Benelux Long Weekend (Part 4, Plopsaland)

[jayjay]

Another year, another trip report. I'd been craving a return to coasters for a while, so decided on a long weekend in April. The plan:

Day 1 - Efteling
Day 2 - Duinrell/Drievliet
Day 3 - Belgian tourism
Day 4 - Plopsaland

Day 0/Day 1 - Efteling (In Which jayjay Regresses to a Childlike State)

The plan was motivated by a few things. Firstly, as I occasionally mention, I like trains, and Eurostar just started running trains to The Netherlands. Off to St Pancras then...

Sir John Betjeman is personally shocked that this report starts on a train

Rotterdam acts as a nice base for doing The Netherlands, so I arrived around 10pm to go and find my hostel. Hostels can be hit and miss. Room Rotterdam wasn't bad in itself, but I got hampered with some roomies who wanted to barge in at 1am, and another who snored. A lot. When I run a hostel, snorers get discounts on private rooms.

The Blijdorp room was also themed specifically to the Madagascar films and atrocious attempts at humour. "We can sleep in the Blijdorp room" - I have alternative opinions

Another motivation for my visit was Efteling. I've been to Efteling on the 2016 live and came away feeling luke-warm. What changed in the meantime was listening to the soundtracks on loop and oh my god I've fallen in love with them (let's just say there's a piano rendition of Flying Dutchman in progress).

Getting to Efteling is easy enough. Get a couple of short train hops to Tilburg, then a bus to Efteling.

Efteling!

Symbolica's pre-opening queue was tiny, so made my way in as the second single-rider of the day.

Obligatory castle shot

Time to get excited!

Oh boy, Symbolica! I don't know what part of me it opened up, but the first ride was magic! The music is perfect, the reveals are perfect (opening stairs, spinning into the panorama balcony), the sets are so detailed and immersive. I didn't get to use the interactive bits on the first try, but I was perfectly happy to sit back and take everything in. Favourite dark ride at Efteling, hands down!

Rather than throw myself at the thrill rides, I looped around hoovering up some of the gentler options first. Droomvlucht still has some great scenes, and the music elevates it considerably. Unfortunately, I'd just ridden Symbolica. I didn't get the "whoa" factor with the planets scene like last time.

Villa Volta: still great! Still don't understand Dutch! Still prefer Hex (but only just)

Always thought the Rok looked a little bemused/suspicious

Vogel Rok next. Knowing the music actually gives and takes a little. On the one hand, the swoopiness with the wind rushing past pairs well with internally screaming "Dah, da DAAAA," but on the other hand, I never realised how badly synced the music is. You're practically on the brake run when the exciting bit fires up. Ticked off Carnival Festival too, because I needed a laugh. Christ, the buckteeth.

The vintage cars are moderately fun too. Don't film and drive, kids

Thrill stuff now! First option: Flying Dutchman. It broke down.

SPITE!

Second option: Baron 1898 where I remembered how good the pre-show, the music and all that was. And then the coaster is just ok.

Baron - 7/10

Ding Ding

Quick blast over to Fata Morgana. I'm definitely doing the dark rides in reverse-order of goodness.

Snaaakee eyeeeees

I'd also recommend the indoor steam carousel, with proper fairground organ to boot.

Yeah, I went for the nerd shot

Take two of Flying Dutchman was successful. Half hour queue (on a non-holiday weekday in April) but at least it's the best queue to wait in. I wouldn't shock anybody by saying the indoor bit is atmospheric and tense, and the outdoor bit is gross.

My opinions are boring and predictable... just like the outdoor section

Kinda secret terrace bit

Of the other coasters, Joris en de Draak is still pacey and fun, but not a stand out for me. Bob is still weirdly terrifying.

And finally, as the day was drawing to a close, Python's queue was vanishing. Holy crap, you actually can polish a turd. Congratulations to whoever thought this idea, Python is now... OK. It's fine.

You're fine, this is fine

A few rerides of various things later, and that's the day! So, Efteling somehow leapt from lukewarm-decent to ERMAGERD I LOVE IT in two years. The day was mostly without its problems, except for that part where Flying Dutchman broke down, and also that the Stroopwafel hut was closed.

NOOOOO I want my stroopwafel!

Casually spotted an Efteling employee on the train

Episode two next, in which too many coasters are brown.

 

[vaugc002]

Yeah me and @Climb went for the back seat on Python expecting to endure pain but it was really pretty smooth. Shame it's so bland in all other regards.
Looking forward to reading the next few days reports - some lesser-visited parks coming up eh!

 

[jayjay]

Day 2 - Duinrell and Drievliet (In Which parks begin with D and coasters are brown)

The Hague is practically next to Rotterdam, so prompted a less frantically early start. Two parks today: Drievliet and Duinrell.

Expectations ran low as I hopped from Delft station via a tram and a walk to 's-Gravenmade. The reputation is possibly overshadowed by all my friends having visited after a Phantasialand and Efteling double whammy, but I stayed positive. First omen: though I knew beforehand, the industrial nature of the area was jarring.

This bodes well

Going in its favour, the April heatwave was in full force brightening the place up. There's no better day to be at a naff park than when the weather's trying to lift the spirits (particularly damning for Schwaben and Skyline, which both had glorious sun). Thankfully, a bright sunny Saturday was not bringing out guests in droves.

Given how much the Dutch ride to places, this is a good sign

Bought my ticket, entered the park, and... you know, I'll be controversial. The park is OK... not great, but just OK. The park is clearly operating on a tiny budget, and it's a small place. Other than that, it's reasonably well kept and has various trees and cartoony flourishes. I feel mis-sold

There's only a couple of creds worth really talking about. Obvious thrill ride Formule X is obvious, so I get it out of the way. This is admittedly one corner of the park without much ambience.

Ah Maurer, how I missed your weird uncomfortable restraints

I had two rides on FX during the day. The first ride was a little rattly but generally fun. The second suffered a major pinning by the ride-op and then it all went wrong and gross. This is why you try to leave on a high, folks.

Such a shame, you were so close

The other notable coaster is Twistrix. It's an unassuming little thing. A kiddie coaster layout, but with free spinning trains, and my god, it spins!

I love a surprise

Seeing as how everything was getting completed rapidly, I stayed around for the monorail and the ghost train. I know everything's on a budget, but the ghost train was a special kind of cheap. The scares mostly amounted to one movement and one lighting effect.

The Sixth Cent

Sadly, Kopermijn didn't open until 1pm, and frankly, waiting in a tiny park for hours for a wild mouse was not my idea of a good time. Cred ditched, I headed Duinrellwards.

I'm actually cheating and this transitional placeholder was taken before Drievliet

A brief note: I love The Netherland's chipcard system. I used trains, trams and buses on Saturday, each with a chipcard reader telling you how much you're spending. It takes a lot of stress out of worrying what kind of tickets you need for each leg of the journey. Just tap in/out and look as that number dwindles and you realise you forgot to work out how much to budget for general transport.

We start with the notes: 'tasteful' and 'understated'

At Duinrell, the forest closes in on all sides and I realise this is going to be a stark contrast to Drievliet. My first impression was peace and tranquillity. In hindsight, I don't remember much in the way of music, except the strange mix of tracks on Falcon's exit path (Trouble by Coldplay is definitively not theme park music). Let's explore!

This is like Oakwood's Waterfall but without the water trough of doom. So what is the point, really?

The park's a strange sprawling layout where you're almost unsure it's got any creds until you find the one path to the main area. Speaking about creds, let's talk about them. Specifically, let's talk about how they're all ****ing brown!

Every...

Single...

One...

As they go, they're a mix. The kiddie cred is your standard rumblebum, but with a nice long layout. Dragon Fly (specifically two words), the sit down coaster, packs a surprising amount of pace towards the end of the layout. Falcon, the Eurofighter, is about average as Eurofighters go. Rough in places, but good fun on anywhere it doesn't have to turn.

Being a small park, so there's plenty of time to take all their offerings at a leisurely pace. Especially so, since this place was also quiet on a sunny Saturday - biggest queue for the kiddie coaster was two trains. The Sky Flies are always a laugh and an opportunity to hone the technique.

Read 'hone technique' as 'get violently dizzy'

The covered water chute, Splash, is a must for the novelty. Not entirely sure how much I trusted the plastic head-holes on the non-covered boat, so opted for the covered boat. You seldom get the opportunity to realise how odd covered cars are on rides.

Can't complain that the ride name isn't truth in advertising

And the covered boat

And of course, we never pass up the opportunity for a good bobsled.

This seems like the sort of park which, pleasant on your own, would light up a little more with a group of CFers. It's got a ton of fun things dotted around the place not unlike Toverland. There's not enough for me to want to come back for repeat visits soon, but it's got that peaceful woodland vibe that makes it worth at least one visit.

Being quite a short day so far, this seemed like the best time to see some of Rotterdam. It's mostly garnered a reputation as being a very modern city. Your best bet is to head to Rotterdam Blaak station and get out here, where you find most of the exciting buildings. For example, the foodcourt is insane...

I bought some noodles but there's loads of stuff here

In general, Rotterdam's approach to architecture seems to be "**** convention!"

The famous Cubes - an architectural forest where you live in the trees

What this station needs is half a wall

Duinrell and Drievliet wouldn't be my first choice of parks in the Netherlands, but they're certainly worth ticking off if you're in the area and have space in your schedule.

In day 3, we take a break from coasters to go exploring Belgium... only for coasters to come and find me.

 

[jayjay]

Day 3 - Brussels and Bruges (In Which A Trip Report Appears Out of Nowhere)

Short report today. Sunday started on a very early train out of Rotterdam to Brussels. While we're at it, Rotterdam's ridiculous modern architecture extends to its station. I love it.

Centraaaaaal

Thalys do the international services to Belgium and France, and I managed to nab a "comfort" class ticket while they were still cheap. I spent the hour and a half hogging their wifi doing my set of write-ups for the Music Swap Topic (@mouse, I've listened to Thundercat now, and the whole album's great, I love it!)

This is in Brussels south station. The more you look, the more it gets worse

I've never been massively enthusiastic about sightseeing in Brussels, but I did feel like checking out the Atomium to say I'd "done it" (and because science or something). And at the same time, ticking off another Metro cred.

Metro cred! Brussels has a lot of stations with their own characteristic, which I'm always a fan of

I swear I was supposed to be smiling in this picture

Main square

Obligatory picture of people taking a picture of the smallest famous statue in the world because it's taking a piss

Main tourist spots covered, so was time to...

I moved onwards to the main order of the day - Bruges. My only regret is that I haven't watched the movie "In Bruges", so there's a ton of jokes I can't make.

Err... you're an inanimate ****ing object?

My opinion of Bruges might be tinged by the fact that I was mildly sleep deprived (another snorer arrived in the hostel, yay) and doing constant walking with a rucksack. It's definitely pretty and has a huge range of traditional, historic architecture. For example...

Quiet sidestreets is more my style

Jan van Eyck - he's the guy who painted pictures where all the women look like Putin

But the more you walk around, the more it feels like the whole place only exists for tourists. Like, I know people live here. Lots of people. But the crowds overwhelm, and every shop starts to look like some kind of tourist trap. I dunno, it's a good place, but maybe I'd need to visit in the off season for a better result.

That said, since I was a tourist, I took the opportunity to have a sit down and regain some kind of plan by taking a boat tour.

This guy has to give a live tour in three different languages

So, at this point, I'd tired myself out and wanted to head home... but suddenly I spotted a booster in the distance. Upon further inspection: CREDS!

Naff travelling mouse cred, but a +1 is a +1

Yep, turns out a fair rocked up just as I was travelling through. Some people might know of Bedouijn Sea Park which has a +1 near the centre of Bruges, but I wasn't up for walking out to, then paying twenty euros for a +1 and sad dolphins. But the metaphorical light switched back on when I saw the coasters. Screw history, this is what I'm here for. The other one was a tiny kiddie cred, and shame be damned, that thing was mine.

Elliott Family Roller Coaster!

Something familiar about Elliott

So yeah, on a better day, I might be more charitable about Bruges. It's a very picturesque place and I'd recommend it if it's your kind of thing but I have a low tolerance for places with lots of tourists (Cambridge probably did it in for me).

I stopped the night over in Ostend, on the Belgian coast.

This beach could be anywhere, but it was taken at Ostend, on the Belgian coast

Not much to say about Ostend, except it exists and is probably busier as a beach destination in summer. The Belgian hostel chain "Jeugdherberg" has a site here, and if you're here in the low season, it's worth booking a dorm, as I got a four-bed dorm all to myself. Winning!

Next report: we find new entries in the top 20.

 

[Hixee]

Enjoying reading this! Keep it up.

 

[jayjay]

Enjoying reading this! Keep it up.

Will try and get the last part out tomorrow. This is also my reminder that I haven't submitted points for days 2 onwards.

 

[jayjay]

Day 4 - Plopsaland de Panne (In Which Plop Is a Funny Word)

Did you know that there's a tram line that runs along the entire Belgian coast? It goes to Plopsaland. It costs €3 for a trip, even if that's taking a whole hour on the tram from Ostend to De Panne.

I appreciate trams delivering me directly to creds

Sit at the back where there's no driver cab and you can stare out of the window

What's that HEIDIng in the distance?

Come on in! Our unreasonably large door is open!

Despite never having been to Plopsaland but having been to most of their other parks, there's a lot of familiarity, but spread over a larger distance. The indoor section "Maya Land" is very much like the indoor park in Hasselt (only without a coaster)

This is their Disc-O. I'm not reviewing it at length because it's exactly like every other one but it looks nice

The whole place is slathered in cartoon theming of very high standard. We like parks that put in the effort, and Plopsaland (which is still a funny name) fits the bill. But what of the coasters? Plopsaland makes every coaster distinctive, for example, the ever infamous kiddie-coaster cum washing machine.

The only washing machine where separating colours and whites is a very bad idea

But obviously they're not all novelties. So going on to the real coasters. First, Anubis. Like every other coaster, this is themed to a television show I've never watched. Can we all take a moment to appreciate the fab queue?

Anyway, this is great. Now, many have accused me of being a straight-up Gerstlauer fanboy, but I want to clarify my "Rule of Gerstlauer." A Gerstlauer is great if and only if it has at least two of the following qualities:

- Lap bars
- A launch
- An indoor section

I've not found one that doesn't fit the bill yet... until Anubis which only has a launch. The launch is strong and the top hat produces buckets of airtime, and then the rest is punchy and fast. It's a borderline top 10 for me. Unfortunately, it appears that seat choice really matters and while the front is smooth and lovely, the rattles and jerky transitions reveal themselves in the back. Still, love the thing!

Over in the medieval corner of the park, the powered coaster Draak flies overhead. The castle queue is quite spectacular and I'm a fan of the dragon theming on the train. Nothing to write home about ride-wise though.

DRAGON!

Right at the back, we have Heidi The Ride. Probably the only coaster that had any significant queue at any point, because it was on one train. Not that it needed more than one, they were only running a fifteen minute queue as it was. Decent ride, I went back a few times during the day and though it's not huge, it packs a decent amount of energy for its size.

Obviously, being more of a family park, there's a decent amount of tame stuff. The farm is always worth a look. Sheep lovers everywhere (insert Wales joke) will appreciate their tractor ride.

Animatronics are so realistic these days

Serene

And there's always the crappy boat ride (The Forest of Plop). It's moderately atmospheric, but following up Efteling is never going to end well.

My hobby: sitting awkwardly behind teen couples

Pffffttt

The rest of the park has your usual selection of standard garb. It's all very calm and picturesque (at least on a weekday out of holidays) and worth a view from the star flyer. As Log Flumes go, their Log Flume is about exactly as you'd expect, only with bitchin' castle ruins.

Pictured: Standard Log Flume with bitchin' castle ruins

I found enough stuff to do until about mid-afternoon. On the CF topic of disappointing merch, I couldn't find much that I wanted from the... ahem... Plop shop.

Dear Dutch speakers, does 'Plop' sound weird in Dutch?

Making my way back home, I managed to break De Panne's ticket vending machine with my bank card (by the way, De Panne station is a couple of minutes walk from the park entrance and gives direct trains to Brussels). I decided to stop off on the way back at Kortrijk, because my Google Image search turned up nice buildings. It does indeed have some nice buildings, and a shop that sold me a tasty waffle (because Belgium)

Let's play "Does anybody at all get my super obscure reference"

The Beguijnhof, which is a UNESCO world heritage site

Broel Towers on the River Lys

The Kortrijk Belfry is also a world heritage site - two sites for a town of 75000 people isn't bad going!

And with Belgium done with, made my way over to Lille.

I'm a simple man. I see large building, I take picture

Lille Europe Metro here attempting to be Westminster

And with that, the trip was complete. Boarded a last Eurostar back home to finish a fun little excursion. My next plan is Blackpool, but it's a CF trip, so I'll be seeing everyone there!

I enjoyed my time with you

 

[Pear]

I've not found one that doesn't fit the bill yet. Anubis hits with lap bars and a launch, so of course I think it's great!

Anubis has OTSR's though doesn't it?

 

[jayjay]

Anubis has OTSR's though doesn't it?

Some people probably think I look at my own photos before making definitive statements like that. Time to rewrite that paragraph then

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Gerstlauer fanboy
I'd recommend Lynet, but not too sure on the train situation.

Fun read anyway, some great photo captioning in there.