Visitors to a North Yorkshire theme park recently named the worst in the country have defended the family attraction after TripAdvisor reviewers savaged its “poor value” and “huge queues”.
Last month, LatestDeals.co.uk named Flamingo Land top of its ranking of the nations 10 worst theme parks, in a list based on Tripadvisor reviews, ticket prices, and the average ride costs.
54 percent of reviews on the site for the Malton amusement park, which has rollercoasters and rides for all ages and conservation zoo projects, were found to be negative.
Standard admission starts at £44.50, some way south of the £29 charged by Alton Towers and Thorpe Park, and many visitors voiced disappointment with value for money at the park, where the price per ride was found to average £1.27.
A TripAdvisor review in August also claimed half the animal cages were empty, despite Flamingo Land’s wealth of wildlife being a major selling point.
Another said the park was to be avoided, as it was “not worth the time and effort the zoo is so run down and dirty virtually no animals out, rides breaking down constantly causing other rides to have huge queues…”
A third claimed: “Spent £168 just to find the train around the site was not running and our favourite, the water flume not running, the F1 and motorcycle speed ride not running – even the monorail around the mandrills down to one garage only running resulting in long waiting times.”
But others offered glowing assessments, with one offering a passionate defence of the park after saying the recent poor reviews had made them expect the worst.
“We must have picked a good day.. the park was empty! And it’s a Saturday! We walked straight onto every single ride,” they wrote.
“There is so so much to do for kids, we went with our 9 year old and she had the best day ever! There was only two rides not working and they are stated on the website they are closed and have been all season.
They said the food was reasonably priced for a theme park, despite seeing “reviews about overflowing bins and dirty toilets” they said they didn’t see any of that and the WCs were “spotless”.
Meanwhile, the Zoo was deemed “brilliant” by the reviewer, who said the animals “looked well looked after”.
Another from earlier this month said: “Had a great time at flamingo land, kids loved it, Ron, operating swoosh air, was really kind and friendly. Would recommend flamingo land and will definitely come back next year.”
A good family day out, reasonably priced, some great rides although alot of rides were closed the day we were there, but would recommend a visit if in York.
Another said “alot of the rides were closed” the day they were there, but it was “reasonably priced” and a good family day out they recommended to people visiting York.