Plopsaland de Panne is one of the premier amusement parks in Europe.
This well-themed park is located in Belgium and it has been wildly popular with families over
the past two decades due to its popular IPs, but recent additions such as the unanimously
praised Ride to Happiness have boosted the park’s appeal with thrill-seekers as well. Plopsaland
de Panne is a park that really impressed me and in this review, I will share why.
This park’s roots go all the way back to 1935. A honey company originally opened a bee-themed
park named Meli Park. The park started adding amusement rides in the 1970s and eventually
received upwards of 700,000 guests per season, but it was sold to Studio 100 in 1999. Studio
100 was a Flemish children’s television company and this would be their first amusement park.
The park was completely rethemed to Studio 100’s characters and intellectual properties.
So the park was rebranded as Plopsaland when it reopened for the 2000 season. Plopsa’s name was
derived from combining two of the brand’s most popular characters Kabouter Plop and Samson.
In 2005, the park’s name was expanded to Plopsland de Panne because Studio 100 wanted
to expand their offerings and differentiate their original park from their new properties.
Today, Plopsa Parks owns 8 different theme parks with 3 more on the way.
But Plopsaland de Panne is their flagship property.
Not only was it their first park, but it is the largest and it is a full-fledged resort.
While the theme park itself may not be as large as some of Europe’s premier parks,
Plopsaland de Panne features the Plopsa Hotel and the Plopsaqua indoor water park next door. While
I only visited the amusement park, the outward appearance of the hotel and water park looked
vibrant, matching the feel of the main park. You have this massive door at the main entrance
and then you’re greeted with colorful architecture, which
captures the vibe of a children’s television show. The park combines themed structures with
some natural beauty as well. The park looked gorgeous and the appearance blew me away.
I’ve only visited one other Plopsa Park in Holiday Park. This park had a very similar entrance area,
indoor area, and incorporation of greenery, but the theming was superior at Plopsaland.
I’m not sure how their other parks compare, but I’d love to know down in the comments.
The process of purchasing tickets for this park was a bit odd. You have the option to outright
buy a ticket for 42 Euros or you can “Name Your Own Price”. This was a weird feature where you
state how much of a discount you’d like. You have a sliding bar that ranges from 0.25 Euros to 14.50
Euros. Get too greedy and you won’t get one. The best discount I got last summer was 7.50 Euros.
But I think the pricing for this park in general is quite fair given their diverse ride lineup
and very nice appearance. Parking cost 12.50 Euros.
If you visit on a light attendance day or early, you can park near the main entrance. If you arrive
later like I did on a day when the park sells out, you may be parking across the street.
I visited in 2021, so I suspect there was an attendance cap, but the park did sell out.
I was worried how long the lines would be for the signature coasters, but the crowds
at this park were much different than I expected. Ride to Happiness had one of the shortest waits.
It was roughly a 20 minute wait most of the day and remember, the park sold out.
Anubis had was around a 20-30 minute wait as well. So where were the crowds? In line for
every single family ride. There’s a reason I did not get every coaster credit here.
The Roller Skater had a posted 70 minute wait and its line was overflowing onto the midway.
I caught Draak after a breakdown, but that powered coaster had a 45 minute wait most of the day.
The water rides had posted hour waits even though it was a cooler day with some rain.
And the Tractors antique car ride was posted at a 60 minute wait at one point.
The major coaster with the longest line is easily Heidi- the Ride.
This GCI had a 45-60 minute wait all-day since it appealed to both families and thrill-seekers
and also doesn’t have the best capacity with its 12 person trains. And a note on this ride too, due
to noise issues, Heidi has to close by 6 pm daily. The same thing happens with the Viktor’s Race
Zierer Tivoli coaster. The 6 pm closure is the last time they can cycle a train,
so the queue closes earlier depending on crowds. So you want to ride these early.
In fact, my advised touring strategy is to hit the family coasters first. I know it’s very
tempting as a coaster enthusiast to hit Ride to Happiness right away, but the smarter move from a
timing perspective is to knock out Roller Skater, Draak, Heidi the Ride, and the water rides first
if you want to ride all of those. I think the reason for this crowd distribution is
the age appeal of the Studio 100 properties. The shows are targeted for pre-schoolers to tweens.
While these shows don’t air in the US, they sound analogous to Nickelodeon.
While I was unfamiliar with the IPs, I was still able to appreciate the theming in this park
because it was done well. That is when you know a park is truly well-themed, when the theme
transcends you own familiarity with the property. But in recent years, the park has started
adding major thrill rides to appeal to a broader audience.
The 2021 season brought Ride to Happiness, which is one of the best and craziest coasters in the
world. This Mack xtreme spinning coaster features 2 launches, 5 or 6 inversions depending on your
perspective, and several ejector airtime hills. This layout and these elements are incredible
on their own, but they become otherworldly with the spinning element. And then you also have the
hypnotic theming to a music festival and a pulse-pounding EDM on-board soundtrack.
All of these elements make this ride special and I talk about it more in a separate review.
Anubis the Ride was the park’s first major thrill coaster. This Gerstlauer launch coaster features a
very intense LSM launch at the start and a short, but diverse layout. The initial top hat gives
some nice airtime and laterals. Then the dive loop and barrel roll are two great inversions.
The coaster is smooth, the layout is tucked among the trees, and the queue has some nice treasure
hunting theming. This is a solid coaster and I have a separate review going into more detail.
Heidi the Ride is the third and final major coaster.
This GCI wood coaster’s layout is a near-clone of White Lightning,
but this ride didn’t have the same power- at least based on my one ride. The ride felt just as fast,
but I only got 3-4 very weak pops of airtime. I did like the little dark ride scene on the turn
before the station, but I found it odd the block brake held you just before this scene
so you didn’t have a lot of time to appreciate the detail on the figures.
The remaining 3 coasters are of the family variety. You have Draak, Viktor’s Race,
and the K3 Roller Skater. These clearly were big hits among younger guests.
There is a potential seventh coaster. SuperSlash uses the Mack water coaster ride system,
but doesn’t have any twists or turns. It just has an elevator lift, one sizable drop,
and a bunny hill before the splashdown. The most interesting water ride here is
DinoSplash, the Mack log flume. This ride has a great atmosphere with the audio, trees, occasional
dino statue, and giant volcanoes. And the large double down drop at the end is a lot of fun.
Then you have a few other smaller water rides like the Wickie the Battle splash battle
and Mega Mindy Jet ski, which is one of those Zierer water whip style rides
most often seen at the Legoland parks. The most significant flat ride at this park
is Nachtwacht-Flyer, which is a 230 foot or 70 meter tall Funtime star flyer that gives great
views of the park and surrounding area. It is easily the park’s tallest attraction. The rest of
the flat ride collection at this park definitely skews more on the children’s and family side,
as this park has a few different kiddie sections. All of these areas are colorful. The most notable
may be the Mayaland Indoor section towards the front of the park. This area can actually function
independent of the rest of the park in the winter months. Then you have a few outdoor ones as well.
Then there are some transportation rides peppered throughout the park taking you
past the park’s natural beauty. And last but not least, you currently have one dark ride
in Bos van Plop or Plop’s Woods, which is a slow but charming dark ride through a forest of gnomes.
This ride had a lengthy posted wait all day, but it was a total walk-on when I rode it.
And the park is currently working on a second dark ride in Circus Bamba, which will only
help the park’s already solid ride lineup. I focused on the rides during my visit, so I
didn’t see any of the park’s shows nor did I try any of their food, so I can’t comment on either.
So do I recommend Plopsaland de Panne? Without a doubt. This park offers something
for everyone. Ride to Happiness should be on every thrill-seeker’s bucket list
and I believe this ride will lead to a spike in coaster enthusiasts coming here in recent seasons.
But the park’s best niche is still for families and kids.
It’s clear the Studio 100 IPs are wildly popular and this park brings those properties to life
through a variety of fun and colorful areas. This park is pleasant to walk-around for all ages
because of how nice it looks and I look forward to visiting more Plopsa parks in the future
if they have a similar aesthetic. So those are my thoughts on Plopsaland de Panne
in Belgium. What are your thoughts on this theme park? Let me know your thoughts about the park
itself or any of the rides down below. 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!