Tag: Plopsaland De Panne

Advice, Blog

Our Eurotrip – Summary

Loops&Lapbars

I wanted To write this blog to not only summarise our trip, but also give a bit of advice where I can about travelling around Europe.

The highlights

Thinking about things that stuck out on our trip, I’d have to say that most of Efteling, Rookburgh and the Charles Lindbergh, most of Toverland and The Ride to Happiness as a start. So to make it a bit more fun, I think I’ll go through highlights of anything and everything starting with the coasters.

The Coasters

Fury and Ride to Happiness are the clear standouts here. I was expecting Ride to Happiness to be great but wasn’t expecting as much from Fury but it sure delivered! Anubis was also noteworthy, as was Typhoon and Taron. Kondaa was quite impressive too, Revolution and Psyke Underground were very interesting and Troy is the best wooden coaster I’ve ridden so far!

The Flats

But rollercoasters aren’t just all a park has to offer, there’s the flat rides too. Here, the clear standouts was Talocan. I looked forward to this for a long time before going and it held up all I wanted it to be! I wish the fire had been working on our visit but it didn’t take away from what is a phenomenal ride. Mystery Castle is also a ride that I’ll never forget riding the first time either! Then there’s King Kong at Bobbejaanland, Le Rondes des Canards at Plopsaland and Scorpius at Toverland for how great it looked.

The Dark Rides

Then there’s the great selection of dark rides we had a go on! Popcorn Revenge, Challenge of Tutankhamen, Maus Au Chocolat, Carnival Festival, Droomvluct and the almighty Symbolica! Efteling truly is one of the dark ride capitals of Europe!

The Water Rides

Finally there’s the water rides, though Pulsar and SuperSplash are rollercoasters, I think they stand out more for their water elements. Though the rapids rides we had a go on are definitely memorable, River Quest being the absolute champion of rapids rides! Chiapas is the best log flume we’ve been on, but Flashback and Terra Magna were great too!

As for the park that stood out as the one that impressed me most, it’ll definitely be Toverland. Though Efteling and Phantasialand were the better parks, I felt that Toverland was so well done and we enjoyed everything there was to do at the park so much. I feel Efteling could do with a few more thrill rides personally and that would make it easily top of all parks I’ve visited. For now though, Toverland is up there along with Efteling and Phantasialand, with Walibi Belgium and Plopsaland being tied and Bobbejaanland being slightly behind those two. That’s definitely not to say Bobbejaanland was bad or anything, far from it! It’s better than the vast majority of parks here in the UK! It’s just competition is stiff!

All the hotels we stopped in were not much to write about besides the Loonsche Land Hotel and Charles Lindbergh which were very well done. It is worth noting though, that most of the hotels we stopped in didn’t have tea and coffee making facilities and the beds all seemed to use foam mattresses too. I suppose I should really mention Schwerelos Suite here as the host of this overnight stop went truly above and beyond with how they accommodated us!

Some advice about Europe

I’ll have an accompanying video for you to watch here if you prefer, but I’ll try and go into a bit of detail here as it’s easier to write!

The first piece of advice I’d say is to make sure you plan what you’re doing to within an inch of its life! I had an Excel spreadsheet with all sorts of information on it while we were going through the motions of deciding what parks we were doing, what hotels we were stopping at and our route. We ended up deciding on 6 parks and 9 hotels in total (2 being booked alongside their park tickets). The route we decided on was the most fuel efficient way that I could find as I used Google Maps to decide what was best.

Once we’d gotten our actual hotels and tickets booked, we turned our attention to what we’d need. This includes your V5 for the car, travel insurance, car insurance details (including European cover), passports and such. I’ll make a list at the very bottom to help out with what you might need to make it much easier to plan! It’s also worth noting how you’re getting there. By road you’ll have 2 choices, ferry or Eurotunnel. We opted for the Eurotunnel as it was a lot cheaper, but the ferry might have offers on or be more suitable to you.

Driving in Europe wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be as you are guided straight onto a french motorway as you leave the eurotunnel and it sort of clicks as you go. The first few roundabouts are interesting as cars are coming from the other way and you are used to looking right instead of left.

Having a basic understanding of French/Dutch or German will help you out plenty in France/Belgium/The Netherlands and Germany and it certainly helps if you have allergies or specific needs as we had a little issue with onions. I’m not allergic to them per se but they can seriously upset my stomach and it’s much easier to not eat them at all. We did had a few issues trying to say ‘no onions please’, but it didn’t always come across, which is on us for not knowing how to speak a foreign language!

Obviously the currency is Euros and I took a bank card with me, where Tracy went entirely cash. Either works fine and depending where you’re going depends on what you’ll need. Bobbejaanland for example is entirely cashless so you can convert cash into their own on park currency, but Phantasialand was easier with cash as some of the vendors didn’t take card.

Things you’ll need for driving in Europe

  • Passport
  • Travel Insurance
  • Car Insurance
  • V5C
  • High Viz Jacket for each occupant of the vehicle )reachable from within the behicle)
  • First Aid Kit
  • Warning Triangle (for breakdowns)
  • GB Sticker on rear of car
  • Beam Deflectors
  • Clothes
  • Toiletries
  • Suncream
  • Medication
  • Camera(s)
  • Travel Towel
  • Bottled Water
Blog, Reviews

Plopsaland De Panne – First visit

Loops&Lapbars

I hadn’t heard much of Plopsaland De Panne before The Ride to Happiness came into being, but that ride definitely put it on the map for us. In my last blog, I mentioned about the parks we’re visiting on our European road trip and Plopsaland was the first to go on the list.

Turning up to the park, you’re greeted with excellent views of Heidi the Ride, a massive front door and entrance, and The Ride to Happiness peeking over the tops of the buildings in the main square.

Our first stop was going to be The Ride to Happiness but it wasn’t open until 11 so we headed for Heidi the ride, the parks wooden coaster. As we walked to the entrance, we passed so many different themes and set pieces and it just kept getting better all day!

Heidi is a great little woodie. It’s not too rough at all and though it is as noisy as a wooden coaster, it rides about as smoothly as Wicker Man does, though I think I prefer Heidi at this point!

Our next visit was to Der Draak, a powered junior roller coaster, very similar to The Dragon at Legoland and Runaway Mine Train at Alton Towers, if they we smashed together! It interacts nicely with the surrounding area and was a good fun little ride too.

By this time, 11am had rolled around and the main event was ready, at least for me! The Ride to Happiness. I’ll be writing this attraction its own separate blog as there’s a lot to take in, but for now, it’s topped The Smiler, and by some margin too. It is excellent!

After this we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have a go on Le Ronde Des Canards, which literally translates to the Rounds of the Ducks or as we called it, Duck Roundabout! This was a very basic but fun little water carousel with giant duck themed boats. The ride commenced and finished with the quacking of the ducks and fun was had by all!

We had a wander around the next area, having a go on a jet ski ride, in the same vane as Hydras Challenge at Legoland Windsor. It was just as much fun as Legoland, but not quite as good to watch as there wasn’t any water effects on this version.

Following the Jet Skis, we had a nice sit down on the Plopsa Express as it took us to the next area, for a look around their Viking themed section called Wickieland. It was quite pretty and had a couple of good looking rides but we ultimately didn’t stop for long as we moved onto dinner in the Mirror Tent Restaurant (at least I think that’s how it translates!)

We both had something called a Bicky burger, which is a Dutch invention that the Belgians seem to like. It’s actually a mixed meat burger (Pork, Beef and Horse Meat) but tasted really quite nice. It has the usual ensemble of condiments on it as well as crispy fried onions and a signature sauce too. We both enjoyed these despite the somewhat unappetising sounding meat patty!

Once we’d had dinner, we moved in and found La Foret De Plop, or The Forest of Plop. This is a very charming indoor boat ride that takes you passed a lot of different forest scenes with the local inhabitants, the Elves. The animatronics are well made, the scenes are spectacular to look at and the music is quite lovely too. This is definitely worth a visit in my opinion!

Our next stop was a go on the parks teacup ride and then the #Likeme coaster. The coaster isn’t much to sing about as it’s a standard layout Zierer Tivoli, exactly the same as Treetops at Oakwood or Egg-Spress at Pleasurewood Hills. The one standout feature of this coaster though, was the walkthrough to the station, which featured a school and a party scene towards the end.

At this point, it might be worth mentioning the sheer amount of product placement used in the park. From Mercedes Benz, to Tomorrowland, K3 and LikeMe as well as a lot of Studio 100 characters. Sometimes it fits nicely, such as Piet Piraat (Peter Pirate) in the pirate themed area, but other times it just felt out of place. Like Mercedes Benz cars sat about the place, and even sponsoring a kids car ride. It isn’t something that most people will care about, but it is noticeable!

Next stop was Anubis the Ride, a Gerstlauer LSM launch Coaster. On paper this is a solid looking ride, but actually riding it is even better! The ride starts with a gentle slopped turn around to the right and as the car rolls into the lauch track, it doesn’t stop and is catapulted to 55.9 miles an hour and up into a hill. This launch is very snappy and a real wake up call, especially when compared with Icon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. This was an excellent ride, showcasing Gerstlauer at their best I should think! The launch was good, the elements are taken with speed and there wasn’t any rattle or roughness at all.

With the weather being as nice as it was, we braved Dino Splash, the parks log flume attraction, themed to dinosaurs of course! This was a lovely ride too, the station was something seriously good to look at and the drops were forceful and the ride wasn’t too much of a soaker!

Super Splash on the other hand did give you a bit more of a sprinkling. It still didn’t soak you through like Tidal Wave would, but it was a great, fun ride that had a unique rotating lift hill before a great drop under a path, into an airtime hill before a large, impressive looking splash! As mentioned earlier, this was in the pirate themed area and had a little bit of theming to it, but not much!

The park also had an indoor area called Maya Land and is heavily themed to the parks mascot, Maya. She’s a bee, so a lot of the attractions are flower based and they look great! There are a good selection of rides aimed at a younger audience and its all themed in here. From the climbing frames, to the rides themselves, including a Zamperla Rockin’ Tug that has been made to look like a pile of logs. It looks so good, you’d not even realise its a ride at first!

At this point it was starting to get on a bit during the day so we headed to The Ride to Happiness for another ride, before heading into the shop for merchandise.

My first big criticism of the park, is the lack of any meaningful park related merchandise. There were some Ride to Happiness merchandise and Tomorrowland too, but that was about it. I managed a mug and a pin badge and that was it. Tracy did end up with a very cool Yahtzee Dice set that was part of the Ride to Happiness merchandise line which was something different at least!

Other than that, there was a lot of general kids toys and products related to Studio 100s IPs, the band’s I mentioned earlier and Peppa Pig for some reason!

The park itself is very well themed throughout and well looked after too. We didn’t see much in the way if damage or graffiti, or even heavy wear on the older rides too which added to the great day we had. Highlights for me were The Ride to Happiness, Super Splash and Anubis. Though The Forest of Plop was also a standout attraction (if the name in English is a little funny).

I look forward to seeing what Plopsaland does next, and I hope that on our next visit we can stay a bit longer, possibly in the hotel, and see what the water park, Plopsaqua, is like too!

Blog

Euro Road Trip 2023

Loops&Lapbars

This is going to be a very quick blog just to outline our first ever European Road Trip!

As I’m writing this I’m sat in Tracy’s front room eager to get on the road, but can’t as I’ll be far too early for our Euro Tunnel connection to Calais tomorrow! This will be our first step of course and something I’ve never done before but I’m looking forward to it!

After a good night sleep (hopefully) we’ll drive from Calais into Belgium for the very first park on our little trip, Plopsaland! I cannot wait to have a go on Ride to Happiness and see what my first foreign park will be like!

On Sunday we’ll be at Bobbejaanland and we’ve accidentally hit a home run here as their new attraction Terra Magna opens for its first day after an extensive retheme. There’s also Typhoon to look forward to which was the very first Euro fighter model and Fury, which is the one I’m after most from this park!

On Monday we’ll be at the majestic Efteling for 2 days, stopping on site in their Loonsche Land Hotel which is very exciting! We have seen that unfortunately Baron 1898 won’t be operating while we’re there which is quite a blow but we’ve still got a plethora of excellent attractions to look forward to, such as Python and Symbolica.

Wednesday is a day off and we’re looking at visiting Eindhoven for the day. We’re not sure exactly what’s planned, though Tracy really wants to do their IKEA!

Thursday will be Toverland, a park I don’t see talked about much but well received when it is! Fenix, Dwervel Wind and Troy stand out for me here but there’s probably even more that I haven’t seen yet!

Friday and Saturday will be at the mighty Phantasia Land with a stop in their Hotel Charles Lindbergh. There’s so much to look forward to here, Chapas, Taron, F.L.Y, and Talocan just to name a few!

Finally we’ll be stopping back at Walibi Belgium on the way back around. Kondaa, Pulsar and Psyke Underground are what I’ve picked out but as with the other parks, there will be so much more that I’ve overlooked!

The fun doesn’t stop there though as we’ll be getting back on the Euro Tunnel and heading to Legoland Windsor to stop on site and do a day in the park and a the final Wednesday we’ll be at Thorpe Park to try their Mardi Gras event this year. 2 days to cool down before the finale at Drayton Manor for an Attraction Source event which I can’t wait for either! If Your Experience Guides event is anything to go on, then this should be great too! Extended ride times on Shockwave and Maelstrom, Loki, Thor and Accelerator!

It’s going to be a long one, it’s going to fill hard rives with videos and photos and it’s going to hopefully make some bloody good memories!

Blog

2023 Season plans!

Loops&Lapbars

This is quite an exciting blog to write as we’ve somewhat finalised our plans for the coming year

This year, as I put down in my 2023 resolutions blog, we were hoping to get across to Europe and thanks to our latest bookings, we now shall be! I’ll go into a little detail later but to start our season, we’ll be at Blackpool Pleasure Beach! We only had 1 trip there last year so it’ll be nice to get back on Big One, Icon and celebrate Big Dippers centenary. We would have been going to Alton Towers for the opening weekend, however…

Next up will be Alton Towers in April for the Your Experience Guide (Pleasure Beach Experience) event. I’m very much looking forward to meeting like minded enthusiasts as well as getting a few rides on Wickerman before the park opens! I’ve never been to an enthusiast event so this will be my first and something I’m very much looking forward to.

Our big trip this will be in Europe as I mentioned earlier. We’ll be going in mid May and our route will take us to 6 different parks and will take us through 4 countries, starting in France, then Belgium, The Netherlands and finally Germany! Our intention will be to take the Eurotunnel across to France then stop the night before visiting Plopsaland De Panne for the first time. Next will be Bobbejaanland then onto Efteling for 2 days, stopping in the Holiday Village Efteling Loonsche Land.

Then we’ll have a day off to see the surroundings and then onto Toverland! Next stop will be Phantasia Land for 2 days, stopping in their Hotel Charles Lindbergh. Finally we’ll visit Walibi Belgium on the way back to the Euro Tunnel and the UK.

All in, we should have the chance to ride up to 42 new rollercoasters, as well as plenty of flat rides and other attractions.

Not only will we be visiting 6 new parks, seeing new sites, eating different food, but I’ll be driving the whole way too. I’m don’t know whether I’m more excited about the chance to drive new roads, seeing new things or the fact I’ll be doing it all with Tracy too.

Not only will we be making a grand tour of Europe, but we’ve also got annual passes for Drayton Manor this year. This is the first time I’ve ever held a park specific annual pass and it’ll supplement our Merlin annual passes too. We intend to visit Drayton Manor for their new events so the annual pass makes financial sense!

We’ll also be threading in visits to all the Thorpe Park events, not only to compare and contrast to last year, but as part of the competition being run by Thorpe Park to have a chance to be the first to ride Project Exodus when that opens! I won’t be able to visit every day as we live over 220 miles away, but you have to be in it to win it, so event visits will have to do!

In the autumn, we hope to make a final trip across to France to visit Disneyland Paris and Parc Asterix over Halloween as we’ve been to neither park and want to see both! We will definitely make a concerted effort to get to Fantasy Island for Fear Island again as that was a definite highlight of last year!

Finally, we’ll try to get back to Paultons, Chessington for the new Jumanji area as well as my home park, Flamingo Land, to see how Sik is settling in.

There’s so much to be excited for this year, from trying out Taron and F.L.Y, to Baron 1898, Troy, Fury and The Ride to Happiness! Along the way, I’ll be comparing these to their closest UK offerings, such as Icon being our closest thing to Taron etc. I also can’t wait to see all the themed areas, try out the food, trying to speak German and French again and just having an overall great time this year!

I will, of course, be doing blogs for each visit and possibly trying out video logging (Vlogging) for some, starting with the Alton Towers event in April!