there was more ride merchandise such as Mumbo Jumbo and Hero items.
Putting everything aside we thoroughly enjoyed our day at Flamingo Land! From the rollercoasters to the zoo Flamingo Land is a beautiful park and its future looks bright. We couldn’t recommend a park enough. Well worth a visit if you’re in the area and with the York Dungeons just down the road why not pop in on your way home!
