Plopsaland Belgium: General Discussion

[Bowser]

Plopsaland have had their best year yet:

According to the company, it achieved a 15 percent increase in turnover last year and welcomed more than 1.3 million guests to Plopsaland Park alone. The Plopsaqua water park welcomed some 270,000 guests.

Plopsaland Resort Reports Record Year 2024 - EuroAmusement Professional

www.eap-magazin.de

 

[Bowser]

Burger King have applied for a permit to build a branch directly outside the park! Perhaps they should do that at some of our UK parks...

Burger King voor de deur van Plopsaland? Vergunning aangevraagd voor fastfoodrestaurant

Komt er een vestiging van Burger King voor de deur van Plopsaland De Panne? Daar heeft het alle schijn van. De firma Burger Brands Belgium, die in...

www.looopings.nl

 

[Bowser]

How is Ride to Happiness at operating in inclement weather? Don’t have much faith in 10 day forecasts but as it stands it’s looking rather… wet.

 

[Matt N]

I'll admit I don't have experience with Plopsaland, but I can't imagine rain alone would close a ride.

From my experience, it's only storms that would normally close a ride, so the only place where rain normally equals closed rides is Florida, where rain is normally followed by a storm.

 

[Bowser]

I'll admit I don't have experience with Plopsaland, but I can't imagine rain alone would close a ride.

From my experience, it's only storms that would normally close a ride, so the only place where rain normally equals closed rides is Florida, where rain is normally followed by a storm.

Well i've experienced rain closing rides at Alton Towers for example so there is precedent.

Seems like wind and cold are more problematic:

From: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters/comments/1bzq0ei/when_you_come_all_the_way_to_belgium_for_ride_to/


Doesn't appear to be particularly windy in said forecast so hopefully fine but we have to cancel within a certain period so i'm getting paranoid, especially as Plopsaland isn't a particularly well cater for park if it's raining all day. Bowser Jr loves the water park at least so wouldn't be a complete disaster.

 

[golgactic]

If it’s really, really heavy they will close it (along with a lot of other rides) but light rain is fine based on my experience on a cold December weekday.

 

[Bowser]

Hmm, the weather forecast seems to be getting worse, with our main day (next Tuesday) having gusts up to 39mph, which i presume will be extremely problematic.

Not sure how to proceed. Dragon is closed for scheduled maintenance that day so that only leaves Anubis and Heidi which my son will want to ride. I don't know how they will fare in this weather either, or how enthusiastic the park will be about getting rides operating. On top of all this, park hours are only 9-4pm.

I think i'm allowed to change our booking but chasing the weather is a dangerous game. That being said, 3 consecutive poor days in May seems particularly unlucky. I'm aware the ride had some wind related incidents following a stall after opening but not sure what it has been like since.

Edit: Just wondering if there's anywhere else we can drive as a back up? Annoyingly both Walibi and Bellewaerde are closed that week.

 

[Electric Elly]

The rides are quite sensitive to winds at Plopsa. I can't find exact speeds, but they've been known to close RtH and Anubis when it's been considered "light winds"- but will re open them if they can.

Just a heads up if you're going to change the date on your ticket, despite it stating that you can I couldn't find any way to do this myself even when they had links that supposedly led you straight to it. Their customer support and contact us is dreadful, as I reached out to them asking if they could do it for me (the day I went had train strikes- spoiler, it was fine and everything ran no problem) and never got a response. This was last month!

Bobbejaanland could be another back up option if you want to swap park for park, that's down Antwerp way (unsure how far you'll be driving).

 

[Bowser]

The rides are quite sensitive to winds at Plopsa. I can't find exact speeds, but they've been known to close RtH and Anubis when it's been considered "light winds"- but will re open them if they can.

Just a heads up if you're going to change the date on your ticket, despite it stating that you can I couldn't find any way to do this myself even when they had links that supposedly led you straight to it. Their customer support and contact us is dreadful, as I reached out to them asking if they could do it for me (the day I went had train strikes- spoiler, it was fine and everything ran no problem) and never got a response. This was last month!

Bobbejaanland could be another back up option if you want to swap park for park, that's down Antwerp way (unsure how far you'll be driving).

Alas Bobbejaanland is also closed!

My customer service experience has been good so far as I had a few questions re accessibility. I e asked about date changes and wind tolerance so will see if they are as forthcoming!

 

[Rob F]

Park asterix?

 

[Bowser]

Park asterix?

Bit far unfortunately.

 

[Benzin]

Just go to Bruges if all else fails. Its like a fairytale and the Historama attraction thing is pretty fab too.

 

[Bowser]

Just go to Bruges if all else fails. Its like a fairytale and the Historama attraction thing is pretty fab too.

Thanks. Don’t think that will quite be Bowser Jrs vibe however.

If at least Heidi or Anubis are open it’ll be salvageable, don’t know if they have a better tolerance. My concern is the park is predicted to be empty those days so they’ll have even less incentive to get things open!

 

[Bowser]

Sorry to hijack the thread again but there’s no way to see in real time if rides are operating is there? I have the app but I don’t think it’s ever worked (eg all rides are currently shown as open at 8am) and thus the QueueTime sites don’t show correctly either.

Only ask because the weekend weather looks similar now so would give the most accurate reflection.

And as a side note, do any parks openly show wind tolerances for rides? The only one I know of is Thorpe Park which shows them on the app.

 

[RicketyCricket]

Sorry to hijack the thread again but there’s no way to see in real time if rides are operating is there? I have the app but I don’t think it’s ever worked (eg all rides are currently shown as open at 8am) and thus the QueueTime sites don’t show correctly either.

Only ask because the weekend weather looks similar now so would give the most accurate reflection.

And as a side note, do any parks openly show wind tolerances for rides? The only one I know of is Thorpe Park which shows them on the app.

You could search the relevant # on Instagram or twitter and see if any users are there live.

 

[Electric Elly]

Sorry to hijack the thread again but there’s no way to see in real time if rides are operating is there? I have the app but I don’t think it’s ever worked (eg all rides are currently shown as open at 8am) and thus the QueueTime sites don’t show correctly either.

Only ask because the weekend weather looks similar now so would give the most accurate reflection.

And as a side note, do any parks openly show wind tolerances for rides? The only one I know of is Thorpe Park which shows them on the app.

I find waitingtimes more accurate to use than QueueTimes. Currently all rides are open.

Plopsaland De Panne waiting times LIVE | Waitingtimes.APP

Experience Plopsaland De Panne (BE) live: Real-time waiting times or queue times, attractions, stats & weather data to plan your day perfectly. Never miss a thing!

www.waitingtimes.app

If a ride is shown with a cloud or snowflake, then it's down for weather. If it's shown with a wrench, it's maintenance.

Plopsa's app is currently working for me, RtH is open and on 5 minutes. It's just not a clear app.

 

[Bowser]

I find waitingtimes more accurate to use than QueueTimes. Currently all rides are open.

Plopsaland De Panne waiting times LIVE | Waitingtimes.APP

Experience Plopsaland De Panne (BE) live: Real-time waiting times or queue times, attractions, stats & weather data to plan your day perfectly. Never miss a thing!

www.waitingtimes.app

If a ride is shown with a cloud or snowflake, then it's down for weather. If it's shown with a wrench, it's maintenance.

Plopsa's app is currently working for me, RtH is open and on 5 minutes. It's just not a clear app.

Thank you. Only thing is they conflict. For example the app has NachtFlyer as closed whereas the website lists a 5 minute queue at time of writing so hard to know if either are correct.

I do remember on our visit the app had absolutely no reflection of real queue times. And where else would the site be scraping the data?

Still, all the coasters are open on both so hopefully that’s some kind of positive indication!

 

[IDB]

I’ve been there today. The park was empty. Every ride was either walk-on, or wait for the next ride. If it’s anything like today you won’t even need the app.

 

[Bowser]

I’ve been there today. The park was empty. Every ride was either walk-on, or wait for the next ride. If it’s anything like today you won’t even need the app.

Yeah not worried about crowds, it's predicted to be completely empty as it's not half term in Belgium, just wanted the app to see if the rides are operating.

The forecast has changed now so the weekend looks worse than the following days, so i guess i'll have my answer (though the park is closed for a private event Saturday so the app might be turned off).

Oh @Electric Elly they did reply to me, though they wouldn't specify any wind tolerances, just that "rides may close briefly in high winds or thunderstorms".


Me on Sunday....

 

[IDB]

The queue times were turned on for last weeks private event and were very high. Most rides do open at 10am. NachtFlyer opened at noon.