England’s Flamingoland theme park and zoo unveiled a new water play area in July – unfortunately it was already pretty wet at the park, just as it had been across the country for most of the previous month.
At 3,600 square metres, Splish Spolsh is the largest interactive splash park in Europe and is anchored by the UK’s first Splash Battle from Preston & Barbieri.
The Splash Battle features a standard layout and classic ‘yellow submarine’ boats. Theming was produced by Preston & Barbieri, P&P Projects and in-house by Flamingoland’s own team.
The centrepiece of the accompanying splash park is a 10-metre long foam pirate ship, from which young buccaneers shoot soft columns of foaming water into one of two standing water pools. Additionally, in-floor pressure pads trigger water jets from a crow’s nest up on the ship’s mast.
The second pool is a dedicated toddler area and home to a hopscotch game where children chase water jets up a grid whilst ‘trying’ to keep their feet dry! Bright palm trees with tipping coconuts complement the rainbow arch fountain features. Created by Hippo Leisure and Sun Safe Play (SSP), a total of 38 interactive water jets are installed across the two pools.
New additions at Flamingoland for 2007 also include a Zamperla kiddie coaster and a set of floor pick-up bumper cars, both previously operational at the American Adventure park in Derbyshire, which ceased operations last winter.
The bumper cars have been located in a new building which links through to Splish Splosh from the Seaside Adventure zone, replacing
the travelling rides that used to stand there but had begun to look out of place. Complemented by a shop and café, this undercover area bolsters Flamingoland’s all-weather offering and will be joined
next season by a 3D motion theatre simulator, also ex-American Adventure.
