If you want to keep the kids happy and entertained all day, then I can thoroughly recommend Flamingo Land as the place to take them. My son, who is now 13 and daughter (18) never want to go anywhere else. We’ve been to euro-disney, but they still rate Flamingo Land higher. Entrance fee for a day visit is £14.50 per person or £54 for a family of four. But one day is never usually enough, so we prefer to book a short break in one of the caravans. They do sleep up to 6 people, but personally I don’t think that they are big enough. There was just room for the four in our party. But having said that, the caravans are very clean and comfortable, and well equipped. In the terms and conditions it says that the caravans will be ready for occupation by 4pm, though you can arrive at the park as early as you wish (park opens at 10am). We arrived at 1pm and our caravan was ready for us. On the day of departure, you are supposed to vacate your caravan by 10am, though we didn’t leave ours until about 10.45am (we got up late), but they didn’t come looking for us. In fact the girls in reception couldn’t have been nicer and made us feel really welcome if ever we had a query. If you arrive by coach or taxi, you can leave your luggage in the reception area until your caravan is ready, and also leave it on the day of departure, to enable you to say until the park closes at 5pm(6pm school holidays and weekends).
Description of caravans There is a nice lounge area with couches at one end, built in shelving units and matching table and seating and a portable TV. The kitchen, next to the lounge (all open plan) is spacious with a good sized gas cooker and hob. There is a fridge with a freezer compartment and a microwave plus plenty of storage. There were 2 bedrooms in our caravan. One with a double bed and a large built in wardrobe and drawers. The other bedroom had 2 small single beds that were only suitable if you are a small person or a child. There was also a wardrobe and shelves. The space was very limited in this bedroom. One of the couches in the lounge turned into a bed for the 5th and 6th person. The shower room (no bath in ours) was spacious with
shower, wash basin, toilet and cabinet. A vacuum cleaner was in the caravan, which was very useful. Also plenty of crockery, cutlery and pans etc. The only things that were not supplied were bed-sheets, quilt covers, pillow cases, towels and tea-towels. Quilts, pillows and blankets are provided. You can also book a travel cot if needed and pay £30 deposit on arrival at the park. Refunded on departure. You don’t have to pay a deposit for breakages though, you only have to pay a premium of £2, payable when you book your caravan, and this is non-returnable. No extra cost for gas and electric. Dogs aren’t allowed to stay in the caravans but they do have kennels on site. I believe there is a charge for this.
Prices for caravans All the prices for caravans include admission into the park for the duration of your stay. We went on the 2nd of June this year for 3 nights (4 days) and paid £182. Considering this was for 4, I think it is very reasonable. From now until the end of August, the price for a one weeks stay is £680 (for up to 6 people). Then prices vary, so it’s best to get a brochure. You can get a short break, starting again from the 30th August, (they don’t do short breaks in July and most of August). A 3 night break costs from £155 to £180.You can also take your own motorhome or tent, again different prices for times of the year.
Theme Park One thing I must say about the operation of the rides is that, when we went it wasn’t very busy, but none of the rides closed down (apart from when it rained for a couple of hours). If there were only 2 people wanting to go on a ride, they could go on it without waiting for anyone else to get on, which my kids thought was brilliant! There is in total 7 roller coasters to choose from. 1. MAGNUM FORCE, Europe’s only triple looping roller coaster, a thrilling ride with 3 loops and and a mile of twisting track which reaches a G Force of 5. This ride also reaches a height of 100 feet. And makes a terrifically loud noise. 2. CORKSCREW, A bit tamer than the magnum force but still has the loops and deep drops. 3. THE BULLET, I have never been on this, this ride takes you about 100 feet up in the air (I could be wrong) then you come down backwards to a couple of loops and twisting track. 4. THUNDER MOUNTAIN, a roller coaster with a difference. The usual twisting tracks and loops but all in complete darkness. 5. WILD MOUSE, this roller coaster is more for the younger ones (probably over 10s) but still lots of track, twists and drops but no loops. 6 and 7. THE ALLIGATOR AND DRAGON, these two rides are only for the younger ones (5 years to 8 years approx.) Very nice little tracks with no loops. Apart from roller coasters, there are plenty more rides to keep you amused. The firm favourite, the WALTZERS, if you like spinning round and round, then these are for you. Theres MERRY-GO-ROUNDS, DODGEM CARS, SWINGS, SKY GLIDERS, UFO, I haven’t been on this one, but it’s a ride that you have to stand up in, in a sort of cage, and not only does the ride go round (rather fast), it also goes up in the air about 90 degrees. The TERRORIZER, similar to the UFO, but you sit down in this one, 4 people in one cage, which actually spins upside down as well. The new ride this year at Flamingo Land is the CLIFF-HANGER, which stands 120 feet tall. Its like a bungee jump but you have to sit down, theres enough seats for 16 people. Then the ride just takes off up in to the air, at a G Force 4 and stays there for about 16 seconds and then drops back down on the bungee rope. Quite exhilarating. Then theres the VIKING SHIP, a thrilling boat ride that swings its passengers 70 feet high in the air. There are numerous other rides, too many to mention but you would not be disappointed. There are also lots of the usual fair ground stalls, hook-a-duck, knock the cans down etc. Food is quite pricey and most cafes sell just about the same thing. Burgers (about £2.50), hot dogs (£2), fish and chips (£3.50 ), pie and chips etc. Though there was one café selling things like salads and jacket potatoes. The food is actually quite tasty. There was plenty of ice cream and candyfloss out-lets and again a bit pricey, though probably about the same as any theme park would be. Fizzy drinks were 80p for a can and £1 for a 500ml bottle but it was the real thing! I did find about half the food outlets were not as clean as they could have been, having to clear a table ourselves to sit down, and it wasn’t that busy when we went. I nearly forgot to mention, this year I noticed a new fish restaurant, we didn’t actually go in, but it is set in a conservatory and from the outside it looked absolutely beautiful and looking at the menu in the window it was reasonably priced. A meal of fish, chips and peas was £5.95. There did not seem to be enough toilets around the park, we found about 6, which is not a lot for the size of the park, so had to walk quite along way to get to the nearest one. And they were not as clean as they could have been, and no toilet rolls in most of them. Most of the members of staff who operated the rides and worked in the food outlets could have done with a bit of training in customer service. Hardly any of them smiled, and were not keen to go out of their way to help you. In fact some just didn’t seem to want to be there, maybe they don’t get paid a lot!
The holiday Village This boasts an indoor swimming pool, well one large fun pool with a tunnel like slide and inflatables, and one rectangular pool for the serious swimmers. The pool operates on a wrist band system allowing you a certain length of time. Then there is a gym, a sauna, Jacuzzi, two all weather tenniscourts, a nine hole golf course and a well stocked nine-acre fishing lake. You have to bring your own golf clubs and fees do apply to the golf course, fishing and tennis, but I don’t know what these are. There is only one supermarket on site, and as you can imagine was quite pricey. A loaf of bread was about £1, four pints of milk (£1.30), pot noodle (90p), 6 eggs (£1), 2 litre pop (99p), and it was the cheap stuff that you can usually buy for 50p. On the whole they did have a good selection of items, but I would recommend taking your own basics, bread, sugar, tea, coffee, milk, cereal etc. The holiday village also has evening entertainment with 5 clubs and bars. When we went in June and previous years, May and September, there was only one open, the American bar. I presume they would all be open in the busier months of July and August. But they were holding the Search for a Star competition, which was really entertaining. And I think because no single sex groups are allowed in the holiday village, your night out doesn’t get spoilt by groups of people getting blind drunk and causing trouble etc. There were still doormen but no trouble. And if your feeling peckish after a night out, then there is a nice little kebab and fish and chip shop right next door, same prices as the park, and very delicious.
Zoo This is what I love the most. I used to come to the park with my mum and dad about 25 years ago and back then this is what Flamingo Land was, just a zoo. How times change! There is now over 1000 animals. New this year are the Hippos, we didn’t get to see them out of the water, we just saw their heads, but they had only just arrived at Flamingo Land, so were no doubt very wary. There were 3 giraffes, 2 of them babies and we got to see them quite close up, through a large window, which was lovely to see. The tigers didn’t emerge from their den all the time we were there so didn’t get to see them. We saw the sea lion and the parrot shows, which were fab, who ever trains these must have a great deal of patience. There are baboons, alpaca, zebras, white rhinoceros, tapir, llamas, camels, monkeys, meerkats, deer, buffalo and lynx. Also there are kangaroos and wallabies, including a baby albino wallaby. In the childrens farm yard there was a couple of giant tortoises, a pot bellied pig , goats, donkeys, chinchillas, mice, chicken and ducks including chicks in incubators which had only just hatched, which was great for kids to see. There is a reptile house with loads of different kind of snakes, lizards, turtles, and other creatures including an alligator who must be about 6ft long. There are lots of other animals and birds too numerous to mention. I could spend the whole time just leisurely walking round the zoo, especially now that a lot of the animals have got larger enclosures which is great for them. The zoo is very well sign posted, from letting you know where to find a certain animal, to finding first aid. As is the whole park really, theres even sign posts letting you know where a certain ride is, so it doesn’t take long to find what your looking for.
Where is Flamingo Land Situated off the A169 Malton to Pickering Road, North Yorkshire and is well sign posted once you get into Pickering. If you don’t have transport, Flamingo Land can easily be reached, firstly by getting a train to Malton, then a Yorkshire Coastliner bus, which is directly opposite Malton train station, a 1 minute walk away, which will then take you to the park. Or you can catch a Yorkshire Coastliner bus from York Railway station, which again will take you directly to Flamingo Land.
So for the summoning up of Flamingo Land I can only say, if you do go, you will not be disappointed, the kids certainly wont be. They will always have something to do, never be bored. And if your kids are old enough to venture off on their own, you can stay by the caravan and relax. Take mobile phones if you have them, I took mine and my daughter had hers, so you can call them if you need to.Otherwise you wont see them all day. Eating out is rather pricey. My kids generally bought burgers, hotdogs etc during the day and I made them something on an evening. We spent around £120 for 4 of us for the four days, £30 each, which wasn’t too bad and that included a couple of hours out on the night time as well.
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Aug 22nd, 2003
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