Martyn B
CF Legend
So, I finally got my ass driving abroad. Easy peasy as they say. And I couldn't have picked a better first park to go to. I'll just get on with the pics...
M25 + rush hour + Friday = Ugh
Took forever and a day to get over the bridge.
But we eventually did, and made our way to Blue Water for a few hours. Left Blue Water about 7pm to make the short journey to our hotel in Maidstone.
My camera just does not like taking photo's in the dark!
Maidstone seemed nice anyway, we went for a wonder and came across this floating restaurant (above). We stayed in the Travelodge in the city centre, it was a new one, so it was nice enough, but we were both a bit 'meh' over the lack of complimentary stuff, such as shampoo etc. I know we did get our room cheap, £19 per night, but still, the going rate £58 per night, yet no complimentary stuff. However, as the kind lady behind the desk pointed out, the vending machine had plenty of complimentary stuff, for £2 each :? But whatever, didn't actually care, just found it a bit odd.
So Sunday morning, nice early start to go catch the ferry. The weather was looking promising, which made for some nice photo's on board
I hadn't been on a ferry in years, still quite fun, though I do feel that £9.50 is a LITTLE to steep for a fry up. Nevermind, they had a Costa Coffee on board, which had their usual high street prices..
Calais looks lovely... :?
In all seriousness though, the beach at Calais did look nice, though the weather may have had an impact on that...
I'll be honest, I was nervous at first
But as soon as we got out onto a road, all the nerves went, and everything was fine. I can safely say that it is very easy to adjust to Euro driving.
30 mins later, at about 11am, we arrived, to find the car park was HEAVING!
And so was the entrance plaza, which may I add, was fantastic, which is running theme for this park really
First up was this bad boy, Anubis
Which straight-away became one of my coasters
The pacing is very fast, and it just doesn't seem to let up. The 'top hat' looks slow, but dont let that you fool. The ejector over that is immense, literally the whole way over your arse is in the air
Even the unusual hill has good air, befor throwing you back down into another inversion. And the launch was another surprise for me, VERY powerful. I know I've not ridden too many, but this is my favourite launch coasters by a Country mile
Even though the park was heaving, some of the queue's were minimal, and luckily, Anubis was one them. Never waited more than 10 mins. However, the park still seemed very busy so I rode a couple times to begin with as I wanted to do everything else
So my first Gerstlauer launch was ticked off, now time for my first Bat Flyer.
Please tell this was a prototype, yeah? As the layout is very uninspired. It was fun, but obviously the capacity was diabolical
Pretty much every little area here is themed so well. The park in general kind of reminded me of Chessington, though a lot better. In a weird way, it kind of had a Disney feel to it with the characters everywhere and the all the character souviners in the shops
Draak was fun, again the station etc was very themed
The Log Flume has similar theming, again, done very well. The ride itself was good, especially the double drop
I think at this point it was about half 12, and I hadn't seen the Starflyer go round yet, which was annoying, as this was to be another of the 'firsts' for me
Again, another first, my first large rollerskater! Which, if I'm being honest, is letting the park down. It looks HORRID and run down, and just not looked after. Also has ridiculous capacity aso for some reason they send it round twice, even when there's an hours queue!
We didn't queue an hour, but still, it wasn't worth it, and I actally prefer the smaller rollerskaters, ala Mini Mine Train @ Pleasure Island
This thing looked different, though we didn't have the time to ride it really
Again, the Pirate area looked really nice
Tivoli cred! Same noisey **** as always
GUTTED
That picture was taken whilst we were going for the Tivoli, yet by the time we got off, they had opened the queue for Spring Flyer, without even testing it! However, I wasn't going to miss this...
GET IN!
Though I could not believe how small the chains were that hold you up! I have boney fingers, and they were smaller than my finger! I swear standard Waveswingers have bigger chains, and also a 'safety' cable so if the chains snapped, the cable is there to hold you up, but no, not on this!
So yeah, we got stuck! Not too high up thankfully
Nice view though
And unfortunetly, that was as far as we got, as they lowered us, then closed it
Apparently, there are only 3 double decker Carousel's in the world, so I had to go on it, and this was my second!
We then ventured into the little farmyard area;
BABY GUINEA PIGGYS!
We then ventured onto le Floret du Plop, or whatever its called. The only dark ride in the park
Was ok, a bit too slow really. Them things with tit-hats started to do my head in after a while
After that, we went back round to see if Spring Flyer had opened, IT HAD! Propler long queue this time though, but at least it was working. And seeing these 2 lumps on it made me feel a bit better..
The running of this ride is another thing that lets the park down. The bloke working on it clearly didn't give a **** and took an eternity to get everyone off, and on, and checking belts. They could really do with some signs stating that childen have to sit on the inside chair, or the op could tell them that as they pass through the queue. But no, he doesn't say a thing until you've sat down and buckled up, then one by one he tells you to swap, so he then has to go round and check the belts again. UUGGHH!
I spy a campsite next door, might keep that in mind for next time!
Needless to say, I shat myself, though it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, dont know why though. Still, another 'first' ticked off.
Anubis' station. The ORP shop wasn't open, which was annoying, as this and the flume are the only rides with ORP's. And we didn't even get a souviner which was also annoying. They didn't seem to have any actual park, or ride souviners, the only stuff you could by was Plopsa character teddies etc, which was a big let IMO
The final 'first' for the day was the Supersplash, which was great. Loved the twisty elevator lift, nice steep drop and speed hill, and a good splash, you got wet obviously, but not too wet, which was perfect for this nice hot day
She seems to think the level of wetness was not satisfactory though...
Right, these hot dogs....just....DELICIOUS. Sorry Nic, I didn't ignore your recommendation of that Italian place, but there were SO many people about, I didn't want to waste time in a restaurant if we couldn't get everything done.
Though I am glad we opted not to sit in, as these were quite fankly the most delicious sausages I have ever eaten. A bit pricey at 4.5Euros, but WELL worth it
Entrance area, again, very well themed
The new indoor Maya land, which if its going to anything like the rest of the park, it will be amazing, even if it is for kids.
We then said bye to Plopsaland and headed back towards Calais, where we stopped off at Cite Europe for a little while. Carrefour <<<333
I forgot to take the camera up with us on the ferry, but I had my phone, and I had to take some pics as the ferry was lovely, seemed new to me, and was like a luxury cruise liner compared to the ferry we had in the morning
We adopted a massive sofa, got some Costa coffee, beer, and carrot cake, and just relaxed for the whole journey. Perfect ending to the day really.
But bhoy oh bhoy was that going to change for Sunday...
My first impression of Brighton wasn't great. The roads leading up to the sea front reminded of Blackpool, complete **** hole, maybe we just went through the wrong area's?
The wind was mental on sunday, I had them horrible feeling my stomach that the credz were going to be closed, and when I saw Turbo had stalled, my feelings became more of a reality
I did remind me of Blackpool, but without the arcades
Pretty much anything worth going on, was closed
We found a shopping mall which kept us entertained for a few hours, before having some fish and chips on the front, and then heading home. Only just about 3.4 hours to get all the way back to Norwich, which surprised me.
We're going to go back (credz), but I dont know what I think of the place really. Didn't seem like there was much to do for a sea side resort, but it was clean etc, with lots of tramps/piss heads asleep on the beach.
And there ya have it. In a nut shell, Plopsaland was brilliant, the park family park I have ever been too (outside of Disney). There is just so much for kids to do there, and with Maya land, it will just get even better. Could maybe do with another thrill ride or two, and sort out the Rollerskater. Apart from that, just awsome, puts all of our parks to shame really.
I need to say a big thank you to Nic for putting up with me PMing her a lot after info/tips for my trip, CHEERS!
Also, CF, if you want to use any of my pics for banner photo's, or even a park guide (which you dont have for some reason?!), you can do.
Hope you enjoyed!
M25 + rush hour + Friday = Ugh
Took forever and a day to get over the bridge.
But we eventually did, and made our way to Blue Water for a few hours. Left Blue Water about 7pm to make the short journey to our hotel in Maidstone.
My camera just does not like taking photo's in the dark!
Maidstone seemed nice anyway, we went for a wonder and came across this floating restaurant (above). We stayed in the Travelodge in the city centre, it was a new one, so it was nice enough, but we were both a bit 'meh' over the lack of complimentary stuff, such as shampoo etc. I know we did get our room cheap, £19 per night, but still, the going rate £58 per night, yet no complimentary stuff. However, as the kind lady behind the desk pointed out, the vending machine had plenty of complimentary stuff, for £2 each :? But whatever, didn't actually care, just found it a bit odd.
So Sunday morning, nice early start to go catch the ferry. The weather was looking promising, which made for some nice photo's on board
I hadn't been on a ferry in years, still quite fun, though I do feel that £9.50 is a LITTLE to steep for a fry up. Nevermind, they had a Costa Coffee on board, which had their usual high street prices..
Calais looks lovely... :?
In all seriousness though, the beach at Calais did look nice, though the weather may have had an impact on that...
I'll be honest, I was nervous at first
But as soon as we got out onto a road, all the nerves went, and everything was fine. I can safely say that it is very easy to adjust to Euro driving.
30 mins later, at about 11am, we arrived, to find the car park was HEAVING!
And so was the entrance plaza, which may I add, was fantastic, which is running theme for this park really
First up was this bad boy, Anubis
Which straight-away became one of my coasters
The pacing is very fast, and it just doesn't seem to let up. The 'top hat' looks slow, but dont let that you fool. The ejector over that is immense, literally the whole way over your arse is in the air
Even the unusual hill has good air, befor throwing you back down into another inversion. And the launch was another surprise for me, VERY powerful. I know I've not ridden too many, but this is my favourite launch coasters by a Country mile
Even though the park was heaving, some of the queue's were minimal, and luckily, Anubis was one them. Never waited more than 10 mins. However, the park still seemed very busy so I rode a couple times to begin with as I wanted to do everything else
So my first Gerstlauer launch was ticked off, now time for my first Bat Flyer.
Please tell this was a prototype, yeah? As the layout is very uninspired. It was fun, but obviously the capacity was diabolical
Pretty much every little area here is themed so well. The park in general kind of reminded me of Chessington, though a lot better. In a weird way, it kind of had a Disney feel to it with the characters everywhere and the all the character souviners in the shops
Draak was fun, again the station etc was very themed
The Log Flume has similar theming, again, done very well. The ride itself was good, especially the double drop
I think at this point it was about half 12, and I hadn't seen the Starflyer go round yet, which was annoying, as this was to be another of the 'firsts' for me
Again, another first, my first large rollerskater! Which, if I'm being honest, is letting the park down. It looks HORRID and run down, and just not looked after. Also has ridiculous capacity aso for some reason they send it round twice, even when there's an hours queue!
We didn't queue an hour, but still, it wasn't worth it, and I actally prefer the smaller rollerskaters, ala Mini Mine Train @ Pleasure Island
This thing looked different, though we didn't have the time to ride it really
Again, the Pirate area looked really nice
Tivoli cred! Same noisey **** as always
GUTTED
That picture was taken whilst we were going for the Tivoli, yet by the time we got off, they had opened the queue for Spring Flyer, without even testing it! However, I wasn't going to miss this...
GET IN!
Though I could not believe how small the chains were that hold you up! I have boney fingers, and they were smaller than my finger! I swear standard Waveswingers have bigger chains, and also a 'safety' cable so if the chains snapped, the cable is there to hold you up, but no, not on this!
So yeah, we got stuck! Not too high up thankfully
Nice view though
And unfortunetly, that was as far as we got, as they lowered us, then closed it
Apparently, there are only 3 double decker Carousel's in the world, so I had to go on it, and this was my second!
We then ventured into the little farmyard area;
BABY GUINEA PIGGYS!
We then ventured onto le Floret du Plop, or whatever its called. The only dark ride in the park
Was ok, a bit too slow really. Them things with tit-hats started to do my head in after a while
After that, we went back round to see if Spring Flyer had opened, IT HAD! Propler long queue this time though, but at least it was working. And seeing these 2 lumps on it made me feel a bit better..
The running of this ride is another thing that lets the park down. The bloke working on it clearly didn't give a **** and took an eternity to get everyone off, and on, and checking belts. They could really do with some signs stating that childen have to sit on the inside chair, or the op could tell them that as they pass through the queue. But no, he doesn't say a thing until you've sat down and buckled up, then one by one he tells you to swap, so he then has to go round and check the belts again. UUGGHH!
I spy a campsite next door, might keep that in mind for next time!
Needless to say, I shat myself, though it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, dont know why though. Still, another 'first' ticked off.
Anubis' station. The ORP shop wasn't open, which was annoying, as this and the flume are the only rides with ORP's. And we didn't even get a souviner which was also annoying. They didn't seem to have any actual park, or ride souviners, the only stuff you could by was Plopsa character teddies etc, which was a big let IMO
The final 'first' for the day was the Supersplash, which was great. Loved the twisty elevator lift, nice steep drop and speed hill, and a good splash, you got wet obviously, but not too wet, which was perfect for this nice hot day
She seems to think the level of wetness was not satisfactory though...
Right, these hot dogs....just....DELICIOUS. Sorry Nic, I didn't ignore your recommendation of that Italian place, but there were SO many people about, I didn't want to waste time in a restaurant if we couldn't get everything done.
Though I am glad we opted not to sit in, as these were quite fankly the most delicious sausages I have ever eaten. A bit pricey at 4.5Euros, but WELL worth it
Entrance area, again, very well themed
The new indoor Maya land, which if its going to anything like the rest of the park, it will be amazing, even if it is for kids.
We then said bye to Plopsaland and headed back towards Calais, where we stopped off at Cite Europe for a little while. Carrefour <<<333
I forgot to take the camera up with us on the ferry, but I had my phone, and I had to take some pics as the ferry was lovely, seemed new to me, and was like a luxury cruise liner compared to the ferry we had in the morning
We adopted a massive sofa, got some Costa coffee, beer, and carrot cake, and just relaxed for the whole journey. Perfect ending to the day really.
But bhoy oh bhoy was that going to change for Sunday...
My first impression of Brighton wasn't great. The roads leading up to the sea front reminded of Blackpool, complete **** hole, maybe we just went through the wrong area's?
The wind was mental on sunday, I had them horrible feeling my stomach that the credz were going to be closed, and when I saw Turbo had stalled, my feelings became more of a reality
I did remind me of Blackpool, but without the arcades
Pretty much anything worth going on, was closed
We found a shopping mall which kept us entertained for a few hours, before having some fish and chips on the front, and then heading home. Only just about 3.4 hours to get all the way back to Norwich, which surprised me.
We're going to go back (credz), but I dont know what I think of the place really. Didn't seem like there was much to do for a sea side resort, but it was clean etc, with lots of tramps/piss heads asleep on the beach.
And there ya have it. In a nut shell, Plopsaland was brilliant, the park family park I have ever been too (outside of Disney). There is just so much for kids to do there, and with Maya land, it will just get even better. Could maybe do with another thrill ride or two, and sort out the Rollerskater. Apart from that, just awsome, puts all of our parks to shame really.
I need to say a big thank you to Nic for putting up with me PMing her a lot after info/tips for my trip, CHEERS!
Also, CF, if you want to use any of my pics for banner photo's, or even a park guide (which you dont have for some reason?!), you can do.
Hope you enjoyed!
