RedSpecial

After reading some of the recent comments regarding forum software for what its worth (as someone who works as a commercial web developer and web technology consultant) I'd personally recommend an open source php solution any day in comparison to a vb option. A php solution can be migrated to any type of server if need be - try doing that with your vb solution. I know we have a lot of alternatives available including AJAX solutions and the like but you have to think about consistency of functionality. If it isn't broke why fix it? We also have a wonderful option called the Spellcheck button available - I must be showing my age but I don't do text speak sorry.

On my last visit they were running two cars at a time. I know what you mean in regards to Flamingoland. The problem seems to be who your ride ops are. Some are ultra careful, some are just simply slooow at loading and others are just fine. What they need is some consistency. A lot of the staff are friendly, fast and appreciate that they need to keep the lines moving. It's a shame that the slow operators appear to be the ones running Mumbo Jumbo at peek times. The staff do rotate between rides. On one recent visit as we worked around the park we seemed to have the same ride op on a number of rides - unfortunately he didn't seem motivated at keeping the queues down. Putting this to one side I still think that Mumbo Jumbo is a great fun ride.

When you get your photos on your PC use any standard photo editing program to resize the pics to 640 by 480 pixels which I find works best for posting. Ideally the file size of the images also needs to be kept down. I use paint shop pro so to get the file size right - I down grade my photos by decreasing the colour depth to 64K colour. For posting here you can't really see the difference between the original photo and the down graded one but boy does it reduce the overall file size and keeps everyone happy as they can see your pics quickly. For your first TR you got your pics in the right order which is more than I can say for when I gave it a go for the first time. Look forward to seeing more of your pics from the other Australian parks you mentioned.

Looking forward to further posts - wish we had the same weather at our parks.

Thanks for the info. Due to my lack of knowledge I always thought of Australia as a theme park /coaster back water - obviously not. We only have one remaining corkscrew in the UK. It's always a rough ride but I have a soft spot for them. Many years ago the corkscrew was one of my first looping experiences which I'll not forget. The cars on the jet ski should be introduced at other Sea World parks - great idea.

Nice to see such a well maintained corkscrew. Would really like to have a go on the jet ski ride - never seen cars like this before - any idea who the manufacture is for this? Great TR thanks for posting - looks like you had lots of fun.

My my what a full car park I really like these cute little guys Looks like Kumali has a new friend OK didn't make it to the 4th but today looks like being a very busy day as well. Flamingoland have landed themselves a real winner with Mumbo Jumbo. I'd strongly recommend you give this a go if at all possible. Great fun! Eventually lots of happy riders. This is one cool ride. Kumali is still king of Flamingoland but this makes for one great fun ride. First drop intense with two additional attention grabbing loops. The queue time should have been about 30-40 minutes. Unfortunately the weather turned bad and they closed the ride for a while. 2 HOURS after joining the queue we eventually got to ride! Cool cars Check out these cool seats. Due to the way the seats come down anyone from 4 feet and up can ride which is great fun for younger riders and for those a little larger.

Interesting comments regarding 'Air' - don't get me wrong I really like it as a ride but once you've had a go on Tatsu at Six Flags Magic Mountain you really can't class Air as the preferred flyer. The problem I think Alton Towers always seems to suffer from is the local planning restrictions. I think that the park does a great job working around local restrictions but feel that it always seems to have an impact when they build new rides. Hope we don't get a similar experience with the construction of the new 2010 attraction. General question - do other parks suffer from the same planning restrictions that Alton Towers seems to suffer from. When I've visited US parks it seems to be a case of anything goes with no restrictions. I still remember seeing Kraken at Sea World on the horizon driving to the park in Florida and the first thing that came to mind was how on earth would we get planning permission for something like that in the UK? Really I can't see anywhere else instructing a park to restrict a ride because it may put my cows off from milking. When will the locals around Alton Towers realise that the park is the main income generator for the area. Getting back on topic for me Oblivion although a one trick wonder always does the business for me and I'd be happy to ride Nemesis all day long given the chance. Personally love riding Nemesis in the dark - last Scarefest the ride generated such a cool atmosphere. Although not a coaster I always have great fun on Ripsaw at Alton which is often over looked. The queues are never too long to get in a number of goes one after another and always like playing the game of how many goes can you do before someone screams enough! [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=IMGP3483_eidg[/coastertube]

Very nice TR - I'm not intending on going to Alton towers until Scarefest in October - the new Sea life Aquarium looks good fun - it'll be interesting to see how the new ride area develops over the summer. Thanks for posting.

From what I've read the launch day is indeed Saturday the 4th July if you can make it. You may be one of the first to experience the new ride - would be interested to read your comments.

From what I've read the launch day is indeed Saturday the 4th July if you can make it. You may be one of the first to experience the new ride - would be interested to read your comments.

After not visiting Flamingoland for a while we were really pleased with the general up turn in the quality of everything - the place to me hardly seems like the same place I remember from a few years back. New rides, clean facilities, good food, helpful staff and quality merchandise all make for a really good day out. The queues weren't a put off either, even though the park was really busy on our trip. All in all I'd think it would be worth a 3.5 hour trip. It's worth the trip as I haven't been since early 2005 and when we got there the park was closed due to a thunderstorm so we only got to ride the Bullet and Cliff hanger before leaving Bullet closed in 2005 - a lot has changed you'd be very impreseed. General question - does anyone have any old photos from Flamingoland - the place has been around since 1959 - would be interested in seeing some older photos with any related comments?

After not visiting Flamingoland for a while we were really pleased with the general up turn in the quality of everything - the place to me hardly seems like the same place I remember from a few years back. New rides, clean facilities, good food, helpful staff and quality merchandise all make for a really good day out. The queues weren't a put off either, even though the park was really busy on our trip. All in all I'd think it would be worth a 3.5 hour trip.

Thanks for adding the extra video footage - looks really good - like the way that the test dummies each have a name. Looking forward to the 4th July.

Look forward to seeing your report on the Hoppings - hope the weather keeps fine - I may be paying a visit myself. Interesting what you say about FL installing a woodie - I was thinking along the same lines myself - looking at the park not sure where they will place their next coaster - wonder how much room for expansion they have? Hope they keep all existing rides and expand on to a new area. FL really seems to have the resources for expansion lately. Really nice to see a local Northern park investing and expanding. Like the look of the holiday homes located between the Wild Mouse and Velocity - my idea of heaven - a holiday home a few feet away from at least four coasters.

Thanks for the kind comments. I'd really like to see Flamingoland give Corkscrew a paint job. I have a real soft spot for the ride - it was originally based in my home town 5 minutes from my house - my daughter's school now sits on the foundations of where Corkscrew lived at the now gone Spanish City in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear. The ride still has the same loading bay before they purchased the ride and moved it to Flamingoland. With Alton Towers taking down their Corkscrew last summer this is now the last Vekoma Corkscrew left in the UK. Flamingoland should be renamed - Vekomaland! Very excited about Mumbo Jumbo - watching the testing the other day - it has some real cool moves and should be real fun to ride. Generally Flamingoland is really on the rise at the moment - really impressed with the overall service in the park and the professionalism of the way the staff are working. Even after a very long day the staff were more than happy to keep the rides open and let you have one last go before ending your day. 10 out of 10 for customer service in my book - unlike some other UK parks. They are putting more and more resources in to theming and keeping the customers happy. The level of cost effective and 'quality' items for sale in the sales outlets was really worth spending a few more pounds on. Generally a really good day out - could easily spend two days in the park and still find more to do. Well worth a visit in my opinion.

Forgot to add in the report that Mumbo Jumbo has what looks like one of the smallest loading stations I've seen in a very long time. It looks like they will run at least two cars; possibly three at a time if testing is anything to go by so the wait time won't hopefully be too long. The loading bay 'hut' station.

From what I picked up the official opening will be first week of July. The ride looks completed and ready to role - just waiting for some of the theming and ground work to be completed from what I could tell. Should give a good increase in gate numbers. Nice to see we have a number of Geordies on the forum

Yes on the Wild Mouse each car has two inbuilt video cameras that are wireless broadband connected to the picture hut at the end of the ride. For a small fee they do a DVD from your ride. Only takes a few minutes for them to do the disk. Since my last visit they've also installed similar cameras on Kumali - only down side is that the two front seats on Kumali can't be recorded due to having no place to put the cameras. They'd run out of DVD disks for Kumali for our visit or I'd have one for this as well. Not sure if they plan to put cameras in Mumbo Jumbo - couldn't get close enough to the new cars to check them out. I like the idea compared to Alton Towers your visit type system as you can easily pick which one off rides you want a DVD for at Flamingoland. Thanks for the feedback. Flamingoland really seems to be on the up at the moment - maybe it'll start attracting more visitors from further South. The park was really really busy on our visit but the queues seemed shorter than I'm used to. General good visitor management - lots of good ride attractions to pick from. Hoping to get in a return visit once Mumbos opened.

OK this is my first TR so be gentle with me - hope you like the new construction/testing picks of Mumbo Jumbo due to open in July and an update on other general rides at Flamingoland in North Yorkshire. [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=flamingoland_qumm[/coastertube][/coastertube] Who need's Mantas when we have sharks. Flip Flop's been around a year or two now at Flamingo land and really sets off the Splosh themed area. Can't wait for this to open - talking to the staff they said that they will get first go on the ride before the official opening day. Navigator is a typical but great fun spinning flat ride. Always worth a few goes. Although lots of fun it was almost as bumpy as Corkscrew. Before we could progress on to the larger rides we just had to have a go on the mine train From Corkscrew you can see this - my how the construction has speeded along in recent weeks. Now that Alton Towers no longer has a Corkscrew this is the last remaining one in the UK These still look like the original cars. First we checked out the Corkscrew. Originally this ride came from Whitley Bay Welcome to Flamingoland! OK before we get on to the coasters we better have a shot of the Flamingo's - there's also a zoo at the park but today we'll focus on the park's main attractions - the rides. Anyone with any sense tended to take off their tops. Willing victims. The loading bay. Although we all tend to read these signs - in this case it should come with a government health warning - you really really will get very wet on this ride. Next to Flip Flop you'll find the main Splosh ride. This guy looks so cool. Up, up and away! This is a very popular ride but the wait is never too long thanks to the ride volume. On to the Mad Mouse - it's had a paint job since our last visit and looks good for it. You can even get your own Mad Mouse video. Up, up and ow my god I could really die on this ride - seriously health and safety need to check this out. After Splosh we had a go on Sky Flyer - this is one very serious ride - you really do need these cages or you'd go splat. After Splosh we needed a change of clothes and picked up these cool Flamingoland t-shirts - a steal at £5 each! The day was a very pleasant 21 degrees C not sure what this would be like on a typical UK summer day? I like the look of that 120 degree first drop. Shot of upside down dummies The cars were running for most of our visit with two dummies in the back of each car. Love the cars with their crash test dummies Time to check out Mumbo Jumbo Flamingoland has a really good mix of both large and smaller coaster rides. We rounded off our day with a go on the Vekoma bikes 0-60mph in 2.6 seconds. Unfortunately it takes ages to get a ride on this due to the very slow loading times. Flamingoland also has one of the biggest log flumes in the UK. Just love those loops. Can still remember when Rob paid a visit just after Kumali opened. It's interesting to see how the theming has changed the feel of the ride. Will Mumbo Jumbo put Kumali in to second place? At the moment Kumali is still Flamingoland's No 1 ride. Back to the rides with Kumali Repeat after me - how low can you go. Love to see what these guys Wii Fit ages would come up with. After checking out Mumbo Jumbo we dropped in on the Bongo Warriors show. Another wide angle shot. Why is it we are always one of the first to arrive and the last to leave. You really should check out the ravens in the car park picking over the remains of exhausted visitors. End to a very fun day! One last shot of Mumbo Jumbo - looking forward to a return visit once it's open in the next few weeks. Check out the snaking layout of Velocity.

I’d be interested to know what others think of the following idea/concept for a theme park or theme park area. Apologies if others have already suggested this. Consider the following – in recent news items it has been reported that global sales of Nintendo’s Wii console have passed 50 million; including domination of the hand held computer games market with the DS and upcoming DSi it would be an intriguing thought if Nintendo were to consider going in to the theme park business. I think someone should put together a sales pitch to Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata. Just consider the rich and dynamic group of characters and themed rides that could be put together in line with both past and present Nintendo games and characters. We could have a Princess Peach castle, a Bowser Revenge rollercoaster, Yoshi’s water park, a Luigi’s Mansion themed dark ride, Mario cart raceway, a Donkey Kong jungle water type ride; the list could go on and on... Consider the main demographic of the players of Nintendo games – young people, parents – the typical market for a successful theme park. The marriage between the technology of current theme parks and a company like Nintendo could be a terrific win win business idea. Just think of the merchandising that Nintendo could ship on the back of a theme park and to have their games integrated in to a real world experience in this way. Wouldn’t a Nintendo theme park be a marketing dream for say the next version of a Mario Party game? My kids would kill for the chance to encounter the chance of immersing themselves in a real world Mario park. Where would this kind of park be best located? Japan comes to mind but if successful it could be rolled out in typical Disney fashion. To me the idea seems to be such a natural marriage of popular characters with good theme park planning I’m really surprised it already hasn’t been done. Would be very interested in reading what other theme park review forum member think about the idea? What ride would you like to see? If you think the idea wouldn’t work – why not?

It'll be interesting to see how Flamingo Land with their opening of Flamingo's Mumbo Jumbo S&S El Loco coaster compares to the Saw eurofighter launch? Saw has received a lot of coverage on the BBC for the last few days as the 'first' beyond vertical drop coaster. Thorpe publicity department have obviously been working overtime. I would have been unhappy if I'd travelled to Thorpe Park to find so many rides closed. I am however hoping to get the chance at sometime to experience the new ride. I remember visiting Scarefest at Alton to find Rita closed and had a sulk on all day. Just out of interest what would you say is the best eurofighter currently in use today?