Plopsaland De Panne is a Belgian theme park a short drive from the French Border and Calais, which makes it ideal for visiting by Car via the Eurotunnel. The theme park is owned by the Plopsa group which operate several theme parks and waterparks including Holiday Park in Germany – see 2021 review here: Holiday Park Germany 2021 Review – Thrill Nation

Plopsaland De Panne has a big variety of rides including 3 water attractions, an indoor children’s land and 6 rollercoasters… The Ride to Happiness is the newest attraction at the park and is certainly their best!

Other Rollercoasters

Anubis is a Gerstlauer launched rollercoaster which has a seriously impressive acceleration sensation, the layout also includes some airtime and several inversions. Viktors race is a classic zierer family coaster featuring plenty of twists and turns. K3 Roller Skater by Vekoma is a little more thrilling featuring a bigger drop than Viktors Race, and was recently rethemed to a popular music band ‘K3’. Draak is the Mack powered rollercoaster with a great castle themed station building, the ride also interacts with the nearby Dino Splash ride. The Big Wave is arguably a rollercoaster, this fantastically themed Disk’o coaster includes the middle hump for the extended layout whilst spinning throughout. Heide the ride is the parks wooden rollercoaster by GCI and features a quick and fun layout, snaking along the edge of the park.

Halloween Scare Nights

We visited during the parks Halloween event in 2021 which sees the park open til late, and has additional scare attractions which are included in the ticket. The park was busy and the attractions were only open for the last 3-4 hours of park opening. They gained large queues, so unfortunately we were only able to experience one of the three maze attractions, as well as experiencing the scare zone. The 3 maze attractions were Freak Circus, The Tunnel & Camping ‘t Zonnetje. Freak Circus was a well themed clown themed indoor maze, with plenty of surprise jump scares involving distractions and multiple actors, we did find the batching to be in small groups, but still caught up which detracted from the ending scene which had great potential. Lumberjack was the scare zone which takes over a small woodland pathway, the area was filled with strobe lights and a pumping soundtrack which heightened the senses during actor interactions. The late night events was a great chance for rides in the dark, and we also really enjoyed the atmosphere of the DJ party outside The Ride To Happiness!

Winter Magic

Winter Magic is the name of the park’s Christmas event, we visited for this event a couple of years ago, and it does seem to have been scaled back a little with shorter opening hours and the lack of a firework display this season, but understandable during COVID uncertainty. The park is decorated with plenty of lights and trees to give the festive feel, we particularly liked the multi-coloured lighting used on and around Heide The Ride; It was an excellent opportunity to get some night rides in the park for the last hour of darkness. There is a small Winter Magic lantern trail in the corner of the park which comes alive at night. The park is definitely worth visiting during this event as almost every attraction is open (weather dependent), and you get the additional theming, lights and chance of night rides. From the 25th December there is an extra addition to the winter event – “When night falls, magical figures transform the Mayaland façade into a fairy-tale setting for the unforgettable Luminaria show. Let yourself be enchanted by a winter story full of video mapping, music, lights and special effects.”