Nic
Strata Poster
On Saturday, Jake, Sara, Sue and I (ah, and 'Eric the Snowman'... see below) took a trip over to Belgium to visit Plopsaland.
After clearing all of the junk out of my car to make way for people, we eventually set off at about 5:30am. It was a clear run down to Dover, which saw us arrive in plenty of time for our 8:15 ferry. After a comfortable (but unremarkable) ferry journey, and a bit of time travel, we were in France!
Now for the first challenge of the day - driving on the wrong side of the road! I'd never done it before. However, I can recommend the trip to Plopsaland as being an excellent journey for a first timer. Again, the motorways were clear, and we arrived at the park in good time.
We'd pre-booked our tickets which caused much confusion. After MUCH faff, and queueing up at three different places, we were eventually let in. Yay!
First thing that struck me about the park was the soundtrack. I really like it (it's out there on youtube if you want a listen). It's got that mix of drama, adventure and excitement that all good ride/park music should have. The other thing was the friendliness of the staff. Yes, they messed us about, but they were nice while they were doing it. I also noticed how incredibly clean and well kept the park was.
First ride of the day had to be Anubis. After getting lost, going round in circles, going up the exit only to be told they don't do disabled access on that ride, and eventually navigating the very long queue line, we were there. After having been on the launched Maurer-Shone a few weeks ago, I was expecting very good things from this ride. What I wasn't expecting though, was it to be so forceful. The launch is much faster than expected. The acceleration is very quick, so is almost on a par with an intamin in that respect. You're then propelled straight up into a small top hat. The ejector at the top is ridiculous (so much so that, on our 2nd ride of the day, I smacked my shoulder on the OTSR which was actually fairly unpleasant). The rest of the ride is great, with only the s-bend section before the barrel roll feeling a bit flat and lifeless. There's one fun corner which is banked the wrong way (not as extreme as, but in a similar vein to Mumbo Jumbo). There's also a slightly bizarre airtime hill type thing that gets to the top, then suddenly turns a corner.
All in all, it's a great coaster and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. As I say, it's a lot more forceful than I was expecting, which did mean you get chucked about a bit. However, I would by no means call it rough. As for wanting one in the UK? It'd be fab to have one on my doorstep, but it'd have to be at the right park. I would say this is at the upper limit of being a family coaster, and is actually more of a 'grown up' ride really due to the forces involved. I would have said that the Maurer Shone was more family friendly, as it's a bit more relaxed, but then it has a slightly higher height limit than the Gerstlauer (130cm compared to 125cm). It would also have to go at a slightly smaller (or at least, less busy) park due to the throughput. The park was really quiet yesterday, and there were very few queues, so it wasn't an issue, but I can imagine it being horrible on a busy day. That said, the queue line was well themed enough that it would hold your interest for a while (although I imagine it'd also make a lot more sense if you've actually seen the TV show).
Next up was the SuperSplash. The drop and infuriatingly long journey back to the station were a bit dull, but the lift hill is awesome. Ah well, it’s a cred.
The StarFlyer was next, with only Jake having been on one before. I’m not usually bothered by heights, but this was bloody terrifying! It was fine until you got us past the line of the trees where it was blowing a gale! There was lost of screaming, swearing and pseudo-French involved.
We got the Tivoli cred out of the way next, before heading over to the Rollerskater. I still don’t quite understand why everything is in some kind of giant world, but it is. We decided to use the disabled exit pass for this as there was quite a queue. I was then promptly told that I would only use it for me and one other person… but that the ride op would let us all on anyway, just this once. Hurrah! Pretty unremarkable apart from the fact that it’s not every day you get to drive through the middle of a giant washing machine.
Sara and Sue then went for a go on the Mega Mindy JetSkis. It looked quite fun, but I couldn’t be arsed. Instead I sat on a bench and laughed as some small child inadvertently threw his hat up in the air and I caught it.
We then headed into Samson’s castle area and went on the powered Dragon coaster. It was deceptively fast. I was entertained by the fact that the log flume below appeared to be forming an ox-bow lake. Jake then pointed outt hat it looked like the opening titles from Eastenders. The rest of the ride was spent shouting “You bitch!.... You cow!”, “Rickaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy” etc.
It was now well past lunchtime, so we went to the amusingly named “Plop Restaurant”. It was very expensive and a bit crap, but we did like the fact that we were sitting inside a giant mushroom.
After lunch, Jake and Sue want on Eastenders the ride while Sara drank the world’s hottest hot chocolate and I ate the world’s largest ice cream.
As the bat flyers were still quite busy, we decided to leave them for just before we left. Therefore, we went for another ride on Anubis before going to explore the farm area. Sara got excited when she got to meet Amika, a white horse with a heart-shape shaved out of its nose (don’t bother trying to watch the series to see the horse, you don’t actually see Amika until the 12th episode!). We spent a while wandering round the other animals, and discovered that Sue is exceptionally good at herding Goats.
We went in the shop round the corner, and eventually discovered that it was actually the exit to some kind of crazy boat dark ride. We had to go on. The queue line stank like drains, and had an inexplicable terrifying baby penguin of doom. The ride itself wasn’t much less scary. The whole thing was just those little plop gnome things doing stuff. It looked beautiful, was there was no variation and every scene looked the same.
This left us with only one more thing to do – the bat flyers. As we approached them, we realised that there was some kind of technical fault, and the engineers were just turning up. We decided to hang around and wait for it to re-open, and sure enough, it was up and running in about 5 minutes. This ride gave us (and the rest of the queue) the biggest laugh of the day. Jake somehow managed to get his foot stuck whilst he was trying to get on it. The three of us were in hysterics, as was the woman next to us, and the bloke behind us in the queue. Funnily enough, he decided not to bother riding the other cred on the other side, as he’d already got them both anyway
The rest of us dutifully rode it though, like the whores that we are.
So that was it really, we drove to a supermarket, bought loads of booze, then piled back in the car to the ferry. The crossing on the way back was spent playing “who am I?” We were particularly amused when trying to get Sara to guess Jamie Oliver. We were trying to point her in the direction of cookery by asking “What does you’re mum do at home?”. We weren’t expecting the answer, “Erm, watch telly? Do cleaning? Go to the toilet?!” Hehe!
It was a great trip, and Plopsaland is a fab park. It can easily be done in a day. Especially if you live in the south, it’s just as easy as a trip to a UK park. The entire trip cost us about £30 a head (would be less if you had a car with more than 4 seats). So, in actual fact, it was probably cheaper than a trip to a UK park! Highly recommended.
PS. Why not follow the continuing adventures of Eric the Snowman on facebook. He's off to the World Cup tomorrow! http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gi ... 803&ref=ts
After clearing all of the junk out of my car to make way for people, we eventually set off at about 5:30am. It was a clear run down to Dover, which saw us arrive in plenty of time for our 8:15 ferry. After a comfortable (but unremarkable) ferry journey, and a bit of time travel, we were in France!
Now for the first challenge of the day - driving on the wrong side of the road! I'd never done it before. However, I can recommend the trip to Plopsaland as being an excellent journey for a first timer. Again, the motorways were clear, and we arrived at the park in good time.
We'd pre-booked our tickets which caused much confusion. After MUCH faff, and queueing up at three different places, we were eventually let in. Yay!
First thing that struck me about the park was the soundtrack. I really like it (it's out there on youtube if you want a listen). It's got that mix of drama, adventure and excitement that all good ride/park music should have. The other thing was the friendliness of the staff. Yes, they messed us about, but they were nice while they were doing it. I also noticed how incredibly clean and well kept the park was.
First ride of the day had to be Anubis. After getting lost, going round in circles, going up the exit only to be told they don't do disabled access on that ride, and eventually navigating the very long queue line, we were there. After having been on the launched Maurer-Shone a few weeks ago, I was expecting very good things from this ride. What I wasn't expecting though, was it to be so forceful. The launch is much faster than expected. The acceleration is very quick, so is almost on a par with an intamin in that respect. You're then propelled straight up into a small top hat. The ejector at the top is ridiculous (so much so that, on our 2nd ride of the day, I smacked my shoulder on the OTSR which was actually fairly unpleasant). The rest of the ride is great, with only the s-bend section before the barrel roll feeling a bit flat and lifeless. There's one fun corner which is banked the wrong way (not as extreme as, but in a similar vein to Mumbo Jumbo). There's also a slightly bizarre airtime hill type thing that gets to the top, then suddenly turns a corner.
All in all, it's a great coaster and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. As I say, it's a lot more forceful than I was expecting, which did mean you get chucked about a bit. However, I would by no means call it rough. As for wanting one in the UK? It'd be fab to have one on my doorstep, but it'd have to be at the right park. I would say this is at the upper limit of being a family coaster, and is actually more of a 'grown up' ride really due to the forces involved. I would have said that the Maurer Shone was more family friendly, as it's a bit more relaxed, but then it has a slightly higher height limit than the Gerstlauer (130cm compared to 125cm). It would also have to go at a slightly smaller (or at least, less busy) park due to the throughput. The park was really quiet yesterday, and there were very few queues, so it wasn't an issue, but I can imagine it being horrible on a busy day. That said, the queue line was well themed enough that it would hold your interest for a while (although I imagine it'd also make a lot more sense if you've actually seen the TV show).
Next up was the SuperSplash. The drop and infuriatingly long journey back to the station were a bit dull, but the lift hill is awesome. Ah well, it’s a cred.
The StarFlyer was next, with only Jake having been on one before. I’m not usually bothered by heights, but this was bloody terrifying! It was fine until you got us past the line of the trees where it was blowing a gale! There was lost of screaming, swearing and pseudo-French involved.
We got the Tivoli cred out of the way next, before heading over to the Rollerskater. I still don’t quite understand why everything is in some kind of giant world, but it is. We decided to use the disabled exit pass for this as there was quite a queue. I was then promptly told that I would only use it for me and one other person… but that the ride op would let us all on anyway, just this once. Hurrah! Pretty unremarkable apart from the fact that it’s not every day you get to drive through the middle of a giant washing machine.
Sara and Sue then went for a go on the Mega Mindy JetSkis. It looked quite fun, but I couldn’t be arsed. Instead I sat on a bench and laughed as some small child inadvertently threw his hat up in the air and I caught it.
We then headed into Samson’s castle area and went on the powered Dragon coaster. It was deceptively fast. I was entertained by the fact that the log flume below appeared to be forming an ox-bow lake. Jake then pointed outt hat it looked like the opening titles from Eastenders. The rest of the ride was spent shouting “You bitch!.... You cow!”, “Rickaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy” etc.
It was now well past lunchtime, so we went to the amusingly named “Plop Restaurant”. It was very expensive and a bit crap, but we did like the fact that we were sitting inside a giant mushroom.
After lunch, Jake and Sue want on Eastenders the ride while Sara drank the world’s hottest hot chocolate and I ate the world’s largest ice cream.
As the bat flyers were still quite busy, we decided to leave them for just before we left. Therefore, we went for another ride on Anubis before going to explore the farm area. Sara got excited when she got to meet Amika, a white horse with a heart-shape shaved out of its nose (don’t bother trying to watch the series to see the horse, you don’t actually see Amika until the 12th episode!). We spent a while wandering round the other animals, and discovered that Sue is exceptionally good at herding Goats.
We went in the shop round the corner, and eventually discovered that it was actually the exit to some kind of crazy boat dark ride. We had to go on. The queue line stank like drains, and had an inexplicable terrifying baby penguin of doom. The ride itself wasn’t much less scary. The whole thing was just those little plop gnome things doing stuff. It looked beautiful, was there was no variation and every scene looked the same.
This left us with only one more thing to do – the bat flyers. As we approached them, we realised that there was some kind of technical fault, and the engineers were just turning up. We decided to hang around and wait for it to re-open, and sure enough, it was up and running in about 5 minutes. This ride gave us (and the rest of the queue) the biggest laugh of the day. Jake somehow managed to get his foot stuck whilst he was trying to get on it. The three of us were in hysterics, as was the woman next to us, and the bloke behind us in the queue. Funnily enough, he decided not to bother riding the other cred on the other side, as he’d already got them both anyway
The rest of us dutifully rode it though, like the whores that we are.
So that was it really, we drove to a supermarket, bought loads of booze, then piled back in the car to the ferry. The crossing on the way back was spent playing “who am I?” We were particularly amused when trying to get Sara to guess Jamie Oliver. We were trying to point her in the direction of cookery by asking “What does you’re mum do at home?”. We weren’t expecting the answer, “Erm, watch telly? Do cleaning? Go to the toilet?!” Hehe!
It was a great trip, and Plopsaland is a fab park. It can easily be done in a day. Especially if you live in the south, it’s just as easy as a trip to a UK park. The entire trip cost us about £30 a head (would be less if you had a car with more than 4 seats). So, in actual fact, it was probably cheaper than a trip to a UK park! Highly recommended.
PS. Why not follow the continuing adventures of Eric the Snowman on facebook. He's off to the World Cup tomorrow! http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gi ... 803&ref=ts
