So after a year of it being built, Plospaland finally opened their new wooden coaster Heidi. Nic and I being Plopsa goons decided to head over to check it out as well as popping into Bruges for lots of beer and culture.
It still weirds me out how you now arrive in the car park and there's just a wooden coaster chilling alongside the park fencing. (the gaps in the wooden sound barrier are filled in with plastic)
Upon entering the park I met Mega Mindy and Vicky the Viking.
It was then straight over to the new Heidi area for the new cred. The new area looks fantastic, the new viewing area for the log flume is also nice.
The entrance is a little understated
Our first ride was at the back, it's a rather fun little coaster, but our second go was at the front which provides a bit more air time. Overall I don't think it's that amazing but it is fun and it fits into the park really well. Perfect little family coaster. With two trains in operation the staff were being awesome too, getting the first train out by the time the second hit the brake run.
We decided to go and enjoy the rest of the park before coming back for more rides. We did the powered dragon coaster next which was really rough! Just felt really jolty as it went around the helixes, very odd.
Next up we went on Rollerskater because there wasn't a queue (a first in our experience!). However some stupid children decided to cut in front of me before the gates opened, kids are the worst. Next we took a ride on Viktor's Race, the park's Tivoli. We sat at the front which was super lame. The boat ride in that area was next and considering it was only re-themed two years ago it's not looking great at the moment, lots of moving things were just static, needed a bit of a clean etc.
Oh well, next up we took a spin on the coffee cups which are stupidly over-themed and have a very catchy theme tune.
We then queued for about 15 minutes for Anubis, I still love this coaster, that launch is just ridiculous. However it's not ageing well, after the launch before it goes up into the top hat it is very rough, the car proper jolts about, it does this a couple of times throughout the layout but that's the most notable. I would have been happy to re-ride but that alone put Nic off going round for more.
We grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading into the amazing theatre for a new park show featuring Heidi, Maya the bee and Vicky the Viking. It wasn't a very good show but the kids seemed to enjoy it (makes sense, they are the target audience). Still love the production design and the theatre though.
It was then back over to Heidi, which had gained quite a queue since we last rode (afternoon was filled with annual pass holders). It was still a fun ride and certainly a lot faster than it was in the morning. The really short twisty bits amongst the mess of wooden supports is very fun. I went for a quick filming/photo taking sesh...
We then had another go on Anubis before going back to Heidi for a few more rides.
Heidi queue was long - urgh
We then headed up to Bruges for some culture and beer, lots of beer. It's a really beautiful city with lots to explore. I do enjoy these really old European places. Some photos...
Our first beer stop was this really cool place that had some interesting beers on tap (I had a coconut flavoured one - which was tasty). The walls had a silly amount of beer bottles on them...
Nic and the goblet of beer
Beer consumed it was on to bar number 2. We sat outside which had a nice view of the canal, lots of peeps smoking was a slight disadvantage though.
We found some food, then had a wander onto bar 3.
Bar 3 was closed for whatever reason, which was a shame as it sounded awesome (cheese came with each round of beer). So it was on to the next place.
Actual bar 3 ended up being a really busy little place that had over 300 beers listed, THREE HUNDRED. Not being beer connoisseurs in the slightest we had no idea what to go for. I ended up getting a blackcurrent beer which tasted like really strong cordial. One of the beers listed had a silly percentage and cost 75 euros for a bottle.
We then headed to one last bar on the way back to the hotel (we'd been up since 4:30 am!). It was a really nice bar with a great atmosphere.
The next day we had a couple of hours of doing touristy things in the city. The only thing of note was a place called the Historium. It's in the main Markt area (with the tower) and cost like 15 euros to get in plus their new VR experience. Honestly the whole thing was a lot better than I was expecting, the budget for it must have been huge, despite how short it is the quality is just fantastic. You get audio headsets and as a group walk from one themed room to another, each one telling you a part of this story of an idiot while showing you what Bruges would have been like in the middle ages. The theming (by Joravision) was incredible, the animatronics were also really neat, the scents in each room were insanely strong and it was just enjoyable. There's also a bunch of games and info bits in a room at the end which was ok, you can have a look over the Markt on their top balcony too.
So the VR experience then, you just sit in a little cubicle with a GearVR headset. The graphics are a little old school game-ish but it'd be silly to expect anything else. The whole concept is to take you on a tour of Medieval Bruges so you can see parts that no longer exist etc. It was neat and it'd be cool to see similar things pop up in other museums.
Anyway I'll leave this report there, thanks for reading!
It still weirds me out how you now arrive in the car park and there's just a wooden coaster chilling alongside the park fencing. (the gaps in the wooden sound barrier are filled in with plastic)
Upon entering the park I met Mega Mindy and Vicky the Viking.
It was then straight over to the new Heidi area for the new cred. The new area looks fantastic, the new viewing area for the log flume is also nice.
The entrance is a little understated
Our first ride was at the back, it's a rather fun little coaster, but our second go was at the front which provides a bit more air time. Overall I don't think it's that amazing but it is fun and it fits into the park really well. Perfect little family coaster. With two trains in operation the staff were being awesome too, getting the first train out by the time the second hit the brake run.
We decided to go and enjoy the rest of the park before coming back for more rides. We did the powered dragon coaster next which was really rough! Just felt really jolty as it went around the helixes, very odd.
Next up we went on Rollerskater because there wasn't a queue (a first in our experience!). However some stupid children decided to cut in front of me before the gates opened, kids are the worst. Next we took a ride on Viktor's Race, the park's Tivoli. We sat at the front which was super lame. The boat ride in that area was next and considering it was only re-themed two years ago it's not looking great at the moment, lots of moving things were just static, needed a bit of a clean etc.
Oh well, next up we took a spin on the coffee cups which are stupidly over-themed and have a very catchy theme tune.
We then queued for about 15 minutes for Anubis, I still love this coaster, that launch is just ridiculous. However it's not ageing well, after the launch before it goes up into the top hat it is very rough, the car proper jolts about, it does this a couple of times throughout the layout but that's the most notable. I would have been happy to re-ride but that alone put Nic off going round for more.
We grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading into the amazing theatre for a new park show featuring Heidi, Maya the bee and Vicky the Viking. It wasn't a very good show but the kids seemed to enjoy it (makes sense, they are the target audience). Still love the production design and the theatre though.
It was then back over to Heidi, which had gained quite a queue since we last rode (afternoon was filled with annual pass holders). It was still a fun ride and certainly a lot faster than it was in the morning. The really short twisty bits amongst the mess of wooden supports is very fun. I went for a quick filming/photo taking sesh...
We then had another go on Anubis before going back to Heidi for a few more rides.
Heidi queue was long - urgh
We then headed up to Bruges for some culture and beer, lots of beer. It's a really beautiful city with lots to explore. I do enjoy these really old European places. Some photos...
Our first beer stop was this really cool place that had some interesting beers on tap (I had a coconut flavoured one - which was tasty). The walls had a silly amount of beer bottles on them...
Nic and the goblet of beer
Beer consumed it was on to bar number 2. We sat outside which had a nice view of the canal, lots of peeps smoking was a slight disadvantage though.
We found some food, then had a wander onto bar 3.
Bar 3 was closed for whatever reason, which was a shame as it sounded awesome (cheese came with each round of beer). So it was on to the next place.
Actual bar 3 ended up being a really busy little place that had over 300 beers listed, THREE HUNDRED. Not being beer connoisseurs in the slightest we had no idea what to go for. I ended up getting a blackcurrent beer which tasted like really strong cordial. One of the beers listed had a silly percentage and cost 75 euros for a bottle.
We then headed to one last bar on the way back to the hotel (we'd been up since 4:30 am!). It was a really nice bar with a great atmosphere.
The next day we had a couple of hours of doing touristy things in the city. The only thing of note was a place called the Historium. It's in the main Markt area (with the tower) and cost like 15 euros to get in plus their new VR experience. Honestly the whole thing was a lot better than I was expecting, the budget for it must have been huge, despite how short it is the quality is just fantastic. You get audio headsets and as a group walk from one themed room to another, each one telling you a part of this story of an idiot while showing you what Bruges would have been like in the middle ages. The theming (by Joravision) was incredible, the animatronics were also really neat, the scents in each room were insanely strong and it was just enjoyable. There's also a bunch of games and info bits in a room at the end which was ok, you can have a look over the Markt on their top balcony too.
So the VR experience then, you just sit in a little cubicle with a GearVR headset. The graphics are a little old school game-ish but it'd be silly to expect anything else. The whole concept is to take you on a tour of Medieval Bruges so you can see parts that no longer exist etc. It was neat and it'd be cool to see similar things pop up in other museums.
Anyway I'll leave this report there, thanks for reading!
