After visiting Kondaa, we couldn’t resist paying a visit to the other big coaster coming in 2021. The Ride To Happiness by Tomorrowland construction continues at Plopsaland De Panne. And yes, we saw it testing!
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Before we enter the park, another brand new investment for the park welcomed us: the Plopsa Hotel. After years and years of announcements, the hotel now opened to welcome their first guests. Above the entrance, we can see some rooms with small terraces.
I do have to say that now the entrance of the park looks a bit bland compared to the beautiful themed hotel.
Once inside however, it looks pretty okay. I really love the atmosphere they now created in that corner of the park. I already see myself enjoying a cocktail after park hours.
Construction continues!
We couldn’t wait however to go and see the track of The Ride To Happiness from a bit closer. Immediately you think, how did this track end up here? At the moment, there’s quite some things going on. One of them, being the pavement of the little area getting finished up.
The area has quite a bit of space and they work on the theming, the completion of the several buildings and more.
The building to store one of the trains 
The shop in the area 
Some of the theming which will be created near the coaster
The train peeks out of the station and it does have a stunning color scheme. Notice that the Tomorrowland logo has not been installed on these seats yet.
When we walk towards the pirate area of the park, we can see the station from a bit closer. Here, I love how the station and the track align perfectly with the tree line.
They need to finish up the station with installing windows and bringing on the details of the theming.
Steel of Happiness
Since testing goes on regularly, the track layout obviously got completed a while ago. We walked along the different elements. Starting of with the first inversion and the launch.
After the launch, you go straight up to the first drop, followed by the Banana Roll and the Looping!
These elements look stunning from across the lake near the teacups!
Ready for some nerd shots?
After the second launch, we have the Double Inverting Dive Loop which should result in some real fun.
That leaves us with some airtime hills. Look how beautiful and wide the track looks!
Tea Cups and Pizza
Meanwhile in the rest of the park, we could noticed quite some changes. Due to covid, the Tea Cup ride closed as they use the space as an outdoor restaurant instead! That way, they also use the actual ride cups as theming.
There is pretty much no indoor queues in the entire park at the moment. Here at Anubis, they used the square as queue space where you enter via the normal exit. Had a great ride on it too, always love that launch and top hat forces!
The same thing applies for Heidi. But in this area, something else got our attention. It now holds a Pizza Hut restaurant.
The Star Flyer got a new theme (after many discussions) and settled on one of their more teen television show themes: “Nachtwacht”. A story about a werewolf, vampire and elf.
The Happiness of Testing
Turns out we picked a good day to go as then, The Ride To Happiness started testing!
You might have seen our launch video on Instagram, one word: wow! Seeing the ride in action, really made me excited!
While it passed by, you could hear the onboard audio and see the LED lighting!
Overall, the ride seemed to have a good pace and the spinning looked decent too. It might not be finished yet, but when it does, it looks like Kondaa will really have some competition.
The coaster now stands out as the heart of the park as you can see it from almost every corner. Just two more months and then we can have a trip to Happiness with this wonderfully looking machine!
