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“Emily Is There A Break Dance In Calais!?” First Visit To Plopsaland De Panne

 


Apparently I’m louder than I realise. When I bellowed, Emily is there a Break Dance in Calais? From the K3 queue line, it was heard by both Emilys on this trip. That’s despite one Emily being the other side of the theme park. Never mind! At least people can always hear me. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get some creds in Belgium! 

Let’s start from the beginning. I woke up at 03:30 and was on the road by 4, disgusting. It was however nice to drive without any traffic. Collecting enthusiasts along the way to Ashford, we eventually pilled into Tom’s seven seater bus and got on the train bound to go through the euro tunnel. Plospaland is only around 40 minutes from Calais and we met the other car there. 10 goons, one ride to happiness? 

Ride To Happiness (549): 

Don’t look in her eyes, you might fall and find the love of your life


Touted by many enthusiasts as one of Europe’s best coasters, I was uber excited to ride! I went back row for my first ride. Sadly the onboard audio wasn’t working and the car wasn’t spinning much either. It takes more than one ride to judge a coaster, I’m holding my thoughts for now. 



Quite a few rides later. Review in one word, incredible. Review in more than one word. A different experience every time, but with some awesome recurring events. The launches are great, especially the first one. I was basically sideways, each time for the first launch. The spinning not only creates an intense ride experience, but also gives amazing moments of intense and sideways air time! The onboard audio really makes this ride, it adds so much to the ambience. I struggle to know where to rank this coaster, because I cannot think of a fair comparison for it. Calling it a spinner, is to me a massive injustice. I’d say it is certainly one of the best coasters that I have ridden. It fits somewhere into my top ten list of about twenty coasters.  


Heidi The Ride (550): 
All smiles when getting creds!


Similar to White Lightning at Fun Spot, but not a direct clone. Heidi was a decent family woodie, but no more or less than that. Little to no airtime and feels slow. The bridge by the exit is a good vantage point for capturing photos of posing goons though! 

Draak (551): 

Dragon themed powered coaster, I couldn’t be bothered to take a better photo. Plus one! 




K3 Roller Skater (552): 

It’s not the smallest cred I’ve got, by a long way. There is a certain amount of shame felt though. We will never know if it is me in that photo, I’m a master of disguise. 




#LikeMe Coaster (553):

Stupid name, stupid long Tivoli. Didn’t vibrant, which disappointed some of the group. Plus 1.

Anubis: The Ride (554): 

Once again, I failed to get a better photo. Anubis was a cred I been looking forward to for a while. I feel like I’ve spent most of my goon life, looking at photos of it. Ironic, how I failed to take any. My first ride was front row. Glass smooth with a brilliant launch. Back row was a different story. The launch had a horrid jolt. A decent coaster at the front, a pile of rubbish at the back. 

De Grote Golf (555): 


Most people don’t count these. Ones with humps are on Coaster Count and that’s good enough for me! To be honest, I don’t even like them much. Plus 1. 

It was then time for a coffee, which was proving hard to find. Finally an oasis appeared, or was it? I got my coffee and was then alerted to the fact that there was a Dunkin, 30 secs away. My coffee was so miserable, I had to get a Dunkin one too: 
I wasn’t happy 

The Dunkin coffee was so much better. I have no clue what this means though:

Lunch was next on the agenda. The southerners headed to the buffet. It was decent, but quite pasta heavy. I washed it all down with a Cristal, a beer cred for me. 

After lunch the Supersplash had opened, much to our surprise. 

Supersplash (556):

Elevator spinning lift hill, drop, end. Plus 1. 

With all the creds done, it was time to check out some of the other attractions. A clown dark ride? Go on then. 


The ride was pretty rubbish. I did almost get hit in the head with a swinging monkey. What a highlight. If your sense of humour is anything like mine, you’ll enjoy this: 


Plopsaland has a very strange selection of statues: 


Wait, it gets worse.




We did a few re-rides, mostly on Ride To Happiness and headed back to the UK. It turns out, there wasn’t a break dance in Calais, not that we had time for the fair there. A great start to the coaster season! Eight creds and a great day out! 
Thanks for reading!















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