originally posted on 2/5/2021 2:22:25 PM
Rendering: Courtesy Plopsaland De Panne. View full-sized image.
Some 2020 surprises were good ones …
When Plopsaland De Panne (Adinkerke-De Panne, West Flanders, Belgium) announced its new roller coaster for 2021, it didn’t have a name, just a manufacturer and some specs. An impressive manufacturer and specs, too, but now the coaster has a name and a theme: The Ride to Happiness by Tomorrowland. A bit unusual for a roller coaster, but, as more was revealed, not much about this coaster from Mack Rides seems usual.
Rendering: Courtesy Plopsaland De Panne. View full-sized image.
And what is Tomorrowland? Not the Tomorrowland of Disney, but the title of an annual electronic music and dance festival that attracts thousands and sells out within hours, held over two weekends in Boom, Belgium. According to a Plopsaland press release, Mack Rides will be responsible for the technical design, engineering and construction of the ride, and the creative team from Tomorrowland and the Plopsa Group will be responsible for the theming and overall experience. The goal of this first-time collaboration between Plopsaland and the Tomorrowland Festival is to create a themed area within the park for the coaster and assorted structures that will be reminiscent of a festival atmosphere and will create an entirely new experience for riders and visitors.
When it opens in the summer of 2021, The Ride to Happiness by Tomorrowland will be the first Xtreme Spinning Coaster in Europe and only the second version of that model in the world — the first being Time Traveler at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, also a Mack Rides coaster. Track length will be 3,018 feet, height 108 feet and speed 56 mph. There will be two launches and a total of five inversions, a record for this type of coaster. Each of the two trains will consist of four cars, with riders arranged two across in two rows (16 riders per train). An exciting element will be an audio soundtrack. Tomorrowland has designed a new soundtrack exclusively for the roller coaster, based on Hans Zimmer’s “Tomorrowland Hymn.”
Rendering: Courtesy Plopsaland De Panne. View full-sized image.
As with Time Traveler, the individual cars will rotate freely, meaning that every ride will be a different experience for each rider. The elements riders “experience” will be the same, however, and it’s an impressive list. After a slow jojo roll out of the station, riders come to a stop before experiencing their first launch up and over a hill into an outside banked turn and drop and then into a banana roll. From there it’s on to the third and fourth inversions, a vertical loop and a zero-G roll, that lead to an airtime hill. Riders now experience the second launch into the fifth inversion, a double inverting dive loop. A few airtime hills and dives follow, until riders arrive, after approximately 1.5 minutes, at the brake run.
This rendering shows the track layout of the ride.
Rendering: Courtesy Mack Rides. View full-sized image.
The Ride to Happiness will be the second Xtreme Spinning Coaster from Mack Rides, and the first in Europe.
Rendering: Courtesy Plopsaland De Panne. View full-sized image.
Most of the coaster construction has been completed but not the themed area and buildings. Looking at some of the Tomorrowland sets from past music festivals is exciting and inspiring in terms of possibilities for the station, loading platform and themed area. The collaborators’ hope is to translate the unique atmosphere of the music festival into The Ride to Happiness. Some concept art has been shared, which includes steampunk and other intriguing elements, but these are just starting points for designers. One of the sketches shows a colorful tent, very much like the tents seen at the Tomorrowland festival. The concept art also includes plans for two large buildings, one of them being the station building, plus ideas for a gift shop.
No existing rides were sacrificed for this new themed area, and the idea is to integrate the area with nearby rides and structures. The Ride to Happiness will pass by (but not get soaked by) SuperSplash, a steel water coaster, also from Mack Rides.
View full-sized image.
The theming to the ride by Tomorrowland should make the ride even more extraordinary.
Renderings: Courtesy Plopsaland De Panne. View full-sized image.
The focus at Plopsaland has been on family rides, but A Ride to Happiness is clearly an attempt to attract more of the thrill market. Of the other nonwater coasters currently operating at the park, two can be classified as thrill rides: the wooden Heidi the Ride, by Great Coasters International, Inc., and the Gerstlauer launch coaster, Anubis: The Ride. K3 Roller Skater is a Vekoma junior coaster, and Viktor’s Race is a family Tivoli coaster from Zierer. Draak (“dragon”) is a family powered ride from Mack.
Plopsaland has high hopes for its new extreme spinning coaster. As Plopsa Group CEO Steve Van den Kerkhof said, “The coaster can be seen from afar on the motorway and changes the entire skyline of the park, which provides a whole new dimension. The fact that we can do this together with Tomorrowland is like a dream come true. Through this collaboration, we will both be able to entertain an even bigger audience, which will only make us stronger.”
— Lee Ann Draud, ACE Publications Director
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