Sven: Hey guys! Today we’re going to talk about a new coaster that finally opened: Heidi The Ride. Besides that, we walked through Plopsaland De Panne to see how things are going and if they performed any refurbishments during the winter. Ready?
The Plopsa group welcomed 3 million visitors in total last year. This includes flagship park Plopsaland De Panne, Holiday Park Germany, Plopsa Coo, Plopsa Indoor Hasselt, Plopsa Indoor Coevorden and waterpark Plopsaqua. A new park is in the works in Poland and they are preparing at least two new water parks in Belgium as well. Besides that, Plopsaland De Panne will open a hotel and small accommodations on their camping site. All together, they want to reach 5 million in the near future. Ambitious, but realistic if they keep up the investing.
But let’s get to the park! On our way to Heidiland, we first entered the ‘Ploptuin’ zone, which is a gnome garden. Large mushrooms are everywhere and they added some more. For example one of the toilets was completely renovated in the typical style. The area looked as good as new, except for the ‘Vleermuis’ coasters. They are SBNO and it’s likely to be long term.
Luckily, they have a new coaster since a few weeks now: Heidi The Ride! The woodie is finally open and man, is it fun! It has two trains for 12 people each and the layout is on the shorter side compared to other woodies in Europe. However, it’s forceful, fun and features some airtime. They now have another one of the best coasters in Belgium.
The whole area is beautiful and inspired by a real Swiss village. It even has a wooden clock that entertains guests every 30 minutes. It really is a nice piece of theming as Plopsa keeps increasing their level of quality.
Besides the wooden coaster, they also added a 12 m (39.4 feet) turntable carrousel by Wood Design Amusement Rides. That way, the little ones can enjoy this ride while other go ride Heidi. (See what I did there…)
And of course you can meet Heidi and her friend Peter! Hello there!
The nearby log flume also received a bit of new theming and rumor has it that it will get a big transformation next year to fit the area even more.
The rest of the park looked stunning as well. We love their Prinsessia tea cups / restaurant!
They installed new signs near the rides as well, like this Anubis one! That coaster remains the best one in Belgium! (Says enough that Belgium needs more thrilling coasters, right?)
To end, here some more pictures of the park. We really loved returning to Plopsaland this time! They put themselves more firmly on the European theme park map and if you have to chance to go, don’t hesitate!
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