Ride to Happiness at Plopsaland de Panne is the second Mack Xtreme Spinning Coaster.
Their first was Time Traveler at Silver Dollar City,
which opened in 2018 to rave reviews. But Ride to Happiness is on a completely different level. This
coaster unlocks the full potential of the model and delivers a far more intense ride experience.
You have more spinning, more inversions, and more airtime. This coaster blew me away
and I’ll discuss why in this review of the Ride to Happiness.
Plopsaland de Panne is the flagship park owned and operated by Plopsa. The park is located
in the heart of Adinkerke, Belgium and had a modest coaster lineup before Ride to Happiness
opened. Ever since Time Traveler opened, people have anxiously awaited where the next Mack Xtreme
spinner would go. But few people guessed it would go to Plospaland de Panne, a park whose
main clientele is families. Ride to Happiness is one of the wildest coasters I have ridden
and it was clear Plopsaland wanted to expand their ride lineup to attract more thrill-seekers.
But did their 15 million Euro investment pay off? I visited Plopsaland on a summer Saturday shortly
after the coaster opened. The park hit capacity that day and many of the family rides such as
Heidi the Ride, SuperSplash, Dino Splash, and even the Roller Skater were pulling hour waits.
Meanwhile, Ride to Happiness had no more than a 20 minute wait most of the day. Part of that is
the fact this coaster has a higher capacity than the park’s prior coasters. But I think
a lot of park guests were a bit intimidated by the ride. It seemed like more people were
watching this crazy coaster in awe rather than riding it as I made my way around the park.
However, everyone who came off Ride to Happiness were laughing uncontrollably. Including myself.
Ride to Happiness is located in the center of Plopsaland,
so you get a ton of different vantage points of the coaster as you make your way around the park.
There are two main sections of the ride. The first half is nestled against the water
while the second half is where the ride’s entry plaza is. And the coaster looks astounding at
night with the lights in both the station and the ones embedded on the trains themselves.
While the coaster was announced back in 2019, the ride’s official name and theme was not revealed
until early 2021. The coaster would be named Ride to Happiness and themed to Tomorrowland, the EDM
music festival held annually in Belgium. It was a quirky theme for a coaster, but Plopsaland went
all out and it really heightens the experience. The queue line and station have this futuristic
steampunk vibe. There are two indoor sections of the queue line with things to look at,
although the first section of this queue was never filled on the day I visited.
And then when you reach the station, you have this dazzling robotic woman on a screen above you.
Her voice is almost hypnotic, especially as she recites the ride’s tagline over and over-
Live Today, Love Tomorrow, Unite Forever. And the other aspect that really heightens
the experience is the ride’s soundtrack. You have a mesmerizing loop in the queue line and station,
but the on-board audio is what really shines. You have this amazing EDM music synchronized perfectly
to the ride’s elements. It increases in tempo as the coaster navigates its craziest elements,
which increases the sense of speed and thrill factor since it gets your adrenaline pumping.
Ride to Happiness runs two trains, each seating 16 riders across 4 cars. The trains are near
identical to the ones on Time Traveler both from an aesthetic and functional standpoint.
The trains look great and have a futuristic feel to them.
The restraints are the familiar Mack lap bars that are super comfortable. These are lowered
and checked automatically with the press of a button, similar to how its done on Time Traveler.
However, there is one key difference with the ones on Ride to Happiness. For years,
enthusiasts have criticized Mack restraints for continuously lowering throughout the coaster.
I’m pleased to share that Ride to Happiness’s restraints lock immediately before you’re
dispatched, so they won’t come down further during the coaster’s high G segments. This makes it a
little easier to appreciate this coaster’s airtime in full and there’s a lot of it.
Ride to Happiness dispatched trains fairly quickly, which helped keep the line moving.
The only thing that slowed down dispatches and ultimately caused a long line later in the day
was the coaster’s propensity for breaking down. Maybe Ride to Happiness was just having a bad day,
but it would go down for 5-10 minutes seemingly every hour. It seemed to be something with
the restraints throwing faults on one of the trains. Time Traveler runs super consistently,
so hopefully these bugs can be worked out in the future.
In terms of seat selection, I liked the back car best. I thought this car had better hangtime on
the inversions and the drop off the top hat is insane back there. The other rows are excellent
too though, which is a stark contrast to Time Traveler where the coaster suffers
mightily if you aren’t in the back car. One factor that can really influences
your ride is how the cars are loaded. Ride to Happiness spins much faster than Time Traveler.
It still doesn’t spin quite as fast as the smaller Mack spinners, but it’s somewhere in
between which is an incredible rate to spin at considering the elements this coaster offers.
This spinning kept Ride to Happiness fresh and gave the coaster a ton of reride value.
Once dispatched, you immediately navigate this super slow heartline roll out of the station.
I love that more coasters are incorporating jojo rolls because it’s a funky and fun way to start
a ride. And the one to Ride to Happiness is unbelievable. I think this element has the
most sustained hangtime of any coaster element in the world. Not only does it offer roughly
5 seconds of sustained hangtime, but you’re also rotating through the element. Who ever would have
thought an element taken at speeds less than 5 mph could be so thrilling and disorienting!
You then come to a stop on the launch track…well sort of. The train physically
stops moving forwards, but your vehicle will continue to rotate. After a 5 second pause, you
launch forwards with absolutely no warning. The launch doesn’t have a high rate of acceleration.
It’s about on par with the other Mack launches out there.
However, it’s ultimately an intense launch because of how much you spin during it.
Getting centripetal force while accelerating forwards is a funky feeling.
You spin at a pretty good clip at the start of the launch, but halfway down the launch track
the vehicle starts spinning like a tea cup. Since the trains did this consistently each ride,
I suspect there must be some sort of magnetic actuator to cause this. Whatever causes it,
I’m certainly not complaining because it produced some wild whip.
You then ascend the ride’s top hat, reaching your maximum height of 108 feet
or 33 meters. The apex of this top hat is super sharp, so those up front get a very strong pop
of ejector airtime ascending this element. Even those in the back get some weak floater airtime.
Unlike most top hats that go straight up and down, the ascent and descent on this one is broken up by
this funky outer banked turn. This not only gives you an extra few seconds to appreciate the great
view of the park, but those up front also get some lateral hangtime from how slowly you traverse this
turn. But the most important thing this turn does is get your vehicle spinning going into the drop.
And this drop is amazing. If you’ve ridden Time Traveler, this drop feels similar. I couldn’t
find an exact drop angle, but the drop looks and feels vertical. If you’re in the back car, you get
violently launched towards the sky. And the music increases in tempo as you’re ejected from your
seat. The timing is perfect. Odds are you will be rotating during the drop, which makes the super
strong ejector airtime feel even crazier. This is easily one of the best drops in the world.
The pullout offers some good positive Gs and then you navigate a banana roll.
Those up front maintain the positive Gs into the element while those in the back instead get
good hangtime on the flip itself. This element messed with my mind. Off-ride, the banana roll
looks nothing like a vertical loop. But on-ride, it felt like a vertical loop since
your vehicle spins at the apex of the inversion. After another forceful valley, you go through an
actual vertical loop. This one is taken a bit slower than the one on Time Traveler
and offers better hangtime. You get a little bit of hangtime up front and more towards the
back. And you will of course be spinning which makes that hangtime feel even more extreme.
After some more positive Gs on the pullout, you zip through this zero-G roll. Your vehicle spins
like a top at the apex of the inversion, which will completely throw off all sense of direction.
And at the same time, you get some great hangtime.
You then whiz over this banked turn over the water, getting some decent G,
before crawling over this S-hill. Ride to Happiness has near perfect pacing, but this is
the one element that feels wasted. It’s the only time those in the back can catch their breath.
It offers no laterals, airtime, or forces in the back cars. Up front, it does offer some very weak
floater airtime up front at least, but it’s still the weakest element on the ride by a longshot.
But Ride to Happiness picks things up with the second launch.
This launch has ok power to it, but there are two things that elevate it. First, is the spinning
like the first launch. You don’t get a surprise spin boost halfway down the launch on this one,
but you still will be getting some centripetal force from the rotation. Second, like the second
launch on Copperhead Strike, this launch has a bunny hill halfway through it. And this hump gives
good floater airtime throughout the train. Then comes the best inversion on the ride,
the flying snake dive. At the apex, the first barrel roll quickly inverts you and gives you
an upside down pop of airtime. And then you stay levitated out of your seat as Ride to Happiness
slowly navigates the twisting dive loop. You get a good 3-4 seconds of hangtime on this element.
And this is also one of the most disorienting elements in the world. Storm Runner’s flying
snake dive is famous for messing with your sense of direction and Ride to Happiness goes one step
further by spinning through the same element. I had no clue where I was going on my first ride.
You then fly over this camelback, which gives good sustained floater airtime
throughout the train. This element looked sort of slow off-ride, as it did the coaster’s finale,
but it felt way faster on-ride and the airtime certainly wasn’t lacking.
You are then whipped around this low overbank and line yourself up for a great finale, a double up.
Both humps on this element offer wild ejector pops, especially because the odds are in your
favor that you’ll experience one or both of them in an odd orientation- whether it be sideways
or backwards. I have long said getting sideways or backwards airtime is one of the best feelings of
any coaster, especially when it’s as strong as the airtime is on Ride to Happiness.
You then hit the brake run. And after my first ride, I was speechless.
Because of how quickly Ride to Happiness spun, I had no way to anticipate the ride’s elements.
I was laughing hysterically as the coaster spun like a top while also flinging me from my seat
again and again. After a few rides, I was able to predict the ride’s elements a bit better,
but that didn’t make them any less enjoyable. Last but not least, I want to touch on the
ride’s smoothness. Some Macks can have a rattle to them, but Ride to Happiness is extremely smooth.
This fact combined with the ride’s wild and unpredictable
layout kept getting me back in line. So what would I rate the Ride to Happiness?
This coaster easily gets a perfect 10 out of 10. I rode 116 different roller coasters on my most
recent European roadtrip and Ride to Happiness was the clear number one. Further, this may be
my new favorite roller coaster although I’m still debating that part. Ride to Happiness offers an
experience no other coaster can currently match. While Time Traveler is the same ride model,
that coaster doesn’t have the relentless layout like Ride to Happiness. Outside of that one
aforementioned S-hill, every single element on Ride to Happiness is top-notch. The jojo roll, top
hat, zero-G roll, flying snake dive, and double up are 5 of the best elements on any roller coaster.
Those elements would be great on their own, but add in the fact you spin at a good clip for much
of the ride, and you have a truly unpredictable and out-of-control ride experience. And you
also have arguably the best on-board soundtrack ever on a roller coaster as icing on the cake.
Ride to Happiness should be on every thrill seekers bucket list
and I can’t wait to see Mack build more of these. So those are my thoughts on Ride to Happiness,
the incredible xtreme spinning coaster at Plopsaland de Panne. What are your
thoughts on this coaster? Do you think it has a case as the world’s best coaster?
I would love to hear your thoughts down in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d
appreciate it if you gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a
lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!