Pleasure Island Family Theme Park
Description
Pleasure Island Family Theme Park was a theme park in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England. It was commonly known as Pleasure Island. The park opened on 27 May 1993. It was originally a subsidiary of Flamingo Land Ltd. Pleasure Island became independent of Flamingo Land in May 2010 and was owned and operated by DewarSavile Enterprises Ltd until closing at the end of the 2016 season. On 21 September 2016, it was announced that Pleasure Island would be closing at the end of its current season and only McCormack's will reopen in 2017.Now open at Flambards Cornwell as Sky Force. . This ride has been removed from Pleasure Island and is in storage awaiting a new buyer.HistoryPleasure Island Family Theme Park stood on the site of the former Cleethorpes Zoo. Owned and operated by Associated Pleasure Parks, the zoo had such attractions as seals, penguins, raccoons, pelicans, chimpanzees, a whale, African elephant, tiger and an orangutan. The zoo subsequently closed in 1977. The site was sold to Pleasureworld, a division of RKF Entertainment, who announced that a new theme park would be built, as a sister park to the Pleasurewood Hills park near Lowestoft and bearing the same name. Construction began on the new theme park in the 1980s.RKF Entertainment went into receivership during the early 1990s and construction of the park was halted. The site was sold to Robert Gibb, the managing director of Flamingo Land in Malton, North Yorkshire. When the opportunity to purchase the Cleethorpes site became available, Gibb decided to continue with the redevelopment of the site as a theme park, which became today's Pleasure Island. Construction of the park was completed by Gibb in 1992 and Pleasure Island Family Theme Park was opened on 27 May 1993. Robert Gibb's son, Gordon Gibb, later became the chief executive of the company and directly runs Flamingo Land, while his sister Vicky Gibb, and subsequently other sister Melanie Wood (formerly Gibb), took the responsibility for the management of Pleasure Island.