Plopsaland

Plopsaland De Panne is a theme park located in Adinkerke, Belgium - part of the municipality De Panne - owned and operated by Plopsa. The park reopened on 20 April 2000, before that the park was known as Meli Park from 1935 until 1999.

History

Meli Park

In 1935, Alberic-Joseph Florizoone opened Meli Park, a place where he could sell his own produced honey, but also teach the visitors about the process and the bee itself. Over the years - to keep up with competition - the park opened several attractions, turning it into a theme park.

Plopsaland

The family Florizoone sold the park in 1999 to Studio 100 and ''VMMa''. The park received a make-over during the following winter season, to reopen as Plopsaland on 20 April 2000. During the renovation several characters from Studio 100 were used - such as ''Samson en Gert'' and ''Kabouter Plop'' - to theme new and old attractions. The new park had some issues at the reopening with parking capacity and catering, these issues were fixed in the following years.

Studio 100/Plopsa bought out the shares of VVMa in 2005 and became sole owner of the park, with plans to turn it into a multi-day, all-weather resort. In that same year, Plopsa opened ''Plopsa Indoor Hasselt'' and bought '' Telecoo,'' to avoid confusion with the other parks Plopsaland was renamed to ''Plopsaland De Panne''.

Besides expanding the site into a resort, Plopsa also kept expanding the theme park with ''Anubis the Ride'' (2009), ''Vic the Vicking-land'' (2013), ''Heidi the Ride'' (2017) and ''The Ride to Happiness'' (2021) in order to appeal to a wider demographic and become a destination not just for families with younger children.

Attractions

The park consists of 52 attractions, including 6 rollercoasters.

Rollercoasters

Anubis_The_Ride_Plopsaland.jpg, ''Anubis The Ride''
Plopsaland_-_De_Draak_(Hélice).JPG, ''De Draak''
Heidi_The_Ride_Plopsaland.jpg, ''Heidi the Ride''
Plopsaland_De_Panne_-_Time_Traveler_(B01).JPG, ''K3 Roller Skater''
Plopsaland De Panne - The Ride to Happiness by Tomorrowland (A38).JPG, ''The Ride to Happiness''
Viktor'sRace3.JPG, ''Viktor's Race''

Other attractions

Mayaland Indoor

Mayaland indoor is an indoor theme park that during the winterseason can be visited separately when the rest of the park is closed.

De Panne resort

The theme park is part of the larger Plopsa resort that consist of an indoor theme park (2011), the Proximus Theater (2013), Plopsaqua De Panne (2015), a hotel (2021) and a camping (2021/2022). The resort also houses the headquarters of the Plopsa-group.

Visitor numbers

Below is an overview of the development of Plopsaland visitor numbers, as stated in the annual report.

Future

In 2022, Plopsaland will open ''Circus Bumba'', an indoor hall that will house a dark ride, theater and several carnival type attractions.

Trivia

* The name ''Plopsaland'' is an aggregation of the first two Studio 100 characters ''Plop'' and ''Samson''. Another name that the new owners thought of was ''Pannadine'' after the town ''De Panne'', this name was abandoned after the new owners discovered it was a medical creme.
* From 2000 until 2012 the park - and the other parks of the group - had ''Koning Plopsa'' as icon. In recent years the character was taken out of the logo's, parkshows and as a walk-around character. At various places around the resort the icon can still be found.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Plopsaland Official Website

Amusement parks in Belgium
2000 establishments in Belgium
Buildings and structures in West Flanders
Tourist attractions in West Flanders
De Panne
Amusement parks opened in 2000