Sven: And we’re back with another update on a Belgian park! This time, one that will open a spectacular roller coaster next year and a brand new hotel this year. Get ready for a big construction update on Plopsaland De Panne!
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A beautiful sunny day and some nice coasters, what more can you ask for? We started immediately with a long due Anubis ride! The train rattled quite a bit in the back but later that day, front seat still felt pretty good. 
The ride opened 11 years ago and now you can really see how much the trees have grown! Really awesome to see.
After that, I rode a ride which I wanted to do for ages again: De Koffiekopjes. Probably one of the best themed tea cups ride now with the beautiful Prinsessia castle.
Here I already started to get annoyed by Plopsa again… I understand that you need sponsors but putting a Mercedes car right next to this wonderful castle is just note done…
Oh well… As we continued our tour at the back at the park (because it was getting quite busy in the front), we spotted the supports of Time Traveler!
Before we jump into the full update on the construction, let’s have a look at the latest addition: Dino Splash. The log flume itself has been around for ages but last year they completely rethemed it full of dinosaurs.
The station also got a pretty nice layover with wonderful bugs as lamps! The really felt like a prehistoric jungle thanks to the theming, but also due to the landscaping. Everywhere in the park, the green looked stunning so compliments to the team!
Although it’s really well done, the theme curses with the nearby castle square and Swiss village Heidi area. Plopsa is king when it comes to having the number of different themes at their park. That’s just a bit sad as you really start to feel their ambition to become a resort. As a fan, I enjoy having separate immersed areas like they have with Wickie the Viking or their Plop oversized garden. But hey, the kids love the dino theme.
Speaking of Heidi, we had three rides during the day. Obviously, the best rides were in the evening and you do quite notice the difference. Not the greatest GCI but fits perfectly for a family park like Plopsa.
This previous shot was taken in the Plop oversized garden and by turning to the other side, there’s a whole different view now. What used to be all trees is now completely gone! Instead, we can spot the station of Time Traveler, the brand new Xtreme Spinning Coaster coming to the park in 2021.
At the moment, no construction to be seen but there has already been quite some work done. The footers can be spotted everywhere. On this side, you can see those for the Double Inverting Dive Loop (near the station), the airtime hills and the final brake run.
Quite exciting to see them, so we also walked towards the Pirate area of the park to see more. Here you have the first launch!
The launch leads up to a Outside Overbanked Turn and goes down with a Cliffhanger Drop. Then it goes into a Banana Roll to return to the Pirate area with a Vertical Loop and a Zero-G Roll.
And then it continues with a Twisted Airtime Hill which goes over the SuperSplash splash zone into the second launch.
Without a doubt, it will be as photogenic as its American counterpart in Silver Dollar City! So super hyped for this coaster. If you haven’t seen the coaster POV yet, have a look below!
Another retheming I hadn’t seen yet was the K3 makeover of the Vekoma Rollerskater. For those of you who don’t know K3, it’s a popular girlband for kids owned by Studio 100 (which owns Plopsa and thus uses all its IP in the parks). Still with oversized theming, as it used to be, although there’s no real reason to do so. Looks very colorful though.
Let’s also talk a bit about the Covid-19 measures. Here, it’s a light version of the Bellewaerde policy. Every ride has disinfection stations before you can ride. On the ground, you’ll find green dots to stand and red arrows to keep distance, a pretty good system. You don’t have to wear masks on midways but (here’s what’s different) only on certain rides. Basically it’s the rides where you can’t keep 4,92 feet/1,5 m distance with other people. So you need them on all coasters but for example not on the Dino Splash as you are only seated as a bubble. They also have some areas of the park where there’s a one way passage. This applies for the farm area and the indoor Mayaland.
Although they reduced capacity like most parks, it felt quite busy on this sunny Sunday. The waiting times didn’t go over 30 minutes for the major rides though. Next to that, the park closed at 6 pm so walking towards the exit. We still had the hotel construction to look at! But before that, more Mercedes… Here it fits better than at the castle or the viking zone but I prefer the Europa-Park approach.
The Village Square now looks better than ever. Here’s a great example how Plopsa can be great at making themed areas. Notice how much detail went into the different facades!
Seems like they will also add a waterway near the parkside entrance of the hotel. It will have 117 family rooms, a restaurant, 2 bars, 3 meeting rooms and underground parking. 
The entrance of the park looks much better too with the glass roof now being surrounded by the different facades.
Also on the outside it looks pretty amazing. I like how they incorporated their IP in the façades but still subtle. 
That concludes our update! We’re sure to return once construction continues on the new coaster. As you know, were are always honest in our reviews. Personally, I often have my issues with the commercial way Plopsa runs the park. Then again, they had a lot of visitors for Covid-19 times so it seems their approach works. Plus if they can built a beautiful hotel and world-class coaster thanks to that, who am I to blame them? We had a great day and you’ll sure want to visit this park soon.
Thank you for reading our Plopsaland De Panne update! Check out our other new updates including PortAventura & Bellewaerde in Europe! In the US, we have updates on Silver Dollar City & Magic Springs!