Plopsaland (Studio100)... and there future

[VsEuro]

A group that not often has been discussed over here is the Plopsa - group (Studio100) in Belgium. In my opinion they are doing great lately. They started plopsaland in 1999 after a full winter of refurbishments. They took over an old park called the meli. The meli wasn't all that bad, but it just was loosing a lot of its look in the final years of the park. They really became in decay. Studio100 (the group that took over the meli) was new on the market, they only made children’s tv shows at that moment. The owner of the company started when I was about 5 to 6 years old on tv with a puppet dog doing a kids show that still is running on tv. (I actually still like the show ) He is now officially a millionaire so the shows and parks haven’t been bad for him!

 

Since the 1999 take over of the Meli everything has changed over there. New rides came in (a powered steel coaster, a duelling single suspended coaster, a water splash, a star flyer, shows, family attractions and loads of other small things. They started to use a lot of theme in the park and it is looking great at the moment. Sometimes even crazy themes, like a washing machine to ride through on a coaster . They attract a lot of visitors for there size of park at the moment.

 

This winter they are going to build a new entrance, move several rides for this, and remove the monorail of the park for this new entrance. They will also add a frog ride, a horse’s attraction with rabbits instead of horses (i haven't yet figured out what it’s going to become?) and a new small water attraction. About 85% of there budget for this winter goes to the theme of there plopsa-garden (they will also install a few new children’s attractions in these gardens, so the park is now tpr friendly ) They are also building some new shops and are going to bring more theme to the toilet buildings and a few other small buildings as giant toadstools and trees.

 

In the further future they are also planning a hotel, refurbishments of the castle in the park, adding extra theme parts to the boat ride part of the super splash they installed ... it looks like they want to become as good as Disney at using themes. Oh yeah and they have confirmed conversations with vekoma for the possibility of an extra coaster on the lake in the park, but nothing is sure for now.

 

For those of you that want to see a movie of this park, i found this movie on the web:

http://rapidshare.com/files/2329773/Plopsaland_De_Panne_Compilatie_T-Bo.wmv.html

Attention this is not my movie, all credit for this movie goes to the guy with the copyright notice at the end of the movie ...

 

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But that's not the only thing they have done lately ... this year they have opened a new indoor park in Belgium. This park also is a big success (it has been several times sold out this year, and runs better than expected (they expect some 275.000 visitors in the first year, and that is a lot for a small sized indoor park in it's first year). Oh yeah and to keep the park interesting they are looking at creating indoor snowfall in the winter at announced hours, so you can have all the winter snow fun in the park!

 

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Also this year they took over telecoo, a park located near the only decent waterfalls in Belgium (don't expect something huge ). They took it over at the beginning of the year and already introduced a new name a few carnival rides. This has already been a big success resulting in the visitor numbers going up about 50%! And for next year they are going to retheme this park, add shops, dancing fountains and add a star flyer. These are some screens of the plans:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

source: http://www.plopsafansite.be

 

Oh yeah and they will keep the one rollercoaster in the park, and the coaster trains are scheduled for repainting in there own paint shop this winter. Yes, the group bought a paintshop for there parks!

 

Not bad for a company that’s only been around for 7 to 8 years in the theme park world. It looks like they have a great future ahead. And they are already thinking of even more, perhaps they take over even more small parks or even build more new parks. They already announced some thoughts about opening something in the Netherlands. And it's also fun that they create parks for the entire family ... What do you guys think of the Plopsa group ?

[RCfanatic]

Its very nice of you to promote the Plopsa/Studio100 group here, but you might wanna make that post just a little bit shorter. (EDIT) Never mind, you're right, there's alot to say about this company and you did it great!

 

Anyways, IMO Plopsa is GREAT! Here in Belgium i've heard people say Studio 100 is a "second Disney company" with its wide range of children shows and its !3! theme parks. I've been to their main park Plopsaland De Panne and to Plopsa Coo, and both were beautiful parks and even had some good coasters for a kids park! I'm also thinking of visiting their indoor park Plopsa Indoor Hasselt later this year.

 

Thanks for the info and the pics, i'm very interested to hear more about the possibe new coasters!

[verticalzero]

I visited the "Plopsaland" twice this year, I rate it, it's tidy, staff are friendly, lots of kids rides, a Star Flyer and Supersplash.

 

What they could add soon is a Wooden Coaster on the lines of "Falken"

 

It's nearer for me to come to this park via the Channel tunnel and drive through France than it is to drive to Alton Towers.

 

Plopsaland = 2.5 hours

Alton Towers = 3 to 3.5 hours

[VsEuro]

Plopsaland - indoor exists 1 full year now, and they announced some numbers !

• They did not get the expected amont of people (275000) but got much more visitors. They reached the final number of 300000 visitors in the first year. With a top op 3700 visitors in one day

And that is not the only good news.

• They actually managed to make enough money to pay back the entire investment of the complete new building and there indoor park in one year. This means they will be making some very nice profit from 2007 on, and they can already start investing in new attractions and expantions overthere! They already added a few small extra's in the first year like an extra place for dining and drinking!

I think this is great news for the new year! The future is looking good for the plopsaland group!